Letters to you

I just got an email from Heathcote where rialian, laurelindel, and I took our permaculture intensive course. The email contained a link to the website for their upcoming permaculture intensive. http://www.heathcote.org/immersive.shtml

I noticed the picture immediately, and for a few seconds, wondered why everyone looked so familiar...

I'm behind the elbow of the guy to the left, and Rialian is in the background. I *think* that's laurelindel in front with a shovel, but I can't tell for sure.

Our permaculture apprenticeship class just finished (I think that means we're now full-fledged apprentices). Mainly, we learned the basic permaculture language (including the word 'permaculture', which means permanent culture) and practiced applying the principles to our own immediate living spaces and to a portion of the acreage where the class was held. The apprenticeship convened one weekend per month in September, October, and December. Then we had January and February off, and then class resumed for one weekend per month in March, April, and May.

For the past several weeks we've been staying up late to write the final report and prepare the oral presentation for the class, both of which were due last weekend. The presentations consisted of the permaculture designs for our own dwelling places. We had been gathering information for the design all year, so that had to be distilled into a 10 minute oral. We all went slightly over the allotted time -- ours took 45 minutes (and that was average). Ours featured mushrooms, mushroom mycelium, and mycoremediation prominently, because we wanted to add something a little different than what everyone in the class already knew. People said they enjoyed the report, particularly the mushroom part.

Even though the anticipation of giving the presentation caused me some anxiety, it was a good opportunity to synthesize what we'd been learning and doing. We all came away with nice new certificates. So where do we go from here? unda_stella has asked us to do a design for her and we accepted! I figure the best way to get into this is to actually do some of it. Each place will be different. unda_stella's environment (so unlike our yard) is Sunny and Bright, and is in the Land of Lemons and Oranges, Passion Flowers and Palm Trees, Sand and Ocean... Ah, Zone 9, how I miss thee...

Side Job :p rescheduled for tomorrow. Two minutes after I stepped off the elevator and walked into their office, the power went out. Glad I wasn't *in* the elevator when it went out. A construction crew working in the area hit a power line, which affected a radius of a block or two (including my own office).

The fact that there was no power in my own office (and no window, so it was pitch black in there) meant I had a couple of hours to wander around in dangerous places. I went to the nursery and got:

2 tomato plants
1 blueberry bush
2 strawberry plants
2 cauliflower plants
2 broccoli plants
2 trellises

I underestimated the length of the two trellises. Luckily, I'd never unpacked my camping gear from last year's Thresholds (heh), so I had about 50 bungee cords, a 25' rope and two 3' ropes. That was enough to secure both trellises to the top of the car so I could take them home. There they reside now until I get off from work, going on the assumption that they'd be too much trouble to steal. It took me about half an hour to tie them down. By the time I finished battling with the trellises, the power was back on.

Anyway, here's the plan:

Stake the two tomatoes in ceramic containers with good drainage on the sunny side stoop.
Anchor the trellises on either side of the stoop about 2 feet away from the house. Start training the now-budding hearty kiwi up one of the trellises. Not sure what will go on the other one yet. Perhaps a maypop vine.
Put the 2 strawberry plants with the houtounyas inside the circular rock border in the back yard where the dead rowan (now removed) was - they'll get some sun there.

That leaves the blueberry and the vegetables (broccoli and cauliflowers). rialian, any ideas where to put those?

Edit after phone conversation - Suggestions so far: Put blueberries either in Garden Patch #3 or near the pine trees. They like acidic soil, and they'll get some sun either place - leaning toward Garden Patch #3. I'll ask them where they want to go. Maybe one of them can stay in a ceramic container and travel up one of the trellises. The vegetables will go in the keyhole patches by the fence.

My younger brother Jason said that he's not surprised that rialian is growing gooseberries, by the way. I'm not sure why the term "gooseberries" has stuck in his mind with respect to rialian, but ... it's Jason... The first time Jason heard the word "gooseberry", and heard the fruit described as "striated", he laughed uproariously hysterically for about 10 minutes (we never did figure out why)...

It snowed here last night - not a whole lot, but enough to stick on all the leaves. It was supposed to do this in January, not NOW. Geeze. I already planted the berry bushes last week, thinking it would stay warm after that - one of them was starting to flower. The two kiwis were starting to bud too. Now I hope they make it.

Back from Permaculture intensive. Now to assimilate the notes... The workshop was held at Heathcote (http://www.heathcote.org), an intentional community which is trying to go more toward a path of sustainability. Their vision is to create a sustainability educational center that includes a Permaculture demonstration site for use in permaculture and organic gardening workshops. The focus of the current apprenticeship program is to give a needed boost to Heathcote's vision through the students' ideas, skills, and labor, and hopefully complete some of the planting for the permculture demonstration. This, in turn, would provide a foundation for possibly creating a branch of Gaia University at Heathcote where students could obtain credits toward Gaia U's Integrative Ecosocial Design degree program.

Last month's class centered on building the basic permaculture vocabulary, and on imparting the foundation concepts. The assignment was to create an As Is map of a project of our own devising. We chose our yard as the project and mapepd it out, more or less. After going over the As Is maps we'd created and brainstorning suggestions for each other's projects, this weekend focused on starting the permaculture demonstration site. The intention had been for us to address the problem of doing something with an area that had been totally disrupted by putting in a septic field - maybe doing something to restore the area. After looking at the history of best laid plans coming to nothing, though, the whole class kind of gravitated toward doing a design for the area immediately surrounding the cabin of the person who is most involved in bringing permaculture to Heathcote - In fact she is the only reason it is there at all. At first she resisted, because she *really* wants to fix that blighted area, but we broke it down kind of like this:

"You're the central point from which permaculture on this land will take hold. Therefore you are the Keystone for this ever happening. Therefore you have to be strenghtened and your position strengthened by getting a forest garden going right around your house, in your Zone 1. From there, other people will come in, will be attracted. The path from the educational center to your house should be the demonstration area, because that is the path you and everyone else will be taking. Besides, you will want to be able to pick breakfast on the way to the educational center".

In other words, by observation, we identified the path that she would be treading the most frequently, and recommended that we do the demo area there. This would take the least amount of effort, and would be easiest for her to maintain. That's the whole idea of permaculture - to design it so the effort and impact on the forest are minimized. Also, since that is her "Zone 1" (the area around her living quarters), she has more say over what happens there and could proceed without committee involvement.

During our interview with her, we had noticed that she was extremely stressed. She doesn't want to think only of herself and do her own little area, yet she knew that previously, they had tried to bite off more than they could chew, and had gotten nothing done. She was convinced that once again nobody would help her and all the designs and plans would come to nothing. But then you could see her slowly realize that if she nourished her own space, that this could be the heart from which the whole thing could finally live in manifest form. Also, if we made the design small enough, she would not be quite as dependent on anyone to make it happen. Assistance could come in the form of organic gardening workshops in which people came to learn gardening techniques by helping with the permaculture demo area.

Then we spent some time mapping out the designs - we worked in groups of three and came up with three designs, each one thinking in terms of what would make her happy. The next step will be to actually make it happen for her. Unfortunately they're extremely shortstaffed out there - of the people who live there only two attended the course, and one may or may not be committed to the project. It almost feels like she is entirely on her own with trying to create the educational center and the permaculture demo.

One of the people in the class brought up some interesting points: The resident group needs people who are committed to the work and the ability to reach a consensus within the group, before addressing the problems of a forest garden. Partially true. However, I think that making the design small enough so one or two people can handle it and addressing that small part for starters may actually serve to obtain that consensus. Once the rest of them see it work, I'm hoping they'll decide that they want a forest garden just like it. Then they can figure out how to connect the various spaces so they work together. The trick will be to persevere through several years with the first design, and see to it that the first little part does work.

I'll never make a farmer or a permaculturist. I want to let nature run wild and free and do whatever it wants. Who are we to tell nature what to do. Such a lofty creature is man. Right - that's why everything he touches crumbles to loathsome slag. I don't want to help people. I want most of them to disappear before they destroy the last vestige of beauty on this planet and put the earth's heart in a steel cage.

Some girl in the class was ranting about 'underpopulation'. I wanted to smack her. She was visulaizing 30 people having parceled out the Heathcote land, so every inch of it was being turned to some useful work. God forbid that the land should remain untouched and in a state of natural beauty, serving nobody's purposes but its own. It exists for its own sake and the sake of those creatures who dwell there. Who came up with the idea that nature is there for us to use, there to serve us?? If we foraged as the rest of the creatures do, and were subject to the same population controls, we would probably do no harm at all and create great fertilizer. Unfortunately, none of that is in place. My concept of elven permaculture (see end of post) is to assist in our own foraging capability - NOT to set up some sort of farm. The largest livestock I'd be interested in having would be wild mallards in a pond somewhere, from whom I'd ask to borrow a few eggs now and then.

The same "use every inch" malady (and the lack of any aesthetics when constructing a building) seems to afflict the planners at Four Quarters. Permaculture defines "Wilderness" as a "useful function" fortunately (Zone 5), but that is usually visualized as far away from the house, not something of which we are a part. But at least they consider it to be necessary, which is a grand step up from the rest of society. I guess at 4QF, "Turtle island" would be their Zone 5.

Why do they think this way? It's that old Work Ethic (TM). Things are never allowed to just play free for their own happiness. They have to be serving a useful function. Have you experienced how powerful the wood can be if JUST LEFT ALONE??? That's what I'm talking about. If things can be done without disturbing a place,I think it would yield a lot more and actually give back of its own accord. Think "visiting dignitary" rather than obligation. If you treat the land as if it is obligated to you, it will fight back. If you treat it like royalty from another realm, then maybe it will treat you better. Maybe not, but it's worth a try. Some of permaculture is like that. But as applied by the people in the class, no. They tread WAY too heavily, and are very human-centric.

No wonder Mollison was an alcoholic.

Feel free to trash this post if you disagree.

Edit - in reviewing this, I think I could live with an elven version of permaculture. If you must build, use structures that are aesthetic and whose contours and lines meld with the land, and hardly show. Use contours rather than harsh corners. Disguise things behind trees. Plant edible food where there are natural clearings in the forest rather than clearing vast tracts for yourself at the expense of everyone else in the forest.

And lo and behold, that's exactly what rialian has been doing for a year.

I realize that permaculture disturbs the land far less than any other farming method, especially if it employs edible forest gardening. It's just that I don't see most of its proponents as having a reverence for nature as it is. What they are trying to do is to serve humanity and avoid its mass extinction, which I suppose some people would find admirable. They at least want to form a relationship with nature, which is more than most.

But the problem remains that they see nature as something whose proper place is to serve them, instead of seeing themselves as an integral part of it.

We spent the weekend at Heathcote - an intentional community that rhiannasilel told us about a while ago. They were offering a cob workshop, and for a once, we weren't already booked and they didn't cancel.

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Permaculture.net: This website has a "reload" link that gives the many and varied definitions of permaculture. My favorite one of them was:

"Permaculture is the conscious design of `cultivated` ecosystems that have the diversity, stability, & resilience of natural ecosystems. It is a harmonious integration of people into the landscape in such a way that the land grows in richness, productivity, and aesthetic beauty. - Permaculture is an ethical design system for creating human environments that are ecologically sound & economically viable. Permaculture systems provide for their own needs, do not exploit or pollute, & are therefore sustainable. -- Peter Bane"

One definition that I didn't see involves careful observation of patterns and relationships between the existing lifeforms, and then trying to match energies with them (kind of like you would when trying to get a finicky horse or high-strung puppy to trust you). The result is a cooperative effort between the person and the land rather than a war, and the land begins to give voluntarily (with a minimum amount of work). The major work that goes into it is the observation of these patterns. If you want to add something, like a vegetable, fruit tree, berry bush, etc., you would first determine if the new addition would actually work with the existing ecosystem or if it would work against it. The same would apply to constructing a home, making a greenhouse, or planting a willow tree. A lot of trial and error may happen before getting it "right", but once it's in place, it keeps going without much work.

Another good link was Heathcote's Intro to Permaculture course (free, online).

http://www.permacultureactivist.net/pcresources/NorthAmerica.htm

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/cob.htm

http://www.sentientlandscape.com/ -- When I saw this website I literally burst into tears (and I don't do that often). rialian saw the whole episode and made a valiant attempt to boodle me back to some semblance of sanity. I wrote them a letter detailing how very far away they are from where I live, and asking if they know anyone like them around Maryland. Haven't heard back from them yet. Maybe I should have put something other than "Golly Darn It!!!!" in the subject line...