Hi from SE Qld

[eco4560]

Where it isn't flooding, or burning - much to my great relief!

I'm excited to have stumbled across this message board - it looks like a great resource.

I'm new to permaculture and just in the final stages of building my environmentally friendly home, and then will start on my garden. I'm wading my way through the Permaculture Design book by Bill Mollison at present and getting lots of great ideas.

I'd love to hear from others on the Sunshine Coast - I'll have lots of questions over the next 12 months! Send me a PM.

For those who are interested my architects are Chris and Andrew at WD architects - www.wdarchitects.com.au

The house has solar panels for electricity, solar hot water, rain water and a grey water system, and has been built sensibly using good design for temperature control and lighting (unlike my rental place at present that is too hot in summer and too cold in winter!). I had hoped to use straw bale, but I'm not able to do the owner builder thing at present, so we've had to stick with "conventional" building materials. I'm on the grid, but eventually as I can afford to add more solar panels and water tanks, and of course the garden, I'd like to get to a point where I could be independent of it, if I wished!

[Hamishmac]

Hi,

There are quite a few SE Qld permies lurking around the forum, which is good, because sometimes I need info which is more specific to our subtropical area. I'm sure anybody would be glad to help with questions you might have, or just do a search of old forum threads, where I've found loads of useful stuff. Bill Mollison's book is a great place to start though.

There are also a number of local permaculture groups which meet, display gardens, and the like, which may be useful depending on where you are on the Sunny Coast.

Good luck with the house.



Hamish

[eco4560]

Thanks Hamish. I'm off to meet my chooks this weekend. A friend is breeding them for me so they'll be at point of lay when I move in. April hopefully. My 10 yr old daughter is very excited and is convinced that she's going to be the chook "mother"!

[derekh]

Hi eco4560,

I can't add too much at the moment other than good luck with your work. We love our three chooks and my daughter named and mothers them. I just had to post a comment because I've found a match for my avatar

cheers
Derek

[eco4560]

Thanks Derek! I liked it because I am actually a red head and I thought Mrs Jetson was the coolest when I was a kid watching cartoons after school.

[derekh]

Ditto for the red head and George

[shirl-baby]

HI from Noosa

[eco4560]

Hi Shirl-baby

I see Noosa has an active permaculture group, are you involved? I'd love to hear what you are doing in your own garden.

I'm itching to get into my new place... I ordered $200 in seeds from Eden Seeds today. That should keep me in seedlings for the next year I hope! My previous attempts at growing from seed haven't been great, so I hope that with a bit more attention to detail I can pull it off. I raided a house up the road last week - they had let their agapanthus go to seed. I now have enough apaganthus seed to cover the southern hemisphere! I've planted up 2 seedling trays worth this afternoon. With good luck and good management I'll have enough to line my driveway for free.

[shirl-baby]

No i wasnt aware of a permaculture group here in Noosa, but it sounds good. My garden been in about 6 years, I have chooks, ducks..lost my goat. A young but large orchard with lots of different types of fruit. Im also doing some aquaponic,s on a very small scale, just experimenting but getting there.

[eco4560]

http://www.permaculturenoosa.com.au/

Did you lose your goat as in it wandered off... or was it more unfortunate than that? By small scale aquaponics I gather it is more than just like my fish tank with the 4 goldfish! :oops:
If I ever have to be reliant on a garden for protein intake I think I'd struggle. Can only cope with eggs for each meal for so long, I'm not yet sure that I could kill a chook, but I'm pretty sure that I could eat a fat fish from a pond. How big is your system and what are you stocking it with?