Here’s our pick of articles about all things to do with working with Animals to enhance your permaculture system in all kinds of ways.
From nutrient cycling to pollination and companionship, as well as tasty yields from eggs and honey through to home-raised protein.
Looking back, I obviously should have gathered a lot more seaweed last winter – to feed the curious, the enthused and the yet-to be convinced who all came to our many book talks in spring. But I was in a jungle at the time, side-stepping marching ants and dodging falling coconuts – which made it…
Chapter three in Milkwood is all about Natural Beekeeping, and how you can use a principles-based approach to keep bees at home, safe and well, in a range of hive designs. But why natural beekeeping? Why not just keep bees in the ‘normal’ way? Well, from our perspective, and the perspective of a growing number of…
The Milkwood book tour is off and running – and we’re all over the place, from Brisbane to Melbourne. Join us at a free mushroom demo, an intimate author talk, or a seaweed show-and-tell somewhere? But firstly, we officially launched Milkwood on the first day of spring, at Pocket City Farms. And it was a…
It is with much excitement that we can finally share with you – the Milkwood book is coming. Hooray! Many years in the making, our little labour of love will be out in all good bookstores on September 1st. We are SO looking forward to sharing a load of feasts, extracts, explorations and events that…
This book is dangerous. In its essence, RetroSuburbia invites and inspires us all to stay right where we are. Turning our suburbs upside down, to make the world we want. No need to be moving to the country, to the coast or to the hills for a happier, greener life. That idyllic community? It’s probably…
Want to design a better, earthier and more rewarding life with permaculture? Solutions-based thinking is not just for big design projects. Permaculture can also be used to improve the everyday, the little things, to create a happier you. Over the last 10 years, we’ve been gradually using permaculture principles to create better daily lives for…
The dams are full and the soft green winter grass in the orchard has returned. There’s been feijoa harvests by day and bioluminescent mushrooms by night. The landscape is slowing down. The frost confirms that this place is finally in Winter, after a long, long Autumn. At the end of this month, we will have been at…
It’s mid summer here at Melliodora. The days are hot and the cicadas sing in the trees all around. It’s a time for berries, plums, treehouse builds + giant zucchinis. We rise early before the heat starts – to water precious plants, to twine climbing tomatoes so they can reach high, to just sit outside with a…
As the weather heats up, the bees get busy. We’re all hoping for a great season. But the hotter weather also brings with it possible bee pests including small hive beetle, especially if you’re beekeeping in wam-temperate Australia. Here’s some tips for dealing with small hive beetle, naturally. All about Small Hive Beetle Small hive beetle was…
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 in readiness for their morning milking. When it’s my turn to milk in the morning,…
A backyard full of kids toys, chickens, veggies and bees is one kind of backyard that we love. Kids and bees, though. Can they happily co-habit? The answer is Yes! We caught up with Emily Gimellaro from Wilton recently about how she keeps bees in a warré hive in her backyard chicken run, alongside two…
If you’re wanting home-grown eggs but don’t have quite enough room for chickens, keeping backyard quails are a super option – they’re easy care, lay protein rich eggs, don’t need much space and are great fun to have around. There’s many different breeds of quails, and some are more suitable for backyards than others. Let’s start with…
This small project is a study in macrocosms and microcosms – the large world and the small, the now and the forever. And all on your kitchen bench. Not bad for a grub in a jam jar. I’ve always wanted to raise a butterfly from a caterpillar, but i thought it might be technical or tricky…