We’re currently editing and adding animation to Murray Hallam’s new “Aquaponics Made Easy DVD” which will take you into the wonderful world of building and maintaining your own 1000 litre tank system and understanding the basics of what sort of fish you need relative to your climate and location. We’ll take a peek at the sort of vegetables best suited to use in your environment and how to even make your own system from recycled materials. The DVD will run for 90 minutes and will explain the nuts and bolts method of selecting the right tank, water, grow beds, gravel media, pumps, flood and drain systems and what to do and how to avoid failure. Murray even shows you how to grow your own fish food. Every step is explained in simple to understand non-technical language. Murray’s approach is proven as he’s tested and built every method that he explains. He’s still growing a variety of exotic vegetables and experimenting with fish to find the easiest and best method for the average person to use. By following his example you can certainly grow common vegetables extremely fast. A lettuce can grow from seedling to your plate in less than a month. fresh and organically grown. We’ve had a lot of fun making this DVD as Murray is quite a “natural” in presenting information and de-mystifying some of the more mysterious aspects of Aquaponics. The DVD will soon be available at www.aquaponics.net.au for a recommended retail price of $29.95
We ran a little competiton a few weeks back where we asked “If you were George W Bush and discovered Permaculture - What would you do?” Well the judges have reached an agreement and congratulations to Douglas Barnes - the winner of the Harvesting Water DVD. You can read his entry Here
Congratulations to everyone who entered. Look for more competitions in the future,
We’ve been busy editing the “Food Forest” DVD down to a more manageable length as it was turning out to be a lot longer than we anticipated. Even now at 90 minutes we’ve had to cut out lots of good stuff that we hope to use as either “extras” or at least share on YOU TUBE as a teaser or some way of garnering interest in Geoff Lawton’s new DVD. We were about to head off to see Tagari Farm which was designed by Bill Mollison when we noticed Geoff’s Kitchen Garden and we grabbed Geoff and said “How about doing a quick segment on the Kitchen Garden?” Despite the fact that he was quite busy with visitors and was anticipating getting away to meet other people at Bill’s farm he never lost his cool but he was gracious enough to film a few segments that morning before we headed off and this was the result. You need to understand that what you see is unrehearsed and unscripted. When Geoff opened the door to the garden and walks towards us - we didn’t know what he was about to say,
He says its not the Alaskan sun thats doing it but John Evans has thing for growing huge, massive vegetables. They are so big in fact that he’s been in the Guinness Book of Records nine times for his giant celery, massive potatoes, heaviest carrot etc.
So how does he do it?
“Compost Tea!”
“I came up with the idea to grow large vegetables to promote organic gardening. I don’t use chemicals, fertilisers or any such things. And the plants, they simply love it.” says John. The secret is in the soil. Or more importantly according to John Evans - what he puts into the soil.
John sprays his vegetables with a compost tea spray mixed with nutrients. When he brews the mixture with an aquarium pump he turbo charges the water with oxygen. Its the oxygen that feeds the soil bacteria and they multiply rapidly in the oxygenated water.
Garbage Warrior is a great documentary about rebel US architect Michael Reynolds and his battle to get the State authorities to allow him to build radically sustainable housing.
Described as “an extraordinary tale of triumph over bureaucracy”, Reynolds is disbarred from practising as an architect because his homes were built out of - err - garbage. Or more correctly, recycled plastic drink bottles, car tyres, beer cans etc. Imagine inexpensive houses or “earthships” as he calls them - imagine living in a home that heats itself, that provides its own water, that grows its own food and needs no expensive technology, that it recycles all its own waste and has its own power source. And now imagine that it can be built anywhere, by anyone, out of the things society throws away. Sounds too good to be true? [click to continue...]
How do you get to have an endless supply of water on your land? By building a swale on your property. But what is a swale exactly?
A swale is a broad land drainage depression along which stormwater flows and is kept in level balance. In Permaculture terms its known as a water harvesting ditch on contour. It has to be built perfectly level following the contour of the landscape. Pretty much like those feint contour lines you see on a topographical map that reveal the contours of a mountain or valley.
Worms make some of the best garden food on the planet. Your kitchen scraps are what they love to munch on. But how to start? Can you use any type of worm and how do you keep them from running away and tunnelling off into the neighbours back yard? Here are the 4 essential steps you need to build a successful worm factory toiling away night and day to create brilliant worm compost for your garden.
Before he moved to enjoy a “tree-change” lifestyle in the hills of rural Cooroy, Frank Fekonia was a property developer and master builder who lived near Sydney.
He wanted to escape the rat race and start a new life just outside the idyllic rolling green hills - the rural hinterland town of Cooroy in South East Queensland. Together with his wife Elizabeth, they adopting the “Good Life” approach of sustainable living and Permaculture practises when they bought a large parcel of land near Mount Cooroy.
Frank decided to build his house with the cheapest and strongest material he knew - concrete. Mixing and pouring concrete into wooden moulds was a slow process but gradually over many months he built his dream three storey home - one step at a time.
The name conjures up all sorts of weird suggestive ideas but what exactly is a Chicken Tractor and why should you make one? We live on a very small block of land near the seaside, so consequently our soil is basically white silica sand.
When we wanted to grow our own vegetables we knew that it would be pretty hard to condition the soil and turn it into something fertile and productive that vegetables could grow in.
So when we noticed that our neighbours were remodeling their deck and were throwing out some top grade oregon timber - we decided to do something useful with the timber.
After looking on the internet and reading a book on Permaculture Chicken tractors we decided that an A-frame design was the best model for our four chickens and smallish garden. A portable Chicken Tractor was the end result and the chickens love it.
We do get some odd looks from the neighbours and even friends wanting to borrow it to keep their poultry in a controlled “free-range” experience.
