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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] those $1,000 permaculture certificates...

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  • From: Gloria Baikauskas <gcb49@flash.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] those $1,000 permaculture certificates...
  • Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2007 05:28:02 -0800 (PST)

My comments on this come from conversations with Emilia Hazelip.  She was there at the beginning of Permaculture.  It was she who introduced it to Europe.  She created a Permaculture community in France in which she lived nearly to her death a few years ago.  She had used Permaculture.....lived Permaculture...for many years by then.....and she came to the conclusion that it did not work in the long run.  It was why she started to work on her own Synergistic gardening methods.  Much of that was lost at her death because so little of it had been written down by then. 
 
Emilia knew both Holgrem and Mollison.  One of them took most of the credit for the other's work.....which angered her no end.   I will not go into any more of that other than to say she had valued reasons for that beyond what I just stated, except to say that you probably won't guess the right one. 
 
Emilia didn't think Permaculture was a total failure...just that it was flawed.  What those specific flaws were I can't say.  She didn't verbalize negatives....but instead went into what she believed was the right way to do things. 
 
I think the most valuable thing about Emilia was that she knew most of the folks you all write about and admire.  She lived in the US for a long time...since her teens....which is how she knew them.  She also met some of them when she was doing seminars and lectures around the world.   She practiced at some point most of what they wrote about.  Then she decided for herself what worked and what didn't.  But do remember that what works very well in one place may not work as well in another. 
 
A large part of that Emilia said was that folks don't spend enough time observing their land.....just watching it all day.  They put things in the wrong place because they quite literally fight Nature in doing so.  What seems like the right place for a garden because it is convenient for the gardener may be a step towards failure before the first seeds are planted. 
 
Gloria  



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