Gallifrey Forest Farm

international permaculture day

2013/05/06 Danielle 0

I created and gave a talk for International Permaculture Day (Perth Edition) on Sunday, talking about less common food plants and urban foraging. I think everyone liked it – there were questions, both during and after the talk, and the audience all looked interested. People complimented me on the presentation afterwards, which is always nice. Some people even took notes! This is very exciting to me – I haven’t really given any presentations before outside of a work context. I thought I’d share the content of the talk for those who might be interested, but missed the event. In […]

flopsy, mopsy & cottontail

2013/04/29 Danielle 0

I’ve spent the last few weeks researching rabbits. I have my reasons. First reason is that K indicated an interest in spinning, and I thought I’d look into how viable it would be to have a little cottage industry setup selling yarn, and possibly raw fleece. (Answer: limited to zero for making any actual money/profit) Your basic wool animal is a sheep, but I dislike sheep. I’ve never met a bright one, or one that didn’t stink, although I’ve been assured by people who like sheep that they don’t inherently stink. After sheep, there are goats (cashmere goats, which produce […]

the fall of advertising

2013/03/14 Danielle 0

I don’t know what the crossover is between permaculture and plant nerds (and gardeners, farmers, sustainability seekers, etc.) and technology nerds, but I fall into that demographic. And, like most people who spend any amount of time online, I hate online advertising. I despise uutoplay video and audio on websites (even non-advertising video and audio, to be fair). Ads prepended to my video feeds so that in order to watch <cool new music video> I have to sit through <boring and irrelevant advert for something I don’t want or need> are obnoxious. Even the banner ads on most sites irritate […]

plant profile: sword fern

2013/02/25 Danielle 0

The common sword fern (Nephrolepis cordifolia), also called the tube ladder fern, ladder fern, erect sword fern, bayabang or fishbone fern, is common in Perth gardens. It is native to northern Australia and Asia, and it’s hardy enough that it is classified as an invasive species is some areas where it has been introduced. It survives, and even thrives in sandy Perth soils (basically beach sand) with no care or attention. What you probably didn’t know about the sword fern is that it produces edible tubers. Sword fern can be either terrestial or epiphytic. The fronds are 20 to 60 […]

holding pattern

2013/02/12 Danielle 0

It’s the middle of summer. Nothing much is happening, because nothing much can happen – everything (including us) is just trying to make it through the heat. Waiting for rain, waiting for cooler weather, waiting for the sea breeze in the afternoons. We’ve been heading up to Gallifrey every second weekend with barrels of water to top up the water tubes. So far, most of the baby fruit trees are still alive. Even the apple tree that the bloody kangaroos / wallabies tried to kill is still going, having shrugged off losing its entire top and being ringbarked during a […]