Permaculture: Design your Paradise

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.

Do I really HAVE to? An experiment.

One of the many things I love about my permaculture garden is that it mostly looks after itself. To me that is an essential feature of a garden. It's not that I don't want to spend time in it. When I do find time I always find a million things that I can do or plant or change, but I don't HAVE to.

I've never much liked anything I HAVE to do. Man, did I hate school. And I think today I hate my day job with a similar passion. It pays good money, mind you, but it seems such a waste of precious time. I'm not interested in what my employer is doing and selling. Not at all. I want to write, I want to travel, and I want to enjoy my garden.

So I decided that things will have to change, and this blog is my first step to an employer free life. The plan is simple enough, just look at the three things I like and put them together. I'll travel, and as I travel I write. And when I'm home I garden and write, about my garden and my travels.

Simple enough, really, except English is my second language and I'm not a naturally gifted writer. I'll have to work hard at becoming a lot better before I make money that way. And as every writer knows, unless your name is Danielle Steel or Stephen King, the chances that you are gonna get rich that way are awfully slim.

So I have to find a way to make money that doesn't impact negatively on my mood and energy as my day job does, and that doesn't restrict my traveling, and I think I have found exactly that.

It's an experiment, and it might just make my dreams come true. It's even called an experiment, the '60 Day Experiment'. It's a course showing you how to set up an online business from scratch and make money. You don't need a product to start with, you don't even need advanced computing skills.

Thank god for that, too. I hadn't touched a computer in four years when I bought my laptop, and that was only 4 months ago. (Yeah, when I had this brilliant idea to become a writer). It's now only three weeks into the course and this blog is the result. And they say you can't teach an old dog any new tricks.

The people doing the experiment are also a great group and I made new friends all over the world. (Isn't the internet great? You see, this is all new to me)

The best part about it all: The course has really reconnected me with my dreams, which had been pushed aside by the hazzles of daily living and office politics and the like.
I feel I'm finally heading along the right path, taking huge steps, making this the life I want it to be, where I only HAVE to do things because I decided I WANT to do them.

I'll keep you updated on my progress. In the meantime, why don't you check out this course? (Especially if like me you'd love to fire your boss.) Is your life exactly what you want it to be? If not, you can change it, you know?

I have to go now and plant more sunflowers. I say I have to, but really, I go because I want to. Sunflowers are my favorite, favorite flowers and you can never have to many of them.

Hope your garden grows well!
B.

Why permaculture?

I fell in love with the ideas of permaculture for many reasons:
I love nature and believe it should be treated with respect. I love beautiful gardens, full of blossoms and intriguing scents. I love healthy, tasty, organic, home grown fruit and vegetables. I believe a garden should be a home to native wildlife, and - for us humans - it should be a place that calms our mind and restores our spirit.

Apart from that I fell in love with permaculture because, when I started my first garden, I knew nothing about growing plants, I had no money, and - above all - because I'm essentially lazy.

Permaculture is about "...saving the planet and living to be a hundred, while throwing very impressive dinner parties and organising other creatures to do most of the work." (Linda Woodrow, The Permaculture Home Garden).

I wish everybody would know how simple, and cheap, and little work it is to grow the most magnificent garden, put fresh food on the table, and attract birds and butterflies for you to watch as you do the dishes.

My aim is to get out the word: Gardening is as easy as it is fun. Everybody can have a piece of paradise in their backyard, and everybody can grow organic food, on five acres, or on the windowsill if necessary.
Yes, you can do it, too.