What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is a sustainable design system that provides for human needs while having positive effects on the surrounding environment.

It is based on the ethics of earth care, people care and fair share, and provides practical solutions to the global crises we are currently facing.

Permaculture is for EVERYONE, regardless of their education, background, or previous experience.

Permaculture is NOT just about trees, or just about gardening! You don't need loads of land to practice it and it's a design method that can be applied to all social systems.

Support our Project

We'll use your donations to further our plans to plant more trees and vines.

Eat Up All Your Vegetables!

I wrote this back in 2014. Spending some time away from home reliant on supermarket veggies brought it to mind again.

If you’ve gone to all the time and trouble to grow something delicious and nutritious, you’ll want to make the most of it. Well, that’s the way we look at it anyway! We […]

Share

PDC August 2016 – RAM Pump workshop

During our recent Permaculture Design Course, Jeroen took the participants through the theory and practice of RAM pumps. With a small stream at the bottom of our property, these are invaluable at Casalinho in lifting water to where we can use it.

Taking advantage of the RAM pump pool for a cool down.

[…]

Share

PDC August 2016 – Building a Raised Bed

This practical session followed on from the swale building exercise I published yesterday. A contoured raised bed has been created on the downside of the berm, with the swale itself becoming the path above. For the short term this new bed has been planted up with annual veg, but these will be replaced with […]

Share

PDC August 2016 – Building Swales.

Learning to measure contours and build swales is a wonderfully interactive part of the PDC course. The swale being created here has wood in the berm to create a higher edge. The swale itself is a path, and we’ve built a raised bed on the downside. It’s been planted with annual veg in the […]

Share

PDC August 2016 – Making Hot Compost.

PDC participants turning a hot compost pile. Put together at the beginning of the course, it’s nearly ready for use by the end. As we were lacking animal manure (so many projects, so little poo!), we’ve been using the pee from the compost toilet to add extra nitrogen.

#gallery-3 { margin: auto; } #gallery-3 […]

Share

PDC August 2016 – Natural Building Day

Our Permaculture Design Course participants making adobe blocks and beginning a cob bench on the Natural Building day of the August PDC.

#gallery-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Cob bench in the making

Completed blocks beginning the drying process, which will take about a month.

Moulding the adobe blocks, a combination of straw, clay and sand.

Share

Scout Camp 2016 – New Parking Space & Learning to Render

We’ve enjoyed hosting a Belgian Scout Group for their annual camp. As one of their activities they’ve built a brilliant new parking area here, already in use as we now have a PDC group on site. Jeroen has also been teaching the Scouts how to render, and they’ve been practicing on one of the […]

Share

Training of Permaculture Teachers Course

I’m really excited to announce this course, a first for Casalinho. We’ll be offering a five day training aimed at those who would like to teach permaculture, facilitated by Peter Cow. It’s suitable for beginner or experienced permaculture teachers, the only requirement being that participants have previously taken a PDC.

Full details here.

[…]

Share

Permaculture Design Courses 2016

Will you join us this summer? We’re pleased to be offering two opportunities to join us for a PDC here at Casalinho this year. Both courses are taught by Josh Gomez, and fully certified by the UK Permaculture Association.

For all the details, click […]

Share

Preserving an Abundant Harvest

As summer draws to a close we’ve a huge abundance of foods coming out of the garden.  Nothing will be allowed to go to waste. As I look around me, these are just a handful of examples happening right now. 

Whilst we use a wide range of techniques to preserve our […]

Share