Chickens kick downhill – feed your garden
Build Regenerative/recycling Networks Consider building a regenerative network with your land. A catch pond at low elevations can grow reeds which filter and clean the water and those reeds can be harvested and feed to the chickens further up in elevation, near the garden and a swale. Since chickens only kick downhill, you can plan […]
What is Permaculture?
Three Fundamental Design Concepts The foundational concepts in reading the landscape are Access, Water, Slope/aspect. These provide a starting point and touchstone from which an imaginative and useful design can unfold. Rather than put a cabin on a ridge top because of “the view”, consider the expense of putting in a driveway all the way […]
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a term coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia. The term is a mix of “permanent”, “culture” and “agriculture”. Permaculture is a “whole systems” design methodology based on science and careful observation of the “pattern language” in Nature. This wholistic systems-design methodology integrates water, energy usage and efficiency, composting in smart […]
Local Sustainability and Permaculture
Geoff Lawton’s Call for a “Functional Ecology Economy” In October 2012, two months away from the big “2012 event”, after meeting activists and hearing of amazing projects at the Bay Area Permaculture Convergence, I decided to attend Geoff’s week long Advanced Permaculture intensive on Watershed Design, Earthworks and Food Forests. Even though I had completed many other […]