Category Archives: Permaculture

Are Locavores a Threat to Feeding the Planet Efficiently?

As local food has grown, so have the number of critics who claim that locavores have a dilemma. Are they right?

Open Thread on Water

Readers are invited to share what they know about water, water-handing, what grows where, etc.

Mud Season

“The old is dying and the new cannot be born.”<

Permaculture Food Forest Garden on Quarter-Acre Home Lot

Tour of a permaculture garden, with tips on stakes, saving rainwater, raised beds, and a key concept: Stacking functions. Also lots of vegetables and fruit trees.

Gardening and the Augmentation of the Complexity and Intensity of the Field of Intelligent Life

I haven’t rambled on about gardening for some time, and it’s a Sunday morning in August, so why not? But before I do, I want to put in a plug for sheet mulch, permaculture’s gateway drug: The idea (oversimplifying badly) is to mimic the accumulation of organic matter on the forest floor

Greenspace, Gardeners, Parents, Property, and Common Pool Resources

“With community property, you all have equal say, but with kids, the parents get the last word, so who’s rightest, safest, greenest, volunteeriest, or best validated by property values is trumped by the parents’ prerogative. If they want their kids to play on the island, there’s not much you can do about it but complain your way to a rift.” Hmm…….

Earth Day: Can We Grow Enough Food, Without Oil, to Avoid a Human Dieback?

Adam Smith’s work ethic is for robots, no? Who needs it? So, optimism!

Permaculture Blitz with the Micmacs up in the County

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Since today, September 22, is the Autumnal Equinox, when the earth begins its tilt toward winter, I thought I’d write about an event from summer’s past: A permaculture blitz in partnership with a band of Micmacs up in Aroostook County; details of the project can be found here. So this is a trip report. I’ll start with some garden geekery on the blitz, and end with a small but surprising political twist. But first, the video:

Forest Gardening, Edible Landscapes, and Urban Permaculture

Up here in Maine, Memorial Day is under four weeks away, so pretty soon the official planting season will begin! But last week the forsythia popped, so everybody is making ready; flats of pansies and petunias have appeared at the hardware store; and (cool weather; nights are in the forties) vegetables like kale and onions are at the farmer’s market. Last week I stopped wearing my winter parka. Spring is quite a relief from what all agree was an unusually long and bitterly stressful winter, even if (as has been the case for several years now) all the really bad weather passed by us in areas to the far South, like Boston.

So, herewith a video in three parts on really getting your hands dirty again and at last. All three parts are good, but I was especially interested in the third part, Urban Permaculture, because I find it hard to imagine, in Bangkok, say; or London, or Manhattan. So I’ll cover the first two parts only briefly, although it’s all worth watching when you aren’t outside.

Permaculture Paradise at Alex’s Front Yard Garden!

By lambert strether of Corrente.

There seems to be quite the Permaculture Community down in Jacksonville, FL, and I’m so envious of them; the traditional and still valid planting day in the great state of Maine is Memorial Day! Anyhow, this is a really fun video; I think the best part is where Alex’s daughter Maya dyes her hair pink with beet juice [14:39 et seq.], explaining that “the real dyes in the store” “smell like Sharpie marker.” “This is more better because it washes off automatically.” So, enjoy!

Pioneering Permaculture in Cyprus, Parts I and II

By lambert strether of Corrente.

Readers may be interested to know that there is a permaculture installation on Cyprus at Agia Skepi Theraputic Community in Nicosia (map). Here’s a video about it:

Jenny Pell: Seattle’s Food Forest/Bonfire Heights 2012

By lambert strether, who blogs at Corrente.

Last year, we posted on food forests, and particularly on the Beacon Hill public food forest in Seattle. Here’s a recent long video from Jenny Pell, the permaculturist who designed and implemented Beacon Hill, which gives lots of concrete (and inspirational) information on that project, other urban food forest projects, and permaculture design philosophy generally.

“One Seed Revolution (English)”

SRI (System of Rice Intensification, pronounced shree) has been getting favorable press (and pushback) lately, so I thought I’d look into it some. Here’s an educational — well, OK, propaganda — video about SRI made in and for India. It’s got English subtitles, so just pretend you’re in an art house.

Brian Fey “Solving the Human Problem on Earth” with Permaculture in the Bosque Village

By lambert strether of Corrente

Brian Fey is creating permacultural systems for the Bosque Village, in the Mexican highlands, a really interesting project that includes an intentional community. Here he describes some of his thinking. Very little visual interest, but you can listen to this instead of NPR, if you still listen to NPR.