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  • From: Masahiro Horiuchi <masa@toshikobo.com>
  • To: permaculture@listserv.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Urban Permaculture (In Japan)
  • Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 14:45:15 +0900

At 17:24 98/01/26 +0900, Ken & Lisa Logan wrote:
> As a recent post said, our chances for learning permaculture in Japan are
> almost nil, though I was happy to hear that Bill Mollison will be coming
> here soon. I doubt we can make it to Tokyo to see him, however. :(

Unfortunately, Bill will not visit Japan this time. The course will be given
in Australia at his Institute. Permaculture Center Japan is organizing a
tour to Australia to attend this course.


> Nevertheless, we'd like to grow some of our own food, using and learning
as many permaculture techniques as we can. We've read several intro books,
and I am devouring the Designer's Manual at the moment. One problem I can't
find many answers to in the books is that of urban situations. I can find
references to it, but not a lot of concrete informations or examples.
>
> You see, we rent a little 'house' on a piece of land almost the exact size
of the house, so we have nowhere to make a garden. We do have a nice
south-facing patio area, and were thinking of growing some plants in
buckets, planters, tires, or whatever we can find. We'll be leaving Japan
in a year or two (three??), so we don't want to invest in a lot of
equipment, long-term plants, etc. We were hoping that we could tap the
imagination and experience of the people on this list to help us.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with this sort of situation?
>
> We'd especially like to know about guilds, combinations of plants, and/or
suggested plants in general for our situation. We're thinking of a bunch of
herbs (herb spiral??), squash and/or melons, bell peppers, some beans,
tomatoes, etc. -- we'd like to have some success at this, so the easier to
grow, the better. :)
>
> We'd really like to try some of the plants we see a lot in the
permaculture books like Jerusalem Artichokes but we don't know where to get
these more exotic (for Japan anyway) seeds, or even if they'll do alright
here (if they aren't local varieties). Any ideas?
>
> The patio itself is fairly narrow but long east to west. It's a little
over 1 meter wide and 4 to 5 meters long (4' x 15' or so), with a
translucent white-ish corrugated plastic 'roof' over it. We have a little
space (about a meter square -- could get a little more here & there) that
isn't covered, on the east side of the patio. We are going to need some
kind of windbreak on the west side -- that is where the strong winds come
from, and there is a 'konnyaku' (a Japanese root vegetable) field there that
gets sprayed several times a year with pesticide. We *really* don't want
that stuff on our plants! If anyone wants, we can take a picture and e-mail
it to them.
>
> I apologize for this being a little long. We welcome any and all comments
and suggestions. Thanks a lot.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ken & Lisa Logan
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper.
> He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by
flattering the king.
>
> Said Aristippus, "If you would learn to be subservient to the king you
would not have to live on lentils."
>
> Said Diogenes, "Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be
subservient to the king."
>
> \xB5The Song of the Bird by Anthony de Mello
>
>
>
>




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