We want the Holistic Orchard site at Milkwood Farm to be super productive, beautiful and also accessible – we’re establishing this orchard on a slope just below the Tiny House (and irrigating it with grey water) so we’ll be visiting it regularly.
And as I’ve mentioned, well designed paths can define and enhance a forest garden. And also make it much easier and more pleasurable to establish the whole thing. Which means you’re more likely to see the full establishment phase through, and end up with a glorious home orchard… Read More »
At Milkwood, we spend the majority of our time focusing on positivistic strategies for an uncertain future. This is mostly because the other way of looking at the future has a big flashing ‘here be dragons’ sign on it.
Like everyone else, we know what’s happening out there in the big wide world. We know that there’s many gigantic problems, that the climate is changing, and that our granchildren’s world will definitely not look like this one.
It’s scary stuff. And yes, it does sometimes keep me awake at night. But then it’s morning again. Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. Read More »
So who would like a copy of this fabulous book? It’s one of the favourites of our permaculture library, and also the textbook we give out to students at our Intro to Permaculture courses.
The reason for choosing this as our introductory textbook is simple: it’s a great introduction to permaculture theory and practice. It’s also a good choice as a gift, if you’re looking to get someone excited about ecological design… Read More »
Recently Nick was lucky enough to hang out with David Holmgren for a couple of days at Melliodora, the superb small-acre permaculture site that David has established with his partner Su Dennett in Hepburn Springs, Victoria.
Being in the thick of a super-productive, comfortable and energy efficient permaculture system at harvest time was inspiring, to say the least. To add to that, the purpose of the visit was for Dave Jacke to spend time with David and Su while he was in Australia. You can imagine the intensely wonderful conversations that went down! Read More »
Nearly time for our next Intro to Permaculture course! It’s coming up fast on the 13 – 14 April in Sydney.
Nick teaches this course as a two day intensive that aims to give students a solid grounding in permaculture theory as applies to the everyday. It’s all about taking the big ideas, concepts and advantages of biomimicry, and applying them at home… Read More »
What better soundtrack for Christmas than combining two essential ingredients for a good life: permaculture, and ukulele. Permaculture: A Rhymer’s manual is a set of songs based on David Holmgren’s 12 permaculture principles, created with the idea that education and learning resources come in many forms, so why not. We love em.
This week at Milkwood Farm we kicked up our heels with The Barn Dance at the End of the World, with special guest Charlie (aka Permaculture Ukulele). Charlie was so much fun we thought we’d share a bit about his project Permaculture: A Rhymer’s manual as the ultimate Christmas soundtrack…
We’ve been fielding a lot of questions lately on what exactly a Milkwood Permaculture Design Certificate course (PDC) consists of. In short, it’s an exceptional and intensive foundation course in permaculture theory, from which students emerge with solid design skills.
The application of these design skills are broad – some people use their new knowledge to design their current (or future) farm, their suburban block, or their apartment courtyard. Some of our graduates have used what they learn overseas to design futures for their communities, some have used the design skills to re-design their businesses, and many go on to teach permaculture, in a range of community and classroom scenarios. Read More »
Nick just finished up co-teaching a Permaculture Teacher Training course with Rowe Morrow on Sunday, which was by all accounts an enlightening 7 days of how the heck to communicate core design concepts to a wide range of different types of learners.
Amongst the varied and wonderful students present was Jasmine Whyte from communicatecreative, who produced this simple and gorgeous diagram of PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) outcomes, which we’d like to share with you… Read More »
Milkwood PDC’s frequently produce motivated folks ready to take on and transform their communities. We place huge emphasis on ensuring excellent student outcomes and we see permaculture design skills as something that you’ll never stop learning, so we don’t pretend that this 2-week stint is all there is to it. But it sure is a hell of a start.
Our on-farm PDCs also prioritize people care and incredible farm-grown food to nourish body and soul throughout the 2 week intensive course. We have everyone from home-makers to bankers to teachers to international aid workers attend, and the consistent student feedback is that a Milkwood PDC enhances, affirms and motivates people’s existing knowledge and skillsets to go out there and be the change they want to see in this world.
Last week Milkwood Permaculture was the proud winner of the 2012 Green Lifestyles Awards in the Garden Company category.
We won it for being “a company whose products are consistently amazing, who are the pinnacle of sustainability behind the scenes, & who are working to green our food culture”. Wow. And I even got to meet Bob Brown at the awards ceremony, who’s been a household champion in my family since i was six. It was a pretty great night. Read More »
