I'm experimenting.  Trying new approaches to permaculture design.  Now, I'm definitely not the first to come up with a swale pathway, but I've added another little feature... a deeper depression below the swale line which acts like a little dam.  All the soil that I dug up from the hole I mounded...

Earthworks & Water Harvesting August 29 - September 2 This earthworks course is a hands-on course that will help you design and implement water harvesting strategies on your property. Also, this course gives great value to enhance any serious consultant’s portfolio to have confid...

The days are still hot here. And for the past few weeks the rain seems to have gone elsewhere. Blue skies and light winds are slowly turning to Autumn conditions and the nights have been both cool and clear. The plants are also showing signs of the approaching autumn. Today the blackberries have ...

We have wonderful hard working worms (Eisenia Fetida, Tiger Worms) in our kitchen.   Once our wormery gets full we transfer a handful of worms to each of our three worm towers in the garden. The towers are made of PVC pipes that have holes drilled in the bottom.  A piece of mosquitoe nets and u...

Inspired by Aquaponic videos from Australia Peter built a fish basin that pumped fish water into two hydroponic grow beds above it. We used gold fish below and tried to grow strawberries and lettuce above. Our little gold fish grew, however, even though there were forty of them, it didnt seem t...

Right outside the kitchen door was the perfect spot for a high bed.  Red bricks on the terrace side, the outside perimeter created with posts and willow branches.  Peter did the pounding of posts and I did the planting.  This was completed in 2009. Now the bed needs some rejuvenation and renovat...

In 2009 we were enjoying the rush of the vitality and diversity that the pond provided. In order to ensure areated water Peter dug a creek that was feed from water collected from the roof of our shed.   Unfortunately, the stones we used were too small and the creek was quickly filled in after a...

Our last project in 2008 was designing and creating a pond.  Our ground is clay clay clay ideal for a pond without a liner.  Timber was used to reinforce a two meter deep swim area. Two regeneration areas were also incorporated.  It was an incredible experience.  Frogs, newts, and dragonflies soo...

Permaculture and (human) energy - space to play in Parrs Wood. Here's hoping things warm up this year! More info and bookings  here

Enlarging our Compost holding was our next challenge.  Peter was at work digging again, pounding in support beams, and building two wooden compost bins with a covered space between them for staw bales. The system works well.  We have learned to put only finer mulch material here such as kitchen ...

Our next project was the classic Herb Spiral Garden three steps from the kitchen door.  Peter dug into the clay ground, laid down gravel and constructed the spiral around the outside collector for our Earth Heating system.  This hid the collector and stopped curious visitors from using it as a pl...

After completing my first modul of Permaculture Design with PIA we jumped in with both feet, stopped mowing our lawn and created two Hugel beds with a swale in between. It was a great way to put old rotting wood to good use.  Our neighbours we happy to contribute grass cuttings from their lawns....

My birth year was 1957, which means I'll be 59 later this year.

the permaculture garden began with the creation of hugelbeds as outlined in Bill Mollison's manual.

Permaculture Design Course with Rhamis Kent from May 25th to June 5th in Tuscany (Italy) - write to pdc@world-permaculture.org - www.world-permaculture.org - www.permalabs.org

The Permaculture Student Online is for schools, families, homeschoolers & more! Hands-On Holistic Permaculture!

It's been a wonderful four years and things are moving fast at Chaitraban! Almost all elements are in place on land and the connections are working beautifully!  Chaitraban boasts about permaculture techniques tweaked to serve our purpose. The chickens are hard at work on the compost integrated ...

"the problem (used tyres) is the solution", we fill these with gravel ... which in turn come from sieving the soil that goes into the terrace where we already have 2 avocado trees established, more info and pictures at: https://agroecologia.joomla.com/2-uncategorised/9-muro-em-construcao-wall-u...