15 thoughts on “VIDEO: My thoughts on community permaculture”
one thing i was impressed with in turkey was several farms were growing olive's grapes and some kind of fruit tree all in the same field and from what i saw of their pruning was all chop and drop. some of them even had annual crops like broccoli cabbage lettuce and spinach. also from what i saw there were only sheep and goats cutting the grass in the orchards.
The soil looked terrible. It is really amazing how easy it is to improve soil in just on year by using mulch and cover crops. I hope you can change the minds of your community.
The wood chips have been fantastic for me. I started with pure sand in Florida. It is now a rich dark loam and the plants are all thriving. It is amazing to think that farmers have been doing things wrong all these years. All that is needed is natural substances and most are free.
Great video! I was just thinking the other day that if every family raised their own meat, that would sharply diminish our dependency on the system. We could barter with our neighbors to get other kinds of meat. I think permaculture is the key to ending our total dependency on them. We would get healthy nutritious food, and our health problems would greatly diminish. If you control the food, you control the people. PERIOD! Thanks for sharing.
I really applaud your effort, and it is something that we should ALL do in our communities. I know one thing, should we face an economic collapse, those neighbors would be all ears and willing to learn and chip in then. I'm kind of hesitant to do much with the neighbors until most of the desperation and violence has subsided. It would be different if I lived out in the country. Most folks there are already self sufficient. I wish for the best but plan for the worst.
Leading by example is a good start to bringing about positive change. I would like to see a more natural approach to gardening in my local community garden, but am happy to have a place to garden.
I see other communities locally that have vast rules and regulations in place to ensure non GMO and organic methods, but at the same time they are discouraging regular folks from gardening because it is too expensive and takes up too much time for normal people to be able to do.
There used to be large monoculture farms around here, now there are almost zero. I don't like monoculture, but I would still like to see folks around here earning a living farming.
Natural farming and gardening methods will take a long time to become mainstream, by simply practicing these methods on small scale to the best of our ability we will encourage others to do the same the best they can.
Eventually, these methods will become mainstream, it just takes time.
I'm staying away from chemicals 100% this year. If a plant isn't healthy enough to withstand the onslaught I'll just not grow it next season. I'll be growing very few squash this season, only the ones that survived the mildew and squash bugs will be grown this time.
I'm growing different varieties of beans this time and will be arranging things in a somewhat chaotic polyculture fashion in hopes that it will make it more difficult for the critters and bugs to wreak havoc.
There is only one farmer left in the village we live in near Aschaffenburg, where there once used to be dozens of farmers. Over the last few years some of the farmland and apple orchards have been paved over and turned into grocery chains like Netto, Aldi etc. More roads with sound barriers are erected and they go right through villages, orchards, and alongside Radwegs.
Since the end of WWII Germans were discouraged to farm as individuals and communites. They were instead pushed to Industry 🙁
Indeed! Organic even Demeter (Bio Dynamic) is cost effective. The food tastes better period. Especially the tomatoes and strawberries.
In the past everyone had a large garden in the yard where they grew their own fresh veggies and fruits. Many still do in the Unterfranken where we reside, but the majority do not BELIEVE in the health benefits of BIO.
Many would rather buy food in a fancy package rather than learn to grown their own food. It is sad to see how dependent people have become.
Regional products are available but not in enough quantity since the cost of labor is so high and the demand is great. We have a local Bioland apple juice grown in Aschaffenburg that is called Schlaraffenburger, but it tends to be sold out. Local honey is also available, but tends to cost more than store bought. It all comes down to price. People just do not want to pay for quality or locality. They want quantity (and that means cheap labor and cheap food that is not grown within the region).
one thing i was impressed with in turkey was several farms were growing olive's grapes and some kind of fruit tree all in the same field and from what i saw of their pruning was all chop and drop. some of them even had annual crops like broccoli cabbage lettuce and spinach. also from what i saw there were only sheep and goats cutting the grass in the orchards.
The soil looked terrible. It is really amazing how easy it is to improve soil in just on year by using mulch and cover crops. I hope you can change the minds of your community.
Great video. We do need an economy, but a good growth-oriented sustainable one.
The wood chips have been fantastic for me. I started with pure sand in Florida. It is now a rich dark loam and the plants are all thriving. It is amazing to think that farmers have been doing things wrong all these years. All that is needed is natural substances and most are free.
Great video! I was just thinking the other day that if every family raised their own meat, that would sharply diminish our dependency on the system. We could barter with our neighbors to get other kinds of meat. I think permaculture is the key to ending our total dependency on them. We would get healthy nutritious food, and our health problems would greatly diminish. If you control the food, you control the people. PERIOD! Thanks for sharing.
I really applaud your effort, and it is something that we should ALL do in our communities. I know one thing, should we face an economic collapse, those neighbors would be all ears and willing to learn and chip in then. I'm kind of hesitant to do much with the neighbors until most of the desperation and violence has subsided. It would be different if I lived out in the country. Most folks there are already self sufficient. I wish for the best but plan for the worst.
Good point, there. Perhaps a re-defining of "growth" is in order?
Leading by example is a good start to bringing about positive change. I would like to see a more natural approach to gardening in my local community garden, but am happy to have a place to garden.
I see other communities locally that have vast rules and regulations in place to ensure non GMO and organic methods, but at the same time they are discouraging regular folks from gardening because it is too expensive and takes up too much time for normal people to be able to do.
There used to be large monoculture farms around here, now there are almost zero. I don't like monoculture, but I would still like to see folks around here earning a living farming.
Natural farming and gardening methods will take a long time to become mainstream, by simply practicing these methods on small scale to the best of our ability we will encourage others to do the same the best they can.
Eventually, these methods will become mainstream, it just takes time.
Thanks for sharing Jay.
That sounds good Jay.
I'm staying away from chemicals 100% this year. If a plant isn't healthy enough to withstand the onslaught I'll just not grow it next season. I'll be growing very few squash this season, only the ones that survived the mildew and squash bugs will be grown this time.
I'm growing different varieties of beans this time and will be arranging things in a somewhat chaotic polyculture fashion in hopes that it will make it more difficult for the critters and bugs to wreak havoc.
There is only one farmer left in the village we live in near Aschaffenburg, where there once used to be dozens of farmers. Over the last few years some of the farmland and apple orchards have been paved over and turned into grocery chains like Netto, Aldi etc. More roads with sound barriers are erected and they go right through villages, orchards, and alongside Radwegs.
Since the end of WWII Germans were discouraged to farm as individuals and communites. They were instead pushed to Industry 🙁
Indeed! Organic even Demeter (Bio Dynamic) is cost effective. The food tastes better period. Especially the tomatoes and strawberries.
In the past everyone had a large garden in the yard where they grew their own fresh veggies and fruits. Many still do in the Unterfranken where we reside, but the majority do not BELIEVE in the health benefits of BIO.
Many would rather buy food in a fancy package rather than learn to grown their own food. It is sad to see how dependent people have become.
Regional products are available but not in enough quantity since the cost of labor is so high and the demand is great. We have a local Bioland apple juice grown in Aschaffenburg that is called Schlaraffenburger, but it tends to be sold out. Local honey is also available, but tends to cost more than store bought. It all comes down to price. People just do not want to pay for quality or locality. They want quantity (and that means cheap labor and cheap food that is not grown within the region).
Thanks! We shall do the same 🙂