Permaculture
This summer our farmer, Chris Anderson, offered two very enlightening evening sessions on the theory and practices of Permaculture.
| Permaculture?
The word is a combination of “permanent’
and ‘agriculture’ which stands
for a system of agriculture which can go on indefinitely without
requiring extensive irrigation or application of artificial fertilizers,
herbicides or pesticides. It is essentially the agriculture of indigenous
peoples who studied the land, the climate and rainfall, the native
plants and animals, and harvested their food, clothing and materials
for shelter in ways which were sustainable for millennia.
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But the term also is used to mean ‘permanent-culture,’ an ethical system which cares for the earth and maintains an ecological balance in which all forms of life can thrive. This ethical view would ensure that all have access to the resources and provisions that they need, but it does not provide for the accumulation and consumption by some humans of far more than they need -- at the expense of others or the health of the earth itself. When we consider this second meaning, Permaculture becomes a question of justice.
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In the
first session, after watching part of a fascinating video, Global Gardener-Permaculture, by Bill Mollison, the so-called Father
of Permaculture, we went out to the Community Garden where Chris
demonstrated ways in which you can grow food with simple, often
castoff, materials; without ‘land,’ and in very little
space. In no time all of us were busily forming a ‘potato
patch’ on cardboard from flattened cartons covered with composted
leaves, straw, water, and a few handfuls of dirt. We then tucked
a whole potato and some red runner beans into holes in this pile,
and watered again. A few weeks later the potato plants were blooming! |
In the second session, we saw another part of the video which explains how ‘waterless deserts’ are formed by the practice of monocropping (raising only one crop on huge ‘agribusiness’ farms.) That method of agriculture which destroys the soil, causes erosion, and eventually leads to such disasters as the Dustbowl of the Midwestern States during the 1930’s. The video showed farming areas of Arizona and Australia which had been turned into desert by monocropping, restored to fertile, water-retaining land after only 2 or 3 years of Permaculture. Another feature of this video was the record of New Yorkers raising food and forming community with each other on rooftops, vacant lots and tiny city parks. (If they can do it there, you can do it too!) Click for details on Global Gardner.
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Then, Sister Jane led us on a hands-on
tour through the various garden plots, the berry arbor and the fruit
trees of Shepherd’s Corner where we have been practicing organic
permaculture. For more information on Permaculture,
check with your library or go to http://www.google.com/
or any similar search engine |