permaculture

["John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha Robert,

Great work on the flyer and the action on behalf of the Wrangler workers -
well done, and I hope that for some at least the opportunity is taken and
succeeds.  I would love to be able to buy a good pair of pants (heck, any
clothes, these days) made by a local cooperative.

Also -

> So what I am trying to do is adapt this to be better by not using
> vermiculite or peat moss/ground coconut shells.

Don't know much about vermiculite, but peat moss I would absolutely avoid -
peat bogs take thousands of years to accumulate and they are being mined away
in decades, another export cash crop often shipped far far away to (first
world, they can "afford" it) gardeners, destroying entire peat bog ecosystems.

> So what I'm thinking is a mixture of soil, compost, and straw.

Sounds good to me.  Grow in the soil and compost mix, mulch with the straw,
it'll slowly decay and join the soil...that's basically what I've taken to
doing in my front yard garden, where the existing soil is pretty sandy and low
organic matter.  Dunno if it's part of the 'square foot' system nowadays but
of course whatever compost, cover and/or n-fixing crops can be added to the
mix help the soil-building along.




John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
------------------------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net