permaculture

[Steve Bonney <steve@sustainableearth.net>]

I agree that the 3 tiered system is a good way of thinking. Building SOM 
is a continuous activity when growing plants. Who ever has too much 
organic matter?   I must caution about bringing any biomass on to a food 
production system. Best to know if it's contaminated with toxic 
chemicals -- usually lawn chemicals in my region -- or unwanted seeds. 
So leaves raked from a lawn that's recently been sprayed will contain 
some of that grass.

John, if we are selling any farm/garden production fertility is leaving 
our land.  A system that maximizes production exacerbates that loss.  On 
the plains, it was the dung and urine and grazing of huge numbers of 
large ruminants (bison), followed by a rest period before others 
followed that created SOM in the 8-10 % range.

Steve


On 12/28/2011 12:11 PM, Toby Hemenway wrote:
> I like Tom Ward's 3-phase system for implementing solutions: first, what he calls "quick fix", then 
> "retrofit," then what he calls "ultimate permaculture." So in this case the quick fix would be to get a 
> municipal compost program to deliver two 10-yard truckloads of compost per acre. That's the solution if you need organic matter 
> right now no delay, (say, hungry neighbors needing food!) and thus you will be a little less than choosy about what's in it. 
> It's taking advantage of the crazy abundance of resources this culture has at the moment. Then, "retrofit" would be 
> something like cover cropping and tilling it in. (We'll be doing a lot of "retrofit," in this society, given the 
> existing infrastructure that is so badly planned or damaged. We can't tear it all down at once, so we must retrofit what we 
> have.) But ultimate permaculture, like Steve says, would be a rotational grazing program, tree crops, and perennial fertility 
> builders. That will take a few years to get going, hen
>   ce the hierarchy of approaches. It also works at various scales: quick fix 
> on a small area to get a yield going, retrofit for medium size, and ultimate 
> permaculture to transform the whole system.
>
> This 3-tier system has broad application to a lot of design problems; I 
> appreciate that Tom has given it some nomenclature.
>
> Toby
> http://patternliteracy.com
>
>
> On Dec 27, 2011, at 8:44 PM, Steve Bonney wrote:
>
> > --
> > Steve Bonney
> > Sustainable Earth
> > a 501(c)3 not-for-profit membership organization
> > to promote sustainable farming and food systems
> >
> > _______________________________________________

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