PRI Permaculture News Update
Podcasts — by Patrick Blampied May 31, 2010
The PRI Permaculture News Update is a weekly radio style news bulletin that gets you up to date with the world of Permaculture in just 5 minutes.
Subscribe to the feed on your i-Something/MP3 player and even if you can’t always make it to permaculture.org.au you’ll never miss what’s been happening and always know where to find the nitty gritty details of a story.
Each week we cover the posts from the last 7 days plus a selection of stories from other Permaculture projects worldwide.
You might even know someone that is kind of into Permaculture but not sure what the go is – this podcast might be for them. Subscribe and pass it on!
Also if you have a Permaculture story you think might be suitable for the update, let us know at media (at) permaculture.org.au. We can only report on it if we know about it.
Click play to hear the update:
Permaculture World News Update, 31 May 2010 Comments (6)Great Soil Biology – The Silver Bullet
Compost, Courses/Workshops, Food Shortages, Fungi, Podcasts, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Structure — by Patrick Blampied May 27, 2010
Talking with Soil Biology Wizard, Paul Taylor
When you put the Permaculture lens on and look at where our food comes from there are hundreds of dead canaries trying to warn us it’s time to wake up and make a change to something better.
As I look closer I realise the industrial food system is a planet destroying system that deprives people of health and well-being, putting more value on short-term profits and perfect looks than nutrient content and building resilient communities that have sustainable access to food. Not only that but it appears to be edging towards collapse as failing unproductive farms are propped up by more and more chemicals and machines that run on not-so-cheap-anymore oil.
So just as it was all looking a little bleak I was lucky enough to speak with Paul Taylor from Trust Nature. He is a true genius when it comes to understanding soil biology and restoring land back to fertility.
Comments (5)Urban Worm Farm Solution – Step by Step Setup
Compost, Rehabilitation, Soil Conservation, Urban Projects, Working Animals — by Patrick Blampied May 24, 2010
After discovering our family compost bin was in a dangerously anaerobic state I decided a worm farm would be a much more suitable and productive way to deal with organic waste from the kitchen.
Comments (6)Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker, Episode 3: Marda Permaculture Farm in Palestine
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, News, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Storm Water, Urban Projects, Village Development, Waste Water, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Patrick Blampied May 15, 2010
‘Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker’ is a weekly podcast show from PRI Australia aimed at documenting the experiences of people out in the field and making more information available about what’s happening in the Permaculture world.
In Episode 3 I’m speaking to Murad from Marda Permaculture in Palestine. He runs a Permaculture demonstration site and is co-teaching a PDC with David Spicer and Brad Lancaster in June 2010.
Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker, Episode 3 - Marda Permaculture Farm in Palestine Comments (7)CERES Environment Park Melbourne
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Nurseries & Propogation, Plant Systems — by Patrick Blampied May 12, 2010
I visited CERES in Brunswick, Melbourne while on a mission for seeds and compost worms.
It’s a great place with many aspects of permaculture principles and sustainability on display. I was lucky enough to chat to Matt about what happens in propagation and also Greg from the CERES Cafe.
Very Edible Gardens’ Urban Kindergarten Installation
Community Projects, Consumerism, Demonstration Sites, Economics, Education Centres, Food Shortages, Land, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development, peak oil — by Patrick Blampied May 7, 2010
In this video I caught up with Dan and Adam from Very Edible Gardens in Melbourne.
They were doing a Permaculture installation at a kindergarten that will be maintained by the children daily, teaching them all about where food comes from. The garden will also supply their commercial kitchen which feeds over 100 children from the 3 kindergartens in the region.
The beds are built with sustainably harvested timber and watered with a drip irrigation system, which is fed by an underground storage tank that collects rainwater from the roof. The same tank also supplies an outdoor wash up sink in the garden and the toilets inside the kindergarten.
It was great to see the staff and children so enthused about a Permaculture garden!
Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker, Episode 2 – Ringo in Afghanistan II
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Developments, Land, News, Podcasts, Project Positions, Village Development — by Patrick Blampied May 5, 2010
‘Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker’ (CPAW) is a new weekly podcast show from PRI Australia aimed at documenting the experiences of people out in the field and making more information available about what’s happening in the Permaculture world.
You can subscribe to CPAW podcast feeds here!
A local girls school started by Mahboba’s Promise 8 years ago and is the
location of an upcoming Permaculture garden program initiated by
"Kids Are Sweet International" founder Lesley ‘Zaynab’ Byrne.
Episode 2 is the second part of an on-going conversation I’m having over skype with Paul Kean, aka Ringo. Originally from Perth in Australia, Ringo is currently in Kabul, Afghanistan working on a project there which has been organised by PRI and funded by Mahboba’s Promise.
Topics covered in this episode:
- Local Knowledge
- Cement Water Tanks
- Excursion to Panjshir valley
- Mud building and design
- The hunt for nitrogen fixing trees
- Bali Belly
- Building the Compost Toilet
- Waste Disposal
Editor’s Notes: Ringo has taken PRI’s Permaculture Project Aid Worker (PPAW) course, which helps prepare workers for challenging/interesting/rewarding permaculture experiences worldwide, and is now finding paid placements through PRI’s growing network of projects. After Afghanistan, Ringo is heading to Malaysia. Our next PPAW course starts June 14, and after that is September 13.
Want to make your work known?: If you are working on-location somewhere, and want to tell the world about your work and vision, contact editor (at) permaculture.org.au in the first instance.
Pictures to follow:
Comments (2)Podcast: Buy Water Rights, Sell Riverina’s Future
Conservation, Dams, Gabions, Irrigation, Land, Limonia, News, Plant Systems, Podcasts, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Swales, Trees, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Patrick Blampied April 29, 2010
Last week Permaculture consultant Nick Huggins spoke to Anne Delaney from the ABC Riverina Breakfast radio program in Wagga Wagga, NSW. Listen here:
Nick Huggins Talks to ABC Radio About Riverina’s Water Blues
A backgrounder: Two Permaculture consultants, currently drought proofing a property in Livingstone, are calling for an end to the Australian Government’s water buy-back scheme, saying turning off the taps rather than helping farmers repair degraded landscape is selling the Riverina’s future short.
Comments (9)Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker, Episode 1 – Ringo in Afghanistan
Aid Projects, Podcasts — by Patrick Blampied April 28, 2010
‘Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker’ is a new weekly podcast show from PRI Australia aimed at documenting the experiences of people out in the field and making more information available about what’s happening in the Permaculture world.
Episode 1: This week we’re speaking to Paul Kean, aka ‘Ringo’, who is from Perth, Australia and currently working on a project for the Permaculture Institute of Afghanistan, in Kabul.
Ringo has recently arrived and it’s just his luck that there’s been a hail storm which according to the locals is a once-in-25-year occurrence!
He’s having a great time so far and working on water as a priority. The photos below are described in detail in the podcast.
Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker Episode 1 - Ringo in Afghanistan Comments (12)Life at Zaytuna – Aquaculture Development on New Dam
Aquaculture, Biological Cleaning, Dams, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Fish, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Natural Swimming, Plant Systems — by Patrick Blampied March 30, 2010
Compost & Soil Fertility – A Shitty Topic
Compost, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Shortages, Health & Disease, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Structure — by Patrick Blampied March 23, 2010
Wow, here’s a topic I could write more about than what I wrote in the About Me section! Now that must sound ludicrous to you because everyone knows how I like talking about me but we’ll see how I go since this is about the most important issue humanity is about to face.
Forget climate change (don’t do that but you get the point)…. Humanity’s number one environmental issue is poor soil and soil loss. It unpins all else and is therefore bigger than deforestation and pollution. But how is that, I hear you asking? Well, every living thing needs food and soil happens to be the food that feeds everything above it so before you can grow vegetables and fatten up beef to feed yourself and before you can plant a tree to clean the air you breath, you need healthy soil.
Comments (5)Life at Zaytuna – Permaculture Ag Bicycle 1.0
Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Retrofitting, Village Development — by Patrick Blampied March 18, 2010
by Patrick Blampied, who is currently interning with the Permaculture Research Institute
Since the main shed was moved up to the top of the property we’ve been running up and down in the ute more often.
Most Australian farmer use a petrol powered Ag bike to do these smaller trips but on a Permaculture farm where you don’t travel a lot of steep slopes because of the swales a pedal powered bicycle would be perfect, not to mention more environmentally friendly.
Geoff knows I like playing with bikes so he asked me if I would be able to design a bike to get us around the property. The design brief goes like this:
Comments (6)Letters from Zaytuna – Mini Swales in Urban Permaculture Gardens
Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Irrigation, Regional Water Cycle, Swales, Urban Projects, Water Harvesting — by Patrick Blampied March 16, 2010
Swales hold and soak water that would otherwise get away without doing anything positive for your property. In fact it can cause problems – like soil erosion.
Swales are critical features in the design of any permaculture project but most of the applications you see on youtube are broad acre properties and many people might think that’s what they’re reserved for. Not true!
Small swales are very useful in urban gardens and can double as footpaths. Have a look at my video of Geoff Lawtons kitchen garden, which is a great example of how to improve your urban garden.
Much Love! Pat
