Permaculture News - PRI

There they go again, making liars out of us, undermining our critique that their industry is contributing to the wholesale destruction of water, soil, air and biodiversity. You know what the farmers have done, don’t you? They’ve only gone and realised that a diverse range of endemic, perennial, drought-proof fodder crops are better [...]

Geoff Lawton and Frank Gapinski I just came back from filming all the links to Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Soils DVD over the weekend. It’s a wrap – finally – with all principal photography completed and now it’s just a matter of finishing off the edit. Squeezing it all [...]

Permaculture is one of the only ways home for humanity. If one believes in modernism, industrial agriculture and better living through chemistry read no further. However, if you feel something is not right about the way we live, read on. I have come to realize that it is because we have been taught from birth to [...]

Compost Tea – Liquid Gold Increase the productivity of your broad-acre farm or small holding – even your own backyard. Paul Taylor, biological farmer, soil science professional and director of Trust Nature Pty Ltd utilises ‘natural systems technology’ and will show you how to increase the productivity of your soil by adhering [...]

Click for full view Courtesy: Marc Roberts Here’s a nice piece on AGW, markets and food-riots, by Raj Patel in the Guardian, and some further words on the biofuel connection. A fine series on urban food solutions at GRIST. Digg this! Share this on Reddit Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Share this on del.icio.us Share this [...]

Course alert: Jesse Lemieux of PRI Canada will be teaching a two-week Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course, starting November 21 right here at our own Zaytuna Farm (PRI Australia) – and it’s only AU$1200, or AU$1080 if you pay in full at least 30 days before the course starts. Jesse Lemieux and Bill [...]

Welcome to round eight of our Weekly Linkfest, where we share the good, the bad, the ugly and the just plain interesting from what we’ve seen this week. I would greatly appreciate readers getting involved in this weekly linkfest. Please email editor (at) permaculture.org.au with links (and ideally a summary sentence outlining the key point of [...]

Dear NSW Permaculturalists, For some time now Permies in NSW have been talking about having a regular NSW Permaculture gathering. The discussion has been gathering momentum lately and many of us feel it’s time to organize the first such event. The idea is to hold a state convergence late next year on the August long weekend – [...]

Click for full view Courtesy: Marc Roberts A human powered car. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7aapY_yMnQ Digg this! Share this on Reddit Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Share this on del.icio.us Share this on Facebook Post this to MySpace Add this to Google Bookmarks Post this on Diigo Post on Google Buzz Add this to Mister Wong Share this on Mixx Share this on Technorati Tweet This! Seed this on [...]

So, we wanted to make an egg mobile for egg laying chickens to follow behind our dairy cows and fertilise the pasture while scratching the manure that the cows leave behind. The chickens also leave behind their own manure whilst free ranging across pasture. This technique allows the chickens to supplement their diet and produce [...]

Here’s a photo of a famous Permaculture person. Can you guess who it is? He was photographed with this shovel back in 1956 at the age of two. He is wearing a child restraint belt usually attached to a long cord as was customary in those days to prevent him from running away to [...]

Bill and Geoff teaching in Melbourne, September 2009 Photos © copyright Craig Mackintosh There is enough evidence of global problems, but still not enough models of practical solutions. We can live in disorder and pretend order. We can live in lies and pretend truth. To demonstrate life we act. It is not what [...]

Ascension Island, in the Pacific Ocean (source) It seems Darwin was a permaculturist! In his days globetrotting aboard HMS Beagle, Darwin set in motion the transformation of a dead, volcanic island rock – Ascension Island, described by nearby islanders as "a cinder" – into a green, rain-creating oasis. How did he do it? Ascension was an arid [...]

Isn’t it time to imagine a new world? Perhaps it is impossible to write an article about politics without evoking strong – and maybe quite emotional – thoughts and responses. One particular all-too-human reaction to a novel concept or idea about which we have a strong "gut feeling" (good or [...]

Editor’s Note: This is an update for the ho avy project in Madagascar. Previous updates here and here. EcoExplorers Madagascar 2010 from Shannon Kohlitz on Vimeo. Here we are past July’s time for fleece, hat and socks, wouldn’t you believe! Manintsy – cold (25/16 °C day/night or less) was the semiarid southwest Madagascar in winter; winter in [...]

Click for full view Courtesy: Marc Roberts In a warming world pests migrate and flourish in previously inpenetrable habitats and latitudes. Of course there are obvious problems with Frank’s position here – like what happens when your subsistence gets washed away by some other unpredicted AGW shitstorm. As ever, Permaculture looks [...]

Editor’s note: Red clover is a useful leguminous green manure. Growing taller than other clovers, it can be easily cut down with a scythe or other when it starts to flower, so that it doesn’t scatter seed where you don’t want it. You can never have enough information about Earth Repair/Ecosystem Restoration tools, techniques, and [...]

When I was in Australia over a year ago, Geoff mentioned that a former student and her partner were converting their pool into a fish farm. I didn’t have a lot of time to spare, but told him I had to go. A day or so later I was poking around Vanessa and Justin’s pool, [...]

Click for full view Courtesy: Marc Roberts Loaded dice and extra spots, courtesy of DotEarth. Digg this! Share this on Reddit Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Share this on del.icio.us Share this on Facebook Post this to MySpace Add this to Google Bookmarks Post this on Diigo Post on Google Buzz Add this to Mister Wong Share this on Mixx Share [...]

Editor’s Note: Please welcome new contributing writer, Paul Douglas of Victoria, Australia! During my two week immersion into permaculture design, Bill Mollison was asked by a student, "How do we go about teaching permaculture to our children?” to which Bill replied something along the lines of, “I don’t believe we should be teaching Permaculture to children. [...]