"Of course you couldn't feed the world with such a hippy-dippy, hunter-gatherer, landscape system like permaculture."

13 February 2007. David Blume had cause to write in defence of permaculture and he seemed well qualified from a theoretical and practical perspective; having certified more than 400 people in permaculture design since 1997 and he was a permaculture production food farmer for 9 years.

I found his arguments fascinating and I hope you can find the time to visit his site http://www.permaculture.com/ to read the full text. All comments are welcomed of course. NB Subheadings are mine.

PERMACULTURE IMPROVES SOIL
"On approximately two acres - half of which was on a terraced 35 degree slope - I produced enough food to feed more than 300 people (with a peak of 450 people at one point), 49 weeks a year in my fully organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) on the edge of Silicon Valley."
David goes on to say that he built his soil from cement-hard adobe clay to an impressive state at over 22% organic matter with a cation exchange capacity (CEC) of over 25.

CEC is an indirect measure of soil humus or the ability of the soil to hold nutrients available to crops. The higher the number, the more nutrients are stored and available. For reference (in America), Class 1 commercial agricultural soil is "lucky to hit" 2% organic matter - the dividing line between a living and dead soil - with a CEC around 5.

PERMACULTURE EFFICIENTLY USES SUNLIGHT UPON POLYCULTURAL PLANTINGS
Another issue that David addressed was the superiority of organic polyculture practices as opposed to the established commercial chemical monoculture practice of crop growing. He cites two reasons: the benefit of mycorhyzzal symbiosis (mycorrhizas are highly evolved, mutualistic associations between soil fungi and plant roots.)http://www.ffp.csiro.au/research/mycorrhiza/intro.html#whatand solar saturation.

Solar saturation is defined as the point at which a plant's photosynthetic machinery is overwhelmed by excess sunlight and shuts down. In practice, this means that most monoculture crop plants stop growing at about 10am and don't start again until about 4pm. Various members of a polyculture shade each other, preventing solar saturation, so plants metabolise all day.

POLYCULTURE vs MONOCULTURE, AN EXAMPLE
David gives the example that when you look at a simple Mexican permaculture field growing the typical "three sisters" of corn, beans and squash, you get close to 90% solar efficiency as opposed to approximately 30% from a chemical monoculture field.

Whilst finding a suitable illustration of the 3 sisters I thought I should also include a description of this method of companion planting. Follow the link for further information.


"Three sisters grow together in a farmer’s field. The sisters are close and protect one another. The first sister, standing straight and tall, provides support for the second sister.The second sister is a climber. She adds nitrogen to the soil, feeding and nourishing the other two. The third sister covers the soil with broad leaves, preventing weeds from growing. In these ways, each sister helps the others. The sisters grow faster and stronger with each other’s help. Here is how you can plant the three sisters — maize, beans and squash — on your land. Make a small hill of soil. The hill should be one foot tall, and twice as wide. Plant five maize seeds in a circle in the hill. Plant the seeds an equal distance apart. When the maize is a little taller than your ankle, plant four climbing bean seeds in the hill around the maize stalks. Finally, the last thing to do is to plant four squash seeds in the hill around the maize stalks. As the three sisters grow, observe how they help one another. You only have to prepare the soil once. But you harvest THREE crops! I think you will notice that your maize will not be damaged by pests. And you will harvest more food from less land." http://www.farmradio.org/

MANUAL & MECHANICAL LABOUR
It is now estimated that 80% of the world's arable (read European-style ploughed) agricultural land is now in the hands of multi-nationals, who then choose to adopt monocultural farming practices because it utilises the least amount of labourers. Harvesting "the three sisters of corn, beans and squash" could not be accomplished with a combine harvester, instead it would require many labourers and that could mean a reduction in profits.

MULTINATIONAL OWNERSHIP OF GRAINS OR THE EVIL SOYBEAN
Lastly, David's article discusses the "neo-liberal formula" of the IMF and the World Bank and the detrimental effect they are having on the developing nations; and restorative agricultural practices that would replace the inefficient corn-soybean agribusiness. (Bill Mollison has much to say against the soybean not least that 100% of the patents on soy beans are owned by three companies". Sixth International Permaculture Conference and Convergence, Perth and Bridgetown, WA 27 September to 7 October 1996. http://www.rosneath.com.au/ipc6/ch01/mollison/index.html)

This article by David Blume contained many ideas and I suggest following the links for more details. Maryanne Bell 14 July 2007

Creating a kitchen garden at a local school

I am now the proud ‘grandmother’ of twenty kindergarten children at Katoomba Public School. Each Friday at noon (weather permitting) I turn up at the school, hopefully with dear friend Sue (Girard) in tow, to add a bit more to a steadily growing garden, carefully chosen for its closeness to the classroom and its north east aspect. We work with four at a time for about fifteen minutes, while the others do a Round Robin set of activities inside.

The first bed was built on top of the kikuyu, following Rowe Morrow's great diagram. The children helped at very stage – deciding what vegetables (and fruit) they liked to eat, talking about whether they would grow in Katoomba, marking out the first bed, wetting and laying the newspaper, adding a layer of lucerne hay, then a layer of almost compost (they enjoyed identifying the various vegetable remains although a few didn't want to touch or smell them), then a layer of straw and wetting it thoroughly.

Finally we made holes for pockets of good soil, and each child sowed two peas or beans or planted a potato seedling or a lettuce. Then they added tags with their unsteadily printed names. I explained that some might die or be eaten (just as well, for by the next week the slugs had found two of the lettuce - we put in a substitute straight away in each case).

We talked about the difference between the fresh peas and beans that we eat and the dried-up peas and bean-pods that we use to get new plants. The most dramatic moment was opening up some dried old pods of Scarlet Runner beans to reveal the delicately coloured beans inside. We sowed them even out of season just to see what happened.

As the peas grew we attached them to tripods, and we also gave all the plants a dose of Charlie Carp (after a smell of the bottle). We also had to weed out the wheat as it grew out of the straw, and keep pulling back the kikuyu. The name tags haven’t worked very well because some names have washed off – even though we used what I thought were the right markers. Any ideas?

We have now added a wall of bubble-wrap on the south east of the bed (it's protected to the west by the school building), after talking about how plants get cold in winter too. And we are just about to make our second bed, with two keyhole sections. This time we'll have to cut off the kikuyu around the edge and then pull out all the runners. Great fun, as long as the ground isn't too wet. Then I'll give it a bit of a hoe, and we'll sow a row of carrots and some rainbow chard - we have already looked at the seeds (brought by Sue).

I expected them to be interested in the physical gardening activities such as planting, watering and seeing the plants grow (of course a few just like being outside), but I have been excited by the interest some of the children also have in what might be called the intellectual element in the exercise – the why, why not and how? One of these children is not quite five.

We've already had other teachers wanting to have a similar garden, and the P & C have agreed to raise money for hay, straw etc, so all we need is some volunteers. Of course we could do something similar at other schools as well. The project is part of the just established Katoomba-Leura Climate Action Now group, which hopes to consolidate the activities of various local groups.

Let me know if you would like to join us, grandmother or grandfather or auntie or uncle. Everyone welcome to what could become an active network. From little things big things grow.

Lizzie Connor

The Vege Tank

Some years ago my sister bought a house which included an old colorbond water tank for which she had no use. She happened to mention the seemingly superfluous tank to my brother one day who, after a moments consideration said........”I'll take it!”

Fast forward a few years and the old tank is now in sections and supporting crops of various vegetables. The soil level is at a manageable waist height and the style of the veggie tanks ties in with the colorbond roof of the house.

Here is how a water tank can become a series of veggie tanks:

Step 1. Sit the tank on the ground and using a marker or spray can, mark around the full circumference where you wish to cut it. This will depend on the depth you want the bed to be.
Step 2. Plug in your angle grinder (complete with new steel cutting disc) and don your safety gear - ear muffs, gloves and eye protection are a good idea.
Step 3. Make a cut with the angle grinder and follow the line around from start to finish.
Step 4. Remove this section and repeat process until you have separated all sections.
Step 5. The cut edges of the tank will be sharp and a danger to small fingers. To avoid any accidents, take a length of garden hose, wrap it around the tank and cut it to the length of the circumference of the tank.
Step 6. Using a sharp stanley knife, slit one side of the hose the full length.
Step 7. Insert the slit hose over the top edge of the tank and press on firmly.
Step 8. Drill a series of holes in the side of the tanks, just above the base for drainage.
Step 9. Admire your handy work with a cleansing beverage in hand.
Step 10. Fill the tanks with soil, compost, manure and blood and bone.
Step 11. Plant out with veggies of your choice and water in well.
Step 12. Repeat Step 9.

The above project yielded 3 small veggie tanks.

Article posted by : Pete

Grey Water Filtration in Action

The grey water from the upstairs shower and bath is intercepted by an inverted funnel into an inspection port in the drainage pipes. This water is collected in a tank below and then released into a system incorporating three preformed plastic drainage/sump baskets.

The idea was to imitate a homemade charcoal water filter that I read about. The first basket contains a layer of large lumps of charcoal, the second contains small aggregate type stones and the third contains large grained river sand. They are angled so that the water reticulates downwards. The idea is that by the time water passes through the system is will have been filtered enough to enter a larger 'wild-life' pond and bath down slope.

Frogs spawn in all three baskets and also in the pond and bath, so I am more than confident that it works.

Article posted by : Susan