information about Permaculture
Permablitz (noun): An informal gathering involving a day on which a group of at least two people come together to achieve the following:
Permablitzes are free events, open to the public, where you learn a lot, share food, get some exercise and have a wonderful time.
If you return it, you rented it. If you keep it, you bought it.
Waratah CLT Association is forming in Sydney, Australia, to develop a workable community land trust model to underpin a range of permanently affordable housing options, commercial activities and community enterprises in Australia. Community land trusts are innovative community-based organisations holding title to land and/or buildings to provide affordable housing and community development. Currently, CLTs exist mainly in the USA, where they have housed low-moderate income households and supported many different community and commercial spaces.
Village Homes is a seventy-acre subdivision located in the west part of Davis, California. It was designed to encourage both the development of a sense of community and the conservation of energy and natural resources. The principal designer was Mike Corbett. Construction on the neighborhood began in the fall of 1975, and construction continued from south to north through the 1980s, involving many different architects and contractors. The completed development includes 225 homes and 20 apartment units.
When we think of food gardens, we often envision neat rows of tomato and cucumber plants waiting to be harvested. While those plants are definitely rightful citizens of kitchen gardens, growing food plants in isolation from other natural inhabitants is inefficient. When we plant a single kind of crop over large areas (called monoculture), we make the plants and soil vulnerable to pest invasions, drought and depletion. Instead, the goal is to create eco-systems in which each plant fulfils multiple functions and supports the other plants. These functions include attracting beneficial insects, deterring pests, enriching the soils and keeping moisture in.
Many of the plants below are found in the wild and are even considered to be “weeds”! Actually, weeds are really just plants that are “unwanted” in a particular area, rather than placed there by design. The key is to learn the different functions of plants and to create synergistic relationships between them. Whatever needs are fulfilled by the plants themselves, that’s the work that the gardener does not have to do.