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Introduction to Permaculture (1994)

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Re: Introduction to Permaculture (1994)

#21

Post by drewm1980 »

johnpowell wrote: post #14

I bought this book at a place called "Hungry Head Books" in Eugene Oregon in 1997. I was working as a projectionist at the time and pretty much had to kill 30 hours a week in the booth. This was before wifi or cell phones so I would buy a few books each week and just sit on the carpet and read while the projectors did their thing. I was not a fan of the hippies. I lived on 15th and High (that is not a joke) when Jerr…

Hope you at least get as far as planting out some fruit and nut trees and other high value trees? With any luck some of them will have survived til now. If you go back, maybe your food forest is already full of mature trees.

Re: Introduction to Permaculture (1994)

#22

Post by JdeBP »

dntbnmpls wrote: post #13
fouc wrote: post #5

It's interesting that Permaculture is already more than 26 years old. It's got quite a number ideas that probably seem very controversial to the average gardener or small farmer. But the genius of Permaculture is that it's also way less effort. Work with nature, rather than fight it. Chop and drop. Pull out weeds then drop them on the ground, let it turn into mulch.

> It's interesting that Permaculture is already more than 26 years old. The date actually had me wondering. At what point do we start to refer to 1994 as the "1900s". We are already 2 decades into the 2000s, but it feels strange to refer to 1994 as the 1900s? Wonder which decade in the 1900s people started feeling comfortable referring to 1894 as "the 1800s".

It depends from who "we" is, of course. Captain Man and his cohorts already do. (-:

Re: Introduction to Permaculture (1994)

#23

Post by drewm1980 »

dbmueller wrote: post #7

So, I guess in the meantime some developments on the idea have been made. What would a modern intro/reference be?

Keep in mind that building an ecosystem up is sort of a lifetime-scale project, so we're mostly talking about rather un-controlled experiments running for decades. A more recent book I'm going through that I like is Martin Crawford's "Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops"

In the section on soil fertility, you can find tables quantified in terms of pees per area, depending on the breakdown of what you already have planted.

He avoids the term "Permaculture" because like "organic" or "bio" it's turned into this whole badly defined spiritual thing, instead of just being about growing as much food as possible, with as few inputs as possible, with perennial plants.

Re: Introduction to Permaculture (1994)

#25

Post by noobdood »

joshvm wrote: post #3

Note that this isn't just a preview, you can borrow this book (and another million or so) if you have an account with archive, it's free. You can have ten books at a time, two weeks per book. What I like about permaculture is that it doesn't suggest that everyone should be a smallholder. The author comments that it's more sensible to support a local farm that grows sustainably than to try and grow everything yourself…

What does borrow mean in the context of online?

Re: Introduction to Permaculture (1994)

#27

Post by smileypete »

Also have a look at videos about Robert Hart, who passed away in 2000:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBQCKK4sLhg

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=robert+hart+for...

He possibly was the pioneer of the 'forest garden' way of permaculture.

It's a pity when the more modern materials don't give the history or credit to the originators of these ideas.

Re: Introduction to Permaculture (1994)

#28

Post by foxhop »

I have a YouTube channel that I post about my 5 year old permaculture garden on .75 acre in Zone 6b Eastern Connecticut. I also have a mastodon were I post images, updates, and things what work or don't work for my context.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1eySW_9TiI5wnvTnIIw2Nw

https://social.unturf.com/@russell

Re: Introduction to Permaculture (1994)

#29

Post by nominalprose »

drewm1980 wrote: post #23
dbmueller wrote: post #7

So, I guess in the meantime some developments on the idea have been made. What would a modern intro/reference be?

Keep in mind that building an ecosystem up is sort of a lifetime-scale project, so we're mostly talking about rather un-controlled experiments running for decades. A more recent book I'm going through that I like is Martin Crawford's "Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops" In the section on soil fertility, you can find tables quantified in terms of pees per area, depending on the breakdow…

+1 re "lifetime-scale project" nature of the work.

> it's turned into this whole badly defined spiritual thing, instead of just being about growing as much food as possible, with as few inputs as possible, with perennial plants.

I recently purchased Bill Mollison's designers manual. From this book, it's clear that the spiritual/ethical component has been integral to permaculture since the beginning.

"growing as much food as possible...with perennial plants" is great, but it's a subset of what permaculture is or was about.

Re: Introduction to Permaculture (1994)

#30

Post by alvern »

If you're just dipping into Permaculture, get a few books by Ruth Stout. Her method of "no-work" gardening is a pillar in the homesteading, self-sufficiency, and permaculture communities.

Warning, her writing style is closer to rambling than academic/professional.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Stout

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