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 …
In early October I made my third journey to the Chinese city of Shenzhen to teach a PDC with my wonderful Taiwanese colleague, Hui-i Chiang. This was the second full design course hosted by Taihua company at Wutong Island, which they intend to make an annual event. It was great to see how the site …
I’ve just been on a wild forage walk harvesting a salad for dinner tonight. This has become a daily joy since I arrived here in Iceland three days ago. On the bus journey from the airport into Reykjavik I noticed a lot of familiar plants growing on the roadside including Coltsfoot, Meadowsweet and Dandelions and …
In one of China’s big industrial cities there’s an office block growing organic vegies for lunch on the rooftop. WuTong Island is an innovative commercial development in the city of Shenzhen, southern China, right next to Hong Kong. The WuTong Island project consists of 24 office blocks surrounding an artificial lake to collect the storm …
Christopher Nesbitt of Maya Mountain Research Farm in Belize shares some thoughts about woody agriculture, stacked polycultures and agroforestry systems. My experience is limited to the tropics, where soils tend to be poor, and easily damaged, and informed by my time working where I live. The land I am working was formerly citrus and cattle, …
Robyn Francis and Melian Fertl, representing PCA and Djanbung Gardens, joined over 420 delegates from 47 countries converging in Cuba for the 11th International Permaculture Convention, November-December 2013. Robyn reports on the experience.
Bellamar Gardens is one of the exctiting new major permaculture projects in Cuba, located near Matanzas, just a hundred meters from the famous Bellamar Caves. I was invited to consult on the project when I visited Cuba in 2009 when the land had quite recently been secured by FANJ (Foundation for Nature and Humanity), Cuba’s …
Target ONE EARTH – Living Within Our Footprint and What we can Learn from Cuba Robyn Francis reports on her visit to Cuba to experience ‘first hand’ the only nation on earth living within its ecological footprint. We can live better with less – Cuba shows us how…
This was a grand adventure for a day off during the PDC in Southern California, a trip to Fresno to visit the amazing underground gardens. Created by Baldassare Forestiere in the early 1900’s, this 10 acre underground labyrinth was hand dug over 40 years with a pick, shovel and wheelbarrow.
Permaculture Projects in Cuba Robyn Francis visited and documented 40 projects in Cuba during May-June 2008 as part of the Cuba-Australia Permaculture Exchange (CAPE) inaugural exchange program.