Mandalas/Linda Woodrow

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by ~Tullymoor~, Jul 6, 2005.

  1. baringapark

    baringapark Junior Member

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    Hi

    I have used sawdust pathways to define the edges of my dome sites. They pack down nicely and suppress weeds and provide an obvious pathway around the beds. I found I needed such definition as people were forever walking on my beds. Apparently my garden is so messy no-one could work out which were plants, vegies, weeds and hence pathways and where to walk etc. These people are obviously not permaculture-minded as we all know these plants, vegies, weeds, messy-going-to-seed things are an important part of the permaculture garden and as such play a vital role somewhere. I shall remove myself from my soap box now. I had the father-in-law here over Xmas and he is the worst offender. I discovered him pulling out my radishes which were almost in seed. He cannot cope as nothing in my garden is in neat rows and I always allow plants to seed before removing them via the chooks in the chook dome.

    He drives me crazy!

    E
     
  2. Tamandco

    Tamandco Junior Member

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    I too use sawdust, well actually wood chips, I used to use sawdust, then noticed a pile of courser wood chips a few visits back, from the mill which is only 3 properties from mine. It's all free, that's why I use it. I resent paying for anything and am an avid scavenger. I use the free sawdust, really clean course stuff, not dusty at all, as deep litter in my chook houses. I use it in the cow/goat shed, and when I've got horses here, I use it in the loose boxes. Wonderful stuff, and all free.

    Anyway, back to these courser wood chips. I was using the sawdust as paths and borders, and it was great. No complaints whatsoever. But this stuff's amazing, and it looks fantastic too. I'm going to start mulching my ornamental gardens with it cos it looks like bought stuff.

    Now that I've said all this, I betcha next time I go there, it'll all be gone. LOL

    Re your radishes Elizabeth,
     
  3. Anissa

    Anissa Junior Member

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    Sigh :( .... My mother pulled all my lemon grass out that I was propagating in pots at the front door. She though it was just grass!! I managed to replant some.
     
  4. cherry

    cherry Junior Member

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    HI!

    just read the 2 pages discussion on the 'dome'...
    We have been planning to build one of these as our new method of keeping the chooks.. as we live in the Southern Highlands area of NSW, I'm a bit worried about the winter cold...

    ANY ideas on how I could solve this? -- Any suggestions on how to make it a little warmer for our feathered friends?

    Does anyone live in a cool climate that can share some insulating ideas for chooks' sleeping quarters ???
     
  5. spritegal

    spritegal Junior Member

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    Hi cherry

    I too live in the southern highlands - I tried PM-ing you a fortnight ago but the message is still sitting in my outbox and stubbonly refuses to send to you. Do you have your "accept private messages" in your profile activated?

    spritegal :)
     
  6. KC

    KC New Member

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    Hi,
    I'm Lindas son. We havent used the dome system for a while now (shes always been changing and adapting the garden). While we used it though it was a great system. The boarders she used were usually old railway or bridge timbers. As for the domes blowing away, we had that problem too, ive got great memories of waking up after a big storm and finding a dome upside down and a long way from where it started. If they're pegged down strongly they tend to stay put though.

    Great to see mums ideas are still being used, happy gardening.

    Casey
     
  7. barely run

    barely run Junior Member

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    Used the chook dome through winter last year with 5 chooks. They survived the frosts and rain quite well with shade cloth over the dome and a grey plastic tarp over 3/4 of dome on the wind side. I think though that a more permanent winter home would be better or at least better for my stress levels. Wind was the biggest problem and because the conduit we used wasn't strong enough the dome became very out of shape. The domes worked very well to prepare the beds on ground that had not been used for planting...was a sheep paddock...the kikuya grass is an ongoing problem and mowing at present seems to be the answer to keeping the paths clear. I've just covered several of the overgrown beds with black plastic to kill off the grass before spring so hopefully next year will be easier. Ive just one bed planted with snow peas broccolli and winter lettuce. I'm chook free too at present so hopefully chook tractor mark 2 will be better.
    Cheers
    Cathy
     
  8. sam muller

    sam muller New Member

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    Linda Woodrow Mandalas

    Hi All

    I am very lucky to have Linda as a great friend, and didn't realise until that she is a permaculture guru! She did give me her book after my vege garden which was doing very badly in my straight, neat rows, (BTW didn't even know she wrote a book until then) and I am now a convert. I have a chook tractor, sawdust pathways, orchard, fantastic garden that produces food for my and my family of four. I find myself with book in hand trying to plant using the "recipes" in the book precisly. Every time Linda comes over she giggles about how fanatical and prescriptive I am with her instructions. Her motto is, "do what ever works for you" - just be flexible and do what works. I am now trying to plant less of what is "in the book" and more of what we like to eat. I have grown to adsolutely adore chooks, and the have nearly 40 of them on my farm..the ones in the chook tractor are called the "chosen ones" - 6 of the fattest and happiest chooks on the place (they also have a rooster as per Lindas belief that all things must be able to reproduce). Now interestingly, the chosen ones always have 6 eggs for me each morning, when the others are producing at way less than 60% of the total flock.

    So for all who feel that Linda's suggestions don't work in your area, take it from me, she would only say to you to do what DOES work, and the only way to find out what that is ..trial and error.
     
  9. Squeak

    Squeak Junior Member

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    The dome system doesn't work for me.
    To be honest, I find the dome wholly impractical and yet because "permaculture" is attached to it, people will blindly follow it and then wonder why they have dead or missing chooks.

    *sigh*

    I don't do "trial and error" with living creatures.
    Commonsense is the best application.
     
  10. sam muller

    sam muller New Member

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    Trial and error I was referring to would equate to your commonsense comment. I too would NEVER "do things to animals" the comment was meant for the veges and flowers NOT the chooks, I also meant that you can still have aspects of what Linda is suggesting, without having to following instructions to the letter of the book - don't move the tractor every two weeks if you want to keep harvesting the bed... don't plant endive if you don't like it, and for me don't collect road kill to put into compost heaps. Of all my chooks, the ones in the tractor are the ONLY ones I haven't had one death over THREE years. My larger house has been terrible for snakes! And try as I might I can't seem to snake proof it. We can not move the dome with one person now -it does take the two of us, and now some of our plants are so tall that we need to lift it quite high... we just let the "girls" go free in the garden for a while anyway, when we have the tractor in the new place we leave one corner propped up, put the whole grain and they go in their own good time.

    Good luck with ypur garden Squeak!
     
  11. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    I recently drove down to Victoria, taking a different route going down and coming back.....I was amazed by the number of domes that I saw on the drive.

    The thing that really struck me though was that none of them (7 or 8 that I saw) were actually part of a garden as such...seems there are quite a few people out there who have tried the 'dome' method.

    I wonder if Anissa is still using domes, and if so how she's going with them.
     
  12. Squeak

    Squeak Junior Member

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    Sam, aha!
    Love snakes. Have one in my pen at the moment picking off the hoardes of rats. Now if I could only keep the people out I'd be real happy :twisted:
     

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