But wait, there's more

People read this blog and they get back to me asking questions like:

Will you talk about food for people with cancer?
Will you tell me how to make my garden bug free?
Has permaculture to do with aquatic plants?
I never heard of permaculture, is it like biodynamics? Is it expensive?

What gave me the idea for this blog were all the people at my work, friends in town, internet buddies and other people I know. All of them are amazed that no matter what the time of the year, I will rock up at work or at their place with a bag of fresh fruit and vegies for my lunch, or a box full of the same for their fridge. I always have too much of everything I grow and I love to give it away.

Some of these people had a vegetable garden themselves at some stage, and they tell me it's too hard, too much work, too many weeds, and in the end the bugs ate everything anyway, so they gave up. The others think it's a HUGE effort to start a vegetable garden and you need time and money, and they don't want to spend either, maybe next year. But next year never seems to come.

So the initial purpose of this blog was to show people that you can do things differently. If you think ahead and design your garden right, it won't take much effort, it will mostly look after itself, and it will also be incredibly productive and beautiful and attractive to wildlife.

I created this kind of garden by designing it along permaculture principles. Some of them I have already shortly covered, and I will most likely talk about a few more in the future, and about how they relate to a vegetable garden.

But permaculture is not only about vegetable gardening. It can be applied to vegetable gardening, very well and with great success indeed. But there is sooo much more to it.

It is a set of design principles that can be applied to any situation, a garden, a farm, a community, a new housing estate. The principles aim at creating a system that is as close to self sufficient as possible. Minimal input for maximum return, while preferably using renewable resources and minimising the impact on the environment. Achieve a maximum result for the smallest possible change.

Sustainability is the keyword. Permaculture is a philosophy and a vision, of living on this planet in a way that ensures our great-great-great-grand-children will still be able to enjoy what we enjoy today.

Let me just rattle of some of the principles (in no particular order) as Mollison states them in his book A Designers Manual:

Responsibility for our actions and the outcomes, for what we leave behind. Take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children.

Cooperation, not competition, is the basis of future survival.

The rules of use of natural resources: Reduce waste, hence pollution; thoroughly replace lost minerals; do careful energy accounting.

Law of return: Whatever we take we must return.

Care of the earth, care of the people: Provision for all life systems to continue and increase, provision for people to access those resources necessary to their existence.

Setting limits to population and consumption.

Buy the way, permaculture doesn't shun technology at all. If technology can help to achieve the desired outcome, go for it.

And here is another quote to make you think, it's one of Birch's six principles of natural systems:

Our ability to change the face of the earth increases at a faster rate than our ability to foresee the consequence of change.

For people who are interested in permaculture within a global context, I have added another book to the reading list. It's Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren, who founded the permaculture movement with Bill Mollison. (Though Bill seems to get all the credtit and David is forever referred to as 'the other' founder.) A lot of food for thought in that one.

To return to the initial questions: Yes, permaculture has to do with all of that and more, and at some stage or other I will be talking about it.

I am hoping to be set up in about two to three weeks so you can subscribe (free, of course) to receive a regular newsletter. The newsletter will be telling you which topics I'm currenly talking about, about new tips and ideas, and about what else is going on in the world that might be of interest to an environmentally responsible person (and those contemplating to become one).

So stay tuned! I'll be back.

B.