Author(s): Kirsten Bradley

Gardening | Nature

What if your habits could create a more meaningful life for you and a better world? The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook is your guide to improving your home, health and happiness - and the planet - one simple step at a time.

Packed with practical skills and projects, it's regenerative living for busy people who want to make a positive impact in a world out of balance.   Discover how simple changes to your every day can make a big difference. Maybe it's decluttering your home, growing sprouts on your windowsill, connecting with your community or taking on a locavore mini-challenge. Maybe it's going waste-free or falling in love with compost. Inspired by the life-affirming principles of permaculture, all 60 habits will help you reconnect with your ecosystem, save money and celebrate sustainable living. 

Wherever you start, this book will help you change your lifestyle in small but significant ways - one powerful, practical habit at a time - towards a resilient, abundant life and a hopeful future for all.

Review: This book is all about a passion for sharing skills, igniting the can-do, cultivating the possible, calming the chaos, delivering the doable. And, above all else, connecting and caring for the community. It's a home, a safe place to come and grow hope in what is a challenging world. -Costa Georgiadis
Overflowing with information for our times - one of the best permaculture books ever! -Hannah Moloney
Kirsten Bradley shows us that it is never one big action, but rather a life of small, intentional, daily actions that truly make a difference. This is how we empower ourselves, our families and our communities to create a world in which we want to live. -Paul West
The time is right for this volume and it is very welcome. -Rosemary Morrow, permaculture elder
As author and activist, Kirsten Bradley walks her talk applying the deep and ethical thinking behind permaculture to everyday habits that she and her family have tested and documented through the very successful Milkwood Permaculture Living Course. This book distils the lessons learnt from helping so many others make positive changes in their own lives. In the process it is an accessible introduction to permaculture as powerful thinking tools for regeneration and resilience. -Dr David Holmgren, co-originator of permaculture

Contents: Welcome to Milkwood Introduction
Habit Zero: Learn whose country you're on
Principle 1 - Observe and interact
Habit 1: Identify five useful wild plant
Habit 2: Research the life cycle of something you use daily
Habit 3: Pay the rent
Habit 4: Regulate your household's temperature
Habit 5: Learn about your local waterways

Principle 2 - Catch and store energy
Habit 6: Store the season by preserving food
Habit 7: Harvest rainwater
Habit 8: Build a mini greenhouse
Habit 9: Create a budget and start saving
Habit 10: Grow a storage crop

Principle 3 - Obtain a yield
Habit 11: Grow sprouts and microgreens
Habit 12: Use what you have
Habit 13: Start a herb garden
Habit 14: Do a life/work time audit
Habit 15: Pest-proof your garden

Principle 4 - Apply self-regulation and accept feedback
Habit 16: Locavore challenge
Habit 17: Rehome all that stuff
Habit 18: Use your privilege for purpose
Habit 19: Learn how to communicate well
Habit 20: Get water wise

Principle 5 - Use and value renewable resources and services
Habit 21: Make natural home cleaners
Habit 22: Start a worm farm
Habit 23: Cook with sticks
Habit 24: Reuse your wee
Habit 25: Reuse your packaging

Principle 6 - Produce no waste
Habit 26: Commit to a five-day no-waste challenge
Habit 27: Learn to mend:
Habit 28: Eat real food
Habit 29: Learn to love second-hand things
Habit 30: Compost everything

Principle 7 - Design from patterns to details
Habit 31: Make a base map
Habit 32: Start a garden or nature diary
Habit 33: Write a Will - and talk about it
Habit 34: Learn about your local climate
Habit 35: Get to know the soil beneath your feet

Principle 8 - Integrate rather than segregate
Habit 36: Reuse your household greywater
Habit 37: Keep chickens
Habit 38: Engage with the commons
Habit 39: Support a local person in need
Habit 40: Eat with friends and family

Principle 9 - Use small and slow solutions
Habit 41: Start a home seed bank
Habit 42: Make your own sourdough
Habit 43: Walk or ride there
Habit 44: Take your lunch
Habit 45: Plant a tree and take care of it

Principle 10 - Use and value diversity
Habit 46: Support your local pollinators
Habit 47: Make your own probiotic drinks
Habit 48: Install a gate in your side fence
Habit 49: Make a lizard hotel
Habit 50: Share a garden

Principle 11 - Use edges and value the marginal
Habit 51: Get to know your local fungi
Habit 52: Cook a meal outdoors
Habit 53: Join your local food co-op
Habit 54: Learn to identify and use local seaweeds
Habit 55: Explore your local gift economy

Principle 12 - Creatively use and respond to change:
Habit 56: Raise your voice on the climate crisis
Habit 57: Make an emergency plan
Habit 58: Do a first-aid course
Habit 59: Engage in mutual aid
Habit 60: Revisit your personal goal

Resources, References, Thank you, Index

Author Biography: Kirsten Bradley is the co-founder of Milkwood with Nick Ritar - together they've been teaching permaculture design and skills for living like it matters for more than 15 years. When she's not helping folks to create meaningful change through their everyday actions, Kirsten can be found tending her backyard ecosystem of veggies, bees, berries and family, on melukerdee country in lutruwita/Tasmania.