Last month I posted a house-wanted notice, in which the deal would be that I would help develop a permaculture oasis as my rent. I was overwhelmed with responses, over 15, most of them very tempting.

Ok… some of those might have been because when the local paper the Leader did a story on the proposition they falsely refered to me as a gardening guru. I’m more a yellow belt than a black.

So anyway: if you’re a permaculture student and interested in being a perma-boarder, contact me via the permablitz@gmail.com email address, as there seem to be plenty of match-making opportunities. Let’s make it happen, and synergise. Let’s synergise all over the place. Tell me your age, your experience, your requirements.

I’ve decided on a great little place in Northcote (in Melbourne’s inner north) for a 6 month stint. It’s owned by one wonderful woman called Kat and her family. She got the keys 10 days ago, and I’ve been here 9. We’ll post a whole lot of “before” shots soon, and you’ll be able to follow our progress right here with some guest posts from Kat in the mix. Soon we’ll have bees, trees, worms, chooks, the whole package. But first we’re working on a plan.

The next post will document Kat’s human-powered bicycle house move. Also coming up, a post-humous profile on Joel Meadows and family’s wonderful Tudor St., Richmond house which was on a similar scale, the best example of small scale permaculture I’ve ever seen. In many ways it will serve as our model and inspiration.

All is good! Oyster! (Antony says this is a happy exclamation of some type in Spain, but he is not to necessarily to be trusted). I say ‘one million dumplings’!