greenwoman

I agree, DW, that wherever humans go we alter the environment on mass scales, but I doubt that we were/are the only species to do so. I do, however, think that the environmental degradation caused by the European's invasion of Aus is by far great then any that the Original peoples instigated. I would really love to live in a place where I am not considered a bum if I do not have a 40hr/wk job, or walk down the street barefoot (not in shops though - their floors are disgusting), or require to enslave myself to the bank in order to 'buy' a home (outrageous! everyone deserves a home!), or be abused by police for breaking a VERY important law such as 'you must wear a bike helmet' or 'you must not grow that plant'. F()ck today's society. I do not agree to a 'government' who supposedly works FOR the people to insult me by decreeing that I do not know what is best for myself and the well-being of my fellow tribe. Sorry, I won't get started on a rant.... Regarding the OP, I agree that there are many misconceptions regarding living off the land, and that it would take a small community (or tribe) working together to make it viable. I think that planting nutrient/fat dense trees like candlenuts (which have 473 calories per hundred grams) and bunya nuts (only 200 cal/100g but are 40% carbs by weight) etc now, would make foraging in our local environments more sustainable in the future.

I started off learning plant i.d. by doing a few things. I volunteered at a local community nursery that grows native plants. I bought a book of native plants specifically for my local area, went on numerous bushwalks, collected/photographed species and identified them using the book and the internet. I also did a tafe course - not the whole course, just one unit on plant i.d (which was awesome as the teacher was a bush food freak). Then I did a full tafe course, and I knew as much as, if not more than, most of the teachers about plant i.d. After that I went to uni and now I have a degree, but by that time I knew more than any of the lecturers did regarding plant i.d., so much so that they hired me (I'm not bragging, they were awesome in their respective fields). My knowledge is pretty specific though, as plant i.d. is such a HUGE field. I am only now starting to identify certain exotic species which have interest to me ethnobotanically (not necessarily as entheogens), for instance easy to grow food plants which are not 'mainstream', fibre plants etc. My passion is ethnobotanicals, and I grow whatever 'bush foods' that can survive in my climate, and am also collecting exotic ones such as jicama, cassava, madagascar bean etc Good luck with your learning....and take advantage of the vast wealth of knowledge that is the internet

I've often thought that when I buy a bigger block, I'd get one with a tiny little house on it somewhere just for 'council approval' (like I'm insecure enough to need their approval!), and build my own dwelling elsewhere on the block however I want to and out of whatever I want to.

Just incase anyone else is interested in doing something similar (and hasn't already bought the materials like Foo), I just use a few shadecloth umbrellas. I can move them around the garden, and remove them in winter. They're also great for protecting seedlings temporarily.

I would love to have enough land to grow a food forest. At the moment I have about 300-400m2 of land (not including house, watertank, paved area etc). I have a small rainforest area, mainly natives with some herbs underneath; a 'jungle' of bananas, passionfruit, passiflora foetida, dwarf mango, custard apple, cassava, & herb understorey; a 'bush' garden with paperbarks, banksias, lomandras, leptospermum, lemongrass, herbs, etc, and an 'open' garden with pumpkin, cherry tomato, eggplant, sweet potato, herbs, and a fig tree etc & I can plant out with annuals like lettuce etc as per season. I don't grow nearly enough to feed myself. I would love to grow other things but I am limited by the amount of water I have. I think if we breed less, there would be more land available to grow food forests on. I also think that 'modern society' is sick, and needs to be replaced with a healthier system.

If anyone is interested, Bill Gammage wrote a book called 'The biggest estate on earth: How Aborigines made Australia' which, despite the contemporary belief that Aboriginal peoples did not farm the land, shows that they not only farmed it, they farmed far more efficiently than any white culture has done, and that they farmed on a massive scale in a way that worked with the land, not dominating in and making it sick like today's monocultures do. Evidence of manipulating waterways in order to maximize on eel populations, water-bird populations and edible aquatic-tubers is just one example. Imagine that... abundant food, a comfortable home, good friends and family, and all you had to do was a bit of gardening! No sucky 40hr/wk jobs etc

Tampons can be composted, but make sure they are 100% cotton (preferably organic) as the synthetic ones will take a lot longer to break down, and probably won't be as good for your plants. Alternatively you can put them in a worm farm. If your GF is a gardener, it's likely that she won't be offended by the request. Tampons can also be used to make compost-tea (akin to peeing into your watering can), but composting them directly is a lot less icky. Any bodily-by-product is a treat for the garden really, its just our 'modern' way of thinking we consider it gross. It's how we used to propagate our favourite food plants, by using the garden/environment as a 'toilet'. A bit hard to do in a city, or even the burbs.

Plants are always naked :/

The flowers are generally bisexual, so will self pollinate. I'm not sure how long the seed pods will take to mature. Take note of the date you noticed the seedpods, and then take note of the day they start to turn brown. That's how long they take to mature

I love your thinking, woodwoman I have long believed that land should be free, and that every One being born has a birthright, that is their own home, and a bounteous land that gives abundant food. This society that we have today is sick. "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti. Jobs that slowly kill people, rules that suffocate the soul, schools that turn our kids into narcissistic consumers... all of this should be abolished!