What is Permaculture ?

Means: permanent agriculture.

Permaculture is a way of incorporating the home, garden and surrounding environment into an organic sustainable way of life.

• Permaculture works with nature to grow multi purpose companion plants.
• One can  incorporate animals, beneficial insects and organic soils.
• Producing food in ones backyard or balcony.
• Permaculture can be implemented in front and backyards, balconies, roof top spaces, community gardens, school gardens, farms and semi rural properties.
• Balcony gardens can include pots to grow herbs, vegetables and dwarf fruit trees.
• Balcony railings can support climbing food plants.
• Worm farms and pot full of water can include aquatic plants and fish.
• Worm farms are a clean enclosed compost system that can be placed in a shady position on a balcony or in the garden. 
   A deep pot without a drainage hole filled with water can become a small pond with aquatic plants and fish
• Backyards, roof top places, community gardens, school gardens can grow lots of multi purpose fruit and vegetables plants as well as including ponds, chickens, native stingless bee hives, composts, guilds and food forests.

Permaculture creates a natural and happy place. 

Chickens

• Silky chickens provide eggs and fertiliser.
• Great for turning over soil in vegie beds between seasons.
• Good pets for children and will tolerate cuddles.
• Can live up to 10 years.
• Councils generally allow 5 chickens per household.
• No roosters in urban areas.
• Coup needs to be fox proof and have perches for sleeping.
• They require nesting box in coup for laying eggs.
• The only on going costs are seed and castings for coup floor.
• Generally each chicken has particular characteristics and they will voluntarily go into their coup when it gets dark.

Fruiting guava

Small to medium size tree, full sun to part shade.
Provides good crop of fruit each summer autumn.
Cherry, strawberry or lemon flavoured fruits.

Flowering Peach

Small tree prefers cooler areas.
Beautiful pink flowers in winter which bees love.
Fruits summer.

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Community garden

growing veggies in raised beds

Growing food in containers and planter boxes

Autumn is a good time to add organic matter to the soil and garden beds.

Complete fertilisers Can be purchased in bags or one can make create compost from kitchen scraps, dry leaves, coffee grounds and garden clippings.	Compost can be mixed / dug into the soil. Composts improves the soil and adds valuable nutrients to aid plant grow. Homemade compost is best as it contains recycled goodness.
	Chicken manure This can be purchased in pellet form and is best applied during rain. Spread around the drip line of trees and shrubs. Cow manure This can be purchased in bags and is added to the soil. Its great as it improves the soil. Raw cow manure is best mixed into compost and allowed to brew for a few weeks. Horse manure Cold dry manure. Can be applied straight onto a garden and mixed in. Or horse manure can be added to open compost bays or bins and allowed to mix and brew.
Liquid fertiliser Worm farms provide worm juice. Seasol is a great organic liquid fertiliser.	Acid loving plants Include, Blue berries, Azaleas and Camellias. These plants require specific acid loving fertiliser and or compost.

Best times to add fertiliser, generally autumn and spring.

Potatoes can be grown from spring to autumn. They can be grown straight into ground soil or in planter boxes.

Always use good healthy soil which can be a mix of premium potting mix and compost. Seed potatoes can be purchased from garden nurseries or if the potatoes in the cupboard at home start to seed then plant them.

Once potatoes are in soil cover them with additional soil followed by lucerne or sugar cane mulch and then water. After a while the green stems will appear with leaves. As the stems grow cover with extra soil and mulch just leaving the very top of the stem / leaves exposed to the sunshine. Continue to add mulch during the growing period of 3 to 4 months. Then once the stems begin to go brown / yellow and die back, it’s time to harvest the potatoes.

Wicking garden beds. 

Wicking beds are self watering garden beds. 

Wicking bed has a water reservoir that sits underneath the soil your vegies grow in.