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)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)A Call to Large Scale Earth Healing and Lessons from the Loess Plateau (Video)
Alternatives to Political Systems, Biodiversity, Community Projects, Conservation, Consumerism, Dams, Deforestation, Economics, Food Shortages, Gabions, Global Warming/Climate Change, Land, Plant Systems, Population, Regional Water Cycle, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Swales, Terraces, Trees, Village Development, Water Contaminaton, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh
The world is coming unglued. The world burns. What are we going to do about it?
Map of fires in Russia
As I type, half of Russia is on fire after its hottest summer on record, Pakistan is dealing with the biggest floods in living memory and Australia is still in the clutches of a decade long drought. The last decade, worldwide, was the hottest since records began, and 2010 may break the records of 1998 and 2005 to become the hottest year we’ve ever known. We could spend weeks just examining the extreme weather events going on on a country by country basis.
Comments (12)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)Are Eucalypts Weeds?
Conservation, Land, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Regional Water Cycle, Trees — by Ecofilms July 29, 2010
For many years they’ve been seen as a symbol of pride in Australia. Expatriate writers in the 50s and 60s would write about returning to Sydney by ship and about being greeted by the smell of wafting gum tree leaves as they waxed lyrical about the nostalgia they felt for home.
Authorities still plant them everywhere. In parks, next to footpaths, street corners, new housing development estates, Eucalypts are as Australian as the Emu and the Kangaroo. They are seen nearly everywhere and nobody seems to take them as a threat in Australia.
But should Eucalypts be re-examined as a noxious weed?
Comments (15)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)Flying Blind with Four Photos and an Outdated Google Map
Commercial Farm Projects, Demonstration Sites, Land, Nurseries & Propogation, Plant Systems, Podcasts, Rehabilitation, Trees — by Nick Huggins May 19, 2010
It can be hard making the leap from studying Permaculture to actually working it so I thought I’d share my first experience on making that leap.
Flying Blind with Four Photos and an Outdated Google MapHop in my shoes – I was asked to consult and work on a property in inland New South Wales, with some of the worst drought conditions in Australia, after some of the world’s leading consultants on land hydration and rehabilitation had been there.
Comments (10)Tropical Soils: Less is More in Fast Carbon Pathways, but Only with Standing Forest
Courses/Workshops, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Fungi, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Structure, Trees — by Planet People Passion May 16, 2010
The Amazon rainforest is one of the most amazing displays of symbiotic relationships one can experience in the world. This complex and layered eco-system thrives through the many systems and cycles that interweave through the layers of canopy, creating one of the most bio-diverse displays of life on the planet. Nature designs the most magnificent Permaculture systems – it is quite an experience to spend time in this magical place and humbly observe her teachings.
Amazon rainforest boundary
Observing the thriving and abundant rainforest, it is hard for some to comprehend why neighboring agriculture in the region experiences quite the opposite affect, but the answer is quite simple – it’s all about the soil.
Comments (0)Permaculture Indigenous Tree Project in Ghana
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Deforestation, Developments, Nurseries & Propogation, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Trees, Village Development — by Paul Yeboah May 14, 2010
The Ghanian branch of the Australian Edge 5 Permaculture company, in partnership with the permaculture network in Ghana, has, since the year 2006, been supporting indigenous tree seed collection, communities tree nursery and forestation, tree plantings in schools and planting trees along rivers in Ghana.
Comments (2)Podcast: Buy Water Rights, Sell Riverina’s Future
Conservation, Dams, Gabions, Irrigation, Land, Limonia, News, Plant Systems, Podcasts, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Swales, Trees, Water Contaminaton, Water Harvesting — by Patrick Blampied April 29, 2010
Last week Permaculture consultant Nick Huggins spoke to Anne Delaney from the ABC Riverina Breakfast radio program in Wagga Wagga, NSW. Listen here:
Nick Huggins Talks to ABC Radio About Riverina’s Water Blues
A backgrounder: Two Permaculture consultants, currently drought proofing a property in Livingstone, are calling for an end to the Australian Government’s water buy-back scheme, saying turning off the taps rather than helping farmers repair degraded landscape is selling the Riverina’s future short.
Comments (9)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.
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