Permaculture nursery, teaching and consulting

for the New England region, New South Wales, Australia

Latest news - new permaculture nursery

I am presently setting up a permaculture nursery. I will be selling heirloom vegetable seedlings, herbs and some flower seedlings and perennials that are suited to Armidale gardens. Perennials will include strawberries, gooseberries, currants, kiwifruits, grapes, hazelnuts, figs, etc. I will be propagating these from local plants to ensure that they are adapted to our climate.

I will be propagating all the seedlings and plants myself, in Armidale, using organic methods. Wherever possible I will used local seeds and all vegetables will be heirloom varieties - no hybrids.

Plants and seedlings will be available through the Armidale Tree Group nursery in Mann St. and the monthly markets in the Armidale mall.

If you have a very successful food-producing perennial plant in your garden that you would be happy to let me take a few cuttings or suckers from, please contact me - jane@livinlightly.com.au or 67722980.

About Jane

I have been interested in permaculture for over 15 years. I have been developing Nioka using permaculture principles since January 2002 and completed my Permaculture Design Certificate with Rosemary Morrow in 2006.

I came to Australia from the UK in 1985 to study for my PhD in Zoology and had a great time for 3 years doing lots of scuba-diving and snorkelling around Tasmania looking at sea urchins.

Then I moved to Western Australia and worked at Murdoch University on the health of urban wetlands. My speciality was the microscopic invertebrates that live in the wetlands.

We moved back to Tasmania after my husband finished his PhD but we could not find work, so we moved to Sydney in 1992. During my 4 years in Sydney I worked for the research and consulting branch of Sydney Water as a senior consultant. I was now working on riverine invertebrates as well as water quality issues.

In 1996 we moved to Albury where I worked for the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Institute on the effects of river regulation on 2 lowland rivers in northern Victoria.

During my 10 years as a freshwater ecologist I had become disillusioned with the effectiveness of applied research on the real world. So when my husband was offered a job in Port Stephens, near Newcastle, I gave up my scientific career and studied music at the Newcastle Conservatorium.

I have been living in Armidale since January 2002 with my husband, Ivor and our 2 children, Beth and Zac. I have been teaching clarinet, saxophone and piano, as well as setting up a Linda Woodrow garden based on movable chook domes.

I had wanted to do a Permaculture Design Course for many years but had never been able to find the time. However, I managed to organise enough people for a course to run in Armidale and Rosemary Morrow and Dan Palmer came and ran it for us. During the course I became convinced that Permaculture was the way forward for me and I made the decision to start LivinLightly.