By “chopping and dropping” your weeds you not only mulch and return nutrients to the soil, but you avoid disturbing the soil surface and prevent more weed seeds germinating.

A little more unusual than chickens and ducks, geese can provide several useful functions in the garden if you have the space.

Photos and a description of a very cleverly designed chicken coop.

Some ideas from Permaculture Visions for incorporating water into your garden design to add an extra dimension in both aesthetics and practicality.

Tender or delicate plants in the garden can be protected from chickens and other animals by simply placing an old birdcage over the top. It’s simple, free, and actually looks pretty nice!

Some ideas for food, medicinal and other useful plants you can place in and around your chicken run for healthy, happy chickens.

A few weeks ago I attended another Sustainable Illawarra workshop – “Starting a Backyard Veggie Patch” at Jamberoo Primary School. Megan then attended the repeat of the workshop a week later. It was great that we were both able to do effectively the same workshop without need to organise child care!

The workshop was delivered by [...]

I’m a big fan of US farmer Joel Salatin. He’s the man behind Polyface Farm, “a family owned, multi-generational, pasture-based, beyond organic, local-market farm and informational outreach in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley”.

You might recognise him from the recent films Food, Inc and Fresh, and from Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

One of my favourite articles by Joel [...]

This is a post I wrote a while ago on my personal blog, but I think it’s really appropriate here. Plus I still don’t have much time to post anything new yet.

Don’t you hate it when you know you’ve seen something in a video (say, Bill Mollison talking about planting in guilds), but you can’t [...]

Settlement on our new house purchase won’t be until October 30, so we still have about 5 weeks to go before we pick up the keys. I can’t wait!

Meanwhile, we have a ton of work to do on our current house to get it ready for sale. The big red dust storm didn’t help – [...]