Eaglemont Project Matures (Australia)
Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Trees, Urban Projects — by Dan Palmer January 23, 2013
During the Christmas break VEG’s Dan & family paid a social call to customers-become-friends Julian & Linda in Eaglemont, Victoria, Australia. We documented the large-scale design and implementation project we completed for Julian & Linda last year (see the design and during photos here and some shots of where it was all at about 10 months ago here).
The place is maturing beautifully and we took a few happy snaps of the back and front yards.
The topshelf VEG bed with flowers and grapes growing up over
the trellised pergola is looking particularly lovely
VEG Permaculture Design Course in Melbourne (Weekends, March/May 2013)
Courses/Workshops — by Dan Palmer January 21, 2013
Very Edible Gardens (VEG) is pleased to announce its first ever Permaculture Design Course (PDC) in Melbourne starting March 22nd. Led by VEG directors Adam Grubb & Dan Palmer, specialist topic teachers include David Holmgren, Sue Dennet, and Darren Doherty.
Comments (2)VEG Design Solutions, Part Three: How to Drain a Duck Pond Without Getting Poo on Your Hands
Animal Housing, Bird Life, Land, Urban Projects, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water — by Dan Palmer October 17, 2012
 Dan Palmer Photo © Craig Mackintosh |
by Dan Palmer, Very Edible Gardens
The Site-Specific Design Problem
The problem was how do you drain a duck pond in a way that
- directs the overflow to the same exit pipe as when you drain it totally
- doesn’t involve reaching your hand to the bottom of a pond full of duck poo
- lets you easily drain out every last millimetre of sludge, and
- lets you refill the pond without having to wait around to turn the tap off when it’s full.
Below is the design in which this conundrum arose. The duck pond is just above the tank in the lower left (under an apricot) and the infiltration path/trench it feeds is the worm-like thing curving up and around under the fruit trees….
Comments (1)VEG Design Solutions, Part II: The Magical Chicken Tunnel
Animal Housing, Bird Life, Fencing, Land, Livestock, Working Animals — by Dan Palmer July 18, 2012
by Dan Palmer, Very Edible Gardens
Introduction
In late 2009 we were engaged to complete a design for a ¼ acre block in the Melbourne suburbs. It was for a family of four and the husband in particular was keen to grow lots of food.
Comments (4)VEG Design Solutions, Part One: the Chicken/Fox Filter
Animal Housing, Bird Life, Breeds, Building, Fencing, Livestock, Urban Projects, Working Animals — by Dan Palmer June 21, 2012
by Dan Palmer, Very Edible Gardens
When designing edible gardens, a site-specific problem will often crop up. One of the most enjoyable aspects of permaculture design for us is devising site-specific solutions to those problems. In this short series we give four examples, all bona fide VEG originals, with a new one each month for the next four months.
Part One – the Chook/Fox Filter
The Site-Specific Design Problem
In 2005 Dan from VEG lived in a Melbourne sharehouse with abundant veggie gardens, a woodrow-style chook tractor and several chooks, as shown below. Another chook tractor is shown in the next photo to give a better idea of what the thing looked like — a lightweight moveable bottomless chook pen.
Visiting an Urban Permaculture Installation, Five Months On (Video)
Animal Housing, Bird Life, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Irrigation, Land, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Trees, Urban Projects, Waste Systems & Recycling, Water Harvesting — by Dan Palmer March 13, 2012
by Dan Palmer, Very Edible Gardens
Two days ago Dan and Will returned to a large VEG permaculture design and implementation project that was completed about five months ago. Via the videos below, take a virtual walk about the front and back yards — warts, ducks, giant silver beet, gorgeous connected multidimensional abundance and all!
You can also check out the design and before, during and after photos of the project here and also in our downloadable portfolio (warning: 38mb PDF!).
Part I
June in Dan, Amanda, & Ciela’s Garden, Melbourne, Australia
Demonstration Sites, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Urban Projects — by Dan Palmer July 9, 2011
by Dan Palmer
A few weeks ago, Dan and Ciela took a stroll around the garden and checked out the choko…
…the grapefruit guild…
Comments (10)Urban Design Patterns in Melbourne
Biological Cleaning, Land, Retrofitting, Society, Urban Projects, Water Harvesting — by Dan Palmer July 4, 2009
by Dan Palmer, Very Edible Gardens
As more and more people become aware of the many reasons to provide for more of their needs at home, we are finding more and more demand for permaculture design consultancies. We are currently doing two or three in Melbourne each week, and in this article I wanted to share some of the general patterns that are emerging as we go along.
To paint a picture of the average design brief we’re faced with, though the client group is diverse, including younger couples, older couples, single house owners, and young families, almost all our clients ask for some combination of the following:
- Intensive vegie gardens for salad green and kitchen herbs
- Larger vegie gardens for tomatoes, potatoes, corn etc (or the option of adding this in future)
- Water tanks to catch, store and redistribute rain water
- Fruit trees
- Chickens
- An open area for socialising / pets / children
- Simple greywater reuse systems
- Some natives
