permaculture

[Rain Tenaqiya <raincascadia@yahoo.com>]

Tull did not invent the plow, he only modified it.  He would have liked rock 
dust.  Here's the Wikipedia entry:
 
Jethro Tull improved the seed drill, a device for sowing seeds effectively. 
At the time his workers did not like the idea because they thought they were 
going to lose their jobs.
Tull also advocated the use of horses instead of oxen and invented a 
horse-drawn Hoe for clearing weeds, and made changes to the design of the 
plough which are still visible in modern versions. His interest in ploughing 
derived from his interest in weed control, and his belief that fertilizer was 
unnecessary, on the basis that nutrients locked up in soil could be released 
through pulverization. Although he was incorrect in his belief that plants 
obtained nourishment exclusively from such nutrients, he was aware that horse 
manure carried weed seeds, and hoped to avoid using it as fertilizer by 
pulverizing the soil to enhance the availability of plant nutrients.
Tull's inventions were sometimes considered controversial and were not widely 
adopted for many years. However, on the whole he introduced innovations which 
contributed to the foundation of productive modern agriculture.
Tull tried to persuade European farmers to adopt what he called "horse-hoeing 
husbandry", which involved growing crops in rows and hoeing them thoroughly. 
Although the Chinese used this technique by at least the 6th century BC, this 
was not widely practiced in Europe until the 18th century, and he was the 
major contributor in this conversion.
Tull died at Prosperous Farm at Hungerford and is buried in the graveyard of 
St Bartholomew's Church, Lower Basildon, both in Berkshire.


     
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Subject: Re: [permaculture] deep mulch in Mediterannean climates. don't
        forget Jean Pain
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I'd like to put in a good word for succulents as a useful living mulch in
Mediterranean climates.  Thanks to climate change, our fire season is now
10 months long and although we also use wood and "chop and drop" mulches as
well  as other living mulches (many, like nasturtium, are edible), we've
found that  especially in a young garden, succulents (which are usually
available free as  cuttings from someone else's garden) cover the earth 
nicely,
holding water  underneath and in their own tissues -- highly fire-resistant.

Linda Buzzell
Santa Barbara, CA, USA


In a message dated 12/10/2009 1:19:08 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
venaurafarm@bellsouth.net writes:


Michael Pilarski wrote:

> A small gripe.  would  people not put "US Permaculture National
Conference" in the subject line  of a post when they are talking about
something totally  different.

It could be amazingly useful to preface every subject header  with
keywords describing the variant on the existing thread's subject
or  a new thread or one-off post.

> If you google it you will find  various sources including an article
in the pc activist.  Also it  looks like it can be downloaded from
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4774652/THE_METHODS_OF_JEAN_PAIN_Another_Kin
d_of_Garden

Could  anyone give us an intro to using torrents?
what software
toolbars
how  to download files
whatever else is necessary

Michael Pilarski  wrote:

> On the topic of appropriateness of deep mulch in  Mediterannean
climates.  Some people may have had bad experience with  this for one
reason or another, but the decades long work of Jean Pain in  a hot
Mediterannean bioregion in France included successfully growing  gardens
without irrigation with the use of deep mulch (in combination with  other
strategies).
>
> His most in-depth description is in his  book "Another Kind of
Garden". > I highly recommend his work for many  reasons.  Including the
use of > >woody biomass, conversion of  biomass into energy, hot
composting with > >biomass and fire  reduction in chapparal ecosystems.

My take on mulch in food gardens is  that there is never enough of it
and that living mulches are different but  of equal value, especially if
they fix nitrogen and don't compete with the  primary crop.

I think that the best gardening method  is:

permanent

no-till except for light scarification of surface  crust (not a problem
is there is  high OM in the topmost soil layer,  the desired condition)
or for weeding, best done to  shallow depth to  avoidn disturbing the
weed seed bank

raised beds with heavy, deep  mulch between beds

Double dig by hand to construct these beds or  carefully use
powered mechanical means to accomplish this or accomplish  part
of the work. I have used a tractor with three to five  different
mounted on it to do ALL the work of constructing raised beds  on
five acres of my land. I used the tractor because I wanted five acres of
guaranteed production in those raised beds. Raised beds provide much
needed drainage which can channel runoff to other gardens and/or to
impoundments. Sometimes prepared flat or nearly flat beds that are not
hilled/bedded are good too and for different reasons and uses; high soil
OM is required for this type of gardening.

My intent is to do the  most I can with the tractor to lay out and shape
these raised beds, once  and for all in a final configuration. After this
is accomplished the beds  would be worked by hand thereafter, each
seaason, each year, producing the  desired biointensive, mulched, high
soil OM, permanent no till raised  beds.

I will be documenting my work this winter and next spring and  summer
as I work to accomplish my goal of not needing the tractor in the  field
at all. Presently I have two main fields with gardens, each with deer
fencing. One is fallow, Fukuoka-style with lots of weeds and food crops
in succession. The other, my primary production area, is divided into
fallow gardens and ones dominated by cover crops (volunteer), turnip
greens and rye grass, thick with these crops. As I will probably not be
able to get the tractor into the field this winter I will be faced with
hand tilling and weeding every square foot of garden space that I plan
to plant in one crop or another in early spring and following. I will
leave the weeds to grow and reseed in well over half of this area, good
because the soil will have cover growing on it throughout we and dry
seasons. This situation will give me the chance, finally, to create the
types of notill beds I have been waiting years  for.

LL
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