permaculture

[Scott Pittman <pci@permaculture-inst.org>]

At 10:57 PM 6/9/98 -0400, Jack Rowe wrote:
>Aw, gee, Scott... while I GREATLY enjoyed the mental image of you 'doing
>the sweet pea frug' (a personal favorite), still I wonder who will be the
>arbiter(s) of what 'resembles permaculture'? As the great Mr. Murphy has
>allowed, once you've opened a can of worms, the only way to re-can them is
>to use a larger can... and the permaculture can is wide open! Is this an
>area where we might wisely advocate decentralization? 
>
>Many's the time I've heard 'spiritual' ideas eschewed as 'not
>permaculture'. I personally disagree heartily, and see the entire
>disastrous (no pun intended, fellow etymologists) situation before us now
>as symptomatic of a culture which has disowned the interconnectedness of
>which Marsha spoke.


Hey old friend,

Guess I overstated my case if you took it to mean that I don't believe in
the interconnectedness of all of it.  I certainly subscribe to the "Gaia
Hypothesis" as a reasonable description of the planetary processes, where I
do have problems is when sound gardening/farming practices are replaced with
unproven weather buster tubes and other experimental (at best) techniques
for feeding people.

Their is so much hunger out there for real, productive and proven technology
for developing a sustainable life style that I think it is a disservice to
throw out unproven ideas for the beginning gardener/farmer.  I am working
with biodynamics in my present design job not because I fully understand it
but because it has a history of giving good results.  I also see homeopathic
practisioners for the same reason.  What I don't do is recommend solutions
to problems if those solutions don't have a proven track record - and that
doesn't mean that someone wrote a book about it.

Further I also believe that the native American practice of praying over
their fields has direct benefit but they also have a long history of
agriculture.  I wouldn't recommend to the beginning gardener that by singing
native American prayers over their squash plants they would correct the
nitrogen difficiency.  Their is a difference!

This whole culture and to a lesser extent other western cultures is looking
for a quick fix from the various new age remedies which I think is a poor
substitute for the harder path of learning through observation of the earths
natural processes.  Bill once said it is easy to turn a gardener into a
philosopher but very difficult to turn a philosopher into a gardener.  

My response to Marsha's letter was glib and tongue in cheek, and I think the
advise to use crystals in the garden is a glib response to a serious inquiry
about gardening.

Nuff Said!

Scott 
Scott & Arina Pittman

Permaculture Institute
PO Box 3702, Pojoaque, NM 87501  US
*********
Ingenio Patet Campus