Great trainers are sharing, motivating and supportive. They demonstrate Permaculture by practicing what they teach with a wide range of examples. And they give ideas for other situations beyond their own. They understand other cultures and environments.
35 years evolving
My name is April Sampson-Kelly. Only a few people know what I do, which suits me. I don’t want to be a celebrity. I enjoy the freedom and flexibility of anonymity. And I have practiced and taught Permaculture for 35 years. Now it is time to share my insights and growing concerns for the future of online training.
My early childhood was spent on an army base where a lonely clump of bananas surrounded the septic tank. There were no bird calls, just dogs howling. But when we settled in Wollongong I was suddenly surrounded by beautiful beaches and forests. And a strong sense of place and belonging.
My father had wanted me to be a software writer. He believed that computing was the future and people would work less. And so, in 1986, I got a computer trainee-ship at the local university. By 1993 I had some basic computing skills and a supportive partner and mother. I also had a masters in Creative arts. I knew how to research. And I knew how to teach complex skills. And I had a baby and a toddler. So, I knew how to work. I still loved my environment. And I was fascinated with Permaculture. And I wondered how it would fit in the emerging world of the internet.
Computer games and internet pages last century were painfully slow and had no graphics. Every word mattered. But the fun thing was the equality. Gender didn’t matter. How you looked didn’t figure. Content was all that mattered. And so, I set about to create the first online Permaculture course.
In 1996, my mother and I drove across Australia. We visited my birthplace in Perth and went to the great International Permaculture Conference and Convergence. Thanks to the tireless work of Ross Mars and Permaculture west, the proceedings are still available. And there I met a lot of amazing Permaculture people. And at the Convergence, I saw a small discussion group in a back corner talking about Information Technology [IT]. I told them my idea to start online teaching and they all started offering support. Even Bill Mollison chipped in and said he thought that online teaching could work. And there was a need.
Land-based Permaculture Design Courses are often run by charismatic leaders. So, to make online training successful we offered something different. Our online courses were self-paced, flexible, organised and tailored for the student needs. Also, we adopted a student-focused approach. And I applied my research experience, enthusiasm and applied knowledge to explore many aspects of Permaculture. I was truly lucky to have an informal mentor in Stuart B. Hill. I could ask Stuart deep questions and he would answer straight away. And for this I am forever grateful. Decades later, we had a vibrant food forest and some creative fun. Ted Trainer said – it is not work if you are having fun. We had fun.
Education serves 3 functions
1. Share knowledge and ideas for a wide range of conditions.
2. Motivate and support participants into action
3. Connect people to build resilience through community and integration with their environment.
Sharing Knowledge and Ideas
Knowing how to do something doesn’t mean we know how to teach it. Teaching is a craft in itself using psychology, and communication systems. Teaching Permaculture pulls apart a complex holistic system to show the parts and then describe how the parts interact. The instructor needs to clearly show how they have applied the principles in their own practice. And they need to show examples from other situations. Or at least help their participants find out more about their situation.
Motivating and Supporting
When we motivate participants, we need to follow through. Our support mustn’t end when the course ends. This is where the social design is essential in the growth of Permaculture. Teachers must foster others. The traditional formal education system in the western world has a deeply entrenched economic and academically competitive framework. We must do better. We need to learn from one another, support good work and foster diversity.
Connecting and Providing Ongoing Support
We all grow when we build a network of experts and a community of knowledge keepers.
All training requires an understanding of the work, an ability to break it down, then reconnect the ideas. But online training has extra pitfalls. Online participants are less at risk of being disconnected from their fellow, the ideas and the trainer.
Become a leader in Permaculture Training. Contact us to join our Online Advanced Permaculture Design course starting March 18. April at www.permaculturevisions.com
Gatherings have always been part of permaculture. Before newsletters and acronyms, people met around kitchen tables, the backyard fire pit, in the shed, or garden. Nothing new needed to be invented; it was simply about noticing what was already there and making the least change for the greatest effect.
Spreading across sixteen locations, from Oberon to the Clarence Valley, neighbours have chosen a day of the month to bump into other permaculturists at their local. Since 2022, ‘Permaculture at the Pub’ has become the working title for something that is not a formal group or event, but an idea shared. Just as you might meet friends to watch the game on a Friday night, these casual meet-ups are about soil, seeds, and curiosity.
Like fruiting bodies of a broader mycelium network of people, knowledge, and curiosity, these meet-ups appear where conditions are right: interest, availability, timing. Some may be fleeting. Others recur again and again. They are small signals of a living system of relationships, ready to sprout wherever the network is nourished.
A typical get together looks like anywhere from half a dozen to twenty or more folk catching up over what they have been up to for the last month in their garden or in the community. The first Thursday of the month is when we began meeting up in our little village of Paterson.
Certain questions come up. When does the talk start? Who is presenting? Could there be tours, seed swaps, produce shares? All familiar impulses. All well-worn permaculture ground. These have been gently set aside. Not because those things aren’t valuable, but because each addition makes the door a little heavier to open.
Requiring little, the invitation is wide. You don’t need a garden. You don’t need to be growing food or designing systems. You can arrive curious, unsure, or just wanting to see who else nearby might be thinking along similar lines. The point isn’t instruction. This space asks not for the bravado of expertise, but for the quiet care to connect. When the same rain falls on everyone at the table, the conversation tends to stay grounded in what is common.
The word “pub” can carry certain connotations, so it’s worth clarifying that alcohol is not the focus, nor will a pub setting suit everyone. In the original sense of “public house,” what matters is the idea of shared civic space. In rural towns, pubs often serve many roles: they are the local restaurant, playground, bottle shop, book club, and community hub all in one. Families can attend without needing separate childcare, and for many communities on the land, the pub is a practical venue. Some have chosen different venues or formats, and time of day, setting, and tone are all locally adaptable.
Much has been written about social systems as plainly as ecological ones. This approach grows from Mollison’s teachings about resilience arising from density of connection rather than control. Landscapes don’t hold together because they’re instructed to. Communities don’t either.
One of the most encouraging aspects has been seeing Permaculture Design Certificate students take this idea and quietly run with it. After the intensity of a PDC, there’s often a gap between finishing a course and embedding practice into daily life. These informal, recurring meet-ups have become a way for students and graduates to stay connected without creating hierarchy or obligation.
These gatherings are small gestures against the drift of disconnection, against the tendency to lose touch with the land and one another. Conversation moves between gardens and towns, knowledge passes sideways, and trust settles into the spaces people share. It is here, in the ordinary rhythm of returning to a shared table, that community grows, not through planning or instruction, but through the consistent work of connection.
Maplewood Permaculture are lead teachers on the Permaculture Design and Homesteading Certificate Course held twice-yearly in collaboration with Limestone Permaculture, in addition to providing permaculture design and consultation services.
We understand Permaculture as being an ethical & principled ‘Whole-of-Life’ framework, a regenerative design science and a way of seeing land, people and livelihoods as interconnected systems. Across the Hunter Region in NSW, this way of thinking is resonating strongly with small landholders who are seeking resilient, productive and meaningful relationships with their land. That interest has also been growing within our local & state government organisations like Councils, Landcare & Local Land Services!
Our latest collaboration is through the Permaculture Principled Small Farm Series, a new seven-workshop program hosted by Hunter Local Land Services and delivered by Limestone Permaculture, in partnership with Yeo Farm. Booked out within three weeks of opening workshop registrations, the series confirms what many of us in the permaculture movement already know: people are hungry for whole-system design knowledge grounded in real-world application.
A Permaculture Lens for Small Landholders
Small landholders are a vital and expanding part of Australia’s agricultural landscape. While their properties may be modest in scale, the cumulative impact of good or poor design is significant. Permaculture offers an ideal framework for this context, emphasising observation, thoughtful design, efficient use of resources, and the stacking of functions to achieve multiple outcomes from the same elements. This workshop series has permaculture as its backbone. It begins with core permaculture ethics, principles and the design process itself—supporting participants to move beyond isolated techniques and instead develop coherent, regenerative property plans. These foundations flow through every session, ensuring that practical skills are always linked back to whole-system thinking.
Learning across Scales, United by Design
Workshops alternate between two contrasting but complementary permaculture sites:
Limestone Permaculture, a one-acre demonstration homestead and micro-farm designed to show how intensive, diverse systems can thrive on small footprints
Yeo Farm, a 100-acre permaculture-designed Australian White sheep enterprise with integrated market garden exemplifies permaculture design at a larger agricultural scale.
By learning across these scales, participants see that permaculture principles remain consistent—whether designing a backyard food system or a broad-acre grazing landscape. What changes is the expression, not the ethics or logic.
From Principles to Practice
As the series progresses, permaculture design theory is translated into applied, site-based strategies, including:
Intro to Permaculture x2, an introduction to permaculture ethics, principles & the design process!
Building Climate Adaptation, focusing on improving drought, fire & flood resilience & responding to climate variability by highlighting water is life & trees protect life!
Practical Guide to Low Tech Earthworks, from using low-tech swales and contoured earthworks to slow, spread and store water while building soil carbon.
Insitu Compost Gardening for Soil Health & Cycled Production, focusing on in-situ composting and biological nutrient cycling within productive gardens.
Poultry Integration & Management, Integrating chickens, ducks and turkeys with trees, plants and structures for mutual health & welfare.
Espalier Orchard Systems – Integrated, Efficient & Multifunctional, combining fruit tree espalier + pest exclusion and vegetables in space-efficient, multifunctional designs suited to small properties
Each workshop reinforces the permaculture idea that elements are most successful when they are intentionally connected for mutual benefit. Programs like this demonstrate how permaculture can move confidently beyond the margins and into mainstream land management conversations, supporting both families and regions to thrive under increasing environmental pressure.
About Limestone Permaculture
Limestone Permaculture is a one-acre demonstration homestead located in the village of Stroud, NSW, designed and developed using permaculture design processes and principles. Our work centres on education, ethical land stewardship and empowering people to design regenerative systems that are productive, resilient and deeply connected to place. Limestone Permaculture currently collaborates at the local and state government level with a future goal to collaborate at the national level.
I arrived in Timor-Leste with a mix of excitement and exhaustion. At the airport, we were greeted by the most relaxed border officials I’ve ever met, smiling broadly, waving us through, and apologising for the 1990s computers that couldn’t quite load the digital arrival forms. The internet was patchy, everyone confused, but their warmth made up for it. As the afternoon “home time” for the border officers approached, one simply shrugged and said, “No worries, just go.” Outside, the friendly young Edison from the Permatil team welcomed us to his country. We gathered in the shade, melting in the tropical heat, and began to meet some of our fellow IYPC participants, each one from a different corner of the permaculture world. There was Michael and Curtis from Jagun alliances on the Northern Rivers, Aboriginal fire practitioners. Finn from Adelaide, a fresh PDC graduate and friend of Lachlan McKenzie, who carried his excitement like a seed ready to germinate. Sandhān from Bangalore, linked with Aranya Permaculture, handed out delicate seed-paper business cards. We were soon ushered into a minivan, unsure of where we were headed, the sense of mystery part of the charm. After nearly meeting our fate at a chaotic roundabout, we all laughed, realising: yes, we’d truly arrived in Southeast Asia. A quick supermarket stop revealed an amusing discovery, beer cheaper than water. Naturally, we toasted to being here, representing our communities and hard work back home.
The Warm Welcome at Centro Tibar
Our accommodation turned out to be at Centro Tibar, a secondary education college with a vibrant atmosphere and smiling volunteers who greeted us like long-lost friends. We were shown to our dormitories and met Thomas, another German working with Permatil. Dinner brought us together in the student built canteen, a mix of laughter, fatigue, and storytelling. The school’s owner, Simon, joined us and shared tales about the land and why goats were casually roaming the school grounds. Dinner was a simple and delicious buffalo curry with rice followed by sweet milk bananas, fresh mangoes, and maize for dessert. That night, I fell asleep to the whir of the fan motor and the soft crowing of distant roosters, a foreign sound that somehow felt familiar.
First Morning in Timor
Morning light brought life in motion, brooms sweeping verandas, hoses washing concrete, and students greeting me with eager smiles.
Centro Tibar impressed me. Students came from across Timor to study here, supported by government funding and international partnerships with Germany and Korea among them..
Breakfast was served at the hospitality bar and café, where I had my first taste of Timor coffee, smooth, earthy, and absolutely divine. The café was decked out in festive decorations, each corner hiding another curious trinket.
Into Dili – Meeting the Permatil Team
Later that day, we travelled into Dili to visit the Permatil office. There we met Lachlan McKenzie who gave us an introduction to the organisation’s incredible community projects, and Ego’s wife, who kindly welcomed us into their home. The conversations flowed about soil, water, youth, and the quiet revolution of permaculture taking root across Timor.
Short History of Permatil and Permatil Global in Timor-Leste
Permatil (Permaculture Timor-Leste) was founded in 2001 by a group of passionate local educators, farmers, and youth leaders including Ego Lemos who saw the urgent need to restore degraded land and rebuild food security after the country’s independence. Emerging from the devastation of war, Permatil became one of the first grassroots organisations to apply permaculture principles to healing both the land and the people.
Through school gardens, community training, and local resource mapping, Permatil pioneered a “whole village” approach, integrating water management, soil restoration, agroforestry, and traditional knowledge. It worked closely with schools and youth to develop the Permaculture in Schools program, which is now part of the national education curriculum across Timor-Leste.
Over the years, Permatil’s work spread through all 13 districts, training thousands of teachers and farmers, establishing demonstration sites, and promoting the permaculture ethics of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share.
In 2018, Permatil helped launch Permatil Global, an international network connecting Timorese permaculture experience with global partners. Its aim is to share tropical permaculture knowledge, support youth leadership, and link climate-resilient projects across Asia-Pacific, Africa, and beyond.
Today, Permatil and Permatil Global stand as leading examples of how local wisdom and global collaboration can regenerate landscapes, empower youth, and strengthen community resilience.
In that moment, it struck me: this wasn’t just a conference. It was a living network of people growing hope: one seed, one smile, one story at a time. Tadeius, Ego’s son, made me a necklace, a gesture that melted my already warm heart.
Timor-Leste: Struggle, Resistance, and Prospects
Timor-Leste (East Timor) was colonised by Portugal for over 400 years, remaining largely neglected until the 20th century. After Portugal’s withdrawal in 1975, Timor-Leste declared independence, but within days, Indonesia invaded and occupied the country. The 24-year occupation was marked by widespread violence, famine, and human rights abuses.
ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL INDONESIAN STATISTICS, TIMOR-LESTE HAD 653,211 INHABITANTS IN 1974.
IN 1978, THE FIGURE HAD DROPPED TO 498,433 INHABITANTS.
THIS MEANS THAT TIMOR-LESTE HAD LOST MORE THAN 23% OF ITS POPULATION IN THE FIRST FOUR YEARS OF INDONESIAN OCCUPATION!
Despite the odds, the Timorese people waged a remarkable campaign of armed, underground, and diplomatic resistance. Figures like Xanana Gusmão, José Ramos-Horta, and Bishop Carlos Belo became international symbols of their struggle, earning the Nobel Peace Prize (1996) for bringing attention to their cause. In 1999, under UN supervision, the Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, a decision met with violent retaliation by pro-Indonesian militias before UN peacekeepers restored order.
Timor-Leste regained full independence in 2002, becoming one of the world’s newest nations. Today it faces challenges of poverty, unemployment, and oil dependence, but remains a resilient democracy with strong community spirit and rich cultural identity. The nation invests in education, agriculture, and youth empowerment, and is building new partnerships across the Asia-Pacific. Its people’s enduring values of resistance, solidarity, and self-reliance continue to shape a hopeful path toward sustainable development and peace.
IYPC 2025 – Planting water, growing communities
BRINGING YOUTH, ENVIRONMENT, ARTS, CULTURE AND MUSIC TOGETHER IN ONE EVENT
As we were greeted by the village elders and Permatil volunteers, we connected with more people arriving from all over the world while chewing on a beetle nut seed. Slowly getting used to the much slower pace of Timor time, we waited in the shade of the handcrafted bamboo structures. The camp was separated into three sections one for men, for women and one for couples. Compost toilets and bucket showers were provided for the participants, the camp kitchen and servery was all crafted from bamboo and palm leaves.
The site was prepared with swales, terraces, retention ponds and a new research facility that captures data from the local spring to measure the flow and impact, permaculture water restoration at work. The research is undertaken by the university of New South Wales lead by Martin Andersen.
Permaculture Conference Experiences in Timor-Leste
Since the early 2000s, Permatil and its partners have hosted several Youth Permaculture Conferences (YIPC) and training camps in Timor-Leste, designed to empower young people to become leaders in regenerative agriculture, community resilience, and climate action.
The first youth gatherings emerged soon after independence, as part of Permatil’s education outreach in schools and communities. These early programs focused on practical skills, seed saving, composting, and water management, while helping youth reconnect with traditional land wisdom.
By the mid-2010s, these evolved into more structured Youth Permaculture Conferences, drawing participants from across Timor-Leste and neighbouring countries. The conferences became platforms for cross-cultural learning, where local and international youth shared solutions for reforestation, food security, and sustainable livelihoods.
Workshops were held in schools, farms, and community training centres, combining hands-on permaculture design with music, art, and cultural exchange. Many alumni went on to start community gardens, school projects, and youth-led NGOs, extending the conference’s impact across rural and urban Timor.
Supported by Permatil Global, these youth conferences now form part of a wider international network connecting young people from Asia-Pacific, Africa, and beyond, continuing Timor’s legacy as a living classroom for permaculture education, peace-building, and resilience.
Presidential Support for Youth and Water Conservation
During his visit to the International PermaYouth Convergence in Gleno, Ermera organised by Permatil under the leadership of Ego Lemos, President José Ramos-Horta expressed strong admiration for youth-led efforts in water conservation and sustainable management.
Addressing the more than 800 participants from 17 countries, the President emphasised that “water is the most essential resource for our community, for agriculture, for the environment, and for our daily lives.” He praised the spring restoration projects that have already revived over 600 water sources nationwide, calling them a model of community collaboration and ecological citizenship.
Ramos-Horta urged for the expansion of water restoration programs across all regions and encouraged the world to see Timor-Leste not through the lens of hardship, but as a beacon of innovation, sustainability, and youth leadership.
His presence at the Convergence reaffirmed the State’s commitment to environmental sustainability and the empowerment of young people as key drivers of a resilient and green future for Timor-Leste.
Issues Around Seasonal Work, Exploitation, and Skills Gaps in Timor-Leste
In my time during the camp I spoke to many young Timorese about seasonal work. It was a highly contentious topic among the communities. In recent years, thousands of young Timorese have left their communities to work in Australia and other Pacific countries under labour mobility programs. These opportunities promise higher income and financial support for families back home, yet they have also revealed serious social and economic challenges for Timor-Leste.
Economic Opportunity and Social Cost
Seasonal work offers wages far beyond what is available domestically, providing much-needed remittances for rural families. However, the loss of young labourers has left gaps in local agriculture, education, and trades, particularly in the countryside. Many villages struggle to maintain food gardens or local enterprises as their most capable youth seek work abroad.
Exploitation and Limited Protection
Reports from Australia and other host countries highlight cases of exploitation, underpayment, poor housing conditions, and excessive working hours. Workers often face cultural and language barriers and have limited access to legal or union support. For many, the dream of earning a better life comes with emotional strain, isolation, and risk.
Lack of Training and Skills Development
A deeper issue lies in the lack of vocational and agricultural training within Timor-Leste. Many workers depart without strong technical, financial, or language preparation, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and less able to translate their experience into local enterprise upon return. The result is a cycle of dependency, where youth continue leaving instead of building sustainable livelihoods at home.
The Need for Regenerative Solutions
Addressing this issue requires investment in local education, permaculture, and vocational training that empowers youth to create meaningful work in Timor-Leste. Programs like those led by Permatil and Permatil Global show how training in food production, eco-enterprise, and land restoration can strengthen communities and reduce the need for migration.
Ultimately, the goal is not to stop mobility but to transform it into empowerment, where returning workers bring home new skills, fair experiences, and the confidence to grow Timor-Leste’s future from within.
As the days unfolded, the dry season heat pressed down like a second skin, yet the energy of the PermaYouth Convergence only grew stronger. The air pulsed with loud music, laughter, and the scent of and charcoal grills, where volunteers served plate after plate of spicy Timorese dishes: rice, beef stew, cassava, pork and mangoes and pineapple so sweet they silenced conversation.
Amid the dust and rhythm, hundreds of conversations bloomed; between farmers and students, elders and youth, activists and dreamers. Friendships crossed languages and continents; ideas sprouted like seeds carried by wind. In every handshake,coffee and meal, late-night jam sessions, the shared vision of a greener, fairer world took root a little deeper.
By the time we parted, it was clear: these were not just conference connections. They were the beginnings of a global family, united by planting water, song, and the unshakable belief that regeneration starts with us.
Our role as Youth Ambassadors feels clear now: to weave connections between people and communities, to tell our stories with courage, and to amplify the spirit of permaculture wherever we go. Let’s keep inspiring others and stay open to being inspired ourselves.
Sincerely,
Felix Leibelt
Youth Ambassador and Board Director Permaculture Australia My location: Dharawal, Jerrinja tribal land, South Coast NSW M: 0412 361 165 E: felix.leibelt@permacultureaustralia.org.au
About the Author:
Felix Leibelt is a South Coast-based permaculture designer and the founder of Geco Gardens. He loves building living systems that care for people and the planet. As a Youth Ambassador for Permaculture Australia, he’s focused on connecting communities, sharing real stories, and inspiring others to grow change from the ground up.
While I pawed through and pored over, the alternative ideas in my parents’ Earth Garden, Down To Earth, and similar magazines, in my teens, I have only recently put some of the permaculture principles into the creation of an abundant oasis.
A year ago, I moved to a very cheap cottage on an almost bare block in a little town in the NSW Riverina. I had a vision of a food forest based on some of the permaculture gardening concepts I had used in patches in other gardens, and on reading and observing.
A year on, and I am beginning to understand the reality of allowing plants to find their way after some initial trial and error.
The fecundity of this garden that now surrounds the little cottage and provides us with more, and more, than enough for ourselves and others, is incredible. At the moment we almost have to steel ourselves each early morning as we head out with buckets to pick zucchinis, cucumbers, beans, kale, carrots, beetroot, corn (including popping corn), lettuce, rocket, rhubarb, melons, pumpkins and cut flowers.
The fruit trees, vines and bushes are growing and we have had a few apricots, plums and passionfruit already. The seven avocadoes I grew from seed are taking off and the hazelnuts we grew from cuttings have got their roots well down into the red soil.
From what looked like a weedy, unhealthy ecosystem favouring a couple of insect species and nasty (think Cat Heads) weeds, has emerged a chaotic, crazy life-filled area, with very little mowing thank goodness, that we share with a huge variety of creatures, microbes and plants.
We are letting plants go to seed where they want to, which works for them and us, we also harvest seed and replant in other areas, we mulch paths to walk on then put that broken down mulch back on the beds, we cut back and use that as mulch, we create compost then put it back in the garden, we use fruit fly netting and garlic spray, plus get rid of any fallen fruit immediately to keep the fruitfly population at a minimal level, we are planting natives for more birdlife and garden structure plus protection for other plants from the severe heat in summer and frosts in winter, and working on better watering systems.
Water is probably our biggest issue, in that the garden takes a lot of water, despite mulching and composting. We are still learning after only a year.
To refine my energy in and energy out techniques, and to co-create with nature to have a sustainable and regenerative garden, I am now considering doing some structured permaculture study and joining Permaculture Australia to join the social ecosystem of like-minded people.
As I walk in the garden, amazed at the growth and life, I realise how humans are not the main feature of nature as we would like to believe, but a part of it, and if we don’t begin to understand that as a collective, soon, we may well be relegated to a much smaller part.
I am still a wanderer at heart, but the joy of an abundant edible, fragrant and beautiful garden to share with a myriad of life forms, is something else. Maybe with some permaculture training, I can work it so the garden can manage without me at times while I go exploring other gardens.
I purchased three WaterUps Oasis wicking beds after pricing a DIY option and realising these are quite good value and probably easier to construct. My husband put together the raised bed component, the first one took longer than the subsequent two but they were not too difficult. He used the paper instructions, and there is also a video you can follow. I used the video to install the waterproof lining and WaterUps cells, this was quite straightforward, you just need a sharp knife to cut out the hole for the water inlet, it took a bit of work with my blunt Stanley knife! I used Perlite for the wick component, you just need to fill up the wells in the WaterUps cells. Then filled the beds with layers of cane straw, mushroom compost, rock minerals, organic fertiliser pellets, seaweed solution, cow manure, compost and potting mix. The water cells are easy to fill from the inlet, I planted out a mixture of veggies from seed and seedlings. I watered minimally from the top until the seedling’s roots took hold and could absorb the water coming up from the cells and also kept the seeds moist. All of the seeds germinated and all of the seedlings survived (rare for me!). It is nice not having to water each day when it is hot if I am busy. We have had some dry spells since I have been using them, the shortest amount of time I have had to top up the water is 2 weeks. I use a piece of dowl to measure how much water is in the cells. These wicking beds have been a game changer for me; our property is on tank water only, so the water saving has been fantastic during the dry spells, and the veggies are thriving. I have just purchased two more beds and over winter am going to try installing one of the Sub-irrigation Channels in a neglected swale veggie bed. I highly recommend these beds for their ease of construction, water-saving, time-saving and amazing veggies!
Note from Permaculture Australia
Julie was asked by Permaculture Australia for this reveiw. Julie is not associated or commission by Waterups in anyway, just a very happy customer.
As a member of Permaculture Australia, Jenny received 20% off WaterUps® products (Australian delivery only)
Join us now to receive your member benifits – JOIN HERE
All set up: Water inlet on the top right, overflow on the bottom right.Bed with wicking holes filled with perlite.Beds filled and ready to plant, next to the water tank.A few weeks later….A few weeks later….A few weeks later….
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