Even though it was at or below freezing almost every day last week with the exception of one or two days a few degrees above freezing, the longer days and stronger sun have still managed to melt snow. A lot of melting remains before I can get out into the garden though. This means I continue to read gardening books to fuel my excitement which raises the temperature of my spring fever to dangerous levels. This week I browsed through two books on permaculture.
I keep hearing about permaculture and edible forests so I wanted to find out more about them. The Ultimate Guide to Permaculture and Food Not Lawns seemed like they would explain everything to me. Did they ever. It’s not gardening for the apocalypse, though the concepts are very much the same. The permaculture culture is more like a save the planet hippy commune all peace, love, and composting toilets. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything useful to be learned, there is, only that it is easy to slip from the practical and end up in the 1970s.
Permaculture philosophy was founded in 1978 by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison. Permaculture, permanent agriculture, is, in Bill Mollison’s words,
a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless action; of looking at systems in all their functions rather than asking only one yield of them.
It is green living and organic gardening taken to — ultimately — the extreme of creating a self-sustaining system.
I thought it was just about organic gardening, companion planting, creating microclimates of mutually beneficial plantings, composting, and saving rainwater in a barrel. It started off like that but has since grown far beyond gardening to a way of living that I doubt most people could or would follow. Not to say it isn’t worth the attempt, but not all of us can live in a place that has an acre of land for growing food, a barn for the goats, a chicken coop for the chickens, and someplace for ducks, a climate that allows one to build a sod, straw, or adobe house, zoning laws that make composting toilets legal, and someplace with enough space for enough solar panels to live off the grid (of course the idea is that with a proper eco house one does not need so much electricity for heating and cooling). If you live in such a place and lead such a life, I applaud you. I need to live in a city so I can earn a living. Though the author of Food Not Lawns suggests that after I’ve done everything to pare back my life and am growing all my food, I can quit my job because I won’t need the money from it any longer. Right.
Permaculture is about ethical living, about creating a clean and healthy life and a clean and healthy world. It’s about doing no harm to the environment and even reclaiming and improving the area in which you live. While both the books push toward the extreme, neither faults the reader for living in a city or an apartment. Food Not Lawns encourages readers to start where they are and do what they can and then start reaching out and build a community — turn a vacant lot into a garden, create a garden for children and/or volunteer at a school and teach kids how to grow things, become politically active, ditch the car and walk or ride a bike.
I read the books and found plenty to laugh at regarding how to live, but I was able to find some good ideas about gardening. I learned that planting daffodils under apple trees is a good idea because both bloom at the same time and daffodils help attract pollinating insects. Food Not Lawns has a weed chart that reveals what the weeds say about the soil. The Ultimate Guide to Permaculture has a fantastic and extensive companion planting chart as well as useful information on building good soil and storing and preserving the fruits of your harvest. I don’t need to know about beekeeping or how to build a grey water system for my house but I am glad the information is there for those who do want to know.
It seems Sundays have become a sort of talk about gardening day. If you all don’t mind I think I will try to keep that up into fall. Eventually I will be able to leave the gardening books behind and talk about my own garden. One of the books I read recently said I should keep a garden diary about what I plant, successes and failures, weather, etc. I’ve never done that before and I have no idea why. Writing about gardening on Sundays will help. I promise to not bore you with too many details, to make some good (I hope) stories, and share photos and maybe some recipes (Bookman allowing!). Books and gardens go well together, I think. I hope you think so too!
So Many Books (and weeds)- that sounds OK! The permaculture book sounds interesting but the uncomfortable truth may be that deep greenism is inherently a bit anti-human or at least anti urban human- this means that so much that is great as well as appalling would go in a ecological utopia.
Your weather sounds a bit like what we have here – in the winter that just won’t go away.
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Ian, ha! I like it, So Many Books and Weeds! I wouldn’t say it is anti-human so much as it is anti-stuff which is fine up to a point. I reuse and recycle like crazy but there is a point at which scrounging for supplies is silly. And there are plenty of things one cannot scrounge for like good tools and those precious solar panels. And really at the extreme, it comes out to be a sort of subsistence living in many respects which smacks a bit of utopian romanticism and is unnecessary and silly. The weather forecasters promise that this week we will slowly start to feel like spring. I hope they are right and I hope spring lands on your doorstep soon too.
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While I don’t call myself a good gardener … I love looking at and reading about gardens so I’m very happy if you develop a habit of writing about gardens and gardening on Sunday over the next little while. (We just had two big boulders and three smaller rocks delivered to form the basis of our front garden … we have a sort of plan but are not, really, visionaries). I have read quite a bit about permaculture over the years – but you have described it beautifully. About living ethically, about doing no harm to the environment and about, in fact, improving it a little if you can. I’d love to be better at doing that … but keep wanting to read instead of do! How to find a better balance …
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whisperinggums, I wouldn’t call myself a good gardener either, just not a disastrous one 😉 I’d love to have some big landscape boulders but they would overwhelm my small city lot unless I was good at design and knew what I was doing, which I am not and I don’t! I think books like these are really good and important but they are also too much and sort of a turn off for someone who is just starting out and/or has no hippy desires but just wants to do the right thing. These books are preaching to the already converted and since I am among the converted I can sift through the information and take what is useful for me. I wonder if there are any books for people at the beginning of the journey, who recycle, maybe grow tomatoes, and want to do more but don’t know what or how? Hmmm.
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You sound more down the gardening path than dilettantish all the same. I’m pretty fits-and-starts! There probably are good beginner books … I’m sure I’ve seen them in the past but haven’t been looking much at gardening books lately except for books of nice gardens!
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I love looking at books of pretty gardens too! In fact I have one on my desk right now 🙂
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I’m already looking forward to (learn more about) gardening with you every Sunday.
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Cath, thanks! You are so kind 🙂
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I would love to hear about your gardening every week. I think it a splendid idea. When we moved into this house, I started doing a little gardening around the patio, and in a shady spot under the trees, and then I started digging up more and more of the sod. I also kept a gardening journal for the first couple of years and even snipped flowers and herbs to press between the pages. I dried and framed one lovely such clipping. It still hangs in the upstairs hall – a constant reminder of a very pleasant time in my life. My husband and children began buying me gardening paraphernalia for birthdays and Mother’s Day and encouraged my efforts. My husband used to call me “Farmer Linda” as he stood on the patio with his coffee mug, smiling at my efforts. I couldn’t wait for the weekend to dig and prune and water and plant. When other priorities and life’s battles became more immediate, I abandoned gardening. A few stalwart souls come back every year…the coneflower and the rudbekia. But most things just faded away – even the Cana lilies which had heretofore cropped up in the most unusual places. But reading about your garden and your gardening plans makes me want to begin again. And I shall! I can! And I will!
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Thanks Grad! Sounds like “Farmer Linda” needs to dust of her hat and gloves, get her tools out of the garage and get dirty 😉 I totally understand not doing much gardening because life is so busy. I’ve been better some years then others and we gave up growing veggies for several years while I was in library school because there is only so much time. Gardening is supposed to be relaxing not just one more thing to worry about. If you do start again, please post about it on your blog, pictures too 🙂
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Alas we are all far too squashed together in the Uk to have an acre of land, let alone the time to treat it properly, although I do love the idea of anything that nurtures nature (lol – is that a contradiction in terms?). I’m definitely going to try to get on a bike more this year, now that I no longer have a parking space in college. I may wait until this vicious easterly wind has died down a little though…. And yes! Sunday gardening sounds lovely and serene.
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Litlove, we are pretty squashed together here too in the city but if you want to live away from town there is lots of land. I like the idea of nurturing nature, not a contradiction at all considering the bad state we’ve gotten her into. Biking in the wind is no fun so I don’t blame you for waiting.
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When I saw the word ‘permaculture’ I automatically thought of ‘permafrost’ which says something about the weather here at the moment. I’m not convinced at the moment that either the daffodils or the apple trees will ever bloom again so planting them together seems a bit pointless, but then I’m having a pessimistic day so don’t mind me.
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Alex, LOL, poor you. Hopefully your frost isn’t so very “perma” and it is melting away and will soon be a distant memory.
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My dad’s house is sort of permaculture-y… the chickens make the manure and compost everything and the garden feeds everybody, etc. etc. No composting toilets though (whew!). I think I’ve looked at Food Not Lawns before, but it sounds like it needs a review! I just couldn’t wait anymore so I planted some dinosaur kale and swiss chard this weekend… I will sit on my hands and wait to plant the cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers in late April, which is about the soonest I should do it… I just love getting the garden full! I revised my gardening plans and it’s a little simpler this year. Kale and chard, and cucumbers and tomatoes, and peppers (hot and sweet) and lots of herbs, and probably some lettuces. I think that’ll be it. Oh, and some butternut squash if I can get it to grow where I want it. I think we’re going to build one more raised bed (for the lettuce and basil). I’m also trying to grow Shasta daisies this year — I love them! (sorry.. this turned into a gardening ramble!)
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wherethereisjoy, I think I would like your dad’s house 🙂 Food Not Lawns was pretty good, very crunchy granola though as exhibited by the illustration of the hairy-arm pitted bicycling woman on the cover. The book is almost worth it just for that! The ground is still snow covered and frozen here so I am envious that you can plant things already. And no apologies for your gardening ramble, I love garden rambles!
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I shall live/garden vicariously through you every Sunday! Sounds good to me! I can barely manage to keep a poinsettia alive through Christmastime, I’m not sure I could ever do gardening on this level, but it’s really interesting to think about. By the way–we’ve had a couple of really nice days–it was even nearly 70F today, though now we are in for rain (so much better than snow) and cooler weather next week. Have a good weekend and enjoy thinking about your garden. How is your Honeycrisp apple tree doing? 🙂
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I really miss my garden since I moved into a smaller place with very little yard. Still, I do have the ability to do container gardening which I have done before. Books like this inspire me but like you, I have to live in the city and earn a living.
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