I love this - this is genius storytelling, funny with a serious message.

Melbourne

I'm in Melbourne for a few days. The founders of the Permaculture movement came from this area - David Holmgren runs a demonstration farm out at Hepburn Springs. One of the cool things that's developed in recent years is the Permablitz movement and I've arranged a meeting with a key practitioner this week to find out more.

In the meantime you can listen to an interview with Costa from the Permablitz movement in Melbourne:
http://www.aqob.com.au/images/product/detail/costa%20permablitz12min19.mp3

New Zealand visit

On my last day in Auckland, I paid a fascinating visit to the South Pacific College of Natural Therapies to see their medicinal herb gardens. Some inspiration for Incredible Edible Todmorden, perhaps, who are looking to create a medicinal garden in the car park of their local Health Centre?

These plants are carefully chosen for their medicinal properties, but they're multifunctional and often have culinary uses, and look beautiful too! That's a win win win approach to creative gardening. Students at the college learn the huge range of uses for them, including tinctures, balms, teas and poultices.

Shown here are flax, echinacea and a bank of lavender. Many thanks to Louise Joel, who helped to create the gardens, for showing us round.

A video to follow.