Permaculture News, Information, Forums, Courses and Worldwide Reports

Help us SEED a Climate Resilient Cape Town

October 14, 2018 by pri02 & filed under Aid Projects, Alternatives to Political Systems, Bio-regional Organisations, Community, Design, Education Centres, Ethical Investment, Events, Resources & News, General, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Permaculture Projects, Society, Why Permaculture?

We in The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia are supporting this project and would like you to consider supporting the great work Seeding Futures are doing in Cape Town. They started a fund raising campaign hoping to expand their outreach and influence more lives through their mentoring and training programs. Seeding Futures unlocks the immense potential of our unemployed youth to contribute to the resilience economy and enhance city-wide […]

New Permaculture Cafe and Skills exchange opportunity

October 11, 2018 by Nadia Lawton & filed under General

Hi Everyone Nadia Lawton here I’m very pleased to announce that we have opened a Permaculture cafe at The Greening The Desert Project site. We hope that  the cafe will have many positive functions, bring in funds to further the project but also to be a centre point in the village where visitors and locals can gather and get introduced to the Permaculture concept. We will also sell home made […]

Backyard Chickens, and the Interconnectedness of all things. Part 2

October 10, 2018 by Kate Martignier & filed under Animal Housing, Animals, Biodiversity, Bird Life, General, How to, Livestock, Why Permaculture?, Working Animals

This article is Part 2 of a series that is mostly about chickens – not how to care for them, but how to appreciate them as being more complex and interesting than most of us give them credit for. If you are interested only in chickens, and especially mother hens and chicks, this article will be fine to read by itself. But if you’re just tuning in and you want […]

Human Permaculture: Communication as Flow part 2

October 8, 2018 by Charlotte Ashwanden (nee Haworth) & filed under Alternatives to Political Systems, Community, Education, General, People Systems

In part 1 of this article (1), I explored a little how we might use permaculture as a lens through which to visualise communication. By seeing our communication with other humans as an energy flow which could potentially be mapped, we could find efficient and holistic ways to utilise this energy. In this article I will focus on some possible practical applications of this, and how we can communicate in […]

A Permanent Culture

October 5, 2018 by Pietro Zucchetti & filed under General

“Navigare Necesse Est, Vivere Non Necesse” “We have to sail, we do not have to live, Sailing is More Important than living” Ancient Latin Motto Pietro, first of all, I salute your ongoing work in preservation of an agriculture and culture of the territory which is not only sustainable, but also advanced and which keeps on improving fuelled by your inexhaustible spirit devoted to the research. It seems to me that even […]

Backyard Chickens, and the Interconnectedness of All Things

October 3, 2018 by Kate Martignier & filed under Animals, Community, General, Livestock

This 3-Part Series articles starts off with our cultural lack of understanding about our place in the web of life, which is at the root of why our efforts to address ecological destruction aren’t working yet. If you were mainly interested in chickens, stay with me – I’ll get onto backyard chickens in the second part of Part 1, and then I’ll stick almost entirely to chickens for the rest […]

Invasive Thoughts: A Battle with Conscientious Consciousness

October 1, 2018 by Jonathon Engels & filed under Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, General, Plant Systems, Soil, Trees

I did a lot of research. I hummed and hawed, danced around the issue, came up with a veritable pros and cons type of list. Ultimately, the base of our food forest needed some fast-growing, nitrogen-fixing trees, and whether or not they were native came to feel somewhat moot. I found a good tree species. It was readily available (and free). What difference did it make if folks had deemed […]

How to Diversify Your Small Urban Farm

September 27, 2018 by Lettie Stratton & filed under General, How to, Urban Projects, Why Permaculture?

If you’re a small farmer, it can be hard to make a living selling $3 bunches of kale. You likely just don’t operate on the scale that’s needed to profit from this model of simply growing the classic vegetable suspects and hoping your customers buy enough to make it worth your while. Luckily, there are ways to diversify your small urban farm that can help make it more sustainable in terms […]

Celebrating 10-Years at the Greening the Desert Project, Jordan.

September 26, 2018 by pri02 & filed under Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, General, Geoff Lawton, Permaculture Projects, Short Films - up to 15min, Videos

The Greening the Desert Project started with the purchase of land about ten years ago, and it expanded slowly until that mounted into exponential growth. Things started at the top, literally, with a large water tank that feeds a shower/toilet block just downhill. The toilets are dry composting, supplying fertilizer for plants on site, and the greywater from the showers and sinks goes to a nearby reed bed. The reed […]

Hello Humanity, it’s me, Technology. We need to talk.

September 25, 2018 by pri02 & filed under General, Videos

The Post Carbon Institute released this animation as a simple message to raise awareness about how technology has grown with us to the point where some of its gifts have come at great cost .What are the challenges facing us and what are the opportunities we need to move forward with? Visit http://noapp4that.org to learn more.

5 ha Polyculture Farm Design – Suhi Dol Revisited

September 20, 2018 by Paul Alfrey & filed under Commercial Farm Projects, Design, Food Plants - Perennial, General, Land, Plants, Trees, Why Permaculture?

Paul Alfrey from Balkan Ecology Project shares with us his observations and thoughts in regards to a visit he made to a farm he designed and how it slowly developed into a polyculture of fruit trees, aquaculture and vegetable gardens. Last week Dylan and I set off on a road trip to discover the flora and fauna of the North East of Bulgaria. Our first stop was to Catherine Zanev ‘s farm […]

How to Green the Desert: Europe’s Heatwave and some Holistic Suggestions

September 18, 2018 by Charlotte Ashwanden (nee Haworth) & filed under Animal Forage, Biodiversity, Design, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, General, Global Warming/Climate Change, Land, Plant Systems, Structure, Trees, Why Permaculture?

In the Northern Hemisphere, the balance of light is turning ever more towards darkness as we approach the Autumn Equinox. This is following a summer which in many places was unusually hot and dry(1, 2). This is perhaps not unexpected; climate change scientists have been predicting extreme temperature spikes for a number of years(3). However, it seems that a lot of farmers were nevertheless unprepared and many crops have been lost(2). […]