Welcome!

I believe permaculture is applied magic and a very deep way to connect with Nature and our inner selves.

My name is Kinga, and this is my permaculture blog.

I started to develop my first permaculture garden in 2001. By now it is a mature forest garden. Continue reading “Welcome!”

Introduction to Permaculture (basic course)

Pupils are enjoying the vermiculture experience

I put together a short course for schools, gardens, municipalities, communities, interested people. I am happy to come to your site or community and offer this to your audience. This is the basic structure of the course that can be modified according to the needs of the specific audience.

Duration of the course: 2-6 hours (according to local needs)

Age group: any (the course is always tailored to the specific audience)

Main topics covered:

  • What is permaculture
  • Permaculture and its potential in environmental, social, economic sustainability
  • Ecosystems and their importance in permaculture
  • “Observe and interact” and the permaculture principles
  • Composting and vermiculture
  • How to set up a worm bin at home

Continue reading “Introduction to Permaculture (basic course)”

Permaculture and mental health

We are living in challenging times. The care crisis, the climate crisis, and in many cases the housing crisis hit many of us in Europe and around the world. Where are we heading? What will the future bring? How can we cope with overpopulation and biodiversity loss? How can we cope mentally, facing all the damage we cause as humans and all the hardships we create to fellow living creatures?

One way might be permaculture. I strongly believe, feel, and experience that learning about permaculture and participating in permaculture and social permaculture practices are very good and sensible actions to contribute to the common good and also our own self-care and mental health.

Continue reading “Permaculture and mental health”

Frog habitat from a bathtub

It is so amazing to observe Nature, doing her thing!

I managed to recycle an old bathtub recently. Also, I managed to collect a bunch of tadpoles from a forest. They are just now turning into adult baby frogs.

I would like to share some pics about the process with captions. Today they started to come out of the water. One of our aims as permaculturists is to create more habitats and increase biodiversity. I already have the truck tire pond in my garden but there is fish in it, probably a bit more than ideal, so frogs stopped propagating there some time ago. This new bathtub pond will hopefully serve as frog-propagation habitat and I am not going to put fish in that one.

First, a slightly mesmerizing video:

Continue reading “Frog habitat from a bathtub”

Primary school permaculture in Malta

Introduction

It is amazing to see how permaculture is gaining momentum in many places around the world. It is not a marginal subculture anymore as it used to be even some years ago. By now it is a strong and legitimate movement that makes an awful lot of sense. Social, environmental and economic rationale proved that permaculture is one of THE answers to many environmental and social challenges and crises humanity is facing in the present times. Joining the movement St Joan Antide Primary School in Malta initiated an Erasmus+ project called: School Permaculture Garden. It is a two-year-old project with partnering schools from Macedonia, Croatia, Iceland. Continue reading “Primary school permaculture in Malta”

Plant a tree at Christmas!

Imagine… Imagine this Christmas… Imagine this Christmas after the announcement of the IPCC report.

Imagine what the report says: “We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe“.

Imagine people celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah around the winter solstice, buying all the things we normally buy as humanity.

Imagine all the creatures, depths, currents, flows many of us had the privilege to watch and see in the Blue Planet II. series.
Imagine all the plastic Sir David Attenborough is talking about towards the end. Feel it… Continue reading “Plant a tree at Christmas!”

Spreading the WORM, #spreadingtheworm

We are launching our new project in Malta called:

Spreading the Worm!

At Juno Heights Garden we organised a number of Open Days in 2017-2018.
Chatting with our visitors I realised that people are often really interested in household scale, worm-based composting, called “vermiculture”. Also, I keep getting random requests for worms.

Kitchen scrap, paper, cardboard, kitchen paper towels, leaves, old pot soil, dust, even cotton-based clothes can all be recycled with the help of worms. The outcome of the process is worm manure or worm compost (and worm tea), that can be applied to the soil to improve its quality. Moreover, worm compost is richer in nutrients compared to “normal” compost, as it is animal manure, not only decomposed plants.

And…

One of the most beautiful permaculture ideas is: “Share the surplus”. I often have a surplus of worms, who are rather active multiplying in my worm tubs and bins. Continue reading “Spreading the WORM, #spreadingtheworm”

Vermiculture experience

Worms, kitchen waste, worm compost, soil

Vermiculture is an absolutely simple and amazing solution in a garden. Not only it turns kitchen waste into animal manure but very easy to set up, handle and maintain. For a permaculturist, who do not have the time and energy to handle larger animal stocks (eg. chicken, rabbits, sheep, goats), worms can contribute to garden life with their manure in a low-labour-need way from the point of view of the gardener.

It is also a great thing in flats, small houses, small-scale permaculture spots.

Click here to see how to set up vermiculture in the garden or in a flat.

Read more about Red Wigglers (Eisenia Foetida).

Building a little pond from truck tires, aka community creation of water habitat in our garden

REGINA Garden is a relatively dry space with mostly sandy soil. In the process of garden development we have been trying to create new habitats for creatures to move in. Our intention is always to help nature to increase its biodiversity.

So in the framework of a permaculture training we have created this nice new habitat from a large truck tire. It was a lovely community upcycling experience.

Click here to learn about the process via pictures.