In the beginning...

This used to be our front garden. What's the point of this bit of grass. It's a non productive, all consuming useless bit of space. It takes my time, my water and petrol for mowing; for what? I spent good money buying this, so I may as well make the most of it eh?



In late 2007 I read an article about Permablitz (www.permablitz.net) and got in touch. They had some Permaculture Design Certificate students who needed some practice, so in February 2008, it was on for young and old. I was gob-smacked on the day when 30 people turned up to do our garden. Such generosity. What a fantastic concept. This was the start of my permaculture adventure.



The designers were great and talked us also into chooks, which the kids loved. We got a white Araucana from Harry and a couple of Isa Brown Pullets.



So this was what it looked like 18 months later. On reflection, I've had heaps of produce out of it. Tomatoes, potatoes, chillies, beans, brocolli, dill, beatroot, lettuce galore, basil, tat-soy, silverbeat, warrigul greens, other herbs like sage, oregano, rosemary, three mints to name a few off-the-top.


The system doesn't exactly work as intended, with the chook dome rotating around mandala beds. The chooks live mainly in the back garden because they like the space and there's an existing shed for them.

I wonder what my wife, Marg, makes of all this? (Actually having been married 10 yrs we don't need to talk. I imbibe what she's thinking, and she thinks it's all pretty cool so long as I don't ask her to do too much. After all, it's more family friendly than the alternative - going off on m'bikes).