Above another tank and under the edge of the house was their main composting toilet.
Back up beside the ramp into the deck was a small bamboo trellis for peas and vines...
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Introduction to Permaculture, Crystal Waters, Qld 19th – 20th November 2011 Part 5
Walking back up towards the house we passed the Macadamias, then the grey water treatment system.
Above another tank and under the edge of the house was their main composting toilet.
This section was level with the ramp into the deck overlooking the dam. The garden was then terraced up to the top of the property. The bottom bed was all Zone 1, intensive vegetable gardens. The next level was Zone 2, more perennial crops with some dwarf fruit trees, and above that was the mulberry trees providing shelter for the chooks. Above the chooks was the Zone 3 food forest.
Above another tank and under the edge of the house was their main composting toilet.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Introduction to Permaculture, Crystal Waters, Qld 19th – 20th November 2011 Part 4
A little further down on the right we passed the burgeoning food forest, then below that, the newly refurbished chook house.
To our left was the next stage in their house building – each 'module' built in stages as time and money permitted, stepping down the slope. Note the solar array.
Nearest the bottom of the block was the main house...
...with a wonderful view over the dam. Note the dome house above and to the left of the centre of the dam.
Morning tea was ready as we arrived – tea and coffee with local fresh fruit and nuts and seeds newly roasted in the solar oven. I had to check it out!
Solar Oven closed...
...and open!
What a fabulous contraption! We ate a number of dishes from the oven over the weekend – the aforementioned nuts and seeds, new potatoes and quinoa.
Opposite the garden and above the main house was the kids' playroom. It is the newest addition to the property.
After morning tea Evan took us for a tour of the property, pointing out each feature and improvement. First we headed down the slope to the dam, where there was some old citrus and an Ice Cream Bean tree.
The flower was lovely (in a cute monster kind of way!).
To our left was the next stage in their house building – each 'module' built in stages as time and money permitted, stepping down the slope. Note the solar array.
Nearest the bottom of the block was the main house...
...with a wonderful view over the dam. Note the dome house above and to the left of the centre of the dam.
Morning tea was ready as we arrived – tea and coffee with local fresh fruit and nuts and seeds newly roasted in the solar oven. I had to check it out!
What a fabulous contraption! We ate a number of dishes from the oven over the weekend – the aforementioned nuts and seeds, new potatoes and quinoa.
Opposite the garden and above the main house was the kids' playroom. It is the newest addition to the property.
After morning tea Evan took us for a tour of the property, pointing out each feature and improvement. First we headed down the slope to the dam, where there was some old citrus and an Ice Cream Bean tree.
Introduction to Permaculture, Crystal Waters, Qld 19th – 20th November 2011 Part 3
The previous picture was the stunning Painted Bamboo.
This is a running bamboo - the type that takes over whole tracts of land... Barry kept it well under control.
Up over the hill we encountered an experimental dome house – which failed! Big cracks in the dome caused rain to leak through.... I loved the look of it nevertheless!
We then went down the hill to the 2nd man-made dam and there on the corner was a lovely natural timber seat with a view up the hill to our destination, Evan and Morag's house. Interesting to note that years ago, when they began to build, there was no dam and just bare paddock below their house...
Moving up the hill, we encountered the neighbour's house.
He's been doing some experimenting with Biochar.
The Biochar Kiln.
A few metres more we arrived at Evan and Morag's 1 acre block. At the very top was a guest house with a tank and composting toilet attached.
Up over the hill we encountered an experimental dome house – which failed! Big cracks in the dome caused rain to leak through.... I loved the look of it nevertheless!
We then went down the hill to the 2nd man-made dam and there on the corner was a lovely natural timber seat with a view up the hill to our destination, Evan and Morag's house. Interesting to note that years ago, when they began to build, there was no dam and just bare paddock below their house...
Moving up the hill, we encountered the neighbour's house.
He's been doing some experimenting with Biochar.
A few metres more we arrived at Evan and Morag's 1 acre block. At the very top was a guest house with a tank and composting toilet attached.
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Introduction to Permaculture, Crystal Waters, Qld 19th – 20th November 2011 Part 2
Part 2
From the crest we headed down to the first of two man-made dams that we were to pass often during the weekend!
Evan led us up to the Visitors open-air kitchen, a great space for campers to cook, and it even had it's own garden!
At the back of the kitchen was their fishy cob oven...
Evan then led us to the Amenities block where we observed the grey water composting system... the barrel goes right down, twice the depth of what is above ground.
Set into the windows of each shower and toilet cubicle, were beautiful nature-inspired stained glass windows...
From the visitors area we headed down the dip in the road and up past Barry O'Connell's (aka BOC!) place, the president of Bamboo Australia. Steve and I were privileged to get a personal tour when we visited Barry at the end of course on Sunday. Here's a few specimens in his his extensive groves of Bamboo.
Monday, 12 December 2011
Introduction to Permaculture, Crystal Waters, Qld 19th – 20th November 2011
Steve and I drove up early on the Saturday morning - I finished work the night before at 10pm, so there was no way we were going to drive up that night! We decided to trust the Pommie GPS lady and she brought us in over a steep hill, with one of the worst sealed roads I've ever been on! It had enormous ditches dug right through the road, so big that we had to steer the car side-on to avoid the front end scraping! I was told later that it had only been sealed 6 years ago, which is no sooner than our road at home!
We arrived before 8:30am and walked around the 'village green' area, checking out the Sourdough Bakery (and buying 3 loaves) and meeting the other course participants as well as the teachers, Evan and Morag. After introductions, we drove up to our bunkhouse to unpack, then back down to the green. Once everybody had arrived, Evan set off on a walking tour, on the way to their house.
Looking back towards the village green, carpeted by Tipuanas. (We call them Racehorse trees here!)
We headed up a hill beside a house built to hire out to different groups – we didn't get a look inside as another group was using it, but it was a partial rammed earth building – the layers of earth quite obvious. Evan then led us on up the hill to the crest, where the original Crystal Waters was conceived, before they decided to all have separate house blocks.
There was some nice mosaics on the floor, and the letter boxes and community notices were all housed here. Not far away from there was the Carousel; the children's room – originally an old round yard cleverly redesigned to become a great all-weather play space!
The Carousel - outside
Inside - behind the door you can see the original slots for the rails...
Outside was a well-situated composting toilet.
We arrived before 8:30am and walked around the 'village green' area, checking out the Sourdough Bakery (and buying 3 loaves) and meeting the other course participants as well as the teachers, Evan and Morag. After introductions, we drove up to our bunkhouse to unpack, then back down to the green. Once everybody had arrived, Evan set off on a walking tour, on the way to their house.
We headed up a hill beside a house built to hire out to different groups – we didn't get a look inside as another group was using it, but it was a partial rammed earth building – the layers of earth quite obvious. Evan then led us on up the hill to the crest, where the original Crystal Waters was conceived, before they decided to all have separate house blocks.
Outside was a well-situated composting toilet.
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Ipswich Kitchen Garden
Steve and I have become regulars to the weekly get-togethers at the Leichhardt/One Mile Community Centre, where we helped get the Kitchen Garden (in it's present form) up and running.
The garden was originally started by a few people but fizzled out. One person, Chris, stuck with it, putting in raised beds and growing veggies. He was quite successful - but it must have been hard work on his own! When Steve and I inquired about Transition Ipswich, I was very keen to start or be involved in a Community Garden. I was told by Cassie, a tireless Transition Town activist, that Chris would welcome help in the garden at Leichhardt. We got together for an initial meeting with a few other interested parties, and the fledgling Garden group was formed!
The garden in February 2011, the month after the 'big wet'!
One of our members, Michael, was in the midst of his 'PDC' (Permaculture Design Course) by correspondence, and drew us up a wonderful plan for our garden. We presented it to the Community Centre for approval, and, apart from losing some for access and having to re-jig the plans a few times, we were ready to rock and roll with full approval. We began to sheet-mulch the grass with cardboard, and found a friendly local tree-lopper that was more than happy to drop us off a load of wood chips.
Michael was doing a fantastic job directing our efforts to realize the plans, and liaising with the local council for possible donations and such, when we were hit with the bombshell...
COUNCIL wouldn't allow us to develop the ground without an 'Impact Statement', costing $60000, or we maybe could get a discount, and it may cost $1000! It may as well have cost $1 million, we had no money either way! Every seed, plant, and energy to dig was volunteer.
We were all a bit devastated. Would we have to just give up now, after all our had work? The garden was producing wonderful veggies and we were all quite attached...
Michael came to the rescue by ferreting out a little-known caveat in the rules about land use from the council... A Kitchen Garden (maximum 25 square metres) was permitted without approval!
YAY! So once again a re-jig of our plans, and then all hands on deck for the new Leichhardt Kitchen Garden, this time in the form of a Mandala...
We removed the (icky) treated pine edging and scraped the edges in on the centre four boxes and then replanted the other vegies from the outlying boxes into the new mandala. Then we proceeded to build and plant it up each week.
A donation of bricks allowed us to edge the paths, then later the whole garden, and our very clever gardener Chris built a lovely sculpture in the middle of our mandala to which we piped the water from the two tanks plumbed into the Youth Centre a few metres away.
With a sprinkler watering from on top it is quite spectacular!
After completing the water tower, Chris got stuck into our next project (all his own design and idea), a herb spiral. This one is the monster version of the sweet little spirals loved of permaculturalists everywhere!
Here's a pic of the start of it, with some peas growing for luck whilst it's being constructed!
Below, a pic of the produce our lovely garden is providing...
So all in all there is no place I'd rather be on a Friday afternoon!
The garden was originally started by a few people but fizzled out. One person, Chris, stuck with it, putting in raised beds and growing veggies. He was quite successful - but it must have been hard work on his own! When Steve and I inquired about Transition Ipswich, I was very keen to start or be involved in a Community Garden. I was told by Cassie, a tireless Transition Town activist, that Chris would welcome help in the garden at Leichhardt. We got together for an initial meeting with a few other interested parties, and the fledgling Garden group was formed!
The garden in February 2011, the month after the 'big wet'!
One of our members, Michael, was in the midst of his 'PDC' (Permaculture Design Course) by correspondence, and drew us up a wonderful plan for our garden. We presented it to the Community Centre for approval, and, apart from losing some for access and having to re-jig the plans a few times, we were ready to rock and roll with full approval. We began to sheet-mulch the grass with cardboard, and found a friendly local tree-lopper that was more than happy to drop us off a load of wood chips.
COUNCIL wouldn't allow us to develop the ground without an 'Impact Statement', costing $60000, or we maybe could get a discount, and it may cost $1000! It may as well have cost $1 million, we had no money either way! Every seed, plant, and energy to dig was volunteer.
We were all a bit devastated. Would we have to just give up now, after all our had work? The garden was producing wonderful veggies and we were all quite attached...
Michael came to the rescue by ferreting out a little-known caveat in the rules about land use from the council... A Kitchen Garden (maximum 25 square metres) was permitted without approval!
YAY! So once again a re-jig of our plans, and then all hands on deck for the new Leichhardt Kitchen Garden, this time in the form of a Mandala...
We removed the (icky) treated pine edging and scraped the edges in on the centre four boxes and then replanted the other vegies from the outlying boxes into the new mandala. Then we proceeded to build and plant it up each week.
With a sprinkler watering from on top it is quite spectacular!
Here's a pic of the start of it, with some peas growing for luck whilst it's being constructed!
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