My (then 12 yo) daughter filmed this conversation I had with the inspirational and innovative permaculture designer, Natalie Topa, in her apartment in Nairobi. My kids and I visited her at the end of our month journey in Uganda and Kenya working with local permaculture projects that you helped us raise fund for through Ethos Foundation and we sponsored through Permaculture Education Institute.

Balcony Permaculture

There are chickens on the balcony, mealworms in the main room,  perennials in pots, hardy herbs, greens and self-seeding vegetables, vertical trellises, edible vines for shade, habitat for wildlife, homes for pollinators, ceramic plates full of seeds being saved, mushrooms, ferments, dried foods and a tank for a future spirulina project.

Mixed pots of herbs, vegetables, fruit, roots, medicines everywhere growing in balcony-made compost.

Permaculture for displaced people

Natalie Topa experiments relentlessly to find simple positive solutions that can make a real difference in the lives of many. She is the Regional Resilience and Livelihood Coordinator, Danish Refugee Council – which she says is essentially about sharing, exploring and adapting permaculture ideas.  She oversees teams building resilience for displaced peoples, including refugees and internally displaced peoples, in the countries of Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Yemen.

Natalie collecting seeds from local farmers, experiments with growing them in small spaces. Access to good seed for resilient foods is essential for displaced communities.

Insights for a changing climate

For the past 16 years, she has been based in Africa and SE Asia working in community development, post-disaster recovery, post-conflict community and town planning, and community resilience and adaptation to climate extremes and disasters.  Natalie’s insights are incredibly valuable in a climate changing world, where people are already feeling the impact.

One of Natalie’s many indoor insect experiments to produce healthy food for chickens from urban waste.

Permaculture laboratory

As we wander through her permaculture apartment in her home base of Nairobi, Natalie talks about how this balcony garden is her experimental lab for the work with displaced people who have little space, little resources and mostly waste to work with. During this conversation she shares simple permaculture design ideas that can make a huge difference and she shares some stories of how this is happening. 

Star bean – a resilient food and tea source – as well as microclimate moderation and organic matter for soil building.

We talk about ways to use wastes, make soil on a balcony, create small ecological systems, grow a diversity of foods, produce protein and share surpluses, and explore & learn from traditional cultures.

Eggs from balcony chickens. Natalie gets 6 eggs a day.

Balcony Garden Film with Natalie Topa (40 mins)

I hope you find this 40 minute walkabout with Natalie full of wonderful inspiration. As we walk and talk, Natalie shares so many great lessons for food resilience, learning how to live with a small footprint, getting rid of waste – and also about climate resilience, working for the common good, being a permaculture educator, being a permaculture designer…

For more information about small space permaculture design, watch my masterclass: Small Space Kitchen Garden: The Permaculture Way

I was so delighted to meet Natalie in her home in Nairobi and was so inspired by her work. You can follow her facebook here: Nat and Friends: Permaculture and Resilience Design 

The post Balcony Permaculture: Morag Gamble visits Natalie Topa’s apartment in Nairobi appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Do you want to know how to grow food with abundance and with ease? In response to the questions so many people have been asking me, I decided to create two online permaculture programs. This week I am welcoming new students to both of them.

LIMITED PLACES. REGISTER NOW

Places are limited to ensure I can give you each personal attention and real support. I answer everyone’s questions and give as much design feedback as I am able. Register today.

THE INCREDIBLE EDIBLE GARDEN  Cost AU$297

Register now for my online permaculture program. I release a new module each week over the next 9 weeks. Work at your own pace. Access these materials forever. Ask questions of me and your fellow students. Join a wonderfully international group. Click the title to visit the program site for more details. The program overview is:

• Module 1. Create Superb Soils
• Module 2. Setting up a Garden
• Module 3. Growing Abundant Food
• Module 4. Setting up a Food Forest
• Module 5. The ‘Super’food Garden
• Module 6. The Medicinal Garden
• Bonus 1: The Beauty Garden
• Bonus 2: The Tea Garden
• Bonus 3: Cooking up a Garden Feast

THE OUR PERMACULTURE LIFE MEMBERSHIP COMMUNITY Cost AU$397

• Do you need support to design and create your permaculture project?
• Let me be your permaculture mentor for a year.
• Register now and receive free access to The Incredible Edible Garden Course. 
• Each week I create new resources – interviews, Q&As, design input, plant review, book reviews, recipes and much more.
• Enjoy ongoing support and discussions with me and fellow students from around Australia and the world.
• Listen to my overview here
• Click here to find out more information and to register

If you have any questions, please just email me on morag@thegoodlifeschool.net

I look forward to working with you.

The post How To Grow Food With Ease and Abundance. appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

This leafy vegetable, Okinawa Spinach (Gynura bicolor), is a delight to include in my forage circuit, not only because it is such an easy plant to grow in warmer areas, but because how beautiful it looks too.  I use the leaves and shoots in salads, but also in anything that I want a ‘spinach-type’ green – sushi rolls, stir fries, miso soup, curries. In Japan this leaf is popular as tempura too. 

Okinawa spinach is grown in many places as a medicinal vegetable because of it’s nutrient density. It is rich in iron and potassium, calcium, vitamin A and other important nutrients, and has be nicknamed the cholesterol spinach for helping to reduce cholesterol.

Even though this is called Okinawa Spinach, it is actually a native from Indonesia and is grown in many parts of Asia. It is an amazingly easy plant to grow that strikes well from cuttings. It likes both full sun partially shady sites as long as there is enough water and good soil. It grows as a low dense mound of lovely leaves and is a perennial, as long as the area is frost free.

The more you harvest the leafy tips, the more it will keep growing and looking good, this does make a fabulous forage green. This plant is an excellent choice for a hanging basket, verandah pot or even the kitchen windowsill. As always keep it well mulched.

Making our edible landscapes as aesthetically pleasing should be a priority because it encourages us to bring them closer to the house. Attractive landscaping around your home can be entirely edible. The sense of freedom this brings is quite remarkable.

Just think of all the great reasons why having free natural food, herbs, teas, medicines at your fingertips is such an important thing to be doing – for our wellbeing and planetary wellbeing.

It may not feel a necessity to do this (although in many places it is), but for the freshest and most nutrient dense food possible, for resilience, for future proofing, for effortless abundance, for sharing, for cultivating eco-literate children, for even saving money on our good food bill, surrounding ourselves with food is a no-brainer.

What we also need is an expansion of the general perception of what a kitchen garden is – from Beatrix Potter-esque beds of vegies to perennial polycultures that are robust and regenerative, that create a healthy habitat for wildlife, and that provide more food and other resources for the people dwelling in that landscape.

Which plants in your edible landscape do you most appreciate for their beauty and form, perennial nature as well as their productive value?

The post Surround yourself with edible beauty and raw green abundance – Okinawa Spinach. appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.