You eat 3 times a day

Understanding cooking , growing food , healthy eating  are things I enjoy and feel are are important.

If you couldn’t get to the shops how long would your food last in your kitchen lasts you? Growing food is creative and enjoyable and learning the skills is how to improve your own food security.

I rent in the city and have a 20 acre property in the country. In the city I focus on veggies etc (zone 1) and being a nursery for the country house where I am working on rehabilitation of the damaged landscape and and setting up robust perennials.

The house in the country

This gives me the opportunity to develop my agricultural skills. The Melbourne home is where I carry out conventional vegetable high maintenance gardening and the country home is where I practice larger scale lower maintenance plantings.

So the country estate is where I am building my food production whilst learning the skills of horticulture and permacuture. The area is in a 40 year old regrowth gum forrest which was heavily gold mined and as a result has very poor damaged soil. I have planted a small orchard and been working on reinvigorating the area around the house to improve retention of water, increase shade, improve the soil and ultimately make the area more liveable and productive.

Permaculture

“Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems.It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food,energy,shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of social order.” Bill Mollison.

My Take on Permaculture

There are people that attach an almost religious approach to permaculture. The  concept of building sustainable and resilient systems is one that works with me although there are many people that do this without calling permaculture. I use a variety of permaculture and traditional techniques on my land althogh with the aim of keeping things as sustainable and self maintaining as possible.

Recommended Media
The Permaculture  Research Institute of Australia
My Gardening Blog
The Survival Podcast