Learning how to make a great seed raising mix means you are giving your seedlings an excellent head start. It also keeps costs down and is a great fundamental skill of edible gardening. Recently up at the107 Rooftop Garden, that’s exactly what we were all there to learn how to do. A dark threatening sky looked over…
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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…
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He’s back! We’re pleased to announce that David Holmgren (co-originator of Permaculture) is coming to Sydney on 3-4 June to teach an Advanced Permaculture Principles course. How good is that. We’ve been lucky enough to have David come through Sydney every other year or so, at which point he’s contributed to our Permaculture Design Courses,…
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I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening – a rushing stream, forest all around, and a campfire. Of course. Recently we were down in Tasmania and we found one of those choice little spots that, when you’re planning to go adventuring, you dream of happening upon. No-one else around, tall forest, clear water,…
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Rightio then. Who wants to come and get their hands dirty and help out at the 107 Rooftop Garden? Saturday May 2nd marks the beginning of our monthly garden dig-ins – a morning of garden chores, learning, new friends and dirty fingernails. Each time there will be a short workshop, followed by the glory of seasonal garden chores.…
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What do you get when you cross a sustainable fisheries bloke with a Permaculture Design Course? An Aquaponics system enthusiast, advocate and entrepreneur, that’s what. Matt Spalding took our PDC last year and since then he’s been going gang-busters on learning + building home aquaponics systems, with a focus on fish health, as well as…
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Storing the season for year-round stews of organic tomatoey goodness – is there a better way to spend a Saturday? I think not. Recently we held our annual Passata Day – much squishing and boiling and eating and talking and drinking, which all resulted in a truckload of preserved tomatoes, ready to take on other…
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It’s the kind of thing you might dream as a kid to find in a back lane – a tree loaded with bean-like pods full of sweet, fluffy ice-cream-ish tasting fruit. And guess what? They exist! Behold the awesomeness of the ice cream bean, or Guama – Inga edulis. Originating from Central and South America and with many,…
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Inspiration takes many forms, but a thriving backyard ecosystem like Happy Earth has got to be pretty high up on our list. Ali + Rich have created this edible suburban oasis over the last 8 years, on a sloping block in Unanderra, just south of Wollongong in NSW. We first visited them 3 years ago, but…
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When a place calls itself a ‘climate change farm’ you would suspect that it’s first book is likely to contain more than recipes for home-made pasta and tips for starting seedlings. And you would be right! With a subtle twist of the telling, A Year at Otter Farm somehow folds resilience into seasonality into food into small-holding futures. And all with…
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The whole plant, and nothing but the plant – a great way to ripen green tomatoes for future eatery – hang ’em up! There comes a time in every Autumn when the tomato plants need to come out, and with them, all the tomatoes that aren’t yet ripe. Maybe its because the first frost is about…
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Bread doesn’t often get the opportunity to go stale in this household, but when it does? Well, I’m actually a little pleased. It gives me the opportunity to make a handful of tasty old bread kind of dishes that I wouldn’t normally make when the bread is still sitting fresh. Now using good quality artisan…
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It’s fab, it’s new, and the honey flows straight into the jar. It’s so easy. But then, powdered instant potato is easy, too. Does that make it a good idea? Despite my mission to focus on positivistic messages of change, at Milkwood we’ve got a charter of calling it like we see it. And to call yet…
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