How to practice hybrid permaculture (and worry less about the news) with Ian Lillington & Marita Zeh

2026-04-26

Download

Ever wish you could sit down with permie elders to hear their take on the current chaos; what to do, where to live, and whether it’s really that bad in the grand scheme of things? Well just call me Genie cos this convo with permaculture educators and radical homemakers Ian Lillington and Marita Zeh will deliver.Ian and Marita live in a solar passive straw-bale home on the edge of Castlemaine, Victoria, surrounded by fruit and nut trees and veggie gardens, where students come to see – and feel – what it is to be wrapped in abundance. And this ...

Ian and Marita live in a solar passive straw-bale home on the edge of Castlemaine, Victoria, surrounded by fruit and nut trees and veggie gardens, where students come to see – and feel – what it is to be wrapped in abundance. And this is where I found them, on a sunny autumn morning, in the cosy warmth of their kitchen, dealing with masses of peaches, pistachios and zucchini. And we all sat down and chopped and chatted, eventually remembering to turn on the mics.

In this convo:

Pursuing a hybrid model of permaculture

Rat poison sandwich

Renting till your 40s

What is good debt?

Where is even affordable anymore?

How to deal with gluts

Giving to community

Small garden farming

Being strategically connected to the grid

Diverse household energy systems

Scales of usage