Although allowing your chickens to free-range a great idea, getting them to just stay on the grass and not destroy your garden is not an easy thing to do. They don’t seem to listen and wander about blissfully digging up your garden, making mounds in your vegetable patch, spraying dirt...

A couple of years ago whilst shooting the Food Forest DVD with Geoff Lawton he remarked how “only on edges do we get fertility” or words to that effect. At the time that phrase didn’t really make much sense to me but when you stop and think for a moment how nature creates...

A year ago we filmed with Elisabeth Fekonia a fantastic little DVD on Home Cheesemaking and All things Dairy. What we didn’t show you on the DVD – is what happens when best intentions don’t necessarily go according to plan. Elisabeth was instructing the camera how to milk a...

It looks like a white camel with a fat hump on a pillar but in actual fact its a hot water system. Rocket Stove technology has been around for many years, dating back to ancient China as a method of central heating, but this rendered mud brick construction is used out in the field near the...

A while back we posted a story about Penny Pyett’s straw-bale chicken house that was specifically designed to muffle the sounds of roosters crowing. Raising roosters in the city is always was a problem with the noise. How do you keep the peace with the neighbors from all that early...

Sometimes you see something and you think “Wow! Thats a great idea.” We came across this very simple and easy to build greenhouse at Rosina Buckman’s backyard. Rosina has some terrific tips mentioned previously here and here. Most greenhouse designs are overly complicated...

They say nine out of ten people that ultimately get ducks into their gardens first started off with chickens. So what are the advantages of keeping ducks? The popular perception or myth is that ducks need a large expanse of water; they make a lot of mess; destroy your garden and their eggs are...

Recently when filming with Permaculture gardener Rosina Buckman, we asked her how she managed to grow her amazing vegetables in her raised bed gardens without importing a lot of expensive soil. These tanks were raised off the ground and faced a sunny spot right out at the front of her house....

Rosina Buckman’s front garden is right out on the suburban street. A number of corrugated colour-bond Zincalume planter beds dot her front garden. Rosina is keen on growing food in her raised beds. Lettuce and herbs spill out of her tanks as she exuberantly explains how she keeps the...

Most people when siting their house want to take advantage of the available commanding views. So you commonly see people positioning their homes on the highest point on their land. But that’s not necessarily the best place to site your home if you are into Permaculture and your aim is...

Permaculture teacher Geoff Lawton scrambles through a clump of reeds perched over a some large boulders and gingerly steps over a pond choked with Duckweed and Salvinia floating on the surface. You can hear the frogs croaking in the background. Birds are singing in the trees. He peels back a...

One of the advantages of doing aquaponics is that it gives you the knowledge of how a natural system works. For Les and Annette Mulder it was only a natural progression to apply their knowledge of fish farming to their 55,000 liter chlorinated swimming pool located in Sydney. Les switched off...