babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.
Support rabble | Advertise with us | Contact our staff | About rabble | Log-in or Register for a new account | Corrections | Privacy policy | Newsfeeds | Mailing lists
rabble: Features | Columnists | In Cahoots | Blogs | Books | Photos | What's Up | Polls
babble: Forum Topics | Active Topics
The rpn: About the RPN | Become a podcaster
rabbleTV: Program Guide | Features | Indie Inside | Best of the net
Copyright © 2001-2013 the authors
Syndicate
I'd like to have chickens too. Apparently, they're no trouble to keep and they don't seem to mind having their eggs stolen. And a whole egg everyday? That's a lot of output. Real eggs have orange yolks and they taste way, way better than supermarket eggs.
I wonder that on a regular basis, too. Spreading the information you learn from the manual will be another step towards changing that. As Ghandi said, Be the change you wish to see in the world. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
You could try to find it in your local library, as Michelle did, rather than shell out your money before you've had time to check it out. It's not cheap, so maybe spending some time having a look first would be worthwhile.
If memory serves, this is all covered in the manual.
Great! Always a pleasure to be spreading the wonderful world of permaculture (and banging the Aussie drum. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img] )
Edited to add: Thanks for posting the Canadian links, B. Ewing.
[ 24 July 2005: Message edited by: Suzette ]
It seems to have gotten great reviews except by one moron who didn't like it because it was too "biased" in favour of permaculture! Duh.
[ 24 July 2005: Message edited by: Michelle ]
For futher understanding of permaculture and the produce no waste practice, vist this site.
http://www.permaculture.biz/ethics_principles.htm
The course runs approximately two weeks or some variation of that . There are at least two online courses offering designer certification and many others that offered on site teaching. For more info visit the Permaculutre Institute.
http://www.tagari.com/.
Mollison's The Permaculture Designer's Manual is the text.
I have recently applied for teacher certification.
So groovy - this isn't the first time babble has been a good resource for me when I'm doing some research and need a kickstart. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
What I really like about permaculture is the idea of making the system do much of the work, like a miniature ecosystem. It suits my inner laziness. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] But not just that - it's also neat to think about living in harmony with everything else on your little patch of land, and, as much as possible, renewing each other with as little outside inputs as possible once you really get your system going. It seems to me that mastering that challenge - making the same tract of land and finite resources keep renewing itself over and over and over with very little new resources being put into it once established - is the very essence of sustainability.
That one book, "Food, not lawns" looks really interesting.
It is funny you should say that because a large part of permaculture is placing things close to where you need them. For example, many people place their compost heaps way, way in the back and then tend not to use them when it is bad weather. Permaculture says place the compost outside your backdoor. And place plants that need a lot of water closer tp your water source.
there's a lot of overlap between "deep ecology" and common sense.
you don't need a degree or anyone else's approval to do good sustainable agriculture.
If your food is all vegetable, add grass clippings, saw dust, leaves, or even peat, and be sure to turn it regularly and it won't smell.
You can keep chickens for pets, you know. They will do all those good things for you. Plus, if you adjoin your chicken coop to a small greenhouse, they will help keep it warm. If you don't want the eggs give them to a neighbour who will appreciate them. We don't have chickens yet, but we are planning to have them.
In my experience, earwigs live in compost bins and they will come out at night and eat the tender leaves on plants such as parsley, bazil or clematis.
So keep the compost bin at the back of the garden (eg. 20-30 feet away).
Why, yes, I DO wish I had my own little house in the country. Why do you ask? [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Bumping this again... Way up in the thread, someone mentioned the book Gaia's Garden. I'd forgotten all about it being mentioned here but just happened to find it and get it last year. I read it, gave it to my mom, and then got another copy for Christmas.
And now we've put at least one of the ideas to work by sheet mulching our back yard, which I described in the current gardening thread.
Anyhow, just thought I'd bump this since I'm in a reading-about-gardening-on-the-internet mood and this was a good thread (I'm sick as a dog today and am doing the next best thing to being outside - READING about being outside).
I moved into this place in February and had a huge pile (decade worth! of all the woody and grassy stuff and old pot soil) in one corner. Took till early May to clear it to other parts of the garden. I think one of the permaculture ways is to do this as you go. Never have a huge pile of woody stuff. Get it into your cultivated areas as you go as mulch, as underground woody buried material or as the sides of planters. So now I have 2 rock planters, a bathtub planter and a lean-away greenhouse where earlier I had grass and assorted organic material and garbage. Permaculture will happen more as things continue but you have to start somewhere. I want dedicated bee habitat, a pond for water storage and edible plants and fruits that come back every year but that takes longer!
Brian
Very nice! Have you done any videos where you just sort of show your back yard and garden? You seem to do videos of everything else! (I just subscribed to your channel the other day after seeing your lean-to greenhouse video...)