permaculture

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

I do not disagree that you don't need heavy machines to farm but on the 
other hand that "chop and drop" would strike most all farmers and gardeners 
in Ireland as an hilarious misconception. Here you chop a weed and 48 hours 
later all pieces stand taller than ever after having made new roots and are 
strongly embedded in the soil.
Weeding is done here by pulling up the weed, knocking the soil from the 
roots and taking it away to offer it as food to some farm animal (or 
carrying it to the compost heap if you don't have to feed animals). And no, 
it is not a good idea to let these farm animals in the garden hoping that 
they would eat weeds there and save you the trouble for just about every 
crop plant is more palatable to ducks and slugs and goats and pigs than the 
weeds. That is one reason that weeds are weeds here, they are highly 
aromatic and unpalatable in quantity and/or full of thorns or spikes and of 
course they don't mind night frost or flooding and high winds like crops do.
That said, we are not at all unhappy that we have so many weeds for they are 
a major part of our animals diet and they can be relied on at all times and 
the same can not be said about crops.
john


> Excellent blog: jordforbindelse (latest: notill & chop&drop,
> biochar<http://www.permies.com/t/2366/permaculture/biochar-vs-hugelkultur>,
> seedballs
> http://jordforbindelse.wordpress.com/
> "**
>          New post on *jordforbindelse*
> <http://jordforbindelse.wordpress.com/author/jordforbindelse/>
> Maintaining the garden<
> http://jordforbindelse.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/maintaining-the-garden/>
> by Thomas P Jahn <
> http://jordforbindelse.wordpress.com/author/jordforbindelse/>
>
> There is a sheer iron resistance to the idea that farming can be done
> without heavy machinery. Hundreds of horse powers are out their on our
> fields. And people have completely lost confidence that it can be done
> otherwise.
>
> However, maintaining a healthy garden gets down to *one  simple
> method*called “chop and drop”.
>
> Yes, we favor certain plants and crops over others that we call weeds. But
> it is a serious mistake to try to quantitatively remove those plants we
> have decided to call weeds. There is a much more simple, efficient and
> appropriate method than removing weeds with shoots and roots or even
> poisoning them with herbicides. We gotta change attitude and rather think
> positive of our crop than being afraid of the weed. You want to 
> concentrate
> on taking care of your favorite crop, while you chop and prune *some* of
> the other plants that otherwise prevent your crop from fully developing.
> There is thus no waste of any of the nutrients that had been taken up by
> the weeds. At the contrary: The weeds have - for the time of their own
> development - accumulated nutrients that are subsequently released for the
> benefit of you r crop. Roots that remain in the soil decay - or at least
> partly decay, and enter the cycle of natural soil building right at the
> spot. And the arial parts of the weed, when dropped at the place, cover 
> the
> soil, preserve soil moisture and also contribute to the soil building.
>
> There is thus no lasting or serious competition for nutrients, because
> surface composting and root pruning recycle the nutrients to the system in
> favor of your favorite crops. If you don't interfere in the garden,
> *then*it turns wild. Then eventually there is competition for
> nutrients and
> light, and certain plants take advantage. Then a succession sets in 
> towards
> a climax vegetation typical for the particular climatic region. Proper
> gardening, however, is maintaining a young and open fruit forest. Pruning
> and chopping is necessary *and* sufficient to manage and maintain this
> stage for many decades.
>
> Undisturbed soil is extremely potent in recycling
> organic<http://www.permies.com/t/8652/permaculture/colorado-potato-beetles-vs-permaculture#78939>matter.
> All the
> soil organisms needed for cycling are right in place. This is one reason
> why it takes a couple of years of transition when you change your practice
> from digging and tilling to a permanent non-dig garden. The soil fauna has
> to develop and reach its natural balance. Once you approach this balance,
> managing becomes easier and easier.
>
> There is no real need to prepare compost other than composting directly on
> the surface. You may want to use larger patches of nutrient accumulating
> plants, such as comfrey <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfrey>, for 
> surface
> composting at another place with the aid to translocate nutrients. But 
> this
> is a soft and sensitive method which keeps pace with natural cycling for
> the system, allowing the system to proceed in its most productive form.
>
> People often argue that slugs then take over and harm the cultures. But
> this is just another temporary problem, until things get into balance
> again. Firstly, slugs do not particularly go after your crop. They also 
> eat
> what you chop and drop and thereby assist the composting process. 
> Secondly,
> the slugs will be followed by their predators such as toads controlling
> their population. Ducks are an excellent garden keeper too eating the 
> slugs
> and providing you with eggs. Every problem has a natural solution. No
> artificial measure can do a better job than inviting the natural predators
> into your system. Using poison will only address one problem for a short
> period of time while at the same time removing the basis for survival of
> the natural predators, pushing the system out of balance.
>
> Modern agriculture is a synthetic product. It is hard to understand for
> many, how to get out of the system. It necessarily requires some time and
> you may encouter a temporary break down of yield until nature gets back
> into balance. But yields recover, and takes over far beyond what can be
> done with a synthetic system. We cannot rely on a single crop anyway. So
> why not growing a rich mixture of crops together. Monocultures are only
> practical for the machinery we emply to cultivate them, but neither
> appropriate for us or nature. Mixed permanent cultures are far more
> productive and healthy.
>
> Natural farming is about bringing back the natural players into balance.
> Once this is achieved, gardening becomes the easiest task ever. It is no
> more than chop and drop, chop and drop, chop …. and drop.
>
> I rackon, once the physical primary work is done, I can manage 2 hectares
> and maintain them in a state of a paradies just as a single guard, while
> enjoying plenty of leasure time.
>
> Imagine how much you learn by actually doing it!"
>
>
> Thomas Jahn is a member of the
> permaculture<http://www.permies.com/t/2594/permaculture/permaculture>list
> where he posted the original of this article. He said that the site is
> Danish but they try to post in English sometimes. They are trying to reach
> and motivate Danes thus need to use a language they are comfortable with
> and can use to build their community and promote the concept of home, 
> urban
> and community gardening for free food.
>
> There are also many good external links there too, see especially the one
> to the new Seedballs site, a replacement for the original Jim Bones'
> Seedballs site, which was the best site for that topic for a long time.
>
> I am modifying the original post to include more links to no till and
> seedballs. I received the following link from the
> Fukuoka<http://www.permies.com/t/2214/permaculture/masanobu-fukuoka>Farming
> list; this is a real delight to me as I like the type of lifestyle
> depicted in the four page photo gallery:
>
> fruit production, no till agriculture, seedballs, simple/frugal lifestyle
>
> naturalfarming's photostream
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturalfarming/
>
> On Seedballs
> http://sites.google.com/site/onseedballs/
>
> WHAT
> HOW
> WHY
> WHO
> WHERE
> WHEN
> Restoration projects worldwide
>
> <I think this may be a restoration of the famous Seedballs
> website created and maintained by Jim Bones.; this is a world class
> information resource>
>
> Biodiversity Heritage Library
> http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/Default.aspx
>
> "Welcome to the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
>
> The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a consortium of natural
> history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make
> accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their
> collections and to make that literature available for open access and
> responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.” BHL also
> serves as the foundational literature component of the Encyclopedia of
> Life (EOL). BHL content may be freely viewed through the online reader
> or downloaded in part or as a complete work in PDF, OCR text, or
> JPG2000 file formats. For help with downloading content, please see
> the Tutorials page.
>
> To perform a simple search of BHL, enter an EXACT PHRASE such as
> "proceedings of the academy" (without quotation marks). Entering
> keywords such as "proceedings academy" will not return results.
>
> For advanced search options, please use the Books/Journals, Authors,
> Subjects, Scientific Names, or Citation Finder (BETA) tabs above."
>
>
> A good book on fruit growing:
>
> The Fruit Tree Handbook - Reviews - The Ecologist
> http://www.theecologist.org/reviews/books/1116060/the_fruit_tree_handbook.html
>
> The Fruit Tree Handbook
>
> Andy McKee
>
> 3rd November, 2011
> "Packed with helpful hints and detailed explanation, The Fruit Tree
> Handbook is a must-read for ‘top fruit’ enthusiasts, says Andy McKee
>
> If you’ve ever thought about turning an unproductive grassy area into
> an orchard and then quietly filed it away under 'wouldn't know where
> to start', it may be time for a rethink. The Fruit Tree Handbook is
> fairly hefty for a paperback but fruit growing is a big topic and
> deserves the space. All too often 'top fruit' [apples, pears, plums
> etc] is relegated to a couple of chapters in a general fruit book,
> losing out to the easy virtues of strawberries and other soft fruit.
> Given such cramped conditions, it's small wonder that people get
> confused about pollination so a well-written specialist book like this
> one is a welcome addition to my bookshelf.
>
> The author, Ben Pike, is the head gardener of Sharpham Estate in
> Devon, which contains 150 fruit trees. This is a man who clearly knows
> his subject inside out, and isn't afraid to take a pragmatic approach.
> As such, he advocates eco-friendly but effective measures rather than
> trying to be strictly organic. He keeps his tone light and friendly,
> especially in the more technical sections. In the pruning chapter for
> instance, he reassures the reader that it is very likely that their
> trees will not look like the ones ‘in the book’ (and for that one
> statement, Mr. Pike, I am almost pathetically grateful). The aim of
> the book is to be useful for novice growers as well as more
> experienced types, and on the whole, Pike pulls it off admirably.
>
> The Fruit Tree Handbook covers everything you'd hope to find in a
> dedicated top fruit book, with chapters on choosing, buying and
> planting trees as well as a dedicated section for each type of fruit.
> Pollination groups are explained clearly, and there are some welcome
> surprises too, such as a chapter covering much neglected quinces,
> medlars and mulberries in reasonable depth. There's also a chapter on
> dealing with rootstocks (often a source of mystification to new
> growers) but I was particularly impressed with the chapters on
> planning new orchards, renovating old ones and starting a community
> orchard. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to find them, given
> that the author runs Orchard Link - an organisation dedicated to
> saving and promoting small orchards."
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