permaculture

["Charles de Matas" <cdematas@hotmail.com>]

Interesting comment by Paul: " So in acting on a piece of land you
are necessarily in the world of intuitive 'policy development'.  We make
decisions between alternatives based on available information.  I have
not met many permaculture practitioners who do science... make
systematic replicable observations (perhaps quantitative) within a
theoretical context for the purposes of infering how things work.  This
is a problem in ecological restoration as well.  When the people who are
doing the work are not helping build the theory on which the work is
built this is a weakness... in permaculture terms, the experiential
output of the worker is not connected to the inspirational input of the
scientist. "

On my own land I can go slowly and not try to implement a full design at 
once.  I think I have avoided many mistakes by trying things out on a small 
scale first before trying to scale them up.  I know from experience that 
Leucaena will not grow well on the soils I have.  I initially thought 
crotalaria would be a usefull plant, but it is a bit too woody and tough and 
not easy to slash.  Now trying desmodium.  Maybe with experience one can 
know what is the best approach for a given location, but for beginners like 
me it might be best to make small trials first.
Charles

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