

The Age Of Food: Healthy, Sustainable, Sufficient
Food will change
Food is poised to change, more profoundly than ever before: what people eat in 2114, how it’s made and consumed, would be as strange to us as the foods our own…

Constructing Swales
When it comes to growing anything, it’s all about water. You want to catch every drop of it. Moisture in the soil builds organic matter and fertility, which equals naturally healthy plants. Regardless of what you intend to grow, shaping…

The Many Roles For Fungi In Permaculture
Over 90% of plant species have mycorrhizal relationships with fungi, via their roots. Such relationships tend to be symbiotic, to sustain the relationship: fungi obtain sugars and shelter, and help the plants to obtain minerals, nutrients and water. The mycelia…

Declutter Your Life
The garden is a good place to start doing permaculture. But Bill Mollison would be shaking his head in dismay if it stopped there, behind a little fence: ‘Poor bastards’, he’d be saying.
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DIY Natural Body Products
We are becoming increasingly aware of the hazards of eating a chemicalladen diet, and many have taken steps to avoid toxins in their food. But avoiding human-made additives and petrochemical derivatives can be more difficult when it comes…

Claudia Echeverria: Eco-Social Entrepreneur
Claudia Echeverria is a teacher and facilitator based in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney. Her work involves various disciplines, groups, partnerships and businesses; heart, hands and nature are the common themes.
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Dr Vandana Shiva: Author, Activist, Pioneer, Mother
What do you see as the greatest problem facing the planet today?
I see the greatest problem as blindness to the life of the planet; therefore, irresponsible destruction of the…

Bamboo in Permaculture
I love bamboo: growing, eating, crafting, building, and listening to the sounds of creaking culms and rustling leaves in the wind. It provides me with microclimates, windbreaks, privacy screens, animal fodder, wildlife habitat, an endless supply of mulch, delicious tender…

Emmanuel Bakenga: Refugee and Employee
My Background
I have been in Australia for two years. I left the refugee camp in Uganda because it was very crowded, there was a lot of sickness because of…

Fermenting for Health
When I first heard about permaculture I was drawn to how it provides tools for living in sync with the planet, as a designed approach with ethics and principles. What I wasn’t prepared for was how it could…

Fraser Bayley: Market Gardener
What do you do?
I am developing a small farming business, with my partner Kirsti, which grows good food for our community. We aim to do that in an environmentally,…

Green Connect: Nourishing The Community
On a steep and uneven hillside adjacent to Warrawong High School, south of Wollongong in NSW, a social enterprise called Green Connect is running a farm called Urban Grown. Green Connect combines permaculture ethics and design principles, with…

Pip Picks
Classic Holmgren
David Holmgren’s book Permaculture: principles & pathways beyond sustainability (2002) is still in demand around the world. With editions now in ten languages, it is reaching more people…

Rare Breeds: Ryeland Sheep
Ryeland sheep are a very old, white-faced, polled (no horns), small to medium sized breed, which produces a fine, down type of wool. The breed was developed by monks at Leominster in the rye growing district of Herefordshire,…

Book Reviews
My Year Without Matches: Escaping The City In Search Of The Wild
by Claire Dunn (Nero 2014). Review by Greg Foyster
Claire…

Permablitz The Gong
Community Sustainability
‘Permablitz the Gong’ began as a conversation between three Wollongong women – Jacqui Besgrove, Sheryl Wiffen and Kristy Newton – in 2011 after Jacqui and Kristy completed their…

Permafund
Permafund is the ‘Permaculture International Public Fund’, for tax deductible gifts (donations), run by Permaculture International Limited trading as Permaculture Australia.
Permafund has provided much-needed funds towards projects in both…

Shanaka Fernando: Social Entrepreneur
Almost fifteen years ago, a young Shanaka Fernando dreamed of a world based on need rather than greed. He wished people would focus less on money and more on each other, and wondered if the act of giving…

Save Your Seeds: How To Save Tomato Seed
If you grow them at home it’s easy to save your own seed for sowing the following season.
Tomatoes are generally self-pollinating – the flowers pollinate themselves before they open…

Eat Your Weeds: Chickweed
Botanical name: Stellaria media Parts used: stems, flowers, leaves and seeds.
Description: creeping annual ground cover herb, with tiny white flowers and oval shaped leaves; stems can reach up to…

Editorial
Issue three, here we are. Pip Magazine is now into its second year of publishing and it is growing strong. What began as a crazy, out-there idea is now well and truly a happening thing. As they say,…

Turning No-Dig Gardening On Its Head
Low maintenance, low water needs, abundant, resilient: we all want to describe our vegetable gardens like this. I have been preparing no-dig gardens in many different environments for two decades and my no-dig method saves time, replenishes soil…

Holistic Management For Life
Assimilating permaculture design as a fluent part of your repertoire takes years of practice. Along the way you inevitably adapt the way you design to suit your style and context of application.
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Compost-powered Shower
Whether you are a gardener with a passion for compost making, or a child who has felt the warmth of a pile of grass clippings, you will be familiar with the heat created by decomposing material. Our aim…

House of Cupboards
Q: What happens when an architect and a furniture maker design a house together for their young family?
A: The ‘house of cupboards’.
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Noticeboard
Australasian Permaculture Convergence (APC) 12
March 7–15 2015, Penguin, Tasmania.
Our planet is going though the most rapid rate of change in…

Hugh Gravestein: Builder
Describe your business?
HG Eco-logic Constructions is about building quality and beautiful homes that work for our clients, the people who will live in them. Our focus is on creating…

Permaculture Around The World
Torri Superiore Ecovillage, Northern Italy
Not far from the north-western coast of Italy, near the French border, is a beautiful and fascinating ecovillage created out of a crumbling medieval village….

Make Your Own Cheese
Why not try your hand at homemade cheese. It’s not hard and the good news is you can use milk purchased from the shop to make cheese, as long as you have calcium chloride to re-calcify it.
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Nat Wiseman: Wagtail Urban Farm
Who started Wagtail Urban Farm?
Steven Hoepfner, Brett Young and I set up Wagtail in 2013. After completing an internship with Allsun Farm (near Gundaroo NSW) in 2011, my partner and I started looking…

Natural Farming In The Family
Symphony Farm, at Tilba on the far south coast of New South Wales, is an integrated beef, pork, chicken and egg farm, run by Mandy and Graham Thompson with their five children, Brohdan, Denham, Huon, Heath and Sarah.
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Permaculture Plant: Feijoa
Botanical name: Acca sellowiana (formerly Feijoa sellowiana).
Common names: feijoa, pineapple guava.
Origin: South America; widely cultivated in New Zealand.
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