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.
So what does moving a mob of pastured pigs look like, and how does it work? Our friend Derek has just finished up interning at Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm, and he sent us some photos of a recent ‘pig move’. As you can see, this method of pastured/forested pig production is many worlds away from…
An Egg Mobile is a movable chicken house designed to house laying hens at night, who by day cluck around on open pasture. Joel Salatin made them famous at Polyface Farms, but who invented the concept I do not know. Egg mobiles are different from chicken tractors in that they are designed as part of…
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…
This idea combines two of my favorite urban food growing solutions – vertical gardening, and aquaponics. Can they be friends? Of course they can! Charlie from Ecolicious in Sydney has been trialling a funky combo of these techniques in various urban gardens he’s been designing of late. Vertical growing space of edible vegies and herbs,…
Bees just want to be bees. I’ve learned recently that, like most things in nature, a honeybee colony is most happy, calm and resilient when it’s left to do what it does best. For bees, this means forage for nectar and pollen, raise a brood, and make honey. And bees want to do this in…
A worm tower is a simple and effective way to take any garden bed from average yield to gloriously abundant. Simple to build, with materials you probably already have, a worm tower is the perfect addition to any garden bed, in any climate. It will bring increased fertility to your plants, improve your soil, make…