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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Content of posts from an old Permaculture forum - some may be interested in this - goes way back

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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Content of posts from an old Permaculture forum - some may be interested in this - goes way back
  • Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2025 23:32:50 -0400

Back to grass roots:
[]
PC Novice here so really just getting started in this field.. This
> person has hit the nail on the head for me.. I found this to be the
> case here on the web too.
> Another thing I find is that there is a ton of stuff for folks living
> in places they can do this year around and almost zilch for a cold
> climate  newbie permie like myself..
> Not being critical, just a plea for some help and maybe a nudge from
> you big brothers and sisters who have been doing this for years now..
> <my 2 cents> smitty
>
> but when you get involved around the 'net and try to do any research
> all you get is certificates, diplomas, institutes and the call for it
> to be a uni degree and a senior school curriculum. and it all spells
> money and they are not promoting pc as something everyone can do to
> some degree you along with pete and others i hope we can count
> ourselves in as well are out there doing it and untill all that
> factional garbage this group was full of help and ideas going back and
> forth but now that the only thrust is from those chardinay yuppies
> looking for an easy buck.
[]
Permaculture can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. It's more than
just planting food, it's how each element within the whole system
interacts with each other to benefit not only you or me but benefits the
system itself to make it work better and more efficiently.

Some simple examples are using space within or around a chicken coop to
grow not only food for the chickens but food for you which directly
benefits from the chicken "outputs" manure, body warmth, pest control
(careful thought needed there though) etc ... of course the chickens
could be rabbits with a worm farm underneath to use the manure and
convert it to vermicompost or ducks for more reliable snail control (and
slightly safer veggies), but the point is the "system" is built up with
a wholistic plan that integrates any and all those different elements so
that they compliment each other.

The climate of a particular area can be a major factor in deciding what
you can grow or what species of livestock you can keep but its not
really a factor as far as the principles of PC go .... you can create
your own system wherever you live ... each system uses what is available
within the constraints of that climate ... it's a matter of honing the
system to work best for your situation and location.

*The grass is always greener section*
I came from the UK to Australia thinking I could grow anything here ....
not so ... the climatic differences whilst helping some things stop me
from growing things I used to take for granted in the UK, here its as
dry as England was wet, as hot as England was cold .. where I stayed
indoors in England because of the knee deep snow ... now I stay indoors
because its 40 deg C outside and the effect on any plants trying to stay
alive is just as dramatic, here is crunchy dry grass where there was wet
soggy or frozen grass, here is furnace hot drying Northerly winds where
there was freezing 'cutting you to the bone' North winds .... its a
tricky old world
* end of grass is greener section*

Point is ... it will never be wet enough/dry enough/sunny enough/cool
enough wherever we live to do what we all want to do when we want to do
it, the good news is that as far as PC is concerned it really doesn't
matter ...... cos what ya got is exactly what your PC system can use,
how its used depends on how you plan it and that determines how well
each element works within the whole system.

Not sure how many of the regulars are left on the NG, but there used to
be a wealth of experience on here ...prolly still is ... the main thing
to remember is we are all learning all the time ... no matter how long
someone has been using PC, theres always another point of view to
consider or another problem/solution that can be of interest to others.
[]
don't know if this will help but i am writting an essay on how i see
and do perma-c. itis open ended and not finished but there may be some
tips that you could use?

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/permaculture_essay.htm

feel free to contact me by e/mail if you think i can help in some way.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/
[]
Aquaponics:
[]
Like most people people think aquaponics is hydroponics. It is not.

Aquaponics is a sustainable method of growing food by using waste from
fish to produce a cycle of production.

Benefits :

Uses 10% of the water used for conventional gardening
No need for fertilisers or pesticides,
No soil used
Organic
Food can be produced in abundance

If you are interested then we are trying to expand the knowledge in the
UK and have a website called 'Aquaponics Advice and Products in the
UKadmin' (http://www.aquaponicworld.com). This will give you plenty of
information.
[]
English earthworms:
[]
I've read that a common worm species found in North America and Europe
(?Lumbricus sp?) has been observed in the UK to practise a curious and
seemingly ecologically beneficial instinct. They pull leaves from atop
forest litter down into their burrows and eat them. I've never seen
this in North America.

"The leaves which are dragged into the burrows as food, after being
torn into the finest shreds, partially digested, and saturated with
the intestinal and urinary secretions, are commingled with much
earth." Charles Darwin:
http://www.webmesh.co.uk/darwinworms7.htm

Is this observed in other worms? Wouldn't this speed soil building,
and arise in worm:worm competition, so be ecosystemically stable, once
present?

I've also heard that the speed of found earthworm movement correlates
inversely with a soil's heavy metal and organophosphate/organohalide
pollutant levels, after a temperature scaling.

I've read also of the Gippsland worm, from near Canberra. I wonder if
such a large worm has greater or lesser benefit or even detriment on
soil health. I guess there are earthworms which eat other earthworms,
as does a planarian accidentally introduced into the Carolina shore
region some dacades ago, which has left soil life desolate in its
unrecognized wake as it colonizes out from its introduction site.

An author friend writing a chapter on earthworm culture served, at a
surprise party, baked worms, which were rather crunchy, and worm/liver
pate, which was earthy in taste, and not unappealing.

Brian Cady

--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com







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