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 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...

We thought we’d give a plug to our good friends at Milkwood Permaculture and Regen Agriculture who have brought out to Australia some great innovative thinkers and farmers doing things outside the square – empowering people to independent action and making a success of their...

Keeping chickens in an Urban environment is something a lot of people would like to have, but when it comes to roosters – people baulk at the idea knowing their neighbors wont like it. After all, who can blame them when they’re trying to get some sleep? Roosters are known to crow...

The notion of Victory Gardens sounds rather quaint these days and conjures up ideas of thrift and service for the war effort. Used throughout the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and other places, the Victory Garden was a symbol of pride that helped take pressure off the...

Siting your Chicken Coop in your backyard may be no big deal, but to place it at the highest point of your garden – well isn’t that usually reserved for your house as the premier spot? Not necessarily so if you talk with Permaculture teacher Geoff Lawton. The Problem Recently...

While filming a segment on backyard chickens, we came across a novel approach to improving your garden beds when we visited the garden of Bruce Morgan in Nambour, Queensland. Bruce has been doing Permaculture now for many years and has even taught the “pros” a thing or two over...

        Trying to see Anne Wensley’s chicken coop is hard to spot at first. Thats because it doesn’t really look like a traditional chicken coop. Anne has a mass of vines and creepers covering her chicken run in her suburban backyard. A choko vine covered in...

We’re planning a number of exciting new titles to be released in 2011. Urban Permaculture DVD One of the complaints we often get from people living in the city is that we focus a little heavily on Permaculture titles that require a large scale farm to get the most benefit from practicing...

ABC Radio has an interesting interview with self styled “lunatic farmer” Joel Salatin who happens to also be in Australia courtesy of REGEN Agriculture talking about free-range farming in USA. Joel says food has become over-regulated by US food safety bureaucrats who are destroying...

Ever wonder what happens to all the portions of uneaten gourmet restaurant food? Chances are it ends up in landfill somewhere. But a new Noosa resort restaurant is changing all that. Bistro C upmarket food waste is being delivered to worm farms and chicken coops located nearby. The...

Permaculture people have long advocated it. Free range farmers have recommended it. Now a new study seems to have proven it. According to recent research from the US Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences that has compared caged bird eggs against their free range cousins – has...