Permaculture Forums at Permies. Permaculture articles by paul wheaton.
Masanobu Fukuoka's Natural Farming and Permaculture | Permaculture & Alcohol Can Be A Gas. Masanobu Fukuoka is a farmer/philosopher who lives on the Island of Shikoku, in southern Japan. His farming technique requires no machines, no chemicals and very little weeding. He does not plow the soil or use prepared compost and yet the condition of the soil in his orchards and fields improve each year. His method creates no pollution and does not require fossil fuels. His method requires less labor than any other, yet the yields in his orchard and fields compare favorably with the most productive Japanese farms which use all the technical know-how of modern science.
How is this possible? I had not heard of permaculture at the time, but I can see now that Fukuoka's farm is a classic working model of permaculture design. Mollison and Fukuoka took entirely different routes to get to essentially the same place. The key word here is design. The idea for natural farming came to Fukuoka when he was about twenty five years old.
But where to begin? Zone 2 is his grain fields. Larry Korn P.O.
Permaculture design course. Permaculture - Food Forests | HelpfulGardener.com. Well, one guild certainly isn't enough to build a food forest but, we're on our way. Incidentally, the apple guild also works with plum, nectarine and peach trees. Anyway, on to another guild: The Walnut Guild: At the center of this guild is the walnut tree. Walnut trees are a little more difficult to deal with because the are allelopathic plants. This means that they secrete a chemical or chemicals (in this case Juglone) into the soil that inhibit the growth of other plants. Therefore, plants must be chosen that are resistant to juglone. With this bath of allelopathic chemicals, it is difficult to surmise what plants might grow in this specialized niche. Something is needed to help feed the soil with Nitrogen and the perfect candidates are members of the Elaegnus genus. Elderberries, worlfberries and mullberries are also planted in this guild.
For a sustainable & ethical future - DESIGNING TO RECLINE: Introducing Permaculture gardening. Written by quercusrobur An episode of the Australian TV series "Global Gardener" features Bill Mollison demonstrating the making of his permaculture garden. Planting through sheet mulches of newspaper and straw, he claims to have created a landscape able to satisfy all of his needs for food, wood, medicine and fibres in less than thirty working days over a three-year period. "And this is where the designer turns into the recliner," he winks, lying back and munching fruit amongst an embarrassment of abundance.
“If you have it well planted, you can pretend to be working in the garden and be invisible from the house…" The word 'permaculture'is a contraction of PERMAnent agriCULTURE (or sometimes PERMAnent CULTURE), a term coined in the late seventies by Mollison and his fellow countryman David Holmgren. Permaculture isn't about having to get your head around untold facts, figures, Latin names and complicated techniques. Work with nature, not against it Create diversity Close the broken cycles. Global Gardener (Bill Mollison, Permaculture) 4 - Urban.avi. CNPS - California Native Plant Society. Article | Alpine Garden of Eden proves Mother Nature knows best. AUSTRIA: August 28, 2001 RAMINGSTEIN, Austria - In the coldest part of Austria, a farmer is turning conventional wisdom on its head by growing a veritable Garden of Eden full of tropical plants in the open on his steep Alpine pastures. Amid average annual temperatures of a mere 4.2 degrees Celsius (39.5 Fahrenheit), Sepp Holzer grows everything from apricots to eucalyptus, figs to kiwi fruit, peaches to wheat at an altitude of between 1,000 and 1,500 metres (3,300 and 4,900 feet).
Once branded a fool, fined and threatened with imprisonment for defying Austrian regulations that dictate what is planted where, he is now feted worldwide for creating the only functioning "permaculture" farm in Europe. Permaculture, an abbreviation of permanent culture, is the development of agricultural ecosystems which are complete and self-sustaining. "Once planted, I do absolutely nothing," Holzer told Reuters. "I followed their advice initially, but my trees started dying off. Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster. Composting, Permaculture And Sustainable Home Gardening Methods. We heard from a number of listeners on our facebook page and on twitter who wanted to know more about composting and permaculture, so we’ve put together an entire episode devoted to just that!
And for folks interested in growing food indoors, we also talk with some experts about hydroponics and aquaponics as well. Composting and Vermiculture Composting is the practice of taking organic matter – like food scraps and leaves – putting it in a big pile so that it breaks down over time. The result is a rich soil amendment.
No more buying fertilizers, and no more throwing banana peels into the landfill. Earth Eats’ Annie Corrigan visited Worm’s Way Garden Center (a locally owned and operated company based just outside of Bloomington, Indiana) to learn more. We spoke with Sharlene Fish , who told us that it’s possible to compost in an apartment without having your kitchen smell like a garbage truck. Photo: Andrew Olanoff/WFIU Sharlene Fish is the Indiana Consumer Operations Manager at Worm's Way. ECOSF. Family of Four Grows Their Food in a Swimming Pool. Images: Youtube screen grabs Food Doesn't Get More Local Than That A family living in Mesa, Arizona, has decided to convert an old unused backyard swimming pool into a very productive DIY urban greenhouse, which they named Garden Pool.
Within a small, mostly enclosed space, they grow all kinds of vegetables and herbs, as well as raise chickens and tilapia fish. They started this project in 2009 and expected to be "self-sufficient" by 2012, but they've reached that goal this year, getting "8 fresh eggs a day, unlimited tilapia fish, organic fruit, veggies, and herbs 365 days a year" (though I'm not sure if by self-sufficient they mean that they could theoretically live off the amount of food the Garden Pool produces, or if they actually do it).
Check out the video tour of the Garden Pool below. An Oasis in the Desert There's a more detailed list of things they grow and facts about the Garden Pool here. Photo: GardenPool.org The Garden Pool is also off-grid thanks to solar PV! Via Gardenpool. Permaculture Institute. Permaculture Activist Magazine.