Permaculture

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Permaculture 6‘ . If there is a single claim, that I could make, in order to distinguish Permaculture from other systems of agriculture, with the notable exception of keyline concepts, it is that Permaculture is primarily a corzscio~sly designed agricultural system . a system that combines landscape design with perennial plants and animals to make a safe and sustainable resource for town and country. 4 truly appropriate technology giving high yields for low energy inputs, and using only human skill and intellect to achieve a stable resource of great complexity and stability.” 6‘ . Permaculture Two is about design, not gardening or livestock per se but as elements in a system intended to serve man, and the ends of good ecology . Good teachers have nothing to give but enthusiasm to learn; they cannot with the best will in the world, give their students knowledge. Thus it is ‘how’ to design, rather than designing your site which I am attempting here . .” ,‘ . both individual and competitive enterprise, and ‘free’ energy have faiIed us. Society is in a mess; obesity in the west is balanced by famine in the third world. Petrol is running out yet freeways are still being built. Against such universal insanity the only response is to gather together a few friends and commence to build the alternative on a philosophy of individual responsibility for community survival.” INTERNATIONAL TREE- CROPS INSTITUTE BOX 1272 l WINTERS. CA 95694 J ollison. PERMACULTURE !I: Practical Design and Further Theory in Pcrmancnt Acrisulture. A Tagari Community Book First Publication Australia, 1979 First Print 25,000 Copyright ‘~1 Bill Mollison, 1979 Nattonal Library of Australia Card and I.S.B.N. 0 938228 00 7 The contents of this book, and the word “Permaculture” are copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private stud!. research, criticitm or revicvv as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced hy any process without written permission from the author. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. Cover design and illustrations: Janet Mollison. Andrew Jeeves Photographs: Bill Mollison Tagari Books are published by TAGARI P.0. Box 96, Stanley, Tasmania, 733 1, Australia. Ph: 004-581105. (Mail-order and trade enquiries welcomed) Made and printed in Australia by Hedges and Bell, Maryborough. Victoria. ii “ . that veteran of Virgil’s I recall Who made a kitchen garden by the Galaesus On derelict land, and got the first of spring From airs and buds, the first fruits in the fall And lived at peacethere, happy as a king. I seeman’s native Stock is perennial, and our creative Winged seedcan strike a root in anything.” Cecil Day Lewis” . 111 Conventions As in Permaculture One, minor references are given in the text; major sources are listed in full, sometimes with a short annotation as to their usefulness, in Section 10 of this book, and Appendix D of Permaculture One (with some overlap in references). Seasonsand Dirtxt ions All months, seasons and directions are given for the southern hemisphere. For corresponding equivalents in the northern hemisphere it is simply necessary to reverse directions, and for plan- ting times add 6 months. All units are used in the original form. AbbreviationsUsed P.I. = Permaculture One P.11 = Permaculture Two P.C. = Permaculture P.Q. = Permaculture Quarterly, the journal of the Permaculture Association. Tagari is a small group of about 30 (but growing) parents, single people and children devllted to the evolution of the meta-industrial village*, and to experiments in alternative systems of agriculture and industry. It is a non-profit association, where surplus goes to furthering these aims. The writer is a foundation member, with his wife and friends. Please keep letters sparse and informative; we are very busy. If impelled to write, enclose self-addressed and stamped envelope; a few spare stamps also help. Workers are welcome in season, but please write first. *See, for a model, William Thompson, Darkness and Scattered Light, Anchor Books, 1978. Cover Story_I Concept: Janet Mullison, Artwork: Andrew Jeeves. Within the circle is a “rolling permaculture” systemof linked sun trap/wind break plantings (seeFigs. 4.5,4.6). each containing an element which takes advantageof the extra heat and light: a dwelling (glasshouse-fronted with reflec- tion pond in front) and annual garden; a milking shed; a polycultural pond: and a “simultaneous rotation” Fukuoka grain/legume/pulse plot. Outside the circle are the elements of life: air, fire, water, earth and time. Between these lies the landscape shaper of aboriginal mythology , . “We have a legend that explains the formation of the hills, the rivers and all the shapesof the land. Everytime ir rains and I see a beautiful rainbow I am reminded of the legend of the Rainbow Serpent . In the beginning the earth was flat, a vast grey plain. As the rainbow serpent wound his way across the land, the movement of his body heaped up the mountains and dug troughs for the rivers. With each thrust of his huge multi- coloured body a new land form was created. At last, tired with the effort of shaping the earth, he crawled mto a waterhole. The cool water washed over his vast body, cooling and soothing him . Each time the animals visited the waterhole, they were careful not to disturb the Rainbow Serpent, for although they could not seehim they knew he was there. Then one day, after a huge rainstorm., they saw him. His huge coloured body was arching up from the waterhole, over the tree tops, up through the clouds, across the plain to another waterhole. To this day the Aboriginals are careful not to disturb the Rainbow Serpent, as they seehim, going across the sky from one waterhole to another.” From Gulpilil’s Sfories ofthe Dreamtime, compiled by Hugh Rule and Stuart Goodman, published by William Collins, Sydney, 1979. iv Acknowledgments P.11 is rather a family affair, with Phil (my wife) typing, correcting and enduring; Janet (my daughter) fitting in some illustrations between formal studies and the members of Tagari assisting as needed. Andrew Jeeves in particular assisting with illustrations and proof reading. A great many people have contributed ideas and solutions to this book. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the fruitful discussions I have had with Geoff Wallace, Ken and P. A. Yeomans, Deborah White and Victor Papanek; and the encouragement of people I admire, like Ken Kern, Earle Barnhardt (New Alchemists), Stephen Gaskin (The Farm, Tennessee), Robert de Hart (co-author of Forest Farming) and innumerable friends in the alternative lifestyle move- ment. In Australia, Terry White continues to edit the Permaculture Quarterly despite financial con- straints, and a great many self-sufficiency freaks (with and without blue rinses and bare feet) have implemented many of the designs that were still theory in P.I., and have spread acceptance of the system far and wide. Contents conventions iv acknowledgements V 1 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Underlying Philosophy. 1.2 On Permanent Agriculture. : 2 6 DESIGN IN 2.1 On Design. 7 LANDSCAPE 2.2 Design Criteria. 7 1 Deciding Priorities 2.3 Zone and Sector Ground Planning. 10 1 How to Place Elements in Zones 2 How to Place Eiements in Sectors 2.4 Broadscale Landscape Analysis 16 1 Taking Advantage of Slope 2.5 How Much Land? 22 2.6 The Stacking of Plants. 23 1 System Establishment 2.7 The Interaction of Plants and Animals 24 1 Animals 29 soi! 3.1 Broadscale Soil Improvement 29 IMPROVEMENT 3.2 No-tillage Cropping 33 1 Green Crops 2 Pulses and Legumes, Hedgerow, Oil Plants 3 Distribution of Yield 3.3 Sheet Mulch for Home Gardens 40 1 Living Mulch 2 Stone Mulch 3 Keeping your Annuals Perennial 4 BROADSCALE 4.1 Planning an Even Fodder Distribution 46 TECHNIQUES 4.2 Rolling Permaculture for Larger Properties 48 1 On-farm and Urban Production of fuels from Plants 4.3 Orchards 52 1 Pruning-Necessity or Habit? 4.4 Woodlots and Hedgerows 53 5 56 DESIGN FOR 5.1 Arid Lands 56 DIFFICULT 1 Local Strategies CLIMATES 2 Livestock 3 Aboriginal Skills 4 Permanent Grain Plots vi Poultry Forage Systems 5 Notes on Aboriginal Nutrition 6 Annotated List of Useful Arid Land Species 7 Acknowledgements and Apologia 8 85 Tropics 4 2 Humid Tropics I 87 Sea Coasts 5.3 89 The Creation of Small Climates 5.4 90 6 90 The Reactive House 6.1 STRUCTURES 92 House Modifications 6.2 94 The Basic Sun-Wind Defences or Alliances 6.3 95 Some Novel Houses 6.4 Earth Houses 1 Plant Houses 2 102 Minor Designs and Techniques 6.5 Sound Walls 1 The Sod Roof 2 Fire Mandalas 3 Windows 4 Back to the Cave 5 Sewage and other Filthy Matters 6 7 107 Aquatic Polyculture 7.1 WATERWORKS 107 Waterworks Construction 7.2 Nomenclature of Ponds and Lakes 1 124 Pond Cuiture 7.3 129 Public Policy-the Sport Fishery 7.4 129 Salicornia Flats 7.5 130 Mariculture 7.6 Tidal Stone Traps 1 Seagrasses (Zostera, Heterozostera and Posidonia) 2 133 8 136 Establishment 8.1 FREE RANGE 136 Forage Storage 8.2 POULTRY 136 Regulation of Yield 8.3 DESIGN 138 Documentation 8.4 Species with Seeds and Pods in Summer 1 Trees and Shrubs yielding Nuts or Acorns for Storage (autumn-spring) 2 Berries and Fruits yielding Flesh or Seed (late summer-mid-winter) 3 Vines for Fences and Trellis 4 Roots 5 Greens and Seeds as Herb Layer 6 Species for Broadcast Sowing in Straw-Yards 7 Herbs, “Weeds” and “Throwover” Crop 8 Layout 9 vii 9 142 ON Action for People I43 PERMACULTURE AND COMMUNITY 10 145 FURTHER Design Consultancy I45 RESOURCES Standard Designs 145 Permaculture Quarterly and Association 147 The Permaculture Institute 147 Permaculture Species Index 147 Tagari 147 11 138 MAIN REFERENCES .
Recommended publications
  • Weed Control
    2530 SAN PABLO AVENUE, BERKELEY, CA 94702 | 510.548.2220 X 233 [email protected] | WWW.ECOLOGYCENTER.ORG Non-Toxic Weed Control Weed control can be achieved Organic Weed Control through a combination of planting • Mulch. To get weeds under techniques, mulching, hand control, try sheet mulching. Put pulling, hoeing and prevention. down newspaper or corrugated Unfortunately, there are no cardboard one or two inches environmentally safe miracle thick. Cover with two to four products that come in bottles. inches of straw, leaves, or wood Weeds can be beneficial, and they chips. Keep the mulched area can be controlled with the tried and moderately moist. Sheet mulching true suggestions below. can be especially effective against hard-to-control weeds because Beneficial Uses of Weeds it robs them of light and doesn’t • Improve your soil. You can use allow them to grow past the deep-rooted weeds to improve barrier. (Mulching also holds in your soil. Some deep divers open soil moisture, reducing the need up the subsoil to water and to the for watering.) Avoid using plastic roots of more delicate plants. (Try sheeting, because it blocks out air lambsquarter, sowthistle, vetch, and kills the beneficial organisms wild chicory, plantain, purslane, in your soil that keep it healthy. nightshade.) After a plot has been weeded, • Attract beneficial insects. Many a four-inch-thick organic mulch weeds also provide pollen for helps control weeds by inhibiting bees and serve as a refuge for the germination of weed seeds certain beneficial insects. (Try beneath the mulch. Any weeds weed control mustard, wild radish, pigweed, that root in the loose mulching white sweet clover.) material are also easier to pull.
    [Show full text]
  • 2020 Garden Mentor Program New Gardener Manual
    2020 Garden Mentor Program New Gardener Manual Mentor:___________________________ New Gardener Contact Information: Name:_____________________________ Telephone:_________________________ Email:______________________________ Victory Garden Initiative 249 E. Concordia Ave. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53212 414-431-0888 VictoryGardenInitiative.org Dear Garden Mentor, Thank you for volunteering to help show others the joys of gardening! Your time and advice will change the food system for a person, a family, and a community. The Garden Mentor Program has two goals. First, to help new gardeners experience success in their first season. We believe that early success makes new gardeners more likely to continue growing food in years to come. Second, we want Garden Mentors to build community around growing food. By getting to know our neighbors, we build a resilient network of homesteaders and gardeners who can help each other and encourage others to grow their own food. Relationship building is at the core of this program. It is important to learn about your gardener and their goals first. The advice you provide should be based on the individual needs of the gardener(s) you are paired with. Some gardeners may be interested in topics not covered here. Therefore, this packet should be used as a guide rather than a road map. In the past our program had required you to meet with your gardener five times over the course of the growing season, but we understand that people are busy and cannot necessarily commit to this requirement and most people do not seek this much assistance. That is why we have changed the structure of the program to be more relaxed to accommodate each new gardener at their (and your) own convenience.
    [Show full text]
  • Course Handout for Introduction to Forest Gardening
    COURSE HANDOUT FOR INTRODUCTION TO FOREST GARDENING Complied by Jess Clynewood and Rich Wright Held at Coed Hills Rural Art Space 2010 ETHICS AND PRINCIPLES OF PERMACULTURE Care for the Earth v Care for the people v Fair shares PRINCIPLES Make the least change for the greatest effect v Mistakes are tools for learning v The only limits to the yield of a system are imagination and understanding Observation – Protracted and thoughtful observation rather than prolonged and thoughtless action. Observation is a key tool to re-learn. We need to know what is going on already so that we don’t make changes we will later regret. Use and value diversity - Diversity allows us to build a strong web of beneficial connections. Monocultures are incredibly fragile and prone to pests and diseases – diverse systems are far more robust and are intrinsically more resilient. Relative Location and Beneficial Connections – View design components not in isolation but as part of a holistic system. Place elements to maximise their potential to create beneficial connections with other elements. Multi-functional Design – Try and gain as many yields or outputs from each element in your design as possible. Meet every need in multiple ways, as many elements supporting each important function creates stability and resilience. Perennial systems – minimum effort for maximum gain Create no waste - The concept of waste is essentially a reflection of poor design. Every output from one system could become the input to another system. We need to think cyclically rather than in linear systems. Unmet needs = work, unused output = pollution. Stacking – Make use of vertical as well as horizontal space, filling as many niches as possible.
    [Show full text]
  • Building the Sustainable Landscape
    Building the Sustainable Urban Landscape DR. ELLEN VINCENT S O I S A MYRTLE BEACH, SC 1 8 F E B 2 0 1 4 Acknowledgments Thank you to: Dale Westemeier, City of Greenville Danny Burbage, Charleston Tom Smiley, Bartlett Tree Resources Lab Paul Minerva, Derek Ham, Steve Gillum, Tyler Jones, Clemson University And for long-term inspiration: Drs. Don Ham, Kim Coder, and Ed Gilman Overview Sustainability defined Components of the SL Design intent- Aesthetics Function: size & access Ecosystems services Cost effectiveness Vincent by Ellen Photo Sustainable spaces Centennial Oak Quercus macrocarpa, Clemson campus Sustainability: historic def. 1987 “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without Healthy compromising the ability of Environment future generations to meet Vincent Ellen by pyramid triadIssue their own needs” (World Commission, 1987, p. 8). Sustainability Economic Social Justice Development The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Our common future.. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gro Harlan Brundtland (b. 1939) 5 http://www.kennuncorked.com/images_multiple_locations/sus_history_gro_harlem_brundtland.gif Norwegian Minister for Environmental Affairs (1974-1979) Prime Minister of Norway (Feb –Oct 1981, May 1986-Oct 1989) Chair of United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, published Our Common Future (April, 1987) aka The Brundtland Report Commissioners: 22 people 21 countries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro_Harlem_Brundtland Sustainability http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro_Harlem_Brundtland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro_Harlem_Brundtland “The ‘environment’ is where we all live; and ‘development’ is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable” –Gro Harlem Brundtland (The Case for Sustainable Landscapes, 2009, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Driving Dispossession
    DRIVING DISPOSSESSION THE GLOBAL PUSH TO “UNLOCK THE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF LAND” DRIVING DISPOSSESSION THE GLOBAL PUSH TO “UNLOCK THE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF LAND” Acknowledgements Authors: Frédéric Mousseau, Andy Currier, Elizabeth Fraser, and Jessie Green, with research assistance by Naomi Maisel and Elena Teare. We are deeply grateful to the many individual and foundation donors who make our work possible. Thank you. Views and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the Oakland Institute alone and do not reflect opinions of the individuals and organizations that have sponsored and supported the work. Design: Amymade Graphic Design, [email protected], amymade.com Cover Photo: Maungdaw, Myanmar - Farm laborers and livestocks are seen in a paddy field in Warcha village April 2016 © FAO / Hkun La Photo page 7: Wheat fields © International Finance Corporation Photo page 10: USAID project mapping and titling land in Petauke, Zambia in July 2018 ©Sandra Coburn Photo page 13: Lettuce harvest © Carsten ten Brink Photo page 16: A bull dozer flattens the earth after forests have been cleared in West Pomio © Paul Hilton / Greenpeace Photo page 21: Paddy fields © The Oakland Institute Photo page 24: Forest Fires in Altamira, Pará, Amazon in August, 2019 © Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace Publisher: The Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). You are free to share, copy, distribute, and transmit this work under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work to the Oakland Institute and its authors.
    [Show full text]
  • A New Strategy for Utilizing Rice Forage Production Using a No-Tillage System to Enhance the Self-Sufficient Feed Ratio of Small Scale Dairy Farming in Japan
    Sustainability 2014, 6, 4975-4989; doi:10.3390/su6084975 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Article A New Strategy for Utilizing Rice Forage Production Using a No-Tillage System to Enhance the Self-Sufficient Feed Ratio of Small Scale Dairy Farming in Japan Windi Al Zahra 1, Takeshi Yasue 2, Naomi Asagi 2, Yuji Miyaguchi 2, Bagus Priyo Purwanto 1 and Masakazu Komatsuzaki 3,* 1 Faculty of Animal Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University, Jl. Raya Darmaga Kampus IPB Darmaga Bogor, West Java 16680, Indonesia 2 College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, 3-21-1 Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan 3 Center for Field Science Research and Education, Ibaraki University, 3-21-1 Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel./Fax: +81-29-888-8707. Received: 19 March 2014; in revised form: 21 July 2014 / Accepted: 21 July 2014 / Published: 6 August 2014 Abstract: Rice forage systems can increase the land use efficiency in paddy fields, improve the self-sufficient feed ratio, and provide environmental benefits for agro-ecosystems. This system often decreased economic benefits compared with those through imported commercial forage feed, particularly in Japan. We observed the productivities of winter forage after rice harvest between conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) in a field experiment. An on-farm evaluation was performed to determine the self-sufficient ratio of feed and forage production costs based on farm evaluation of the dairy farmer and the rice grower, who adopted a rice forage system. The field experiment detected no significant difference in forage production and quality between CT and NT after rice harvest.
    [Show full text]
  • Opening up the South
    Hungry Corporations: CO EXUS E N Transnational Biotech Companies Colonise the Food Chain By Helena Paul and Ricarda Steinbrecher with Devlin Kuyek and Lucy Michaels www.econexus.info In association with Econexus and Pesticide Action Network, Asia-Pacific [email protected] Published by Zed Books, November 2003 Chapter 8: Opening Up the South The end is control. To properly understand the means one must first understand the end. A farmer who doesn’t borrow money and plants his own seed is difficult to control because he can feed himself and his neighbours. He doesn’t have to depend on a banker or a politician in a distant city. While farmers in America today are little more than tenants serving corporate and banking interests, the rural Third World farmer has remained relatively out of the loop – until now.1 As the tables that follow show clearly, most GM crops total commercial seed sales of $30 billion for 2001 (see to date have been planted in the North, primarily the Chapter 4), they are also the biggest seed players. US. Argentina is the only country in the South that In order to progress, the companies are looking for grows them on a large scale; GM soya has been grown allies and networks they can use, such as the CNFA there since 1996. China is growing Bt cotton (see pp. 126–9). It is also important to influence the commercially, and a comparatively small amount of governments and institutions (such as universities and tobacco. However, the push into the South is beginning extension services) of countries in the global South, so to accelerate.
    [Show full text]
  • Permaculture Orchard: Beyond Organic
    The Permaculture Orchard: Beyond Organic Stefan Sobkowiak answers questions from people like you Compiled by Hugo Deslippe Formatted by James Samuel 1 Table Of Contents Introduction 3 Tree Care 4 Types Of Trees 13 Other Plants 22 Ground Cover 24 The Soil 26 Pests and other critters 30 Animals and friendly insects 32 Orchard Patterning 34 Permaculture concepts 35 Starting an orchard 37 Business questions 45 About Stefan and the Farm 51 Profiles 59 2 Introduction In June 2014, Stefan Sobkowiak and Olivier Asselin released an incredible movie called The Permaculture Orchard: Beyond Organic. Subsequently, Stefan was asked many questions about permaculture, orchards, fruit trees, etc. I decided to compile the questions about the permaculture orchard and the answers here. Most of the questions are taken from the following sources: The permies.com forum, in the growies / forest garden section. Les Fermes Miracle Farms Facebook page The Permaculture Orchard: Beyond Organic’s forum section Lastly, I want to specify that I claim no authorship or any credits at all for what follows, it’s all from elsewhere and only 2 or 3 of the questions are actually mine. If you have any questions for Stefan, especially after watching the movie: The Permaculture Orchard, Beyond Organic, please post them on the movie’s website forum. This is a long thread so to find what you are looking for, you might want to do CTRL F and type the term you want in the search box. It should work in your PDF reader too. Stefan answers multiples questions everyday so not all his answers are included.
    [Show full text]
  • Australian Permaculture Grow
    pip AUSTRALIAN PERMACULTURE GROW . BUILD . EAT . THRIVE . NURTURE . DESIGN GUIDE TO BEEHIVES . BROTH . PERMACULTURE TRAVEL . MENDING DESIGN PROCESS . EDIBLE PERENNIALS . LIFE WITH BEES . 18-DAY HOT COMPOST Beekeeping Naturally ‘It’s not just about the honey’ Natural, organic Beekeeping Courses with Keyan Top Bar Hives Spring and Summer courses Bermagui NSW | Melbourne | Canberra www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au CONTENTS REGULAR 6. PERMACULTURE AROUND THE WORLD by Morag Gamble 8. PIP PICKS 10. NOTICEBOARD 11. PERMACULTURE’S NEXT BIG STEP by Ben Habib 17 12. PERMACULTURE PLANT: COMFREY by Beck Lowe 13. RARE BREEDS: CAYUGA DUCK by Tabitha Bilaniwskyj-Zarins 14. EAT YOUR WEEDS: DANDELION by Patrick Jones 15. SAVE YOUR SEEDS: LETTUCE by Liz Worth 89. COURSE PROVIDERS 92. COURSE DIRECTORY 95: REAL ESTATE 96. BOOK REVIEWS 32 11 FEATURES: 22 17. LIFE WITH BEES by Simon Mulvany, Julie Armstrong and Robyn Rosenfeldt 22. NATIVE BEES IN THE PERMACULTURE GARDEN by Megan Halcroft 26. A LOOK INSIDE THE HIVE: A GUIDE TO CHOOSING THE BEST HONEYBEE HIVE by Adrian Iodice 32. ARTIST AS FAMILY: THE ART OF PERMACULTURE TRAVEL by Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman 36. PERMACULTURE TIMOR LESTE AND A TROPICAL PERMACULTURE GUIDEBOOK by Sarah Davis and 70 Lachlan McKenzie 2 | PIP MAGAZINE GROW: EAT: 38. SAVE OUR SOILS by Geoff Lawton 54. TOWARDS A PERMACULTURE DIET 42. MERRI BEE ORGANIC FARMACY by Ross Mars by Ian Lillington and Marita Zeh 44. PERENNIAL ABUNDANCE: TEN EDIBLE PERENNIALS 59. EMMA LUPIN: TROPICAL FOOD AMBASSADOR by Morag Gamble by Holli Thomas BUILD: THRIVE: 62. THE LOST ART OF MENDING by Annie Werner 47.
    [Show full text]
  • Permaculture in Humid Landscapes
    II PERMACULTURE IN HUMID LANDSCAPES BY BILL MOLLISON Pamphlet II in the Permaculture Design Course Series PUBLISHED BY YANKEE PERMACULTURE Publisher and Distributor of Permaculture Publications Barking Frogs Permaculture Center P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192-0052 USA Email: [email protected] http://www.permaculture.net/~EPTA/Hemenway.htm Edited from the Transcript of the Permaculture Design Course The Rural Education Center, Wilton, NH USA 1981 Reproduction of this Pamphlet Is Free and Encouraged Pamphlet II Permaculture in Humid Landscapes Page 1. The category we are in now is hu- mid landscapes, which means a rain- fall of more than 30 inches. Our thesis is the storage of this water on the landscape. The important part is that America is not doing it. The humid landscape is water con- trolled, and unless it is an extremely new landscape- volcanic or newly faulted--it has softly rounded out- lines. When you are walking up the valley, or walking on the ridge, ob- serve that there is a rounded 'S' shaped profile to the hills. Where the landscape turns from convex to concave occurs a critical Having found the keypoint, we can now treat the whole landscape as if it were a roof and point that we call a keypoint.* a tank. The main valley is the main flow, from the horizontal, we put in a nomically store water. It is a rather with many little creeks entering. At groove around the hill. This is the deep little dam, and we need a fair the valley head where these creeks highest point at which we can work amount of Earth to build it.
    [Show full text]
  • Evaluation and Screening of Co-Culture Farming Models in Rice Field Based on Food Productivity
    sustainability Article Evaluation and Screening of Co-Culture Farming Models in Rice Field Based on Food Productivity Tao Jin 1,2, Candi Ge 3, Hui Gao 1, Hongcheng Zhang 1 and Xiaolong Sun 3,* 1 Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China; [email protected] (T.J.); [email protected] (H.G.); [email protected] (H.Z.) 2 Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Physiology, Agricultural College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China 3 Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +86-25-84390280 Received: 18 February 2020; Accepted: 10 March 2020; Published: 11 March 2020 Abstract: Traditional farming practice of rice field co-culture is a time-tested example of sustainable agriculture, which increases food productivity of arable land with few adverse environmental impacts. However, the small-scale farming practice needs to be adjusted for modern agricultural production. Screening of rice field co-culture farming models is important in deciding the suitable model for industry-wide promotion. In this study, we aim to find the optimal rice field co-culture farming models for large-scale application, based on the notion of food productivity. We used experimental data from the Jiangsu Province of China and applied food-equivalent unit and arable-land-equivalent unit methods to examine applicable protocols for large-scale promotion of rice field co-culture farming models. Results indicate that the rice-loach and rice-catfish models achieve the highest food productivity; the rice-duck model increases the rice yield, while the rice-turtle and rice-crayfish models generate extra economic profits.
    [Show full text]
  • A 9-Step Easy Sheet Permaculture Mulching Technique Mulch Is Marvelous
    A 9-Step Easy Sheet Permaculture Mulching Technique Mulch is marvelous. It performs a variety of for many locations. functions that help save the permaculture gardener time and effort, while providing the It is intended for plots that are at the start of soil and plants with a great deal of organic a transition to a permaculture garden, and matter, making for healthier soil and, thus, for larger areas that require mulching You healthier plants. Permaculture Mulching can spot mulch around specific plants and refers to the covering of areas of soil with trees, but remember to leave some space one or more layers of material. In a around the stem or trunk to prevent permaculture garden these layers are overwhelming the plant. organic in nature, and the mulch benefits the soil in several ways. Firstly, it helps to Step 1 preserve moisture in the soil by protecting it Slash down any long grass and weeds. Leave from excessive evaporation. Mulch also the cut plants where they fall. They will add improves the health and quality of the soil by organic matter to the soil through the creating a stable environment for bacteria mulching process. Don’t worry about leaving and microorganisms to function, as well as weed seeds or roots on the ground; the via the nutrients in the mulch itself, which subsequent layers of the mulching process are slowly broken down and added to the will prevent them from re-sprouting by soil. Mulch also adds organic matter to the depriving them of the sunlight they need to soil when it is used to control weed growth.
    [Show full text]