What is Permaculture - Part 1: Ethics Permaculture is primarily a thinking tool for designing low carbon, highly productive systems but its influence can be very pervasive! What can start as a journey towards living a more ecologically balanced lifestyle can go far deeper, even transforming our worldview and radically altering behaviour. This is the inspirational nature of permaculture, it is a means of connecting each of us more deeply to nature’s patterns and wisdom and of practically applying that understanding in our daily lives. The discipline of permaculture design is based on observing what makes natural systems endure; establishing simple yet effective principles, and using them to mirror nature in whatever we choose to design. Permaculture is not just a green way of living or a guiding system of ethics, it is a way of designing using nature’s principles as a model; ‘bending’ them as much as possible to create fertile, self-reliant, productive landscapes and communities. Earth Care People Care Fair Shares
Establishing a Permaculture Food Forest | Fractal Enlightenment Permaculture is a design system that is based on understanding ecosystems, it takes a look at the interactions between the trees, plants, fungi, bacteria, birds, animals and all other natural elements to create a sustainable ecosystem. In the first video we go through a slideshow with Josh Robinson a permaculturist gives us a detailed insight into Permaculture, the functioning and how it works as a sustainable solution in creating a food forest. He talks about the flaws in the tradition orchard system, where the same trees are planted together, thus making the soil deficient of the same nutrients, the need for fertilization and also susceptible to diseases. The alternative to this method is a permaculture food forest, a perennial polyculture of multi-purposed plants. Food forests are designed to be highly productive with the least amount of labor, this video will explain how to create a sustainable orchard that is patterned after nature.
Permaculture Research Institute of Australia » Fruit Flies in a Bottle Copyright 2010 by Ernest Partridge. Published here with permission of the author. Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings. – William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Place a few fruit flies in a bottle with a layer of honey at the bottom, and they will quickly multiply to an enormous number, and then, just as quickly, die off to the very last, poisoned by their wastes. Similarly, add a few yeast cells to grape juice, seal the bottle, and the cells will consume the sugar and turn it into alcohol. Fruit flies and yeast in a bottle are embarked upon suicidal endeavors. Human beings, we are told, are different. Human beings have these capacities. None of the antagonists in the First World War wanted the war. Finally, consider Easter Island. In his book, Collapse, Jared Diamond poses these questions in words that strike ominously close to home: Sound familiar? The answer, I submit, is most discouraging.
Free eBooks Archive - Permaculture Media Blog See also: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau - Civil Disobedience is an essay by Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. It argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War. Plants For A Future: Survey and Research Project on 'The Field' - A report is now available of the recently completed survey and research project on the 'The Field', the experimental site of Ken and Addy Fern ( Plants For A Future founders) in Cornwall, where they carried out research and provided information on edible and otherwise useful plants suitable for growing outdoors in a temperate climate. Best of the Permaculture Drylands Magazine - Now Online!
Permaculture: the ethics of gardening « Pennsylvania Echoes A couple weeks ago I took a class on soil, and I learned quite a lot. One definition of soil, pertaining to growing and gardening, is a “The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the Earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants”. Did you know that plant roots “decide” the type and levels of microbial life in their symbiotic soil relationships? The form of gardening that I am becoming more interested in is called Permaculture Design. “Permaculture is a system of assembling conceptual, material and strategic components in a pattern which in a pattern which functions to benefit Life in all forms. - “Intro To Permaculture” , B. The design principles and methods of Permaculture include an eclectic range of ideas that mirror other important philosophical systems Ethics in Action Permandala Mollison states that “Everything Gardens”, I wonder if we could say everything IS a garden,metaphorically. Food for thought Food for Fact More thoughts
Permaculture / Organic Farming - Documentary Films Archive // May 1st, 2012 // agriculture With information on mushroom cultivation, sowing a fruit forest, alternative ways to keep livestock, and more… Sepp Holzer farms steep mountainsides in Austria 1,500 meters above sea level. His farm is an intricate network of terraces, raised beds, ponds, waterways and tracks, well covered with productive fruit trees and other vegetation, with the farmhouse neatly nestling amongst them. In this book, Holzer shares the skill and knowledge acquired over his lifetime. In Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture readers will learn: How he sets up a permaculture systemThe fruit varieties he has found best for permaculture growingHow to construct terraces, ponds, and waterwaysHow to build shelters for animals and how to work with them on the landHow to cultivate edible mushrooms in the garden and on the farmand much more! Holzer offers a wealth of information for the gardener, smallholder or alternative farmer yet the book’s greatest value is the attitudes it teaches.
Permaculture Now! Introduction to Permaculture - 18 part webinar with Bill Wilson of Midwest Permaculture Interplanting and Beyond, An Excerpt from Gaia’s Garden // May 1st, 2012 // No Comments » // Uncategorized This coming Sunday, May 6, is International Permaculture Day! Permaculture is more than just a way to garden, it applies systems-thinking to every facet of our relationship to the earth and each other. Using different veggies’ strengths and weaknesses to avoid competition and maybe even get them to help each other out is called interplanting. The following is an excerpt from Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway. Vegetable gardeners have some experience in creating plant communities. Monocultures deplete the soil, provide a sumptuous feast for pests, and dull the senses. One simple interplanting scheme mixes onions, carrots, and lettuce in the same garden bed. Though interplanting saves space, it doesn’t go far enough for me. A second technique, companion planting, takes advantage of some of these mutual benefits. See also:
Permaculture Magazine - Inspiration for Sustainable Living | Permaculture Magazine The Most Beautiful Green Home Building Construction Project Ever? Design Published on April 9th, 2009 | by ziggy April 9th, 2009 by ziggy My jaw dropped when I first watched this video tour of a beautiful owner-built green building construction project in Oregon. This particular green building is made entirely out of cob, a mixture of clay, sand, and straw. Meka Bunch of Wolf Creek, Oregon built this stunning cob house over a four year period. Check out the video and photos of Meka’s cob cottage for yourself: [youtube= This couch is made of cob and features wood storage tucked underneath, right next to the stove. The kitchen features many shelves and nooks built directly into the cob walls, and also includes a small compost chute. The wood stove is surrounded by cob for thermal mass, and includes a warm nook with shelf to culture yogurt. Gorgeous custom-made cob staircase. The north porch of Meka’s cob cottage. I must say that Meka’s cob house design is one of my favorite projects that I’ve seen. About the Author
Permaculture With its system of applied education, research and citizen- led design permaculture has grown a popular web of global networks and developed into a global social movement[citation needed]. The term permaculture was developed and coined by David Holmgren, then a graduate student at the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education's Department of Environmental Design, and Bill Mollison, senior lecturer in Environmental Psychology at University of Tasmania, in 1978. [1] The word permaculture originally referred to "permanent agriculture",[3] but was expanded to stand also for "permanent culture", as it was understood that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system as inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka’s natural farming philosophy. It has many branches that include, but are not limited to, ecological design, ecological engineering, regenerative design, environmental design, and construction. History[edit] Several individuals revolutionized the branch of permaculture. In Australian P.A.