Robyn Francis shares tips in this FREE PDF Autumn Planting Guide to create a productive garden to eat through the pandemic lock down Apart from good soil, compost and sufficient sunlight, the most important thing to ensure a successful, productive vegie garden is to plant what likes to grow in each season. Planting things at …
As the critical decade ends, what lies ahead, it’s more than CO2 we need to act on.
Fire has played a part in the Australian landscape for many thousands of years. Consequently, Permaculture design has a focus on designing to exclude wildfire from the home and garden. This involves multiple strategies, which include house design, water supply, firebreak areas surrounding both individual houses and also hamlets of houses, animal yards, and other …
Robyn Francis asks 13 important questions regarding the polarized debate of a vegan society, what about the animals, and are there better ways to solve the world’s food, farming and environmental problems.
Conservation in the wild can serve humanity and allow speciation into the future, for those species not driven to extinction. Destruction and fragmentation of habitat could drive speciation by creating disjunct populations with no gene flow! The importance of plants and biodiversity Mankind uses plants for fibre, food, medicine, and environmental services, such as storing …
Robyn Francis reflects on her memories of Bill Mollison, teacher, mentor, friend… Bill Mollison, co-creator of the permaculture concept and founder of the movement, passed away in Hobart, Tasmania on the evening of September 24, 2016. For many it felt like a giant old growth tree in the forest had fallen. Since then tributes have …
More than a concrete jungle, Hong Kong boasts almost 550 organic farms: traditional family farms, small enterprise farms and over 300 educational and leisure farms. Leisure farms are a variation on community gardens that rent out garden plots to urban dwellers, known as ‘weekend farmers’, and are operated as small social enterprises rather than as …
I love Bamboo; growing, eating, crafting, building, and listening to the sounds of creaking culms and rustling leaves in the wind. It provides me with microclimates, windbreaks, privacy screens, animal fodder, wildlife habitat, an endless supply of mulch, delicious tender eating shoots, an abundance of materials for the garden and building small structures, and sequesters …
Cassava flour is easy to make with basic kitchen equipment. It’s gluten free for those with celiac problems. I use it for making pancakes, slices and cookies, and mix it (half/half) with other flours for making breads or pizza dough. Cassava, also known as Tapioca or Manioc, is an important staple crop for many populations …
Meadows – a treasure trove of biodiversity The herb meadows were once an essential component of traditional farming systems in Bavaria and other parts of Europe. I lived in rural Bavaria (Southern Germany) for three years in the mid 1970s, and was fascinated by the sheer biodiversity of herbs, grasses, insects and fungi of the …