Learn Grow: Edible Plant Information Resources
DVDs/Books, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Health & Disease, Medicinal Plants, Trees — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor November 26, 2011
I thought I’d share this excellent, growing resource on edible plants for specific regions.
At time of writing the Learn Grow project has created comprehensive plant list info for the following regions:
In addition, the site has two disks available that should be of direct interest to Australian permaculturists:
Comments OffRainwater Harvesting Volumes I & II Christmas Book Special
DVDs/Books — by Bonnie Freibergs
Looking for an enlightening Christmas gift? Brad Lancaster’s highly regarded Rainwater Harvesting series certainly fits neatly into this category. The two books are temporarily discounted to encourage you to share the permaculture word this holiday season.
To receive your order before Christmas please order before the following dates: Australian orders by the 15th of December International orders by the 29th of November.
Comments (2)New book: Equine Permaculture – Regenerative Horse Property Design & Pasture Management
DVDs/Books, Livestock, Rehabilitation, Working Animals — by Mariette van den Berg November 18, 2011
Equine Permaculture: Regenerative Horse Property Design & Pasture Management
A collection of articles, 80 pages
by Mariette van den Berg & Nicholas Huggins
Generally, horse keeping is considered to be a costly hobby or business, especially with current price rises in living expenses and feed costs. On top of that, horse and land owners encounter high input costs or difficulties to maintain pastures and sustain the dietary needs of horses.
Comments (3)Sustainable Living Film Festival, Istanbul, Turkey
Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books — by PRI Turkey November 5, 2011
What: A sustainable film festival
When: December 2-4, 2011
Where: Istanbul
Systemic change is only possible with the simultaneous transformation of individuals, communities and institutions that constitute the system. A system changes when the critical majority of the components reach a new level of consciousness. This is only possible when the individuals’ perception of the reality that they are in has changed, where they can establish a cause-effect relationship of the system and then see their role in the order of things.
The Sustainable Living Film Festival that we are organizing — in order to contribute to the restructuring of all aspects of life from agriculture to energy, from health to recycling and from education to economy — has a holistic perspective and it aims to;
Comments OffUrban Permaculture Movie Night and Talk by Geoff Lawton, Gold Coast, Australia
Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books, Social Gatherings — by Leah Galvin October 18, 2011
Attention people who are interested in Permaculture, sustainable living and being a positive change in our world.
Come along to our garden for our first showing of the Urban Permaculture DVD by Geoff Lawton, the director and educator of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia!
The movie will be shown in the 5 year old Permaculture Organic garden called Urban Eden along with a talk and questions and answers by Geoff Lawton. Urban Eden was built by volunteers with materials kindly donated from local businesses! Gold Coast City Council Organic gardening workshops and events have been held in the garden.
When: Friday, November 4th at 6pm
Where: Mandala Organic Arts Cafe and Organic Permaculture Garden, 2558 Gold Coast Highway , Mermaid Beach, Gold Coast
Cost: $12 each at the door
All Welcome, including kids!
This event is brought to you by Gold Coast Permablitz and Mandala Arts and supported by Life Changing Doco’s.
There is an organic dinner, drinks and delicious desserts available on the night. Mandala Organic Arts Cafe is run by Vlady and his family who support local farmers where possible….
Contact: Leah 0406 897 195 or leg30 (at) hotmail.com or www.facebook.com/groups/98790327155
For more info about the movie and Permaculture see www.permaculturenews.org. And for Gold Coast Permablitz see our Facebook page.
Comments (1)Urban Permaculture DVD – You May Order! (Shipping Nov. 1, 2011)
DVDs/Books, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 10, 2011
At the International Permaculture Conference (IPC10) we treated attendees to the very first showing of the Urban Permaculture DVD. At the time I was personally too busy to watch it myself, but just last night finally sat down to do so.
In short, it was totally inspirational.
Comments (17)Review of Geoff Lawton’s Food Forest DVD, by Paul Wheaton and Helen Atthowe
Compost, DVDs/Books, Dams, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Fungi, Land, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Seeds, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Structure, Swales, Trees — by Paul Wheaton October 8, 2011
Click play to hear the talk!
Review of Geoff Lawton's Food Forest DVD, by Paul Wheaton and Helen Atthowe
Paul Wheaton and Helen Atthowe (www.veganicpermaculture.com) watch Geoff Lawton‘s Food Forest video and Helen really loved it. It shows a food forest as they start it, at 6 months, a year, 3 years, 10 years.
Paul thinks it is one of the best permaculture videos. Lawton starts by talking about three concepts: the layering of systems (there are 7-10 layers of a forest), succession of systems (how nature repairs itself), and time (working with different events — eg: sun, shade, flood over time). Paul shares Helen’s hesitancy using the word “permaculture.” They also talk about the word “science” and “studies.” Lawton has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd recovery plants. The first are: annuals, nitrogen fixers, ground covers and leguminous shrubs. The second are medium size nitrogen fixing trees (later to be chopped at head height in order to nurture the longer term trees). The third are longer term nitrogen fixing trees.
Comments (1)Introduction to Food Sovereignty: Food and Democracy (Download the E-Book!)
Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Economics, Food Shortages, Society, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 30, 2011
 Download the Food and Democracy e-book (1.75mb PDF) |
To give some excellent reading for the readerholics amongst you, regular contributor Marcin Gerwin has put together an excellent collection of articles to create a highly readable e-book focusing on food sovereignty — the necessity for it, the challenges to achieve it, and the solutions associated with it.
Produced by 17 authors from around the world, attacking the same topic and interconnected issues from different angles, this is a great read and is not only a valuable overview of the crisis we face but ships with excellent holistic suggestions for how we can extricate ourselves from it.
Read it, enjoy it, and please do circulate it!
Nice work Marcin!
Comments (7)Designers & Consultants Resource Page
Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books — by Nick Huggins August 4, 2011
Since I starting teaching at the PRI with the new Urban Landscape Design Course there have been calls to make the information from the course available to students and interested people out there in the world that can’t jump on a plane and get to The Channon.
Comments (16)The Urban Permaculture DVD and the Sound-Proof Chicken House
Animal Housing, Bird Life, Building, DVDs/Books, Livestock, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 1, 2011
The biggest problem with chicken houses in urban settings has got to be the hyper-vocal rooster. If you want to avoid having tired grumpy neighbours, what can you do? Even giving them a few eggs per week is unlikely to assuage their wrath. There are obvious options to deal with this situation, but they’re not pretty — like a shotgun, for instance. Some say that if you want to ensure a rooster doesn’t crow on Sunday morning, then you have to eat him Saturday night….
Once again, permaculture turns the problem into a solution. Featured in this excerpt from our soon-to-be-launched Urban Permaculture DVD, is a great chicken house by Penny Pyett, from the Sydney suburbs. The solution to sound also brings other benefits as well — that being improved conditions for the chickens themselves. Watch the clip to see it in action, and you’ll also be treated to an excellent rooster impersonation by our own Geoff Lawton!
Further listening:
Comments (6)Support This Film – Regenerative Agriculture
DVDs/Books — by Beezhan Tulu July 27, 2011
Many advanced civilizations vanished because they did not take care of their soil. This film is about a new, progressive, and advanced practice of agriculture, that will regenerate the soil. With Regenerative Agriculture we create healthier food, build communities, and, most importantly, increase the top soil. Top soil, the skin of the earth, is where the life of the plant exists, and that is where our food comes from. Top soil sequesters CO2, turning a poison (in atmosphere) to food. According to many scientists, ranchers, and environmentalists worldwide, if we increase the top soil by 1.6%, the top soil sequesters so much CO2 that the amount of CO2 in atmosphere goes back to the amount before the industrial revolution in less than 10 years. The film documents different methods of advanced practices including water management through keyline design, the reintroduction of animals in to landscape, fertility management, and relocalization. Shot on three continents in some of the most beautiful farms on the planet, featuring interviews with some of the most incredible scientist, farmers, environmentalist, and visiting amazing organizations like Earth Island Institute, Orella Ranch Stewardship,…. A full 2nd production team is in pre-production in amazing farms near Caspian Sea, including my sister Talieh Sefidkoohi as the 2nd Director and my niece and nephews, Azi, Mamali, and Reza. Mr. James Arnold Taylor, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s (Star Wars) voice over talent has also shown interest. The voice over you hear in this trailer is also the voice of Mr. James Arnold Taylor.
Comments (1)The Making of the Urban Permaculture DVD
DVDs/Books, Urban Projects — by Ecofilms
Editor’s Note: A few days ago I shared the latest on the Urban Permaculture DVD. Frank, who is the video genius behind our DVDs, gives his own inside view of working with Geoff in this latest creation, below.
It’s been a whirlwind trip over the last six months putting the pieces together for what is to become The Urban Permaculture DVD with Geoff Lawton.
Nothing goes quite according to script and yet making a video like this is a bit like herding cats. It’s chaotic — like walking into a jungle of vines, monkeys and snakes, you are not sure where you are heading or if the whole project will sink into a disaster.
Permaculture is a bit wild and rampant and just when you think you have it all figured out, neat and tidy-like and have it organized and in the bag — a spanner gets thrown into the works and you realize there is so much more to the story that can be told in 90 minutes.
Comments (3)New Urban Permaculture DVD Getting Close
DVDs/Books, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 22, 2011
Back in January we shared news about, and a snippet of, our upcoming Urban Permaculture DVD. This DVD is something I’ve been pressing upon Geoff and our video/animation wizard, Frank Gapinski, for a while now (ever since I started helping out the PRI in fact!). My incessant nagging seems to have paid off, and we’re now very close to release. (The boys haven’t given me an ETA yet, but perhaps we’ll squeeze that out of them soon too.)
Comments (8)Let the Water Do the Work: Induced Meandering, an Evolving Method for Restoring Incised Channels
Conservation, DVDs/Books, Dams, Earth Banks, Gabions, Irrigation, Land, Limonia, Material, Natural Swimming, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Roads, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Storm Water, Surveying, Swales, Terraces, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Owen Hablutzel July 14, 2011
The volume reviewed below comes highly recommended for all Permaculturists working in or around any water channels, and particularly on the broad-acre. While the methods happen to apply most immediately in drylands, they will apply directly anywhere that erosion, down-cutting, rapid gully formation, and other forms of channel incision occur. Keep in mind that these techniques will also apply in ephemeral channels that only carry water during rare rain storms, and are otherwise ‘dry.’
Importantly, even if you are working more within mesic environments and do not see a lot of actively incising channels, just the knowledge you will gain about stream dynamics and working with various stream powers and flood-regimes will be applicable and invaluable to your work. These factors, such as the ‘bankfull’ flood, and the specific inter-relations and ratios of multiple stream variables remain the same as basic physics of water flow no matter what the environment. These physics will dictate exactly where and where not to place any kind of built structure within an active water channel, and enable you to predict results of your efforts with much greater precision. How many of us doing this kind of work have lost stream structures to a “gully-washer”? The knowledge and approach in this book could have saved many a headache, cash outlay, and enabled construction of more durable, persistent, and ultimately useful work.
Self-Sufficiency and Survival Foods… Are You Prepared?
Consumerism, Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Medicinal Plants, Society, peak oil — by Isabell Shipard July 6, 2011
Planting a garden with food potential is one of the most valuable things we can do. Will we always have a free country with unlimited food supply? Could a major calamity or drought affect the supply and the price of food? Could rolling strikes disrupt electricity, water, telephone, transport and other amenities to shops and our homes… and how would no petrol affect every household? We need to encourage one another to be as self sufficient as possible… now… in our gardens, as this is the most nutritious fresh food… and is the cheapest way to live in these times of rising prices. Growing our own food is very satisfying as well as beneficial to our health and well-being.
Australia has truly been a ‘lucky country’ — plentiful food, running water in our homes, sewerage systems which take away our wastes, comfort and luxuries in our homes. We truly are blessed. However, it may not always be this way in the future. Would families be prepared if a catastrophic disaster struck?
Comments (6)
