Read Issue 10 as a flipbook

The phrase ‘eating the suburbs’ is for many of us a rare pleasure. Most of the time, public vegetation means ‘don’t eat it’. Look at it, stand under it, breathe it in… but not too deeply in case your allergies flare, and whatever you do,…

Retrofitting our homes, gardens and lifestyles to be more self-reliant and resilient promises both a more fulfilling life for us and multiple benefits for society and the environment.

Retrofitting also enables us to focus on what we can do at the household level, rather than community…

David Holmgren is a thinker. David not only questions the status quo, but redesigns it and creates an alternative. In the 70s, faced with a world that he questioned, he came up with the permaculture concept, along with his mentor Bill Mollison.

Bill immediately took the…

International permaculture convergences (IPCs) are an opportunity for people from all over the world to get together and share their passion for permaculture. With 1200 participants from over 60 countries at the latest IPC held in India last November and December, there was a wide…

The Plummery’s vegie patch is the productive heart of our urban permaculture system. Measuring a modest 30 m2 (including paths), it has been managed through just a couple of hours a week. We swap our persimmons for pumpkins and buy a sack of potatoes, but…

Despite their strange sounding name, brassicas are easily recognisable vegetables from the mustard family of plants, otherwise known as Brassicaceae. Vegies that belong to this family are broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, radish, turnips, and even rocket.

A common attribute among brassicas are the seed…

These five inspiring people from refugee backgrounds have come to Australia and found their sense of community through gardening. By either joining or creating community gardening groups, they have become part of a network of people sharing ideas, knowledge and food, supporting one another through…

When I first came to look at the property we now call home, the house was far from ideal. It faced south, had small dark rooms, the kitchen was poky and a wide verandah ran down the length of the north side, preventing any sunlight…

Preserving tomatoes is one of the easiest ways to get a homemade larder started. Over summer and autumn, tomatoes are so abundant, whether you grow them yourself or buy them by the box from your favourite fruit and veg shop or market. If you’re organised…

Hidden amongst the factories and warehouses of Heidelberg West, FD Ryan Toolmakers is a father and son collaboration between Matthew and James King. They specialise in hand making bespoke garden tools that are built to last. While the collaboration may be young, this fledgling business…

Unless you’ve embraced the ‘no poo’ method (where you eschew shampoo), you’ll be regularly pouring hair products onto your head. Shampoo, conditioner, perhaps a hair treatment mask every now and then, texturising spray, styling pomade, colour treatment …

All of these add up, not only in…

Step 1. Make your pattern

Take one of the sheets of paper and fold it in half lengthwise. Glue the other sheet along that centre line. On the right edge, measure down 6 cm and mark. This is your marker for where the drawstring goes.

Step 2….

A worm tower provides an easy way to have selffertilising stations throughout the garden. They’re a good option for people not wanting to get ‘down and dirty’ with their worms. Traditional worm farms require checking of temperatures, moisture, food uptake, etc., but with a worm…

As urban centres expand and suburbs sprawl, farmers sometimes find their rural idyll hemmed in by the reach of the city. When they found they were losing their quiet country surrounds, Kate Beveridge and her partner Mark Brown of Purple Pear Farm faced the choice…

The Green Garden Group (GGG) of Iviani Primary School in the Eastern Province of Ukumbani, Kenya, started in 2013. Back then it had around 60 teachers, students and community members who were eager to learn about and practise permaculture. I facilitated the start of GGG…

If you want something tiny, nutritious and delicious, try micro greens. Long revered by chefs for their subtle flavours and delicate textures, they are very easy to grow and will add some extra street cred to any kitchen. Because plants are not grown to full…

In our household it’s all about the golden jars of drippy honey, blocks of creamy butter, big bags of wholemeal spelt flour lining the floor, and tiny bottles of homemade vanilla extract. This is the simple basis for most of our family baking.

It hasn’t always…

We love seeing kids getting out into the garden and enjoying home-grown produce. Here are some of our littlest Pip folk sharing what they’ve found in the patch.

This issue’s winner is Rohanna from Hilldene, pictured with this issue’s permaculture animal—the worm! Congratulations Rohanna! You will…

How we address food in our communities is a powerful agent for positive change. Incredible Edible Todmorden is an example of community permaculture in action. People from this old textile town in West Yorkshire are coming together as volunteers to grow fruits, herbs and vegetables…

This house is crafted so beautifully that if we weren’t way too big to fit, we’d be moving right in. The Biome Bee House is designed to provide a safe home for Australian native bees, who are more fragile than the European honey bee. They…

Featuring 30 artists and collectives, the 15th Dandenong Ranges Open Studios event offers visitors a unique exhibition and open studio weekend. Explore and connect with artists, ignite your creative imagination and step into the hidden gems, curious constructions and awe-inspiring spaces of the artists’ environments.

Many…

Question for the Pip Brains Trust? Email editorial@pipmagazine.com.au

My cucumber seedlings wilt every day in the hot sun. They come back to life every evening after a good water, but is this ideal? Should I have planted them somewhere shadier? [Nicole, Umina Beach, NSW]

When plants lose…

Write to us and let us know what you think of the mag and your response to any of the articles. The best letter will receive a Pip magazine art print, printed with archival inks on beautiful textured archival 300gsm…

Mulberries are a wonderful example of a multifunctional permaculture plant. Most well-known for their abundance of delicious and nutritious berries, they are also a great shade plant, providing shade in summer and allowing sun in during winter.

They provide us with deciduous leaves for compost, and…

Composting worms can be considered the ultimate suburban animal. They’re quiet, cheap, loyal and useful. They don’t need walking, grooming or vets. As a permaculture animal, they excel. They survive entirely on leftovers and waste, and their voracious appetites can reduce landfill contributions by up…

Nettle grows all over Australia, preferring partially shady spots with fertile soils. The Australian native nettle, Urtica incisa (scrub nettle), is an upright perennial found in streams and rainforests. You can find other introduced varieties everywhere, such as the annuals Urtica urens (dwarf nettle) and…

BOTANICAL NAME: Cucurbita maxima. This translates from Latin to largest (maxima) gourd (cucurbita).

ORIGIN: From the Andean valleys and northern Argentina.

DESCRIPTION: This group is the most vigorous of all the Cucurbits, with very long vines and large round leaves that have hairy stems. The stems of…

• March: Brussels sprouts (seedling tray), broad beans, beetroot, broccoli (seedling tray), cabbage (seedling tray), carrot, chives, coriander, daikon, endive, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, Mizuna, mustard greens, pak choy/ bok choy, radish, rocket, shallots (plant bulbs), silverbeet, turnips.

• April: Brussels sprouts, broad beans, beetroot,…

The latest offering by The Little Veggie Patch Co is like a good urban garden—colourful, full of diversity, well-planned and organised. Grow Food Anywhere covers the basics of small-space productive gardening in a fun and informative fashion.

Divided into three sections, the first, ‘What plants need’…