Just a few photos from the recent and awesome Market Garden Masterclass at Allsun Farm down in Gundaroo. It was so exciting to have 25 future market gardeners in the one space, all with so many skills and ambitions! Joyce, Mike and the whole Allsun Farm crew packed us full of knowledge over three days…
DetailsHere’s a great little DIY vertical aquaponics design that Floyd has recently installed outside a studio in Darwin. It’s a simple system, designed to transform a simple patio into a space of low-maintenance beauty that includes the sound of running water, the cooling effect of a pond, and bountiful herbs!
DetailsSpring is swarming season! At this time of year, honeybee colonies that have either outgrown their available hive space or have deemed their hive unsuitable for whatever reason start taking off in search of a new home. For natural beekeepers, it’s a great time to catch yourself a new colony. Our friend Steve was ready…
DetailsAt the risk of creating a series of seedy posts, just thought I better mention the other Seed Freedom event we’re running: The Seed Savers in conversation with Costa, in Redfern on the evening of the 12th Oct. I only put it up last night but it’s already 4/5 full. It’s heartening to know that…
DetailsOn Saturday the 13 October we’ll be running a special workshop in Sydney with Jude and Michel Fanton from The Seedsavers, as part of the Seed Freedom fortnight of action, which is happening worldwide from October 2-16. This day will be a seed saving 101 meets intensive day of discussion about the global state of…
DetailsAn ecoPOP is a small and self-contained city oasis, boasting a simple, self-contained system of self-watering fruit trees, herbs, water collection and a worm farm. Intended to be installed in places like a median strip in a suburban street, they’re designed to incrementally offset the ‘heat island’ effect of urban streets, slow traffic, and create…
DetailsCold frames are a great way to get the jump on the growing season with your seedlings, without a big outlay of cash. Recently we built a bunch out of re-purposed glass doors and hardwood frames, and they’re working a treat. Since our last frost is in November, September is still full of icy mornings,…
DetailsLast weekend Michael, Zag and Stephen packed the ute with seeds, mulch and tools, and went to Sydney to teach a Serious Backyard Veggies workshop with special guest Costa Georgiadis. Planting, planning what goes where and what goes in next, natural pest management and all the ‘how to grow great tomatoes/eggplant/celery/carrots etc’ tips that could…
DetailsThe deal with Rose the permachef returning to Milkwood Farm this Spring is this: apon her return (which is imminent) she will move into the completed (ok nearly) earthbag dome, ensuring her personal seclusion and wood-fired comfort for the coming season. The earthbag dome, while awesome, has been somewhat of a side-project since the first…
Details‘You have to come to the Allsun farm open day’ said my scythe-mad friend Nikki. ‘They’re a microfarm and they do market gardening and all this amazing stuff there with integrated animal systems and they’re just brilliant’. Hmm, we thought. That sounds kinda interesting. So we side-tracked our road trip to Gundaroo for the Allsun…
DetailsWe just got our copy of the 2013 Permaculture Calendar, which is, once again, 12 months of beautiful pictures of permaculture in practice from around the world, on recycled paper stock with a great textural feel. It will be a pleasure to have in the woolshed, and in the tinyhouse too. Any calendar that gives…
DetailsSo we have these great fuzzy caterpillars in the forest garden who occasionally get together and go journeying in a long, fuzzy line. We happened to be in the forest garden during one such sojourn, and Nick decided to do a bit of caterpillar-wrangling…
DetailsIn response to requests, here’s a couple of pics of the outside of our recently moved-into tinyhouse at Milkwood Farm. The outside is not quite as finished as the inside just yet, in true owner-builder style. But let’s focus on what IS there, and there is lots. A safe temporary fence to prevent our little…
DetailsThe Milkwood newsletter is an occasional publication that’s a treasure trove of writings, free DIY guides, gardening tips, permaculture hacks, special newsletter-only posts and giveaways, and lots, lots more…