March 31st, 2011

Why do we look at the abundance of nature and know that as ‘beautiful’, while we look at our landscape and demand a sparse sense of order?  In permaculture, the abundance we want to strive for is that of exuberant Nature. 

Can we learn to appreciate the sustainability of Nature’s system?  Garden Club awards are not made of this aesthetic.   Permaculture places plants together to support the ‘community’ in what are called guilds. Each plant performs many functions from providing nitrogen fixation and drawing nutrients from the subsoil – to providing food for pollinators, chickens and people.  Other functions for creating microclimates, barriers and water catchment are also considered.  It can seem a little messy until we find these functions in Nature that are truly beautiful.

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March 10th, 2011

Contemplating how to serve the Earth, I stumble once again on Permaculture. I discover that the way we eat and especially what we eat are among the suspects we must charge. Welcome to my learning process, please join me in this PermaCulture Adventure! 

Permaculture offers some interesting options to create food forests that mimic natural plant communities. We can feed the soil and use plants in a concert of systems that build upon and support each other. We can eat the landscape we live within and not have it be our ecological mine field. Our gardens can be supportive and truly sustainable in ways we have never dreamed of.

What I know about Permaculture is that it gives me hope that we can feed ourselves and do it in a Super Local way. Whole communities can be tied together in systems of food forests that create food and animal forage, and become more maintenance free over time. Permaculture feeds and protects the soil, animals, people and much smaller folk within it’s embrace. Man has come up with many small systems that help us live better and not damage the earth, but Permaculture takes many of these systems and uses Nature’s own tenets to nourish and sustain in a whole new way. Thanks to those who have pioneered this thinking!

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