permaculture

["Dan Halsey, 612-720-5001 Halsey1.com" <dhalsey@integra.net>]

I think gleaning is great. Harvesting the forgotten assets helps the plants
too. Gorilla gardening and clandestine operations in hidden spaces is a
resource few pursue. I also think that such things are short lived in a
resource poor economy which we may enter gradually. Locally the "fee"
woodchip market has dried up due to subsidies to garbage burning pants to
use renewable resources. They are paid to burn the organic material we need
for soil building. Sad. Also compost is getting more expensive and after a
hundred more community gardens have sprung up, the standard for soil is
fresh compost, not natural soils enhanced by organic matter grown on-site.

As gleaning is popularized, community gardens extend, and populations move
to increase their natural capital, I think we shall see a shortage of all
the things we have come to take for granted including, raw organic
materials, water, space, and  vacant urban land.

We need to overtly integrate ourselves locally and socially with the
neighborhoods that will inevitably need experience. Develop the systems now
in the mid-block yards of property owners in common garden communities, and
they will be established and appreciated even before an urgent need
develops.

Daniel Halsey
SouthWoods Forest Gardens
17766 Langford Blvd
Prior Lake, MN 55372

612-720-5001
Southwoodscenter.com
Southwoodsforestgardens.blogspot.com


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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: (Sub)urban Permaculture Elements (Jason Gerhardt)
   2. Re: (Sub)urban permaculture (jenny Nazak)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 11:22:16 -0600
From: Jason Gerhardt <jasongerhardt@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] (Sub)urban Permaculture Elements
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <BANLkTi=25UJVG7R9JymL7AVzCeiMpM3=zg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Bob, Glenn, all,
I am one such urban resident who works in the rural lands to regenerate the
potential of the larger landscapes. However, as an urban resident I tend to
think in terms of bioregional zones of use about my food supply. Out my door
in my zone 1 of concrete and asphalt gridiron on top of which I have a
significant potted garden growing my micronutrient and vegetable base in the
form of greens, salads of various types, cabbage, broccoli/cauli, summer
fruits, figs, culinary herbs, etc. I can walk outside and eat an instant
salad at anytime. I also guerilla garden various patches of abandoned land
in my neighborhood where I grow beans and have larger compost setups. In the
neighborhoods surrounding mine (nearly the rest of the town) I glean plums,
apples, apricots, grapes, seeds of rare plants, and scionwood from the bones
leftover of the agricultural traditions that once existed within city
limits, as well as clients forest gardens. This I consider my zone 2.
 Outside of city limits I work on several properties implementing
permaculture design for broadacre agriculture by doing just what you suggest
in the form of water harvesting earthworks, orchard systems, animals, and
polycultural cereal grain production (very small scale). This is my zone 3.
 Beyond that are the larger produce farms that bring food to the farmer's
market where I get things like melons, pickling vege, tomatoes for canning,
and loads of winter squash for storage. That is my zone 4. I also spend
sometime in the higher mountains in my bioregional zone 5 where I forage for
morel and porcini mushrooms, seeds of native plants, potherbs, wild berries,
etc. Even with all this (though it could be ramped up a hundredfold) I still
regularly walk two blocks to the natural food store where I participate in
the global food chain for perhaps the bulk of my caloric needs, though that
gets less and less as time goes on.

I think if we intensively apply zonation to our bioregions we will get a lot
better at feeding ourselves locally which will halt the expansion of
inappropriate farmland and allow for the repair and restoration of some
farmland to mixed native ecosystems and regenerative agriculture.

The amount of food that once came from within the limits of most cities and
towns is massive compared to what it is now. As an example, in the early
1900's Boulder County Colorado was an exporter of fruits, whereas now we
import nearly all of our fruit from around the world or the Western Slope of
Colorado. Things change quickly it would seem. I think it is really easy to
produce vegetables on the home scale and that large scale produce farming
could be made nearly obsolete if we had a revolution of home gardening using
permaculture techniques. It makes a lot of sense that the larger local
acreages should be focusing on protein and calorie production rather than
produce. I think the work of Darren Doherty's RegenAg is perhaps the most
promising initiative for this work.

As a past produce market farmer, in arid lands of the western US
particularly, I have to say I don't wish that way of agriculture on anyone.
Keeping up with the bugs, watering, super weeds, etc. just sucks. I'd rather
educate every city dweller to grow their own salads. It makes so much more
sense on a backyard scale where things like mulch and micro water harvesting
can be employed.

In my experience, there a challenges to doing permaculture in both rural and
urban/suburban environments (mostly the social structures). I think both
need it equally and instead of choosing one over the other we should go with
what makes sense.  To me using zones to design our food supply lines is just
common sense, and it is zones that will determine where things should go and
where the focus should be set.

Jason


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 18:29:49 -0500
From: jenny Nazak <jnazak@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] (Sub)urban permaculture
To: "permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Cc: "permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <13D14C59-9499-461E-B514-710D3DC3B28E@yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=us-ascii

What an excellent thread! I grew up in the suburbs, have been a gung-ho
city-rat all my adult life. And in the past few years have had many
enjoyable, fruitful experiences along the lines of what Glenn describes.

Most recently, I spent a couple of months on a friend's farm, helping out
with sign-painting, marketing, cooking, and what I call "permaculture home
ec": using permaculture principles to improve the design of household
processes such as dishwashing, laundry, cooking, cleanup etc.

In exchange for doing work I love, and having that work be very much
appreciated, I got beautiful rustic sleeping quarters and all the fresh
vegetables, eggs, pork, milk, and other wonderful local food I could eat. I
also had enough time to fulfill my responsibilities as public-relations
coordinator of a permaculture guild (an occupation I am able to do almost
entirely online and by phone).

And my hosts were happy to let me hold my solar-cooking workshops at the
farm. (BTW I timed the workshops to make it easy for my students to shop at
the farm stand during its regular business hours.)

A huge win-win, all in all, I would say!

>From what I can see, such opportunities abound. I have stayed on many farms
and ranches over the years, and they all had one thing in common: They were
short-handed. They needed more HUMANS!

Being small businesses and cash-strapped, family farms and ranches are good
places to find work-trade opportunities.

City-rat though I may be, I've gotten to participate in planting,
harvesting, butchering, marketing, and many other aspects of farming over
the years. All without having (or wanting) any land of my own.

As a bonus: The friends' farm I stayed at recently, was located on a city
bus line with frequent service!

Jenny

Jenny Nazak
A semi-nomadic permaculture factotum
Based mainly in Ormond-By-the-Sea, FL, and Austin, TX

Glenn wrote:

"With patience and persistence you can find ways to partner with some
homesteaders and fearless, curious, or generous farmers, and become a farmer
yourself -- city dweller, with no land, no barn, no tractor, but a stake in
the business.  Picture helping with fencing, or buying a few sheep to
supplement a cow herd, planting black beans or wheat "


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End of permaculture Digest, Vol 101, Issue 3
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