In Permaculture there's something called "herb spirals" - which is a way of growing herbs, typically in a part of the backyard near the kitchen, in mounds, held together with a gently upward spiral of rocks or stones, sometimes reinforced inside the mounds with sticks or stakes, or wine bottles.
Herb spirals provide additional space, the mounds acting a bit like planting berms. If you look at the footprint of either - i.e. the width or diameter of space taken up along the ground - and you think of how much you could plant in that area, but then see how much more you can plant by mounding soil up over that footprint, you start seeing how much more soil you have in that same spot, and how much more you can grow.
Herb spirals also allow us to plant herbs such that the herbs that like more sun can be on the south side of the spiral, and the herbs that like much less sun can be on the north side, and the herbs that like in-between sun can be to the east or west, and that can be related to a preference for morning sun or afternoon sun. A kind of mini ecosystem for growing herbs. And, with the spiral right there up to about waist height - easy pickin's for kitchen harvesting. Increased ease of access to fresh herbs just before or during cooking.
Herb dryers are typically wooden boxes with shelves, only the bottoms of the shelves are made of wire mesh screens, and the shelves are just high enough to rest the herbs. Moisture and air flow through these screens, and the herbs dry inside the herb dryers, instead of drying out.
Dried herbs are used in cooking a little differently from fresh herbs. If you have an herb spiral and an herb drier, you'll be cooking flavorful food for a long time to come.
~=~
Friday, March 20, 2009
Peak Oil, Urbanization and Food Supplies
Not too long ago the big debate seemed to be about Local vs. Organic. It always seemed like a silly debate to me, both are essential. Maybe one comes before the other. But Local is a partner with Organic. Fresh, abundant, available, healthy food is the overall theme.
If food is supplied locally, then there is less transportation to deliver that food. That means less burning of diesel fuel to run trucks. That also means a farming system which is less about mass production of food, i.e. our modern agricultural system, which itself uses lots and lots of fossil fuels and chemicals, and plays a big role in deforestation to clear land for farming, and a big role in soil erosion due to emphasis on large scale productivity vs. soil building and soil restoration.
If food is organic, then we have fewer pesticides going into our groundwater or our food. For food to truly be organic, we're taking care of the soil. To take care of the soil we create environments that promote the microorganisms that constitute a healthy soil ecosystem. There are enough microbes to make any handful of truly healthy soil look as active with life as a zoo or forest ecosystem or jungle. That's the environment from which nutritious food arises.
So we've paved over cities, which means that even our water comes from far away. In San Francisco, I recently watched a rainstorm. Water was sheeting in waves that may have been a sixteenth of an inch thick. It looked a bit like mountain streams, but they were going down concrete hillsides - into sewers - into the Bay - into the Ocean.
During - a drought. We get our water - from snow. Northern California is surrounded by mountains. This year (rainy season aka 'winter' - of '08-'09) many of the surrounding mountains have more than their usual share of snow. But not the mountains where our water system is tied to snow pack that gives us drinking water when it melts. So there I was, watching all this water that could be immediately available - being taken away - so we could get water that will come from far away - if it snows enough in particular areas that are both far away and high above our elevation.
Food is trucked in, water is piped in, and we've been building high-rise offices and apartments. We're also a restaurant town. We also have lots of organic food brought in from nearby farmers. The question is, will there be a breaking point - in which fuel costs make trucking the food to us no longer cost effective and therefore no longer truly doable ... and if so ... what can we do to grow food so locally that we grow it in the city itself?
Community gardens and backyard gardens to the rescue ... but do we have enough, and what about eggs and fish. Well we don't have enough community gardens and backyard gardens to feed us, and right now with Safeway, Whole Foods, Rainbow Grocery, and many neighborhood groceries, health foods and corner stores, there's not much motivation to change how we get food to feed ourselves. There's still a very understandable feeling that this is taken care of. That we support the food system by working in our mostly non-food producing jobs, which gives us money, to buy the food.
Some people visualize food being grown in cities. They may talk about "one lane for food" or farms in old warehouses instead of new condos, or food paths stretching from one end of town to the next.
If in fact the world in general has significantly passed the line between urbanization and food growing areas, and we have turned so much farmland into suburbs with lawns (and a few household gardens but mostly lawns) - is there a point where this land-use system breaks down - or comes around?
And if so - what happens to individuals' ways of getting what they need? People are buying more cookbooks now due to the recession. How many people are cooking more? How many people are growing what they cook - the so-called garden-to-table or garden-to-kitchen way of life? How many can grow enough to feed their needs - especially now that we've largely learned more about getting our nutrients from varieties of foods, and we've all learned about eating graciously from many cultures and styles of food preparation?
I wonder about this often. People in San Francisco seem aware of these issues in at least a general sense. But how many of us grew up on farms before moving to the city? How many of us are interested in developing a farming way of life? How many of us, more integratively speaking, are thinking of ways to enjoy urban commerce, culture and convenience - with growing food locally, directly adjacent to, or within, city limits?
~=~
If food is supplied locally, then there is less transportation to deliver that food. That means less burning of diesel fuel to run trucks. That also means a farming system which is less about mass production of food, i.e. our modern agricultural system, which itself uses lots and lots of fossil fuels and chemicals, and plays a big role in deforestation to clear land for farming, and a big role in soil erosion due to emphasis on large scale productivity vs. soil building and soil restoration.
If food is organic, then we have fewer pesticides going into our groundwater or our food. For food to truly be organic, we're taking care of the soil. To take care of the soil we create environments that promote the microorganisms that constitute a healthy soil ecosystem. There are enough microbes to make any handful of truly healthy soil look as active with life as a zoo or forest ecosystem or jungle. That's the environment from which nutritious food arises.
So we've paved over cities, which means that even our water comes from far away. In San Francisco, I recently watched a rainstorm. Water was sheeting in waves that may have been a sixteenth of an inch thick. It looked a bit like mountain streams, but they were going down concrete hillsides - into sewers - into the Bay - into the Ocean.
During - a drought. We get our water - from snow. Northern California is surrounded by mountains. This year (rainy season aka 'winter' - of '08-'09) many of the surrounding mountains have more than their usual share of snow. But not the mountains where our water system is tied to snow pack that gives us drinking water when it melts. So there I was, watching all this water that could be immediately available - being taken away - so we could get water that will come from far away - if it snows enough in particular areas that are both far away and high above our elevation.
Food is trucked in, water is piped in, and we've been building high-rise offices and apartments. We're also a restaurant town. We also have lots of organic food brought in from nearby farmers. The question is, will there be a breaking point - in which fuel costs make trucking the food to us no longer cost effective and therefore no longer truly doable ... and if so ... what can we do to grow food so locally that we grow it in the city itself?
Community gardens and backyard gardens to the rescue ... but do we have enough, and what about eggs and fish. Well we don't have enough community gardens and backyard gardens to feed us, and right now with Safeway, Whole Foods, Rainbow Grocery, and many neighborhood groceries, health foods and corner stores, there's not much motivation to change how we get food to feed ourselves. There's still a very understandable feeling that this is taken care of. That we support the food system by working in our mostly non-food producing jobs, which gives us money, to buy the food.
Some people visualize food being grown in cities. They may talk about "one lane for food" or farms in old warehouses instead of new condos, or food paths stretching from one end of town to the next.
If in fact the world in general has significantly passed the line between urbanization and food growing areas, and we have turned so much farmland into suburbs with lawns (and a few household gardens but mostly lawns) - is there a point where this land-use system breaks down - or comes around?
And if so - what happens to individuals' ways of getting what they need? People are buying more cookbooks now due to the recession. How many people are cooking more? How many people are growing what they cook - the so-called garden-to-table or garden-to-kitchen way of life? How many can grow enough to feed their needs - especially now that we've largely learned more about getting our nutrients from varieties of foods, and we've all learned about eating graciously from many cultures and styles of food preparation?
I wonder about this often. People in San Francisco seem aware of these issues in at least a general sense. But how many of us grew up on farms before moving to the city? How many of us are interested in developing a farming way of life? How many of us, more integratively speaking, are thinking of ways to enjoy urban commerce, culture and convenience - with growing food locally, directly adjacent to, or within, city limits?
~=~
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Carbon Brown, Nitrogen Green:
Colors and Ratios in Composting
I find these hard to remember so I think "Woody Brown" like it were some one's name, or "Car Brown" for carbon - I once had a brown car, and "Nitrogreen" to remind me that primarily nitrogenous, i.e. nitrogen-rich plant material is "green" and primarily carboniferous, i.e. carbon-rich material is "brown". You'll hear organic gardeners and composters talking about green and brown - and if some one needs more brown, you might be able to offer up some cardboard boxes you've been saving to help them out.
"All living organisms need relatively large amounts of the element carbon (C) and smaller amounts of nitrogen (N). The balance of these elements in a material is called the carbon-nitrogen ratio (C:N). This ratio is an important factor determining how easily bacteria are able to decompose an organic material. The microorganisms in compost use carbon for energy and protein to build and repair our bodies. The optimal proportion of these two elements used by the bacteria averages about 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen. Given a steady diet at this 30:1 ratio, they can decompose organic material very quickly.... "
"It helps to think of materials high in nitrogen as 'greens,' and woody, carbon-rich materials as 'browns.'" PDF from UC Davis Cooperative Extension ~ Composting 101 ~ Carbon and Nitrogen
~=~
How to Broadcast Seed in a Field
This method was taught to me by a Mentor and friend who grew up on a wheat farm in Jordan and has been farming or gardening for a total of 38 years....
The following is especially about planting clover and favas or lentils for nitrogen fixing in building up soil for growing veggie food crops.
-- When broadcasting seed by hand, the motion is sideways from waist high, and opening your hand as you move from back to front, and opening your hand like a fan from top fingers to bottom. The motion is similar to casting a fisherman's net. When you get in the groove with it, you'll see the seed fan out like a fisherman's net, instead of going out in sprays. This will help get an even spread.
-- Where you stand over or in front of or below or next to the berm is not important. What matters is that fisherman's net spreading method. Nice and smooth, and when you've got the motion down you'll feel it.
-- Densely planted clover sprouts and seedlings will be competitive with each other, for nutrients and moisture and root space. When one little clover grows bigger than another next to it, and its leaves start to spread out over the smaller one that isn't growing as quickly, there will be some competition also for sun.
-- A good practice is to take soil that has been sitting outside for a long time, i.e. not bagged from a store - soil which has gained some density or weight over time, and mix the seed 50-50 with the soil before broadcasting by hand. This helps ensure an even spread, and helps hold the seed down.
-- Intentionally overplanting is definitely very helpful for adding nitrogen and building up soil prior to a fresh planting of veggie food plants.
-- Since (a) clover seed is small, a little bigger than sesame seed, not as big as lentils, and (b) we're watering and not just depending on rain, the way to plant the clover seeds on the fine-mulch berms is to not use the soil, but just send out handfuls of clover seeds as evenly as possible. Mentor suggests moistening the planting area the day before broadcasting the seed, then watering over the seed after it goes in. I think that, since we're planting into mulch and not soil, and the moisture on top of the berms seems to evaporate quickly from day to day, we might decide to lightly moisten the soil in the morning and then broadcast the seeds in the afternoon on the same day, and then water over the seeds. The moisture will help hold the seeds in place on the berms.
-- Lentils can be planted east, west, north, south, whatever. When rain is the only method of delivering moisture, the practice is to plant the lentils where there will be little valleys or troughs to collect the moisture that comes in. When we're watering by hand, we can broadcast lentils wherever we like, with the fisherman's net hand motion described above.
-- If we're just going for nitrogen fixing with lentils, we can use bulk lentils. Do not count on these propagating wonderfully to future generations, just as you wouldn't get great cantoloupes planting seeds from store bought cantaloupes. But for a nice healthy plant that will grow up to a full 15 to 18 inches, bulk lentils are fine.
-- Bulk favas can work though planting quality favas with inoculant might work better. Some of the favas might not come up from our planting. I've found some that have come up to the surface, I planted some too far down, etc. We might want to use bulk favas to fill in once we see if those come up in patches or not. On the other hand, as long as we have great seed and great inoculant, yee hah. And no worries about my investing in seed - learning by experience is always a great way to remember things.
-- Lentils: mix 50-50 with dirt in hand, broadcast, should get density of 4-5 per hand print. Density of favas at 6 inches is good. Can also grow garbanzos for nitrogen. Lentils - not sure if red or green better for nitrogren. Can use bulk from Rainbow if growing for nitrogen only - if want the plants to produce propagation quality seed then start with good selected seed ordered specially - but for one generation only nitrogen fixing bulk from store is good. Not sure how garbanzos grow out, we can ask - research. He said the lentils don't grow tall - they're 15-18 inches high, bushy, with leaves and pods.
~=~
Critique of Permaculture
People in Permaculture have a certain tendency to be a bit glib, mystical, and anti-scientific or anti-technological, and yet they have an amazingly practical ability and desire to roll up their sleeves and try things to see what really works. I'm reminded in some conversations of the writer D.H. Lawrence being quoted as saying that it - it didn't make sense to him that the world was round, because he simply couldn't feel it - at a solar plexus level.
What we feel at a solar plexus level does matter, of course, along with what we're aware of in our heart and senses and brain and overall sense of things. What is very core about Permaculture is its attempt, at least, to be truly holistic in - how we design - how we live.
Some one said that Buckminster Fuller first came up with the phrase, "Design Science". A few years ago an artist - designer - television celebrity told me that all design - is design - has certain essential qualities. Permaculture attempts to design for convenience, ecology, resourcefulness, and integration of where we get our food with where we live and work and have fun and have our time in Nature. It is antidotal to the rush-rush of postmodern posturban civilization, overwhelm and overpopulation.
There is a longing, for better or for worse, I think, for a much simpler time. Perhaps in some ways the 19th Century was the very pinnacle of culture - politeness was important, handcrafts and tools were commonplace, and people looked after themselves, then shared what they could.
Or maybe the Stone Age for that matter, before all these knives and swords and sharp lines about everything.
Regardless, Permaculture is a high-food-yield, use-what-works, save-water, save-energy approach to things. People in Permaculture sometimes say they're "on the cutting edge of 10,000-year old technology". Which means, in part, that if technology today works for a holistically designed system, use it, otherwise, use what works centuries or milennia ago.
Agriculture, for example, that's more like that practiced by Native Americans or Kalihari Bushmen. Which Europeans and European-Americans have mistaken for primitive foraging, and hunter-gathering, without discerning how discriminating, inventory-aware, and proactively-managing these approaches have been.
Lawns from English artistocracy and Rows from row gardens and factory farms - may not be the most efficient or beautiful ways to do things. Permaculture offers up dense planting which provides amazing variety, and in combination with dense planting, sheet mulching helps keep weeding down drastically. You get to build your soil and grow your garden, not spend most of your time doing battle with some enemy, either on your hands and knees or spraying chemistry. In Permaculture, you cultivate life, for food first, but also for variety, aesthetics and an abundant way to live.
e
One Permaculture teacher has told me that within the context of food gardening alone, John Jeavons' biointensive method may work somewhat better. But within the specific contexts of food gardening and temperate climates. Permaculture addresses water and soil and seed, plus all the world's climates and microclimates, this teacher told me, more completely, more comprehensively, one might say, more world-holistically.
~=~
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Why I Study Permaculture
This is a bit of reference outline of some of my motivations for studying Permaculture / things I've been learning about:
• Learning to create "living whole systems" in ways that have beauty and support life, that are practical and wonderful and both "of the imagination" and "on the ground".
• Permaculture offers ways to grow fresh and entirely organic food in any landscape or climate. And more so, it provides a core philosophy and a way of being resourceful on many levels. This philosophical aspect is developed in particular by David Holmgren, student and one-time colleague and collaborator of founder Bill Mollison.
• Opportunity to learn and teach self-reliance skills.
• Design / install / maintain human habitats and food and flower gardens with maximum yield and minimum effort.
• Antidote to factory farming as we discover the net negative impacts currently being experienced worldwide of the post WW2 'green revolution' that produced much food abundance but destroyed much topsoil and added many chemicals into the world's ecosystems. By comparison modern farming is a petrochemically based system that frequently involves animal imprisonment and torture in the name of providing us with healthy food environments. We can do better - much, much better, by restoring a few old fashioned notions with a bit of clever postmodern strategic thinking and planning and feedback loops.
• Connect growing of food along with medicinal and cooking herbs directly with eco-habitats. Homes, farms, businesses get to have access to food and herbs and nice surroundings in zones that fan out naturally based on frequency of accessing each area. Visible and invisible structures, i.e. buildings and human interactions, are related accordingly, and in harmony with surrounding environment, plants, animals, natural features and settings. Artificial distinctions give way to boundaries that are designed but organic and flexible. Richness is achieved through simplicity, beauty, the resourcefulness of "stacking functions" together, doing much more with much less, and a continually evolving harmony with nature.
• Building community around environmentally positive food and herbs / clothing / housing / energy / water systems / seed saving.
• Restore regional food distribution systems and watersheds.
I park links on these
and other topics at
www.HumansAndHabitats.com ~
feel free to visit.
~
• Learning to create "living whole systems" in ways that have beauty and support life, that are practical and wonderful and both "of the imagination" and "on the ground".
• Permaculture offers ways to grow fresh and entirely organic food in any landscape or climate. And more so, it provides a core philosophy and a way of being resourceful on many levels. This philosophical aspect is developed in particular by David Holmgren, student and one-time colleague and collaborator of founder Bill Mollison.
• Opportunity to learn and teach self-reliance skills.
• Design / install / maintain human habitats and food and flower gardens with maximum yield and minimum effort.
• Antidote to factory farming as we discover the net negative impacts currently being experienced worldwide of the post WW2 'green revolution' that produced much food abundance but destroyed much topsoil and added many chemicals into the world's ecosystems. By comparison modern farming is a petrochemically based system that frequently involves animal imprisonment and torture in the name of providing us with healthy food environments. We can do better - much, much better, by restoring a few old fashioned notions with a bit of clever postmodern strategic thinking and planning and feedback loops.
• Connect growing of food along with medicinal and cooking herbs directly with eco-habitats. Homes, farms, businesses get to have access to food and herbs and nice surroundings in zones that fan out naturally based on frequency of accessing each area. Visible and invisible structures, i.e. buildings and human interactions, are related accordingly, and in harmony with surrounding environment, plants, animals, natural features and settings. Artificial distinctions give way to boundaries that are designed but organic and flexible. Richness is achieved through simplicity, beauty, the resourcefulness of "stacking functions" together, doing much more with much less, and a continually evolving harmony with nature.
• Building community around environmentally positive food and herbs / clothing / housing / energy / water systems / seed saving.
• Restore regional food distribution systems and watersheds.
I park links on these
and other topics at
www.HumansAndHabitats.com ~
feel free to visit.
~
Monday, December 29, 2008
Tribe Village Community
Some people live in "rural areas" and some live in "cities" and some live on "farms".
For a long long time, people lived in small, extended-family groupings known as "tribes."
A settled semi-tribal area that had expanded into the countryside and established long-term housing and relationships between households in a particular area might be one way to describe a "village".
"Community" can be based on proximity to each other geographically or a sharing of interests or backgrounds or needs. We might talk about the LGBT community or the Jewish community or the community we feel in a Neighborhood or the community we feel talking to fellow Parrot companions on an online chat list.
Close-knit groups may provide stability, assurance, shared financial arrangements, companionship, opportunities to express and share and hear feelings and ideas, chance to learn and teach and contribute, gift sharing, etc.
Close-knit groups may also provide attitudes of disliking or distrusting or evaluating or judging other close-knit groups or identities.
The United States is perhaps the most ethnically diverse, and socially diverse, national grouping in human history. It is also large and regional geographically and geopolitically. It also has states, which are partly outlined by rivers or other natural boundaries, but are often outlined by - lines that have been drawn.
Bioregionalism is about living in accordance with regional watersheds and foodsheds, with regional geographies and economies.
Groupings are often great at providing synergy and giving people in the group elements they need or want.
Groupings can also be about bonding with members of the group against other members of the group or against other groups.
Even a community garden can be a place of shared interests or micro-turf battles.
How do we notice our sense of involvement with others in a Sense of Community?
For a long long time, people lived in small, extended-family groupings known as "tribes."
A settled semi-tribal area that had expanded into the countryside and established long-term housing and relationships between households in a particular area might be one way to describe a "village".
"Community" can be based on proximity to each other geographically or a sharing of interests or backgrounds or needs. We might talk about the LGBT community or the Jewish community or the community we feel in a Neighborhood or the community we feel talking to fellow Parrot companions on an online chat list.
Close-knit groups may provide stability, assurance, shared financial arrangements, companionship, opportunities to express and share and hear feelings and ideas, chance to learn and teach and contribute, gift sharing, etc.
Close-knit groups may also provide attitudes of disliking or distrusting or evaluating or judging other close-knit groups or identities.
The United States is perhaps the most ethnically diverse, and socially diverse, national grouping in human history. It is also large and regional geographically and geopolitically. It also has states, which are partly outlined by rivers or other natural boundaries, but are often outlined by - lines that have been drawn.
Bioregionalism is about living in accordance with regional watersheds and foodsheds, with regional geographies and economies.
Groupings are often great at providing synergy and giving people in the group elements they need or want.
Groupings can also be about bonding with members of the group against other members of the group or against other groups.
Even a community garden can be a place of shared interests or micro-turf battles.
How do we notice our sense of involvement with others in a Sense of Community?
What is a Neighborhood?
Is there such a thing any more ... as a Neighborhood?
Years ago people in a neighborhood often knew each other. Looked after each other's kids. Were connected by a common bond such as the country they came from before emigrating to the United States. By a common language or culture. By the displays that were culture-specific or neighborhood-specific in shop windows. By participation in the local Parent Teachers Organization. Or showing up at Fire Department pancake breakfasts.
Is a Neighborhood an attitude?
A collection of statistical information, such as how many households have children, couples, students, seniors, people of varying genders, people of varying economic backgrounds?
Is it a study of household income?
Of which and how many households have gardens?
Of what flowers or veggies or trees are grown in the gardens in that area?
Is a Neighborhood something designated on a map by realtors?
By government officials?
Do Neighborhoods have history?
Memory?
Character?
Is it acting like we're better in our neighborhood if we know we have characteristics or qualities or advantages that are different from in another Neighborhood?
Are we able to appreciate the special qualities we identify and love in our Neighborhood, while also appreciating that there are special qualities that others might identify and love in their Neighborhood?
Years ago people in a neighborhood often knew each other. Looked after each other's kids. Were connected by a common bond such as the country they came from before emigrating to the United States. By a common language or culture. By the displays that were culture-specific or neighborhood-specific in shop windows. By participation in the local Parent Teachers Organization. Or showing up at Fire Department pancake breakfasts.
Is a Neighborhood an attitude?
A collection of statistical information, such as how many households have children, couples, students, seniors, people of varying genders, people of varying economic backgrounds?
Is it a study of household income?
Of which and how many households have gardens?
Of what flowers or veggies or trees are grown in the gardens in that area?
Is a Neighborhood something designated on a map by realtors?
By government officials?
Do Neighborhoods have history?
Memory?
Character?
Is it acting like we're better in our neighborhood if we know we have characteristics or qualities or advantages that are different from in another Neighborhood?
Are we able to appreciate the special qualities we identify and love in our Neighborhood, while also appreciating that there are special qualities that others might identify and love in their Neighborhood?
Sense of Place
What is "where I live"?
Is it my bedroom?
My office?
Where I entertain guests?
My garden?
My yard?
Where I play my piano?
Where I hide from the noise of my neighbor's music?
The quiet area away from my neighbor's loud talking?
The open windows feeling I get when I listen to the sounds of the city?
The shared feeling I get when I talk to my neighbor when we're both home?
The weather?
The trees?
The sky?
The shops and stores and restaurants nearby?
The highway that takes me where I really want to go?
The airport that takes me away on business, where I spend so much time?
Facebook?
My laptop?
My iPhone?
My iPod?
My memories?
My sense of being in the present moment?
The feeling I get that's hard to put into words when I notice my whole surroundings?
Is it my bedroom?
My office?
Where I entertain guests?
My garden?
My yard?
Where I play my piano?
Where I hide from the noise of my neighbor's music?
The quiet area away from my neighbor's loud talking?
The open windows feeling I get when I listen to the sounds of the city?
The shared feeling I get when I talk to my neighbor when we're both home?
The weather?
The trees?
The sky?
The shops and stores and restaurants nearby?
The highway that takes me where I really want to go?
The airport that takes me away on business, where I spend so much time?
Facebook?
My laptop?
My iPhone?
My iPod?
My memories?
My sense of being in the present moment?
The feeling I get that's hard to put into words when I notice my whole surroundings?
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