General Permaculture
Designing your more Sustainable Lifestyle 2nd ed
Designing your plan – using the Sustainable Lifestyle Assessment Matrix – simple process – detailed process – SWOT analysis – action planning – reviewing your design – individual audits for: Food, energy, water, waste, consumption, transport, community and clothing.
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What I Have Learned
Convenience is king – we are urban peasants – a goal without a plan is just a wish – make it easy, make it yours! – have a go, ya mug! – porque no los dos? – sharing is caring – what you don’t measure you don’t control – dare to repair – believe you can and you are half way there – it’s the end that matters, you can change how you get there – attitude determines your altitude – I am getting too old for this crap – it is not always the reason that they say.
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Developing and Running a Permaculture Group
Intro and foreword by Costa – how the group was started in 2006 – how meetings are run: general meetings, committee meetings, AGM, the annual planning meeting - how events and activities are run: a blitz, a permaculture open day, living skills workshops, permaculture trivia night, starting a permaculture group library, running a seed savers group – ideas for the future: permiepod, learning circle, one-day-a-week-challenge – appendices and applicable documents.
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Identifying, Creating and Modifying Microclimates
What is a microclimate – why are they important – identifying microclimates – creating and modifying microclimates: temperature, light, air circulation, water, soil – appendices and resources.
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Delawning the Front Yard
What is delawning and why do it – examples of delawning projects – tips for your delawning project – assessing the front yard – developing the plan: fixed characteristics, infrastructure, plants, structures – putting it all together – resources – appendices.
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Permaculture Zone Zero
Introduction – the kitchen – the dining room – the laundry – the bathroom/toilet – the loungeroom – the bedrooms – the back deck – the genkan – the garage.
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Food Storage and Resilience
Introduction - our original process: the process, the big four, cans, dry goods, fats and oils, sundries – resilience and food storage 2.0: conducting a pantry audit, conducting a food buying audit – practice: no-buy July – DIY: bottling tomatoes, making spice mixes, homemade ricotta, tortillas/flatbreads, crackers – resources.
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The Sustainable Workshop
Introduction – Setting up: setting up the garage, making a bench, installing a vise, making and installing a forge, making a small hydraulic press – hand tools: files and rasps, drilling and boring, wood chisels, saws, planes, cold chisels – tool sharpening: plane irons, chisels, knives, scissors, sharpening topping and setting a saw, making a saw sharpening jig – hardware and consumables – safety – resources.
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Food
Growing Vegetables in Suburbia
Introduction: why grow vegetables - overviews: How we grow annual and perennial veg – growing annual veg from seed: sowing seed into punnets, direct sowing, potting on, planting out, sun protection – veg growing for time poor gardeners: soaks, sprouts, microgreen, soil sprouts, in the veg patch – leaf crops and sustainability – irrigation – succession planning and planting – keeping up the fertility organically – controlling pests diseases and weeds organically – resources.
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Growing Fruit in Suburbia
Why grow your own fruit – how we grow fruit overview – designing a fruit harvest calendar – fruit tree growing techniques: banana circle, strawberry tower, small fruit garden, fruit tree circle – watering: deep pipe waterer, deep pipe reservoir, using greywater – fertilising: fertiliser sausages – propagation – pests and diseases – resources.
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Growing Herbs and Spices in Suburbia
Introduction: why grow herbs and spices – overview: how we grow herbs and spices – techniques: herb spiral, lavender hedge, comfrey, garlic, mint - making a recycled herb garden – making dried and ground herbs – spices: ginger, turmeric, cardamom, herb leaf tree circle – resources.
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Small Scale Food Growing 2nd Ed
Why grow your own food – Vegetables: overview for annual and perennial veg growing, assessing a balcony for food growing, strategies for a productive small food garden, succession planning and planting, growing veg in containers, veg growing for the time poor gardener – Fruit: strategies for a productive small fruit garden, overview of how we grow fruit, designing a fruit harvest calendar – herbs: overview of how we grow herbs – fertility pests and diseases: maintaining fertility, organic pest and disease control, sprays and spraying – resources.
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Saving Your own seed
Introduction: Why save seed – general notes on seed saving – conducting a seed germination test – individual seed saving techniques: carrots, brassica, lettuce, onion tribe, tomatoes and cucumbers, sweet corn, peas and beans, give peas a chance – resources.
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Growing Veg from Seed
Why grow veg from seed – sowing into punnets, direct sowing, potting on and planting out – making a capillary bed and newspaper pots – germinating seeds using a heat pad – troubleshooting your seedlings: germination problems and problems with seedlings – the greenhouse: making a low cost mini greenhouse and our greenhouse journey – special cases: carrots and onions – seedling sun protection – resources.
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Keeping the Place Fertile
Introduction: the fertiliser review – testing your soil: sampling, physical aspects, chemical aspects, biological aspects – techniques: crop rotation, mulching, green manure, companion planting – adding nutrients: adding nutrients, urine as fertiliser, making comfrey extract, making biofertilizer on a small scale, making fertiliser sausages – compost and bokashi -chooks and worms – resources.
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Upwardly Mobile with Vertical Veg
Introduction: why grow vertically – Our first steps with vertical growing – trellises: making a refurbing the trellis, making a cylindrical trellis, making a tee pea – growing vertical veg: fence pumpkins, vertical gardening by potato sack, shed wall veggies, hanging pots, potato cage – other stuff: three sisters garden, assisting the choko tree, making a strawberry tower – resources.
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Managing Your Weeds Organically
What is a weed and why do they need to be managed? – weed identification – rating weeds using the PITA scale – prevention is better than cure: importing weeds, weeds brought onto site by other agencies and existing weed seeds – weed control: general considerations, physical, chemical and cultural control techniques – maintaining the system – process summary – resources.
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Growing Oyster Mushrooms & More
Intro – context – terminology – some edible mushroom species – growing oyster mushrooms: setting up, mixing pasteurising and inoculating the substrate – inducing fruiting and harvesting – pillowcases, second flush and lessons learned – the next generation: fixing the problems, changing the paradigm, strain senescence – making a fruiting chamber – growing mushrooms using commercial kits: button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, troubleshooting – resources.
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Sprouts and Microgreens
Intro to sprouting – sprouting using the glass jar method – using the fabric bag method – the seven-day sprouter – producing mung bean sprouts at home – experiments with soil sprouts – intro to microgreens – growing microgreens – another take on microgreens – experiments with baby spinach – making a microgreen spacer – resources.
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The Cookbook Vol 1
Intro – our recipes – Mexican inspired recipes – Asian inspired recipes – Indian inspired recipes – Greek and Italian inspired recipes – resources.
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The Cookbook Vol 2 – Kitchen DIY
Intro – pasta sauce making – making hard sweets – making soy products: soy milk, tofu – DIY pasta – home vinegar making – DIY applesauce.
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Growing Food Crops in Pots
Intro: the pros and cons of growing food in containers, basic vegetables in containers – growing food in containers: how we grow potatoes, growing capsicums in cans, growing veggies in a courtyard, growing herbs in recycled containers, setting up the grape vine, growing pineapple from the cut top, setting up a strawberry tower, growing Okinawa spinach, growing upside down tomatoes – self-watering containers and other irrigation strategies: making a self-watering container, revamping the original self-watering containers, making a self-watering container from a 20 litre bucket and a PET bottle, making small ollas more efficient, bottle and wick irrigation for pots – box gardens: making a box garden, making two styles of wicking box gardens – growing vertically with containers: hanging pots, shed wall container growing, repurposed potato sack vertical container garden – Microgreens: what on earth are microgreens, another take on microgreens, experiments with baby spinach – Resources – Books about growing food in containers: container growing general, container growing plus, indoor growing, regrowing from plant material, microgreens.
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The Cost-of-Living Victory Garden
Intro - Where You gonna Put it? – Planning: Vegetables to Consider Including in Your Plan, Ideas for Getting the Most from a Small Vegetable Garden - Setting up Your Cost-of-Living Victory Garden: Double Digging, Sheet Mulching, Raised Beds, Standard Raised Beds, Hügelkultur Raise Beds - Container Growing: Making a Self-Watering Container, Box Fulla Veggies (Making a Box Garden), Making a Wicking Bed Box Garden - Vertical Growing: Hanging Pots, Vertical Growing with a cylindrical Trellis - Succession Planning and Planting – Irrigation - Growing Vegetables From Seed: Why Grow Veggies from Seed, Sowing Potting on and Planting Out, Making a Capillary and Newspaper Pots - Maintaining Fertility: Adding Nutrients, Ways of Managing Fertility, Making and Using a Bokashi Bucket Composter - Managing Potential Problems: Organic Pest control, Organic Disease Control – Resources.
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Energy
Coping with Heat and Cool
Intro – heat: keeping out the summer heat, defence in depth, setting up a cool retreat, retrofitting windows to conserve energy, bubble wrap as double glazing – Cool: sleeping warm without an electric blanket, woodburning heaters – our experience, walkable warmth – making a wearable blanket – resources.
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Cooking with the Sun
Intro – the no tech solar oven, construction details – our main solar over: original build, the refurbishment – building the parabolic reflecting solar cooker – building the Primrose reflecting solar cooker – building the solar food dehydrator – appendix 1: main solar oven diagrams and specifications.
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Low Energy Cooking - Part 1
Intro – using conventional cooking gear efficiently – cooking with the lid on – cooking with a pressure cooker – cooking with a wok – cooking with stored heat: stored heat cooker made from modern materials, a better alternative, making a fabric stored heat cooker, which stored heat cooker is best for you? – final thoughts – resources.
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Alternative Power Systems - Our Experience
Intro – 12VDC power system: wiring, switches, batteries, generating power: solar and wind, regulators, inverters, metering, loads: lights and 12 volt fridge – 24VDC power system: electricity usage, batteries, power generation, electronics and control gear, maximum power point tracker (MPPT), the inverter, 24VDC to 24VDC converter – conclusions – resources.
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Water
Managing Your Water
Context and intro – water audit – water storage (in a tank): the original galvanised tanks and the polytank, installing a water butt, installing a rain barrel, our second last water tank, our last water tank, wheelie bin to water cistern, keeping track of your rainwater storage – water storage (in the ground):drain chimney, permeable path, rainwater harvest directly from the downpipe – greywater, intro, a backyard constructed wetland, testing the output of our constructed wetland, home testing the constructed wetland, greywater from the spa bath and the banana circle, Greg’s greywater system – managing your demand for water: management techniques, virtual water – maintenance: fixing a leaking toilet cistern, fixing a leaking tap – resources.
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Low Cost, High Efficiency Irrigation
Introduction and overview – ollas from scratch – ollas from commercial pots – buried pipe – buried capsule – deep pipe irrigation – deep pipe reservoir – leaky tube or hose – bucket and pipe – bottle and wick irrigation for pots – self watering PET bottle pot – conclusion – resources.
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Waste
Towards Zero Waste
Intro: why zero waste – gathering data: waste audit, waste audit 2.0, process summary, conducting a pantry audit, conducting a food buying audit, food packaging hierarchy – practice, practice, practice: no buy July, putting it together, how it went – tools for change: one day a week challenge, 50% challenge – DIY: making a zero waste go bag, making reusable fruit and veggie bags, making reusable tea bags, making a reusable bread bag, making homemade spice mixes, making shampoo soap – Angela’s 30 day zero waste challenge: intro, 2018 challenge, week one through four and beyond, how and why of the zero waste challenge, 2019 challenge, week one through three and beyond – Angela’s 30 day zero waste challenge 2023 review – resources.
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DIY No-Buy July
Intro: call it what you want – NBJ the original (2018): how I put it together, how it worked – the mechanics of NBJ: the what, the why and the how, the impact of NBJ on us – initial research: intro, conducting a pantry audit, conducting a food buying audit, food packaging hierarchy, our food storage system – No-By July 2024 – NBJ projects: intro, making tomato based pasta sauce, bottled diced tomatoes the easy way, two spice mixes, making ricotta cheese and paneer, tortillas/flatbreads and crackers, mayonnaise – resources: thrifty cooking books, food storage books.
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Consummate Clothing
Intro – household sustainable clothing audit – buyerarchy of sustainable/ethical clothing – managing your clothing: Angie’s capsule wardrobe, the old man and the capsule wardrobe – to wash or not to wash: is that the question?, freshening between washes – clothing maintenance and repair: putting together clothing repair kits: basic kit, more advanced kit, sewing machine based kit , portable kit, sharpening sewing pins and needles, pilling on fabric prevention and cure, restoring motorcycle and flying jackets, sewing machines and zippers – miscellaneous: the humble button jar, making a wearable blanket – resources.
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Community
Cultivating Community
Intro: what is community, benefits of being part of a community, a household sustainable community audit – our house, our street: making and installing a street library, a community bench and a street pantry, installing a pick your own veg area in the front yard, making and distributing veg grow boxes, hosting an open garden day – our neighbourhood: starting a local community group, grumpy old men, the permiepod, study circles for sustainability – our world: starting a community garden, hope gardens, Littleton stores, farm it forward, fighting the good pH-ight, running community workshops – resources.
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St Clair Sustainability Group
Starting out – the story continues – setting things up – running a meeting – the group: three years on, five years on, ten years on – postscript.
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Animals
Chooks and the Choko Tree
Intro: why keep chooks – chook basics: breeds, housing, feed and water, products – our chook journey: the early years, the evolution of a chook tractor, the retirement village and other things – making chooks from scratch: making a chook brooder – making a simple chook feeder: making a small feeder, making a large feeder, making a high-capacity feeder and waterer.
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Boosting Biodiversity in the ‘Burbs 2nd ed.
Intro: why supporting suburban biodiversity is important – providing food for beneficial insects: developing an implementing a plan for an insectary plant area, an easy insectary bed, DIY insectary seed mix – providing water sources: making a self watering bird bath, making a beneficial insect watering station – accommodation: making and renovating a DIY bug hotel, making a frog hotel, gabions for biodiversity, going microbatty – installing our native garden – resources.
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