Topbar Beekeeping in Permaculture Gardens, Farms and Homesteads

Beekeeping is a great way to get in touch with the spirit of place, akin to farming and vineyard keeping, but significantly less labor intensive.  Bees are so beneficial to ecosystems in general, that it’s difficult to imagine designing a permaculture food forest, backyard or homestead without them.
Bees – species adept at creating abundance:
Bees are [...]

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More Permaculture How To’s

Keeping chooks: before you start you need to know…
Introducing… guinea pigs as pets and lawnmowers
How to make a tyre pond
Putting together a balcony garden
How to build a herb spiral
How to build a no-dig garden
Using your nature strip to grow food plants
Growing food plants in shady places
Making simple shampoo
Making vinegar spray conditioner for hair
Compost-making in a [...]

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Slow Food

Non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization counteracting fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat.
slowfood

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Bio-diesel WWW Encyclopedia

The Biodiesel WWW Encyclopedia provides comprehensive resources for bio-diesel. It provides inputs and info on various aspects of biodiesel, and over a thousand relevant web links on biodiesel related topics. It is intended to be a one-stop biodiesel resource, and is expected to be of use to beginners and experts alike.
Objective
The objective of the Biodiesel [...]

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My Journey into Homesteading

The Start of the Journey
“I have decided to pursue the lifestyle of a homesteader. I do not know if I will be successful, but I do know I am going to try. To me, the difference between a house and a homestead is the difference between consumption and production. This thought is not mine originally, [...]

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Forest Interactions and Climate

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Using and reusing in the garden

One of the things about permaculture that really resonates for me is the drive to use everything, to have no waste, to get a yield from as much as you can.
Something about looking at what WAS clutter in my eyes in a new way that makes it a resource, it seems magical. I am one [...]

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Permaculture How To’s

These simple “How To” guides, aimed at the relative newcomer to Permaculture. They have been selected because they are relatively easy to implement, and do not require that you convert all your land to Permaculture in order to be effective. I hope they’ll give you enough of a taste of Permaculture that you’ll want to [...]

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Bill Mollison has been called the genius of permaculture

BILL MOLLISON by Merian Ellis
“It wasn’t until the 1950s that I noticed that large parts of the system were disappearing. First fish stocks became extinct. Then the seaweed around the shorelines went. Large patches of forest began to die.I hadn’t realised until those things had gone that I’d become very fond of them; that I was [...]

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Permaculture Zones – What to plant etc.

Factor or Strategy
ZONE I
ZONE II
ZONE III
ZONE IV

Main design for:
House climate, domestic sufficiency.
Small domestic stock & orchard.
Main crop forage, stored.
Gathering, forage, forestry, pasture.

Establishment of plants
Complete sheet mulch.
Spot mulch and tree guards.
Soil conditioning and green mulch.
Soil conditioning only.

Pruning and trees
Intensive cup or espalier trees.
Pyramid and built trellis.
Unpruned and natural trellis.
Seedlings, thinned to selected varieties.

Selection of trees
Selected dwarf [...]

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