permaculture

[cathcon@psinet.net.au (Cathy Constantine)]

I own a suburban house with my sister and we are recent converts to
permaculture. I have a few specific questions which I'd love for anyone with
experience or advice to respond to,privately or publicly.

        I want to create a water cycling system in an urban garden with
components
like - a sump/tank receiving input from rain and greywater - a filtering
reed bed - ponds/streams (with fish, edible plants, marron(freshwater
crayfish)). Ideally the system would run with a single alternative energy
driven pump.  Challenging climate - nearly all rain in winter, very dry
summer so big annual cycle in water quantity.  (See
http://www.reading.ac.uk:80/~suqstmbl/river/river.html for original
inspiration).

        We have some rabbits and intend to get some chickens. I'd like to
build a permanent, wire-covered pen for the rabbits and a house for the
chickens both connected to 3 pens in our orchard for rotating use.Any
practical hints or personal experiences?

        Also I'd like to grow a rose hedge at the front for privacy/security
and don't know about what type of roses would suit this.

        Finally, our front verge has a height limit of 3 feet so we thought
about some low growing natives, perhaps on bark chips.

        Thanks for any responses, I hope you don't mind the specificness of
the queries but when you dfcide to actually do something the questions
become very specific indeed.