Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Tagasaste?

Not a forum but still a great source of permaculture info, esp for Australia.

http://www.small-farm-permaculture-and- ... farms.html

Saltbush/Tree Lucerne. That'd be good, but you don't need to prune it to get the nitrogen into the soil as, being a leguminous plant, it will fix nitrogen in the soil via its root system anyway. Can also be used for "edible fencing".

Edible Fencing

Showing two parallel fences of wire mesh with tagasaste planted between them.

The fence fully grown.

Lupins also retrun nitrogen and when perpared properly they can be made into high protien fish food I have been told. They will self sow quite well too so less effort.

Not perma forum related but didn't want to start another thread. has anyone done the milkwood permaculture design course in Sydney?

I haven't so sorry I can't help, but have you seen what they charge for there aquaponics courses ? I just visited a couple who did the course and built a pond and bathtub system with the alloy metal bathtub drains still in place and a zinc plated grill immersed in the pond. They said the guy giving the course didn't seem to know all that much. But, can't comment on their Permaculture courses maybe they are fine.

Hey Charlie, I am also looking for a Permaculture Design Course as well down here in Victoria. Most of them are 2 week residentials on a permaculture farm and cost a bomb - great, but impractical for me with my son at school.

I will be going back to work next week after using up all my LSL (after 7 months off, it is going to be mighty hard ) so that I can pay for our new property . Which means I will have to content myself with an online PDC course to plan out the new property and earn the right to use the term permaculture in my enterprises down the track (whatever they may be). I am currently reading Bill Mollison's 'Permaculture A Designers Manual' to get the ducks guts from the dude who started it all - it is still widely recommended and used as a basis for many PDCs. Mostly, permaculture makes sense to me and is what I do anyway in my garden - I just have to reconcile my science trained recoil at some of the more esoteric stuff and my conservation biology horror at the suggestion of introducing and using invasive weeds in the vicinity of remnant natural ecosystems

I have just been reading the recently released 'Organic Gardener' magazine essential guide "Permaculture Made Easy" and it has an article on studying permaculture and a list of resources. Its a much easier and more practical read than Bill's weighty tome. Just try to find a PDC that has longevity and focuses on what you want - eg. they range from designing your own patch (rural vs urban), building community resilience, to solving the woes of the world.

I am interested in hearing what course you chose and how you go.

Jo