Here’s our best resources on all things related to permaculture design and whole-systems thinking.
Forage below for designs, processes and resources for creating everything from forest gardens and solar-passive houses to water harvesting systems and urban rooftop edible gardens.
We have some exciting news to share, both for us and for you. From mid-Winter this year, Nick, Kirsten + Ashar will be de-camping to Melliodora in Victoria, an amazing permaculture homestead and the home of Permaculture co-originator David Holmgren + his powerhouse partner, Su Dennett. We’ve been invited to do a 12 month residency at…
The Fair Food edition of PiP Magazine is out, and it’s a corker. Do you subscribe? We do. There’s articles by Bruce Pascoe, the author of Dark Emu, on Australian indigenous agriculture. There’s a biointensive vege bed prep how-to by us (yay!). There’s an article on sharing the harvest and creating community from a rented…
Though we may not realise it, common ground is still to be found in our towns. It’s just not called that anymore. And utilizing common land as the community resource it is makes good sense. Especially when you can turn brambles into cheese. Down the side and out the back – the gully behind the hill,…
Popes produce is a small urban market garden in Woonoona, providing fresh veg and fruit to it’s surrounding community. Bordered by lines of units, this little piece of urban farming paradise is sharing the goodness all around. Popes Produce is Sarah + Ben Anderson, with assistance from their kids. Together they farm a long thin…
Two whole weeks of permaculture design is quite an immersion. It’s 14 days of new knowledge, new friends, new ideas, new skills, and a bunch of ‘oh yeah’ moments besides. Every time we’re lucky enough to host and teach one of these intensive permaculture design certificates, we get to watch people grow, bigtime. And then…
I think we got lost for a little bit there… In between all the educating and the ‘how-to’ ing, when we started calculating that it was more economic to work more, keep our kid in after school care, and buy bread. Because, future. We wanted one. And working our asses off in the office or…
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…
There’s a big range of ways you can start your seedlings off to get them to grow well, both at their seedling stage and later on, when you plant them out. Previously, we’ve worked with seeding into seedling trays, with soil blocks, and more recently, with biointensive seedling flats. Each of these techniques have their…
What do you get when you mix two determined farmer girls with an acre of good land? Rad Growers, that’s what. Erin O’Callaghan + Belinda Joy Sheekey are two fine people that we first met as students during two of our Permaculture Design Certificate courses. Since then, they’ve teamed up to farm seasonal vegetables on an acre of…
The colour is all around us – it’s in the stems of our salad sorrel and in our spice cabinets too. We just need to learn to look for it, and try it out, and then, keep experimenting. Recently at the 107 rooftop garden we held our first Natural Dyeing course with textile artist Samorn Sanixay…
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…
The act of gleaning – taking the leftovers of a crop from the field, once the harvesters had been through – is an age old tradition. In times gone by in some agricultural societies, it has been an enshrined right – that after the harvest, what is left may be taken by anyone who needs it. Its a…