From the cult of done manifesto: 1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion. 2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done… sound like farming, growing food or establishing a permaculture system to you? In fact, almost all of the 12 tenets of the cult of…
Here is our Forest Garden in December 2007, four years ago. You might notice there’s nothing there. There wasn’t anything anywhere, at Milkwood Farm. Just out little caravan, and us, dreaming of turning this rocky hillside into a kick-ass permaculture farm. We knew we wanted to create a rocking Forest Garden as part of Milkwood…
The super-organism of the honeybee (apis mellifera) is not only awe-inspiring, it’s worth understanding. Both for your own personal gratification, and for the pollination of your nation. This list is a part of the notes we provide to students at the Natural Beekeeping courses we run with Tim Malfroy. It’s a list of Tim’s favorite…
It’s actually quite hard to sum up 2011. It was so big. So vast. So amazing. Such a learning curve, in so many ways! But I’ll try. I started off with one iconic image per month, but that just didn’t cut it. How do you chose between making a pig tractor, and working with Joel…
As if Melbourne Permablitz crew weren’t cool enough already, they’ve now outdone themselves. They’ve released a series of organizer’s guides for running a successful permablitz really, really well. These in-depth guides cover all the essential aspects of a great permablitz: designing, facilitating, hosting and documenting. They’re comprehensive documents and a great asset for anyone doing…
After learning the basics of chromatography from Eugenio Gras during his recent visit to Milkwood Farm, Harris and the Milkwood interns got straight into it. The mission: produce a catalog of soil chromatograms for Milkwood Farm. We now have documented the state of our soils across Milkwood in chromatographic form. Each year (or hopefully more…
Happy Earth are a great little crew down in Wollongong, proving that you can create an abundant urban homestead. And they’re just created a really awesome community resource in the form of this garden guide, which is free to all. Regardless of whether you actually live in the Illawarra region or not, make sure you…
We just capped off a massive week at Milkwood Farm – running our last on-farm course till next year, farewelling 6 interns, harvesting honey and braiding garlic. Summer seems determined to skip us this year. It’s now December and we’re still in winter jackets, and eating all the soup we can. What does it all…
This list of books by organic market garden expert Eliot Coleman was given to us by the Allsun Farm crew. Apparently these are the 12 books that most influenced Eliot during his transition from school teacher to organic market gardener extraordinaire. They’re pretty radical! Eliot writes: “In order to understand the present and prepare for the future,…
Six weeks after constructing some zuni bowls as part of our watershed restoration, our structures are full of water for the first time! Exciting to see.
What is it about Guerrilla Gardening? No matter how many times you see it happen, or hear about a new verge planting, it’s always exciting. Is it the fact that growing tomatoes is actually that invigorating? Or is it that people’s small acts of community are that much needed? Either way, here’s a few things…
Recently the fabulous Hannah Moloney interviewed me about being a female Australian farmer. Hannah has just returned from a stint in Africa with ActionAid working with women farmers and researching where they sit in relation to community food security (right at the center, of course). Now Hannah is back Down Under, she’s featuring some truly…
I am incredibly excited to report that we’ve just harvested our first ever box of honey from one of our warré beehives. Whoohoo! We are now awash and dripping with organic warré honeycomb. Sweet. The box we took is from the warré hive that had two colonies combined in it last year because of the…
The Milkwood newsletter is an occasional publication that’s a treasure trove of writings, free DIY guides, gardening tips, permaculture hacks, special newsletter-only posts and giveaways, and lots, lots more…