Permaculture, wetland, straw building

We are offering a tour of our burgeoning permaculture farm followed by afternoon herbal teas and home made treats.

We are on 15 acres in Blampied between Daylesford and Ballarat.

We began establishing our property on permaculture principles four years ago.

I completed a permaculture design certificate with the wonderful Su Dennett and David Holmgren in my twenties and aspire to practice the principles of permaculture as much as possible on our new property ORTO.
We are halfway along our permaculture journey. Some things we are doing very well, while other areas can be improved and are only inhibited by a lack of consensus.
As an individual and as a family the opportunities for creating a sustainable world are many. But we will also discuss some of the barriers towards sustainability imposed by a lack of collective critical mass towards a much, much more ecologically nurturing and respectful world.
We are at the beginning of our journey on this property and want to share our beginning with you. Most of our trees are still babies, our fruit orchard is in its in infancy too. But there is already so much to share with you.

We Will Visit Our
Berry orchard
Fruit tree orchards
Heritage Chickens and discuss livestock conservancy (even domestic animals are in danger of becoming extinct).

Kitchen Garden Orto One
Kitchen Garden Oto Two
Revegetation projects

Biodiversity Plan
Bee garden
Straw home

Harvest room
Greenhouse
Our farm stay

Walk behind tractor – if you are planning to grow lots of food and or want to start a market garden.
In December when this tour takes place we will have only just transplanted our summer vegetable garden.
We are in a cool temperate climate and our summer season is short.

Our aim is to grow lots of our own food and to barter and sell excess. We always plant more than we need. In our first growing season we harvested 700kg of tomatoes and the following years 300kg of eggplants. Each year we grow a variety of vegetables with one or two types in excess for preserving.
We encourage you to ask lots of questions as we really love to share what we know.
We believe that permaculture increases community resilience, boosts and supports biodiversity, and empowers individuals to create healthy and extremely meaningful lives.

We look forward to meeting you very much.
Arrivederci, mara