Despite having spent many of my most recent years in the tropics, and despite having grown up in Louisiana, where the number of seasons is pretty wishy-washy, I’ve always kind of assumed that autumn could possibly be my favorite time of year. My birthday is in right in the middle of autumn. It’s a time when the weather slowly cools down to a comfortable temperature, which seems better than slowly […]
We started publishing 3 weeks ago this series of an excerpt from Samuel Alexander and Brendan Gleeson’s new book, “Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary”. The chapter we will be publishing over 4 weeks (Reimagining the Suburbs Beyond Growth) is the first chapter in the book. You can read the 3 parts we already published here and here and here. Dr Samuel Alexander, is the co-director of the Simplicity Institute and […]
Bill Mollison once wrote that goats in any large number are incompatible with permaculture. Goats when overstocked can quickly turn a forest into a desert. Dairy goats in small numbers, however, can be an appropriate choice for many situations, including the backyard, and this is what I will write about. Producing food in towns and suburbs Suburbs and towns yield a wide variety of trees that can be discreetly harvested […]
In part one (1) of this article I explored the possible efficacy of visualising our communication with each other as a invisible flow, less predictable than other energy flows in a Sector Analysis but still able to be mapped as part of a design; while in part two (2) I looked at what catching and storing such energy flows might look like. This third part is turning inwards from the […]
We started publishing 2 weeks ago this series of an excerpt from Samuel Alexander and Brendan Gleeson’s new book, “Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary”. The chapter we will be publishing over 4 weeks (Reimagining the Suburbs Beyond Growth) is the first chapter in the book. You can read the 2 parts we already published here and here . Dr Samuel Alexander, is the co-director of the Simplicity Institute and […]
Permaculture is much more than a gardening technique. It’s an ethical design science that assimilates land, resources, people, and nature in ways that supply human needs as well as benefit the environment. Unlike specific disciplines such as forestry, green construction, or aquaculture, permaculture melds and molds all of these practices and more into holistic designs. Permaculture instructs us how to build our homes, grow our gardens, foster our properties and […]
Its spring time in Australia, and our area in Far North Queensland has gratefully received a decent fall of rain. I’m gleefully anticipating the springing to life of our un-irrigated areas that had gone dull and dormant during the dry weather. Among other things, I’m looking forward again to abundant chokos. I used to think of choko as a bland, boring vegetable. I didn’t like skinning it, and I didn’t […]
Last year we started a trial to discover the best ways to prepare the ground for tree and shrub planting. We trialed five different methods and recorded the performance of each method looking at how long they took to implement and manage, how much they cost and how effective they are. I’ll start the post with why we prepare our ground in advance of planting then we will look at the […]
Not so long ago, my wife Emma and I bought our property, a place for which we’d been looking for nearly four years. And, in doing so, the enormity of what we were about to undertake sunk in. I’d been gathering up wood in anticipation of us needing to build a home, but the pace had been leisurely and the collected resources a bit aimless in there (re)purpose. Amazingly, the […]
We started publishing last week this series of an excerpt from Samuel Alexander and Brendan Gleeson’s new book, “Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary”. The chapter we will be publishing over 4 weeks (Reimagining the Suburbs Beyond Growth) is the first chapter in the book. You can read the first part we published last week here. Dr Samuel Alexander, is the co-director of the Simplicity Institute and a lecturer with […]
THE IMPORTANCE OF CROP ECOLOGY After doing the blog post on water purification systems and Phytodepuration and the benefits of several plants. I thought this was a good time to step back and talk about plants ecology and one in particular, the Prickly Pear.“Green gold”, “fruit for the poor,” “treasure under its spines,” “world vegetable dromedary,” “future plant,” “sacred plant” and “monster tree” are all nicknames for this cactus. Why so […]
Established in 2018, the Permaculture Magazine Prize aims to showcase the very best examples of ecological, social and economical regenerative permaculture projects in the world. We want to shine a light on good people and good works in a world on the edge of collapse and climate crisis. We are therefore delighted to announce the winner and runners up of its main category plus the Youth prize supported by the […]
