And then it was time to test the swales - we made sure to be there when the forecast said "heavy rains" - and they were heavy. The first two pics show how a swale fills up within seconds, then how our weakest swale, that received most water (it's a slightly longer story, and was a big mistake...)...

Below you see a few images of the land itself - on the right bank of the wadi, with the pre-existing forestation project at the far right and the old Ottoman canal visible at the edge, too - then our blessed naïvité of levelling with an A-Frame (Dan in action), the digging of our swales, the firs...

The Alchemical Nursery and the Rahma Free Clinic will establish a "Snack Garden" on an unused portion of land adjacent to the clinic building, on clinic owned land at 3100 South Salina Street, Syracuse, NY. The Snack Garden will provide fresh healthy food for the community to self-har...

How to grow a forest in the desert with less than 150ml of rain a year? With little experience, but high motivation, three young permies set off to plant a 2.5 hectare forest in the desert on the Jordan/Syria border - with the help of dozens of volunteers.

The long awaited PDC course, the first one in Finland probably for 15 years, just finished in Turku. It's been great to see things build up little by little and finally have a full PDC course to contribute to. So far most people (including myself) have had to go abroad to get the first immersion ...

I have begun my diploma, and went to a two day (instead of two hour) orientation with a wonderful support group of thirteen other new students, all under the guidance of Richard Perkins. This is going to be a real life enhancing two years. Updates including links to my website coming soon!

THE VALUE OF THE HOME GARDEN

It's been a while since I've provided news here of my horizontal top bar bee hive. So a brief summary is in order. First, the size of the colony has grown dramatically - through winter. Secondly, it's been producing large amounts of honey and wax. I've been harvesting every 3 or 4 weeks because t...

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In central Portugal we had 8 students for two weeks doing the 72 hour pdc (in Portuguese) at Quinta de Fontanheira and Quinta do Boiço with Chris Ripley and Anne Johnston. 

Work share initiative between three farms in central Portugal

Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design A digitally connected integrated approach   This pathway has been forged in response to questions both in myself from my experience of the Diploma process, along with feedback and suggestions from both past and present Diploma students.  These question...

This exciting plan was the dream of Jude Watson. During the gathering of 2010 we shared this dream with Dr Ana Brandao, a key note speaker on sacred geometry and Feng Shui. She accepted this project and spent one weekend later that year incorporating these principles into the garden design. The...

At Jaspers Village we are developing a sustainable conscious living community with each individual's living area dedicated to permoculture design and practices. Our main service to the public is a health and wellness retreat renowned for serving only organic whole food.

Purchased a 3m x 3m garden shed and installed in zone 1 not far from house site, then worked out that'll give us 9m square x by the annual rainfall 558mm x 0.9 = 4,519 litres of possible rainwater. So with that info decided on installing a 4,000 litre tank which i'll be able to use in a gravity ...

Hi this is the first thing i started in my family home garden. I was eager and lacking the best mulch so i improvised with lots of newspapers. Since then i have added more natural mulch with plastic bags filled with green/brown waste from my neighbours' doorstep. OH well one's rubbish, my gain!

The start of urban permaculture for my family home. The plan is a complete revamp to be truly sustainable but it has to be proven in steps otherwise the folks freak out!