Here’s a collection of our best articles about how to build everything from a strawbale chicken coop to a hurricane-proof tinyhouse.
Featuring info on everything from earthbag, strawbale, wattle-and daub and cobb to light earth, and also backyard DIY projects using recycled timber…
Greywater is a fabulous, though often underused, household resource that should be used wherever possible. Here’s a home made 3 bathtub greywater system that’s simple but effective. If you live in an area where water is precious at certain times of year (and when is it not?) then catching, storing and using every drop you…
The range of different natural building techniques out there are many, and all of them are exciting. But when to use which technique? Here’s a starting guide for choosing what to build your walls from. Though all very different, and used for different reasons, all the natural building methods below have some common aspects. And the…
Wondering what Milkwood’s all about, and why we do what we do? Here’s the 60 second version… Although, of course, if you read this blog, you’re probably fairly familiar with what we do. But please do watch the video anyway – it’s been quite a few years coming. It’s got natural building, chickens, bees, Joel Salatin,…
This place, Melliodora. A world renowned permaculture homestead, full of nut, fruit and forage trees, geese, goats, berries, vegetables, mudbrick homes and lives worth living. If you have studied, read or participated in any Permaculture-type doings and learnings in Australia, then you’ll be aware of the stellar home-scale permaculture demonstration site that is Melliodora, in…
This Spring we went from bare ground to surplus organic veggies at our rental home – thanks to biointensive gardening techniques, strong seedlings and a few free workouts. I’m not here to tell you a story about obtaining magically abundant harvests with just a few minutes work, although that can happen, sometimes, depending on the context of the growing…
There’s a lot packed into our 3 day Natural Building course – students learn hands-on techniques in mud + lime renders, earth floors, strawbale, roundwood building, reciprocal roofs and more. Most folks that come to this course are there to get a solid overview of all these techniques from a master builder, so they can…
Here’s how we made some quick garden beds from scrap timber with everyday tools. These took us a morning to make, and they should last quite a few years. We made these beds this way because we’re living in a rental property, so investing in the cost and time of creating permanent veggie beds isn’t an option.…
If you’re a Natural Beekeeper, then beeswax is part of your harvest – when you crush your natural comb to extract the honey, there’s beeswax to spare. That’s how beekeeping with natural comb works. It’s a good thing for your bees, because encouraging comb renewal is an important part of colony health. Honeybees prefer to lay their…
Here’s how we built a bunch of mobile micro forest gardens for the 107 Rooftop Garden – complete with wicking beds. Our challenge with this design was to build tree planters that could move around to make space when needed, while providing shade, beauty, pollination and food. Mobile Forest Garden Wicking Planters: Pallet undercarriage so they can…
If you’ve been hanging out in many of Australia’s cities this last week or two, you may have noticed a lot of rain about. Falling off roofs, gushing down gutters and along stormwater drains, those droplets that sound so glorious on a tin roof are often a lost resource in cities, washing down our hard…
Holidays are a good time to dream about the future, and what you’re going to build one day. Here’s some articles to get you inspired about building with a minimum of money and a maximum of passion for creating natural, living homes and shelter. Let there be Mud: the Basics of Natural Building Natural Building is…
The 107 Rooftop Garden build is underway! And we’ve just finished the gabions that will form all the veggie bed surrounds, thanks to the hard and cheerful work of an awesome crew of pros and volunteers. We’re now one step closer to creating a community resource and edible oasis in the city…
Hey it’s our first ever crowd funding project! Want to help us cultivate community? We’re dead set on creating a super urban permaculture garden on the rooftop of 107 Redfern Street – a place that will be an amazing community resource.