It is no secret that I am going for my permaculture design certificate. Some would say I am biased. I would have to agree! I am biased. I see permaculture has our ticket out of the woods. Right now we are Hansel and Gretel looking for our way out of the scary dark woods with mean witches and hungry wolves lurking nearby and some damn bird ate our bread trail back home! Permaculture gives us a permanent trail back that no bird can eat.
People ask me all the time what permaculture is. It is complicated. It boils down to a system of working the land that mimics nature and it is a lifestyle. Hence the name PERMA = permanent and CULTURE = agriculture. It is like Victory Gardens on steroids. It takes work to get the system in place, hence the design part, and once functional you spend minimal amount of time gardening. It was explained to me via a DVD of permaculture guru Geoff Lawton, traditional agriculture/gardening requires 99% working and 1% thinking and permaculture is 99% thinking and 1% working (once you get your system up and running.)
Permaculture is nothing new. It was Mollison and Holmgren that coined the term in the late 60's early 70's. They incorporated ways of the past that worked and rediscovered knowledge and set out educating people how to save the planet, better yet, how to save human kind from itself. The planet will survive and heal itself.
I see one flaw with permaculture and that would be humans. We are lazy for one. We have decided through many decades of white collar, even blue collar city living, that working the land is somebody elses job. Even poor people with nothing to eat living near a plot of land wait for somebody else to do the work of feeding them. We are fast food, boxed and canned food, already chopped up fruits and veggies lazy ass group of animals. We are so domesticated we cannot survive on our own out in the real world. Would rather parish than to save our own asses! The second problem with permaculture is humans, again. We are so fucking vain! We think following nature and letting things grow as they truly need to is "messy" and "ugly" and the excuses carry on and on. We expect nature to live by the asinine linear rules we set forth. Gardens are square and we all must have perfect manicured lawns. The grass shall not exceed a height of 3 inches and should be watered, fertilized, and poisoned on a regular duly scheduled appointment! Nothing shall fuck with our linear lifestyle, our vanity, and our lack of healthy outdoor work ethic by God!
We need to accept that we are animals, we are lazy, vain, and arrogant and until we do there is no hope. We need to accept the fact we have to do things differently. We have to work with nature and not against her. We need to let nature work for us and not always trying to make something work that cannot.
We must learn the old ways, learn the new ways that are being perfected, and get to work ditching the perfect lawn and flower gardens and get busy growing food. With proper planning a quarter acre can produce 6,000lbs of food a year (based on an urban farmer in Ca). Imagine what you can do? Think of all the healthy foods you can grow and eat and share!
There is too much to post about permaculture at this moment to satisfy your desire for more. I am just a lone wolf out here calling out to my brothers and sisters a mournful warning and hoping you take heed and call back that you heard me and are going to do your part. We need to change and that is all there is to it. it must happen for all of us to survive!
People ask me all the time what permaculture is. It is complicated. It boils down to a system of working the land that mimics nature and it is a lifestyle. Hence the name PERMA = permanent and CULTURE = agriculture. It is like Victory Gardens on steroids. It takes work to get the system in place, hence the design part, and once functional you spend minimal amount of time gardening. It was explained to me via a DVD of permaculture guru Geoff Lawton, traditional agriculture/gardening requires 99% working and 1% thinking and permaculture is 99% thinking and 1% working (once you get your system up and running.)
Permaculture is nothing new. It was Mollison and Holmgren that coined the term in the late 60's early 70's. They incorporated ways of the past that worked and rediscovered knowledge and set out educating people how to save the planet, better yet, how to save human kind from itself. The planet will survive and heal itself.
I see one flaw with permaculture and that would be humans. We are lazy for one. We have decided through many decades of white collar, even blue collar city living, that working the land is somebody elses job. Even poor people with nothing to eat living near a plot of land wait for somebody else to do the work of feeding them. We are fast food, boxed and canned food, already chopped up fruits and veggies lazy ass group of animals. We are so domesticated we cannot survive on our own out in the real world. Would rather parish than to save our own asses! The second problem with permaculture is humans, again. We are so fucking vain! We think following nature and letting things grow as they truly need to is "messy" and "ugly" and the excuses carry on and on. We expect nature to live by the asinine linear rules we set forth. Gardens are square and we all must have perfect manicured lawns. The grass shall not exceed a height of 3 inches and should be watered, fertilized, and poisoned on a regular duly scheduled appointment! Nothing shall fuck with our linear lifestyle, our vanity, and our lack of healthy outdoor work ethic by God!
We need to accept that we are animals, we are lazy, vain, and arrogant and until we do there is no hope. We need to accept the fact we have to do things differently. We have to work with nature and not against her. We need to let nature work for us and not always trying to make something work that cannot.
We must learn the old ways, learn the new ways that are being perfected, and get to work ditching the perfect lawn and flower gardens and get busy growing food. With proper planning a quarter acre can produce 6,000lbs of food a year (based on an urban farmer in Ca). Imagine what you can do? Think of all the healthy foods you can grow and eat and share!
There is too much to post about permaculture at this moment to satisfy your desire for more. I am just a lone wolf out here calling out to my brothers and sisters a mournful warning and hoping you take heed and call back that you heard me and are going to do your part. We need to change and that is all there is to it. it must happen for all of us to survive!
No comments:
Post a Comment