It ebbs and flows, but you just need to stay with it… still ticking along nicely and plenty of community connections being made although not a lot actually changing in the community – yet. The need isn’t there as yet.

Cheers,
Sonya

Hi,

He’ll be doing a presentation for Permaculture Eudlo sometime in the new year. http://www.pceudlo.blogspot.com

Cheers,
Sonya

We paid $150 per hive fully set up last year. I’m sure a new hive in a flat pack from a beekeeping supply place will be a lot less than $240.

Unless your experienced in breeding queens I don’t think you’d be able to get a new queen from an existing hive.

Best way to get a hive started is picking up a swarm in spring – depending on where you…[Read more]

Just bumping this as a reminder if you’re thinking Christmas presents??

Also available in discounted bulk lots to community groups to use as a fundraiser.

If you’ve seen these before, you’ll know how packed they are with information and inspiration – and its all done for love, not profit, so please support the people behind these products so we…[Read more]

And… she’ll be doing the rounds of the Sunshine Coast libraries next year too… so keep an eye out for those.

You can visit Isabell’s farm at Nambour – the opening times are on her website.

Alanna Moore also has some great DVDs she self-produced – features stories from farmers who have used crystals in increase yield and the such like. There are a couple who look like they’ve stepped straight from a CWA meeting talking about using a pendulum to locate the vortex to put the crystals on their farm… great stuff and the proof’s in the…[Read more]

I guess you’ve read Alanna Moore’s book Stone Age Farming? I’ve had her run workshops here on dowsing and towers – very interesting indeed.

There was also a component of radionics, paramagnatism etc in a Certificiate of Sustainable Agriculture I did a few years ago, although the workshop facilitators breezed over it.

At our Dec Permaculture…[Read more]

We have the panels on the roof and the tank on the ground. They work well here on the Sunshine Coast because (normally) you have fine sunny days all winter – perfect when you need a hot shower. Summer is overcast usually so the water isn’t as hot, but that doesn’t matter as much in summer.

At times we’ve had to boil the kettle to do the dishes…[Read more]

We’ve used Pestene too and it was effective. They are horrible things – I suffer from bites from them too – took me a while to work out what it was!

good luck,
Sonya

I’d clean out the existing food and replace it with a smaller amount of new food. I don’t add lime to my garden – soil here have too much magnesium so adding more can become a problem.

I’ve attached a photo of a fruit fly too – a lot of people confuse those small flies you find around putrescible waste (in compost or worm farms) with fruit…[Read more]

Thanks for the PM Bushy, looks great. We do have a plastic one that works well. I missed the auction anyway, what did it end up going for?

Cheers,
Sonya

Our citrus orchard is full of sweet blossoms too – BTW, massive effort with the marmalade making – well done. Two bumper year’s in a row perhaps?

I love making ratatouille with them and adding them to pasta sauces. Essential ingredient in baba ganoush (grilled eggplant and garlic dip – YUM!). Here’s some recipes from Jamie Oliver’s site. http://www.jamieoliver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=25294

Bon appetit,

You could get along to a workshop at Northey Street on no dig gardening to get your garden started – much better to make your own soil on site (no-dig, compost, worm farms, green manures) than buying any in. I’ve got a lot of ‘how tos’ on my blog if you’re interested (I’m just on the Sunshine Coast) http://www.permaculturepathways.blogspot.com

You could…[Read more]

You might find some of those dried herbs in health food shops, otherwise I’d get some dried herbs direct from Isabell just to get your dog onto them asap. Then maybe look for a local supplier or growing your own (depending on your climate and soil type).

I can’t recommend Isabell’s advice highly enough, our staffy continues to defy the vet’s…[Read more]

They can get a bit weedy here in the subtropics. We’ve got lots of little seedlings – I had some for sale at the last Permaculture Eudlo meeting – you could try Permaculture Noosa meeting or perhaps the Yandina Community gardens.

Cheers,
Sonya

I was at the Beerwah talk on the Sunshine Coast helping out behind the scenes. Probably had 200+ people in total – great turn out, lots of connections made and lots of inspiration had.

Cheers,
Sonya

Hi,

I keep a blog about our small apiary (we have 4 hives). novicebeekeeper.blogspot.com

some things we do to keep our hives healthy;
we don’t migrate them – they stay in the one place
we only take 50% of the full frames in each hive (leaving plenty for the bees)
we do check them weekly to manage small hive beetle (change beetle traps etc)
we…[Read more]

the 2011 permaculture diary has a couple of stories about ‘veggie on the verge’ – Michael Mobbs in Chippendale (which featured on Landline) http://www.sustainablehouse.com.au and also another family in Marrickville who are doing it.

Sonya