August 28, 2012 – 6:00 am
Recently Harris (who heads the Forest Garden projects at Milkwood), has been in Chile teaching, designing and implementing forest garden systems. We thought you’d like to take a peek at some Chilean permaculture action?
Given our Gondwana connection, there are many correlations between Chile and Australia in terms of plant species (similar nitrogen fixers, for a start) so Harris has been gleaning all sorts of amazing indigenous, on-the-ground knowledge that will translate to Australian shores in terms of forest garden polycultures and creating abundance in poor soils… Read More »
August 24, 2012 – 6:00 am
This winter I was determined, nay, rabid, about finally purchasing all the apple trees we would need to have a steady supply of appley goodness in 4 years time at Milkwood Farm. We’ll have heaps of time to plant them all out to their vaguely appointed destinations before bud-burst, I thought.
However, what with moving into the Tinyhouse, various on-farm mini dramas, a tangle of other priorities and the unfortunate passage of time, guess what happened. Yep, it’s nearly blossom-o-clock, and our fabulous fruit trees are all still bare-rooted, sitting in a bag of sawdust. But there is a solution. Read More »
August 7, 2012 – 11:15 am
Next release in our area-specific internships is the forest garden & silviculture projects of Milkwood Farm. The first forest garden & silviculture internship slot is 3 October – 28 November, and applications close on 20th August.
This internship is an opportunity for someone to work side by side with Dan Harris Pascal; designing, implementing and learning the craft of creating temperate forest gardens and small-farm silviculture systems.
Read More »
Right about now is a good time to dig up bits of comfrey root and redistribute it wherever you need, but do not yet have, good soil. Garden path edges, forest garden path edges, places where you want to plant fruit trees next year, and so on.
Comfrey is the ultimate multitasking plant. It shades the ground from late spring through to autumn. Its deep roots break up the soil and draw up minerals to the surface. Its leaves can activate compost piles, become liquid fertilizer, and knit bones as well. We need more of it! Read More »
It’s pretty amazing what a bunch of logs, a lot of gumption, some wheelbarrows and a couple of days digging can do. What was once a slippery slope becomes a lovely place to be – what a huge difference a home-made set of steps can make!
The core edible forest garden of Milkwood Farm is on sloping ground, and ends up against the chicken’s strawyard. And dividing the two, up until recently, has been a steep and slippery dirt track. But Trevor decided to change that, so he called our available on-farm crew together, and they set about transforming the space. Read More »
July is bare-rooted apple tree ordering time! It’s been a long wait, but we now feel confident that we have the water infrastructure, system establishment and knowledge in place to be able to grow apples (without killing them) at Milkwood Farm. Oh happy day.
As our forest garden slowly creeps across the hillside, greener and more dense with every season, I’m beginning to believe that our rocky ridge could truly one day be an edible forest garden and holistic orchard. And so it is time to chose the first batch of apple trees to plant. But which to chose? Read More »
Last weekend we ran an Urban Forest Garden workshop in Sydney… it was a great weekend of design, thinking and planting… Read More »
There is nothing quite like a feijoa – they are simply the most amazing fruit. Fragrant, pungent, sweet yet sour, gooey in the middle and grainy round the edges. The original yum in a small green torpedo.
They also tend to appear as a surprise in large quantities when ripe, probably because they’re so darn hard to see on the tree. If you’re planting them, plant them in a high-traffic area, lest you miss their amazingness until it’s too late in the season… Read More »
So a little while ago (ok quite some time ago – like 4 years) I took a bunch of fig cuttings from an old abandoned orchard across the creek, and potted them up. And they grew. So we planted them. And guess what? This week, we ate our first figs, and they were delish. Hooray!
When I took the cuttings from this magnificent old fig i knew the plant stock was hardy for our area. What I didn’t know at the time was whether the figs were any good or not. But, biomass is biomass, and we needed lots of it, so back in 2008 we hedged our bets and potted and then planted up about 40 fig cuttings. Read More »
December 24, 2011 – 7:40 am
Here is our Forest Garden in December 2007, four years ago. You might notice there’s nothing there. There wasn’t anything anywhere, at Milkwood Farm. Just out little caravan, and us, dreaming of turning this rocky hillside into a kick-ass permaculture farm.
We knew we wanted to create a rocking Forest Garden as part of Milkwood Farm’s design. And it’s taken four years but, thanks to good friends, good design, gravity fed water, and a certain amount of gumption, we’re now well on our way… Read More »
