11Silviculture - Milkwood: permaculture courses, skills + stories

Closed-Loop Cheese: The Goat Forage System at Melliodora

October 31, 2016 | Animals, Farming, Food & Fermentation, Fruit Trees, Grazing, Melliodora, Permaculture, Silviculture | 9 comments | Author : Kirsten Bradley

At Melliodora, the goat forage system is designed to support this permaculture smallholding in numerous ways, while closing the loop, keeping happy goats and making tasty cheese. Every morning, Pip and Willow make their way up to the milking shed … Continued

Good Book: Dark Emu – rethinking Indigenous Australian Agriculture

September 25, 2015 | Animal Systems, Animals, Australian agriculture, Design, Farming, Grazing, Permaculture, Seed Saving, Silviculture, Water Harvesting + Reuse, Watershed Restoration | 1 comments | Author : Kirsten Bradley

Dark Emu is not a large book, but it packs a punch well above its weight. Prepare to have your understanding of Australia’s agricultural heritage re-wired completely. We’re definitely adding this to the required reading list for all our Permaculture + … Continued

Growing + Making Cascara: Coffee Berry tea

September 18, 2015 | Forest Gardening, Silviculture, Urban Permaculture | 0 comments | Author : Kirsten Bradley

Cascara is a drink made from the outer berry of a coffee bean – a byproduct of the coffee harvest, and a tasty drink unto itself, as we’ve recently learned. Coffee trees are an unlikely but awesome backyard plant that can be … Continued

How to plant a tree, Milkwood style

April 4, 2014 | Permaculture, Permaculture Design, Resources, Silviculture | 13 comments | Author : Kirsten Bradley

Planting a tree is a simple act. But, as we’ve learned on a site that’s sometimes less-than-welcoming to tree establishment, there’s ways, and there’s ways that work. Last week, with our Permaculture Design Course students, we planted oak trees. And … Continued

Felling your way to a healthier forest: Guest post

April 2, 2013 | Silviculture | 13 comments | Author : Kirsten Bradley

All around Milkwood are patches of dry-sclerophyll eucalypt forest. Variously called ‘goat country’ or other less attractive names, this type of forest is in a stagnant phase due to poor land use over the last 150 years. Can you rehabilitate it … Continued

Seed Balls: how to grow trees without really trying

September 12, 2011 | Seed Balls, Silviculture | 19 comments | Author : Kirsten Bradley

While we started off experimenting with annual and ground cover species seed balls, to date I’ve been most impressed by how useful they’ve proved to help us establish trees in unlikely areas. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been trying to … Continued

Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture: Book Review

August 27, 2011 | Education, Farming, Forest Gardening, Publications, Resources, Silviculture | 4 comments | Author : Kirsten Bradley

Perennials, perennials, perennials. It’s all about perennials. Throw a stick near anyone enthused about permaculture or regenerative agriculture and they’ll squeak ‘perennials’ before they even duck. This book is a very old, very readable, and very good edition to any … Continued

Milkwood permaculture blog