Grapes , herbs and living the dream

Hi to you all , found this site when I was looking to propagate grapes for southeast Queensland , and what a gem it is , I started an organic herb farm back in about 1974 , and quickly took up the challenge James Ruse had ( one of the original convicts ) . So his challenge was to become as self sufficient as possible as an experiment for the convicts arriving in Australia, for which I believe he was granted a pardon. He was given land near Sydney , now called Ruse Hill, funny that hey! Two years later he was basically self sufficient. Not a bad challenge I thought , with all we have at our fingertips nowadays it should be somewhat easier. Two years later I could say that we were about 80% self sufficient, toilet paper, toothpaste, growing grains etc took a little longer. We certainly grew all our own fruit and veggies, we had sheep , a milking cow ,chooks and plenty of time to enjoy the good life, we traded potted herbs for nuts and things at the health food shop ( our trees of course we're too young to produce at this time , consequently a site like this where you can share and glean info from and with others is so valuable , keep up the good work , will talk again soon cheers Raymondo

Hi @Raymondo and thanks for joining SSC!

You seem to have a handle on self-sufficiency that's for sure! I'd be interested to know how you make your own toilet paper or do you use soft leaf plants etc - I've read about that before...? Cheers

Mark said:

Hi @Raymondo and thanks for joining SSC!

You seem to have a handle on self-sufficiency that's for sure! I'd be interested to know how you make your own toilet paper or do you use soft leaf plants etc - I've read about that before...? Cheers

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Sadly Mark I never got to the toilet paper,( so cheap to buy ) looked into making it , plenty of info on google but sadly didn't quite get there , now I am retired, now there is a challenge , watch this space we have lots of paperbarks here so who knows, just setting up a new property with permaculture in mind , but everything is flexible , I believe that's how it's gotta be , sounds like a line out of an old song , Daryl Braithwaite maybe although not one of my favourites. Permaculture started well but somehow has drifted towards the more academic with test plots and results to scrutinise , instead ( I believe ) encouraging the more basic approach to get people on the bandwagon , sometimes their threads could do more harm than good. My rant I'll vacate the soapbox for now cheers Ray

Raymondo said:

Permaculture started well but somehow has drifted towards the more academic with test plots and results to scrutinise , instead ( I believe ) encouraging the more basic approach to get people on the bandwagon , sometimes their threads could do more harm than good. My rant I'll vacate the soapbox for now cheers Ray

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That's one of the reasons I started "Self Sufficient" Culture was because I felt Permaculture was becoming a bunch of elitists with a band of sycophants - and I couldn't understand why they should suddenly have rights to ideas and principals that quite frankly are not exclusive to the Permaculture brand at all. Most are common sense and have been used by people for millennia.

Growing fruit and veg in the backyard is not hard and nor should it be made harder than it is... Yes, there are many tricks, tips, lots of knowledge, and experience to learn (which can't be done in a fun lifetime of gardening) but that's what makes this discipline so special and interesting!

I agree with you, let's get people on the bandwagon by simplifying even more rather than complicating it and scaring people away.

Mark said:

That's one of the reasons I started "Self Sufficient" Culture was because I felt Permaculture was becoming a bunch of elitists with a band of sycophants - and I couldn't understand why they should suddenly have rights to ideas and principals that quite frankly are not exclusive to the Permaculture brand at all. Most are common sense and have been used by people for millennia.

Growing fruit and veg in the backyard is not hard and nor should it be made harder than it is... Yes, there are many tricks, tips, lots of knowledge, and experience to learn (which can't be done in a fun lifetime of gardening) but that's what makes this discipline so special and interesting!

I agree with you, let's get people on the bandwagon by simplifying even more rather than complicating it and scaring people away.

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Nice to know we are on the same page Mark , still navigating my way around your website , but we will talk again soon cheers Raymondo

Just posted a viewpoint on raised beds then watched your video later , oops seems in conflict all valid points hope you didn't get offended just don't like to see people taking the easy way out because of laziness, gardening can keep us all young. The fact that we are involved in gardening shows we haven't been totally sucked into the iPad/ pc culture although I do use them both ,a lot, when I first moved to Queensland we had no info on planting anything outside of beans and zucchini, observation was my best ally and over the years we built up a planting schedule albeit mostly in my head. Now I can google , somewhat easier but did we loose the power of observation during this transition , good or bad it is what it is and people like yourself are helping to facilitate a way of life which waters down the grip big corporations have on society ,thank you Mark . When the big chemical companies tried to take over the seed market and people stood up and started to protect our heirloom seeds , that showed what we can do against big companies , keep up the good work Mark we need people like you around . Some people think and some people do ! Cheers and happy planting Raymondo