permaculture

[Georg Parlow <g.parlow@gmx.at>]

I am still keeping up with this list.

And I am aboout to break -for me personally- new ground permaculturally.

I arrived in Peru a few days ago, with the intention to move into a 
particular area in the cloudforest andean foothills on the East side of the 
Andes. Several things are attractive as well as challenging there:

a) the climate - it is truly tropical with -due to elevation mas o menos 800m 
above sea level- relatively cool nights and frequent temperature swings.

b) the setting - there is secondary growth forest for sale, with plenty of 
slopes and water and high dynamic fertility. It is as far in the sticks as 
you can get in Peru - hardware stores or nurseries are VERY few and nothing 
in between, many of the plots do not even have access roads - it is basically 
bush. And I am well aware of the PC priciple "stay out of the bush - it is 
already in good order". At the same time this is exactly part of my 
motivation to go there, because 

c) I know of at least 3 different groups of people who either already have or 
want to buy lands there (the one group that already has has 280ha) - AND as 
far as I have been gathering from afar even though they cherish the priciples 
of PC, they seem to have ideas about agriculture and food, that is not truly 
forest compatible. This brings me to 

d) I want first for myself -as I want to live a life really close to nature- 
and a few similarly crazy friends to develop a style of village, agriculture 
und subsistence that is as truly forest compatible as the life of small 
indigenous tribes in the cloudforest has been for millenia. And second I want 
to nudge as well as practically support those mentioned communities to do 
likewise - e.g. to adjust their lifestyle to the landscape rather than 
adjusting the landscape to their (alien) lifestyle.

e) what I can forsee by now, is that apart from a forest plot as big as 
possible (I would not mind it to be several square kilometers, as everything 
apart from the corner I intend to carve out a forest compatible life in will 
be a provate rexerve anyways), and the plots of the other communities, it 
will be a transitional necessity to buy one of the existing and more or less 
degraded farms, that do exist alongside the few roads that lead through the 
bush. On this farm we (all of the groups intending to start a really new life 
as in "new civilization" there) can grow our food until 1) the food trees, 
shrubs, vines and other perennials that will be planted interspersed the 
existing forest in close proximity of the village(s) are sufficiently matured 
to provide -together with a few square meters of annual gardens right next to 
the huts- all the needed sustenance, and 2) we are adjusted in our food and 
lifestyle habits to this. Also we can have the nursery that is going to 
produce all these food trees, shrubs, vines and other perennials as well as a 
shared workshop, maybe guest rooms etc.

All and any ideas, hints, ressources etc. welcome!

A REQUEST: I used to posess a spanish-english, english-spanish field guide 
for all things permaculturally and botanical, I believe it was by a man named 
Duke. Can anyone point me to the website I can order it from? I had it for 
years and never used it, and just months before this lifechanging project 
arose I gave it away.

---

> I hope all of you have survived the pandemic and will continue to be
> healthy as it slowly winds down.

Lawrence, I honor you for your optimism. I would be surprised if it will EVER 
go away, just like the terrorists are still with us on every flight since 
9/11, I am afraid the authorities in power are too fond of the way fearful 
people can be governed, to let this thing recede. And I hope I am wrong!

Hugs!
Georg