What is permaculture

[skeeter]

What is permaculture?? I feel like I'm in a beauty shoppe, but seriously I don't know what this is about

[Genghis Bong]

Hey Skeets,


http://permaculture.org.au/?page_id=20

What is Permaculture?
Posted in General by Administrator on the September 13th, 2005

Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order.

Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all its forms.

The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless action; of looking at systems in all their functions, rather than asking only one yield of them; and allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions.

PERMACULTURE IN LANDSCAPE AND SOCIETY

As the basis of permaculture is beneficial design, it can be added to all other ethical training and skills, and has the potential of taking a place in all human endeavors. In the broad landscape, however, permaculture concentrates on already-settled areas and agricultural lands. Almost all of these need drastic rehabilitation and re-thinking. One certain result of using our skills to integrate food supply and settlement, to catch water from our roof areas, and to place nearby a zone of fuel forest which receives wastes and supplies energy, will be to free most of the area of the globe for the rehabilitation of natural systems. These need never be looked upon as “of use to people”, except in the very broad sense of global health.

The real difference between a cultivated (designed) ecosystem, and a natural system is that the great majority of species (and biomass) in the cultivated ecology is intended for the use of humans or their livestock. We are only a small part of the total primeval or natural species assembly, and only a small part of its yields are directly available to us. But in our own gardens, almost every plant is selected to provide or support some direct yield for people. Household design relates principally to the needs of people; it is thus human-centered (anthropocentric).

This is a valid aim for settlement design, but we also need a nature-centered ethic for wilderness conservation. We cannot, however, do much for nature if we do not govern our greed, and if we do not supply our needs from our existing settlements. If we can achieve this aim, we can withdraw from much of the agricultural landscape, and allow natural systems to flourish.

Recycling of nutrients and energy in nature is a function of many species. In our gardens, it is our own responsibility to return wastes (via compost or mulch) to the soil and plants. We actively create soil in our gardens, whereas in nature many other species carry out that function. Around our homes we can catch water for garden use, but we rely on natural forested landscapes to provide the condenser leaves and clouds to keep rivers running with clean water, to maintain the global atmosphere, and to lock up our gaseous pollutants. Thus, even anthropocentric people would be well-advised to pay close attention to, and to assist in, conservation of existing forests and to assist in, the conservation of all existing species and allow them a place to live.

We have abused the land and laid waste to systems we never need have disturbed had we attended to our home gardens and settlements. If we need to state a set of ethics on natural systems, then let it be thus:

* Implacable and uncompromising opposition to further disturbance of any remaining natural forests, where most species are still in balance;
* Vigorous rehabilitation of degraded and damaged natural systems to stable states;
* Establishment of plant systems for our own use on the least amount of land we can use for our existence; and
* Establishment of plant and animal refuges for rare or threatened species.

Permaculture as a design system deals primarily with the third statement above, but all people who act responsibly in fact subscribe to the first and second statements. We believe should use all the species we need or can find to use in our own settlement designs, providing they are not locally rampant and invasive.

[Genghis Bong]

I feel like I'm in a beauty shoppe, but seriously I don't know what this is about

You don't need a beauty shoppe when you are just naturally "dead sexy" :D

[skeeter]

Thanks man.. This will no doubt be a good thread to watch, and learn from

[capt carnuba]

Just a little fyi, On the aspect of nitrogen fixing, Corn,Beans and Squash, as evidenced by years of indigenous agriculture grow harmoniously together and do not sap the soil. Squash and polebeans always find their way into my Corn patch. v a green manure covering also fixes the patch while giving the wee beasties something to nosh on.

[plantbuilder]

:)

great opportunity to learn here
hiya lancifer! lol

peas.
pb

[The Cannarchist]

We try to grow all our food with the same love that we put into the cannabis plant.I only wish that we could plant her in our food gardens to see how she effects everything around her.....one day.....

[The Cannarchist]

BTW.....

I'd like to introduce you all to my dearest friend...Lancifer.A master gardener and ethnobotanist of the highest acclaim.If you ever want to know about "spiritual" plants of every shape and form ,or how to feed yourself in ANY situation he is the man to ask.(And he loves his mushrooms as well...)

Lancifer took the hit for my first ever bust in Canada...I would have been deported back then....He held his hand up freely and lovingly.....And got away with a small fine and a slap on the wrist.....God bless BC!

The ONLY way to TRUE freedom is to learn how to...

Feed yourself,house yourself and clothe yourself.

Nothing else will do.

[capt carnuba]

It's time to write the cannabis Walden. :)

[Genghis Bong]

I wonder if Thoreau ever smoked a joint? if not, I bet he would have loved it.

[Genghis Bong]

Small Farm

http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/klassen/klassen5.html

by Robert Klassen

Exclusive to STR

Many years ago I rented a small farm at the edge of a rural community. I did this so that my wife would have space for her horses, and so that I had a quiet place to study and write on my four days off every week. The farm had three acres planted in mature walnuts, and two pastures of three acres each. The place came with an old diesel tractor fitted with a disc harrow, and part of the rental agreement included using the tractor to maintain fire lanes and to generally control weeds.

I did not intend to earn money on the place, although I sold a ton of walnuts every year, but I was interested in experimenting a bit. One pasture had been overgrazed, and was consequently overgrown with noxious star thistle. The other pasture had been neglected and unused for years, and was overgrown with a rich variety of weeds and grasses with very little star thistle. I was reminded of Louis Bromfield

[c-ray]

iiLx3GpzsPQ

[Lungus]

Excellent vid C.

[capt_hardbud]

nice spot he has there, thanks for sharing that C-ray luved it

[brokencage]

wow realy cool vid.thanks for sharing.:)