permaculture

[georg parlow <georg@amidanet.com>]

At 03:07 AM 02/08/2000 -0500, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
>I am thinking of mandala-shaped raised bed gardens linked to one another
>in a design similar, visually, to a fractal. This suggests a flow of some
>sort, perhaps imitating nature. The energy flows in adjoining, connected
>mandala gardens allow throughput of 
>nutrients, microorganisms, earthworms and insects, some beneficial.

ok, yes, but i call this matket gardening, how do you apply that to farming
(growing crops like grain or oilseeds or industrial raw materials)?

>Cycling of nutrients and water occurs. So it would seem that we may
>have accomplished in some part what you are proposing above in
>this simple garden. Enter grassways, cover crops, perennials, shrubs,
>trees of all sorts and the system becomes much more complex and 
>more capable of capturing and recycling nutrients, water and energy.

as the research of the 'synergistic farming' people in france has
scientifically proven, nutrients are never the problem if we keep our soil
covered with living mulch (emphasis is on 'living' as this keeps the
oxygen-ethylene cycles going). i feel sustainability is much more a matter
of the resources we need to produce our crops (hi tech? how much labour?),
and if we master that - if it is also financially sustainable.


georg

*****
follow your heart
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