The word "Permaculture" was developed in the mid 1970's by Australian ecologist David Holmgren and Associate Professor Bill Mollison. They defined Permaculture as a design system that aims to provide truly sustainable human settlements. The main focus is the design of ecological landscapes that produce food. Permaculture entails much more than just food production. Other important factors include energy-efficient buildings, waste water treatment, recycling, landscape design a

Members of Altona Community Gardens are lucky to live in a seaside town with an abundance of a special substance for gardeners: seaweed! Greg Seaman, Eartheasy.com, talks about the benefits of seaweed and its uses. "Seaweed is among the best gifts nature makes available for the gardener. Seaweed will benefit your garden any time of year, but it is especially useful as a mulch to protect plants during hot, dry weather. In our garden, we’ve come to rely on seaweed as a valua

Becoming part of the solution to the suburb’s seaweed problem. Altona Community Gardens member Peter Weaver obtained a permit from Hobsons Bay council last week to remove seaweed from the municipality’s coastline to use as garden fertiliser. So far this financial year, the council has collected more than 1000 tonnes of seaweed. Most is sent to Wyndham landfill at a cost of $90.80 a tonne, plus GST and other costs. Mr Weaver said he collected about 400 kilograms of seaweed a y