Landshare is a concept we’ve been excited about for a while. It addresses the huge (and getting huger) issue of land access in an immediate, accessible fashion.
In short, people with spare land can offer that land to people who want to grow stuff. That stuff might be vegetables, herbs, cows, chickens, trees or anything else you can think of. The reasons they might want to grow stuff might be for personal food supply, or for a small commercial venture. It doesn’t matter. The point is this: to share the land, for the ultimate benefit of all. 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 »
October 12, 2010 – 12:02 am
Alexe drills holes in a pipe to make a worm tower
A worm tower is a simple and effective way to take any garden bed from average yield to gloriously abundant. Simple to build, with materials you probably already have, a worm tower is the perfect addition to any garden bed, in any climate.
It will bring increased fertility to your plants, improve your soil, make every living thing very happy and process organic waste to boot.
We’ve been adding worm towers to garden projects for a couple of years. We love them because they are so simple to make, are energy efficient and they are so beneficial. Who came up with the idea originally we do not know, but it’s a darn good one. Read More »
A wicking bed is an excellent technique for growing things in environments where water is scarce. It’s got two main parts: the bottom half is a contained reservoir filled with gravel and water and the top half is filled with soil, mulch and plants. By periodic flooding of the deeper half of the bed, mature plant roots get a big drink. And because it’s contained, that water gets a chance to ‘wick’ upwards into the soil, hydrating the soil of the bed and the smaller roots within.
Pretty simple, really, but amazingly effective, very water efficient and ripe for endless variation.
Below is a photo essay outlining the process of creating a wicking bed using everyday tools and materials, which took 5 people about 4 leisurely hours to make. It features the efforts of our awesome
PDC students in Alice Springs earlier this year, led by Nick Ritar who also designed this particular wicking bed system..
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 »
September 4, 2008 – 3:15 pm
Milkwood basecamp with *new* no-dig herb garden, mulched path and puppydog
Vegetable gardens are the ultimate in complex, layered systems which have implications that flow through every corner of your daily life. And, no, I’m not being dramatic – I really believe this to be so… even more now that we’ve had to take a couple of major backward steps in order to move forwards with one of the basics of life… growing food to eat.
In Nick + my usual style, we appoached the Milkwood kitchen garden (Mark I) with much gusto. We chose a large area close to the studio site, sculpted beds, re-sculpted beds, planned the ultimate vegetable manifesto and then set about bringing it to life… and, also in our usual style, bit off more than we could chew. 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 »
October 7, 2007 – 5:28 pm
As I think I’ve mentioned, this part of Australia is, although it doesn’t look it at first glance, a labyrinth of abandoned settler’s orchards. Every farm around here seems to have at least two of these gnarly fruit-thickets over in a back paddock somewheres.
These old orchards are the only sign left of previous shacks and farmhouses which dotted the landscape here over a hundred years ago, during the gold-rush years. Read More »
Landshare is a concept we’ve been excited about for a while. It addresses the huge (and getting huger) issue of land access in an immediate, accessible fashion.
