It’s Time to Colonise Earth!
Biodiversity, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Food Forests, Global Warming/Climate Change, Land, News, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Trees — by Craig Mackintosh September 2, 2010
Ascension Island, in the Pacific Ocean (source)
It seems Darwin was a permaculturist!
In his days globetrotting aboard HMS Beagle, Darwin set in motion the transformation of a dead, volcanic island rock – Ascension Island, described by nearby islanders as "a cinder" – into a green, rain-creating oasis. How did he do it?
Comments (4)United Colors of Ho avy: Growing Trees and Growing with Them, Madagascar
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, Energy Systems, Food Forests, Nurseries & Propogation, Social Gatherings, Trees, Village Development — by Martina Petru
Editor’s Note: This is an update for the ho avy project in Madagascar. Previous updates here and here.
EcoExplorers Madagascar 2010 from Shannon Kohlitz on Vimeo.
Here we are past July’s time for fleece, hat and socks, wouldn’t you believe! Manintsy – cold (25/16 °C day/night or less) was the semiarid southwest Madagascar in winter; winter in the dry southwest where ‘it never rains’. Well, never say ‘never’ and/or be prepared for rain in the no rain season and for beautiful double rainbows arching gently over the glowing morning skies….
Since our last update in February, ho avy has been on a ‘high season rainbow ride’ – exciting in a way, admittedly speedy and bumpy some of the time – more like a downhill slalom race against time, where falling over exposed tree roots is unavoidable. Retrospectively, it’s been a valuable growing time: our trees are growing and we are growing with them.
We especially enjoyed the rainbow of colors left behind the pens, pencils and brushes of Eco-Explorers – talented undergraduate students of the University of Michigan’s School of Art and Design. These young students overflowing with creativity came to Madagascar expecting no rain. Although they got some, they seemed to greatly enjoy this mad ride, and so did we on ho avy & Madagascar Eco-Explorers’ tour and project service work in Ranobe.
Comments (2)Clever Rocky Mountain Greenhouses Give Major Season Extension
Building, Energy Systems, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Nurseries & Propogation, Plant Systems — by Mari Korhonen August 16, 2010
In cool and cold areas the length of the growing season and the cold temperatures are the main challenge for growing things and supporting oneself. As part of the search for cold climate permaculture strategies I came across integrated greenhouse designs that seem to have a lot to offer to us in the cool climates. This is a little report from a trip to the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute’s solar greenhouse workshop in Basalt, Colorado. There, during his thirty five years of living on the site, Jerome Osentowski the director at CRMPI, has overcome the challenges of his steep sloping land at 2,200 meters above sea level with advanced integrated greenhouse designs as a feature in the overall system. They have stretched his climatic zones all the way to the subtropic – all year round, with no fossil fuels used.
Karma in Nature
Food Forests, Plant Systems — by Marcel Werps August 12, 2010
Most of us will be familiar with the Hindu and Buddhist concept of Karma as a factor in our personal lives. In nature, as a general rule, we can experience Karma, as a direct reaction by, for example, animals – as a response to our behaviour and attitude towards them.
Action and reaction. Cause and effect. It is my contention that this concept is also operative in the plant world, as a response to our treatment of them.
If we accept the basic law of Isaac Newton about action and reaction, then surely our dealings with the plant world have their consequences.
Comments (4)Letters from Jordan – On Consultation at Jordan’s Largest Farm, and Contemplating Transition
Commercial Farm Projects, Conservation, Dams, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Irrigation, Land, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Swales, Trees — by Craig Mackintosh August 6, 2010
Preamble: From my recent trip to Jordan, I shared with you all the news, with loads of pictures, about the International Permaculture Conference (IPC) that will be held there in September 2011. I also slipped over the border to take a quick peek at Murad Alkufash’s work in the West Bank, and took video of the Jawaseri school garden project. In my bid to multitask, I also had opportunity to accompany Geoff Lawton on a consultation in the Wadi Rum district in the south of the country, where we combined the consultation with our investigations for a campsite for the IPC (photos of the latter can be seen via the first link above).
The consultation on its own, however, is deserving of a post. It was highly interesting for many reasons that I shall outline here.
Permaculture designer/teacher, Geoff Lawton, looks at water pumped from
an aquifer under Jordan’s famous Wadi Rum desert region.
All photographs © copyright Craig Mackintosh
Background
The Wadi Rum desert in the south of Jordan happens to be the site of Jordan’s largest mixed farm – Rum Farm. It might, for good reason, seem odd that this beautiful but largely abiotic location would host a large scale farm, let alone Jordan’s largest, but it begins to make sense when you learn that under the Wadi Rum desert (and stretching under the border mountains and well into Saudi Arabia) is a large aquifer. In fact, much of this desert nation’s water supply is dependent on this single water source.
Comments (15)Decoding Pattern
Building, Energy Systems, Food Forests, General, Land, Plant Systems, Retrofitting, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Adrian Buckley July 31, 2010
The modern-day education system is almost entirely bent on creating an army of university professors and other specialists. We have been systematically trained to specialize, and as a result we approach problem-solving by studying parts of a whole, where the connections between them are commonly ignored.
Comments (13)Companion Planting Guide
Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Trees — by Peter Dilley July 30, 2010
IDEP’s Companion Planting Guide
Click here for full PDF
Sometimes you end up wishing you had a resource at hand to make it easier to apply Permaculture principles. This was the case for myself when it came time to start thinking about beneficial groupings of plants and those groupings that do not go well together.
Comments (12)From Little Things Big Things Grow
Consumerism, Courses/Workshops, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Land, Markets & Outlets, People Systems, Retrofitting, Social Gatherings, Society, Trees, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Matt Lees
Have you ever grown your own food? Studies have shown that people who eat organic produce from their own garden have an increased sense of well being and good health.
In September 2007 I met a group of motivated, hardcore volunteer gardeners. When I say hardcore, some of these guys where involved with the guerrilla gardeners. They turn unused trashy areas and transform them into edible, self-sustaining gardens.
It started like this….
Some groups even go to extremes like dressing up in council uniforms or go out in the middle of the night and load their vans armed with fruit tree seedlings, compost and shovels.
Comments (4)Permacooking
Animal Processing, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Health & Disease, Medicinal Plants, Processing & Food Preservation, Recipes — by Marcelo Severo July 27, 2010
The farmer and the cook with Ethiopian Cabbage
First Week
I’ve just finished my first week working as the farm cook for the Permaculture Research Institute at Zaytuna Farm and already it’s been an amazing experience. To be able to cook at this wonderful and dynamic farm is a delight for all the gastronomical senses. If fresh, seasonal, local, delicious and nutritious ingredients are what good food is all about then consider this….
Comments (3)Solving All the Problems of the World – in a Garden
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Land, News, Nurseries & Propogation, People Systems, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Salination, Society, Soil Conservation, Trees, Urban Projects, Village Development, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh July 23, 2010
This video can be downloaded in high resolution from Vimeo (see ‘About this video’ section on lower right side’).
I hope you’ll enjoy this clip. More, I hope it encourages you to dare to be different, and dare to have your work noticed. The garden we profile in the video above, as you’ll discover after watching it, has just won a national competition held by the Jordanian Department of Education – for schools who incorporate environmental projects into their curriculum. This means that thousands of schools, in what is arguably the most water-stressed country on the planet, now have the possibility to learn from this humble example of permaculture in action – and get inspired to do similar.
Special thanks to Lesley Byrne for her enthusiastic support, and to Nadia Lawton for her vision and determination to help her own people – and in so doing setting such an excellent example for us all.
Seven Food Forests in Seven Minutes
Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Trees — by Patrick Blampied July 12, 2010
Food forests are at the heart of Permaculture and fast becoming a hot topic in many areas of debate as people realise the their full potential.
Let’s face it, with our all-consuming global problems, there aren’t many natural solutions out there that can halt and reverse deforestation, stabilise the climate by returning carbon to the soil where it belongs, solve poverty & extreme hunger, all in one hit, are there?
Yet this is exactly what the food forest is capable of, and provided people understand it and are at the centre of the system, they can go on living off that land forever.
Here is a video of Geoff Lawton showing a series of food forests that have been planted at Zaytuna farm over successive years.
And note that PRI sells the excellent Establishing a Food Forest DVD which is a full 90 minute DVD featuring Geoff Lawton as he demonstrates how to grow a food forest from start to finish.
Comments (5)International Clayballs for Peace Meeting in Haiti
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Deforestation, Food Forests, Nurseries & Propogation, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Seeds, Trees, Village Development — by Francesco Trio June 29, 2010
“Seeds after the earthquake” –
an international gathering event for solidarity and peace.
From October 26th to November 5th, 2010
After the earthquake that severely damaged Haiti in January 2010, we have the opportunity of acting in a concrete way to show solidarity with our Haitian sisters and brothers. We firmly believe that the real richness we can bring is in the improvement of the fertility of the soil, creating biodiversity and providing an ecosystem that will raise the amount of water in the environment as well as creating a food forest for the people to enjoy. Haiti suffers from extremely arid conditions. As a result, food production is low and the country is forced to import approximately 70% of its food. [Editor's addition - there are other factors too!] After the recent disaster Haitian people are even more dependent on foreign aid and imports.
From the 26th October to the 5th of November 2010 people from different parts of the world, together with local people from Haiti, will meet at the international ecovillage community of Sadhana Forest Haiti (www.sadhanaforesthaiti.org) in Anse a Pitre, Haiti, to learn how to make different types of seed-clayballs and throw them together on the land. We will all contribute to the recreation of an indigenous forest that will bring life and fertility as well as human solidarity. We will all live together as a big community.
Comments (2)Peters Lawton’s Rocket Pot and Rocket Rack System
Conservation, Deforestation, Food Forests, Nurseries & Propogation, Plant Systems, Trees, Waste Water — by Geoff Lawton April 27, 2010
Peter’s Lawton’s Rocket Pot and Rocket Rack system is an incredible new innovation in nursery systems.
I believe the Rocket Pot system is incredibly innovative, and the best nursery tree growing system that I have ever come across anywhere in the world. This system is something that I support because the trees grow healthier and more quickly, and with an abundant root zone. The roots actually grow in an untangled form, rapidly, in full sun, without the need for shade cloth or extra irrigation systems.
Comments (0)Vetiver – One Grass Revolution
Animal Forage, Earth Banks, Food Forests, Land, Material, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Conservation, Structure, Swales, Terraces — by Jonathon Chan April 19, 2010
During my relatively short time in the Permaculture movement I have only heard Vetiver mentioned a few times. Could it be that this profoundly important pioneer is not getting the attention it deserves? Although commonly and extensively used in permaculture sites in some parts of the world, its uptake in Australia in particular seems to be slow. Why would this be happening? How could a plant with such beneficial qualities be so disregarded? My stay with John Champagne of the Bega Valley, NSW, ingrained the great importance of this plant and introduced me to a few of many possible applications of the grass.
Compost & Soil Fertility – A Shitty Topic
Compost, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Shortages, Health & Disease, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Structure — by Patrick Blampied March 23, 2010
Wow, here’s a topic I could write more about than what I wrote in the About Me section! Now that must sound ludicrous to you because everyone knows how I like talking about me but we’ll see how I go since this is about the most important issue humanity is about to face.
Forget climate change (don’t do that but you get the point)…. Humanity’s number one environmental issue is poor soil and soil loss. It unpins all else and is therefore bigger than deforestation and pollution. But how is that, I hear you asking? Well, every living thing needs food and soil happens to be the food that feeds everything above it so before you can grow vegetables and fatten up beef to feed yourself and before you can plant a tree to clean the air you breath, you need healthy soil.
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