Hilary Cadman

Hi, my name is Hilary Cadman. At the end of 2002, my daughter and I moved from central Canberra to live with my partner Bruce on his sheep farm. That meant a 30km commute to work. So, to offset the greenhouse gases produced by driving, I decided that I wanted to grow more of our own food. As a non-gardener, that presented quite a challenge.
A friend suggested I try Linda Woodrow's approach, described in her book 'The Permaculture Home Garden'. At the heart of this system is a chook dome — a polypipe and wire construction that houses up to a dozen chickens. The dome is moved around the garden, so that the chooks can weed the ground and prepare it for planting. I set up this weblog to chart the progress of the garden over its first year, and then just kept going with it! We're now onto a second generation dome — a geodesic design that is much stronger than the original one.