November 30, 2010 – 12:02 am
Putting the soil where we want it...
During the Spring Permaculture Design Certificate here at Milkwood, a funny thing happened to our basecamp garden. Somehow, it quadrupled in size. It was the most un-anticipated permablitz i have ever been a part of, and this time (for the first time) it was at our house! Or our woolshed, to be precise.
Rosemary Morrow, the lead teacher of this PDC, had come up to me the day before and asked (in her marvelous, quiet way) if the student’s could extend our basecamp garden a bit. Of course, Rowe, I said. Read More »
November 8, 2010 – 12:05 am
No-dig garden beds with ferrocement edges all finished
Ferrocement (sometimes called thin-shell cement) is a construction technique where cement is thinly applied to a sturdy steel or wire frame. It is very cheap and relatively quick to do, and produces extremely strong structures.
While it does involve cement, which has quite a large energy footprint, the resulting strength-for-inputs equation means it is a suitable and ethical option for some structures, particularly those requiring great strength.
We’ve been wanting to have a play with ferrocement for years, but weren’t quite sure how to go about it, or what to build. Recently our friend Tom arrived at Milkwood armed with the right knowledge however, and suggested we update the kitchen garden at basecamp by incorporating some new no-dig beds with ferrocement edges. Read More »
Rob Avis of Verge Permaculture and some of the Milkwood food forest pumpkin and rocket harvest
After a summer of sparse rain, sporadic growth and mostly only greywater irrigation, we took a day or two last month to glean what we could from the basecamp vegie garden and the top food forest, before the first frosts take hold here at Milkwood.
This past summer has taught us a lot about what edible plants are the most drought-hardy in our climate, and it’s information we’re greatfully storing in our brains. Come next spring we’ll be doing our food growing a bit differently – the Milkwood kitchen garden will be up and running and the food forest understorey will be able to get well established, now that our new top dam is full… Read More »
October 29, 2008 – 11:36 am
Basecamp gardens plan – click for enlargement. As for my illustration skills, that’s what happens when you spend your life on a laptop – you draw like a 12 year old…
Planning, making and planting the gardens around Bascamp has become one of my favourite parts of the week, and we are finally starting to feast on the results! I really cannot believe that i didn’t garden for the first 30 years of my mishappen (but oh-so very full) life… what was i thinking? This is great! And you can eat it! Yum.
I started planning the Basecamp Garden as a result of a kick up the bum, thanks to some Canadian friends who stayed here over winter, and who sort-of barged in and constructed a no-dig mainbed next to the caravan. As I’ve mentioned earlier, up until this point we were trying to keep the Milkwood Kitchen Garden going while living over the hill… and it just wasnt really working. Start at your front step, work from there. I should probably get that statement tattooed somewhere… Read More »
March 10, 2008 – 11:00 am
Over the last few weeks we have FINALLY managed to begin on the vegie garden so I thought now would be a good time to start another Milkwood ritual – The Change of Season Vegie Garden Report!
Being on the bottom half of this great big beautiful blue ball summer has slipped away and autumn is upon us. The evenings are getting chilly already.
While we were digging our first dam, we got the local earthmoving company to bring in a ginormous yellow excavator to dig two big terraces just uphill from the dam. This is the spot we (hope to) will build our little strawbale studio, the first part of our future home. Trying to follow the “oftenest = nearest” permaculture principle we extended the terraces to the south east to create a very large space for our kitchen garden, only about 10 meters from our back door. Read More »
