It’s something we and others have joked about: what if we had a truck full of goats and just went around offering their weed-eating services? How cool would that be? At one of our recent Permaculture Design Certificates some of the students designed a rent-a-goat system as a permaculture enterprise that could be added to…
DetailsIf you’ve done a Permaculture Design Certificate then I hope you got to have the customary PDC party at the end of it… these nights are unique and crazy and daggy and awesome, in equal measure. And they exist nowhere else in my life except in this context. I love them. So here are just…
DetailsDouble-stacked, modified milk-crates as the basis for a large-scale vegetable growing system on a city rooftop. Yet another example of why rooftop farming is possible, even if you don’t have tonnes of infrastructure…
To the garden! A break in the rain calls for action. So we went down the hill (splashing in all the puddles), past the baby chicks (whose water we topped up), around the geese camped on the road (who honked, as always), and on to the market garden…
It was entirely incredible to welcome 400 folks into an auditorium to hear Michael Reynolds talk Earthships in Sydney recently. Thanks to everyone that came – what a night! Regardless of whether you have inclinations to take on an earthship building project or not, I think this evening was really valuable to lots of people.…
DetailsIn honor of International Women’s Day 2012, we thought we’d pay tribute to just a couple of the amazing permaculture women we know. Some of them are well known, and some of them are not. But they are all fabulous, and they’re the tip of the iceberg. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to…
DetailsIt is with great excitement that Stephen recently calculated that we’ve officially grown over one tonne of nutrient dense, organic vegetables in our Market Garden! Whoohoo! Which is not bad for the first six months of our organic market garden project, with about 500 sq m under cultivation, on crappy soils in non-ideal conditions, and…
DetailsRecently Nick + I went to visit Ally and Rich (aka Happy Earth) who have created a truly amazing food forest garden in their suburban lot near Wollongong, NSW. It is a beautiful place of lushness, food, and fun. The thing I like most about Happy Earth is that Ally and Rich have transformed this…
DetailsGreywater is a resource that can be awesome if capitalized upon, especially on a farm with unpredictable rainfall. We’ve just finished a simple greywater system that we’re pretty darn happy with. Up at the woolshed we have two greywater sources: the washing machine, and the outside sink. Both these water sources provide pulses of water…
DetailsWe’re doing some serious (for us) tomato growing this year. And it’s all been going pretty well. We’ve figured out how to trellis those varieties that need it, kept the compost and biofertilizer up to them, and defended them from the dreaded 28 spot ladybeetles. So just as the romas were all ripening in quantity…
DetailsJoin us at Milkwood Farm for our annual Field Day on 1 April 2012. Come explore our fabulous small ‘beyond organic’ farm and education center, and sit down with us for a delicious lunch made with organic produce from our farm. Come learn about permaculture, growing organic food on a community scale, Warré beekeeping, natural…
DetailsDrying fruit is one of my favorite things. I love the versatility of dried apples and pears – so simple and yummy to munch on their own, yet so much fun to use in all sorts of ways in recipes year round. And this year we seem to have access to an unlimited supply of…
Details[wpvideo UFYkeID7] Warning! This post contains chook-talk. Not much of it, as I am not the resident chook fancier of Milkwood, but still a bit. In short, we have started breeding Blue Langshans, a heritage dual-purpose (ie good eggs and good eating) chickens, hopefully in quantity. Wish us luck.
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…