My Experience of Permaculture in Guatemala
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centers, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Plant Systems, Project Positions, Rehabilitation, Trees, Water Harvesting — by Kevin Mascarenhas
The Ijatz cooperative is possibly the best demonstration of the transformative power of permaculture in Guatemala. The site, in San Lucas Toliman near Lake Atitlan, was purchased at low cost since the parish council considered the land to be of low value. Previously, it was a swampy bog inundated with refuse and flood water from the surrounding hills.
In classic permaculture style, within the problem lay the seeds of the solution. The deforestation due to conventional agriculture in these surrounding hills has caused soil erosion and during the rainy season much of this rich volcanic black top soil is washed downstream. This annual bounty has been redirected through the Ijatz site using a sequence of channels and sink holes, which in turn slows the water flow enabling the nutrient rich humus to be captured and stored on site. The earth has been moulded to create slopes, edges and contours essential for increased growing opportunity.
Comments (0)Posted on: February 7, 2010
Ho avy: Growing a Future for Madagascar
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Eco-Villages, Education Centers, Energy Systems, Land, Nurseries & Propogation, Trees, Village Development — by Martina Petru
Editor’s Note: This is an update for the Ho avy project.
A gentle slice of moon on the star crowded sky of southwestern Madagascar just set gracefully and yet another day is over; we are now in the second half of January 2010.
And what day is today: Monday, Wednesday or perhaps Sunday? We easily lose track when in the field, especially during our prolonged stays – keeping busy in the nursery, forest and the village of Ranobe with several community participatory projects – keeping the momentum of excitement and action. The dynamics are encouraging and there is wonderful energy flowing. Every day is somewhat special; ups and downs along the journey to the ultimate balance. Capacity building is about trust building and about generosity, patience, humbleness as well as discipline. It’s a wonderful lesson for all of us, for ho avy team and for FIMPAHARA.
Comments (0)Posted on: January 24, 2010
Practicing Permanent Agriculture on Moloka’i
Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centers, Land, Swales — by Jill Ross
A follow-up to PRI’s Planning & Implementing a Permaculture Project course
Before…
On November 15th, a group of relative strangers gathered on the dry, red dirt of Moloka’i with the same question firing in their minds. How will we create permanent agriculture on this parched, eroded acre of red dust?
Comments (7)Posted on: January 13, 2010
Rosella Waters Earthworks, Phase I, Part B
Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Dams, Demonstration Sites, Earth Banks, Education Centers, Food Forests, Gabions, Irrigation, Land, Limonia, Material, Natural Swimming, Plant Systems, Potable Water, Roads, Storm Water, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Kym Kruse
 The Mushroom Dam overlooking the beach area |
It’s taken a while to find the time to sit down and report on Part B of our earthworks here at Rosella Waters, near Cairns in far North Queensland. Phase I Part A was documented whilst the process was taking place. This latest update however will rely on memory and hurried notes made during the process, together with numerous photos. Large excavations such as the two large dams we constructed in part A are considerably easier to direct and far less time consuming than the finer detail work using smaller machinery as we experienced in putting in Part B.
Comments (0)Posted on: January 8, 2010
Use of Small Swales – a Case Study
Land, Swales — by Tim Auld
You might have seen Geoff Lawton’s wonderful ‘Greening the Desert’, and his ‘Establishing a Food Forest’ DVD where he wades through a swale metres wide. It’s not commonly discussed, but swales can be quite small too. It depends on the space you have available, the magnitude and intermittency of the rain events, how fast it will soak in and the capacity of your soil to hold it. As always, observing and interacting will yield good results, and you’ll learn as you make mistakes.
The partially completed swale is about to be extended.
The drain is near my right foot.
Posted on: January 6, 2010
The Buffalo Commons
Biodiversity, General, Land, Rehabilitation — by Rhamis Kent
Here’s an idea that should be embraced and championed by all earth repair advocates: The Buffalo Commons.
The Buffalo Commons is a conceptual proposal to create a vast nature preserve by returning 139,000 square miles (360,000 km2) of the drier portion of the Great Plains to native prairie, and by reintroducing the buffalo, or American Bison, that once grazed the short grass prairie.
Comments (0)Posted on: January 2, 2010
Yeomans’ Pioneer Demonstration Site to Be Turned into Housing Estate
Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Irrigation, Land, Rehabilitation, Structure, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh
One of the most influential people in sustainable agricultural systems development is the late P.A. Yeomans. Yeomans went against the contemporary fertility-in-a-bottle school of thought to develop ‘keyline’ concepts of land management that work in harmony with natural land features (working with contours), to maximise water harvesting in the landscape, minimise soil erosion and build lasting soil fertility. His observations and practice led him to design and develop the keyline plow, a deep chisel plow that maximises water infiltration and soil aeration – setting up conditions that soil macro and microorganisms can flourish in – but that doesn’t overturn the soil, with its associated destruction of soil structure and life, as other plows do.
The ABC just ran an interesting spotlight (video – or transcript here if you prefer) where we learn that one of Yeomans’ properties, ‘Yobarnie’, in Richmond, north of Sydney, is facing ‘development’ that would turn this important historical demonstration site into a housing estate. In the 1950s and ’60s the site attracted busloads of people on weekend tours where observers could see the transformation his methods effected and learn about their implementation.
Comments (0)Posted on: December 19, 2009
Greening the Desert II – Final
Aid Projects, Animal Forage, Biological Cleaning, Building, Compost, Conservation, DVDs/Books, Demonstration Sites, Education Centers, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Fungi, Irrigation, Land, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Salination, Soil Biology, Swales, Trees, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh
The Greening the Desert II video I shared with you recently was edited in Jordan. Now that I’m back at my desk again I’ve had time to edit it slightly. I’ve added the original five-minute Greening the Desert clip in to the front of it, to ensure viewers have context for Part II (and we’ve also had requests for both to be made available together), as well as cut a few minutes out of Part II to keep it flowing a little better. You can not only watch online below and embed on your own websites (click for embed code at top right of video screen), but it’s also available for download, so those who’d like to have a ‘hard copy’ to circulate are welcome to download, burn to disk or transfer to USB key, etc., and circulate freely.
Download: You’ll see the option to download the 913 megabyte MP4 file at bottom right side of this page.
YouTube: The video can also be watched on YouTube, in four segments, here, here, here and here.
Greening the Desert II (including Part I) – Greening the Middle East
(Duration: 36 mins)
Tips for playing: If it’s slow to load, turn off High Definition (HD) on the player.
If you still have problems, click play (on low or high def) and then after it’s started,
click on pause. The video will then continue to buffer into your computer.
Play once fully loaded.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank Kelly Kellogg at this juncture. Kelly donated initial funding that enabled the purchase of the land for the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project site (aka ‘Greening the Desert – the Sequel’). But, upon watching the Greening the Desert Part II video, Kelly was inspired to donate an additional $20,000. These gifts are very encouraging to us as we try to solve problems at source (teach a man to fish…). Others who may feel inspired to donate to help us move this work forward faster can do so here.
A little background on the video follows:
Comments (0)Posted on: December 11, 2009
How to Repair the World
Aid Projects, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centers, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Land, News, People Systems, Plant Systems, Project Positions, Rehabilitation, Trees, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh
The video embedded in this page spotlights the excellent work of Willie Smits I profiled a little while ago, where rainforest restoration in Borneo not only restored biodiversity and gave increased livelihood opportunities to local people, but it also increased cloud cover and rainfall as well. It’s well worth a watch:
We’re pleased to announce that we’re partnering with the makers of the video above, WeForest, to help establish self-replicating permaculture reforestation demonstration sites in accordance with our Permaculture Master Plan, in several worldwide locations – starting in Zambia in the first instance. Our Geoff Lawton has just agreed to be on their advisory board, and we’ll be working to supply guidance, knowhow and staff to pioneer these projects.
This is just one example of the many encouraging collaborative results we get as people boil current events down to their only logical conclusion – discovering we need to quit battling nature and get busy harnessing biological synergies to repair the earth and rebuild sustainable community interactions.
Comments (0)Posted on: December 8, 2009
Sustainable Land Management Course
Courses/Workshops, Land — by Owen Hablutzel
Holistic Management™, Keyline Design®, and Broad-acre Permaculture
with Kirk Gadzia and Darren Doherty
November 10-15, 2009
Orella Ranch, California
The winds of change are blowing extra brisk these days and gathering transformative momentum. Highlights and ground-truthed strategies for this agrarian revolution underway were served up and stacked high for six solid days at the Orella Ranch Sustainable Learning Pavilion, during this second module (of four) in the on-going and leading-edge Carbon Economy Course.
Comments (3)Posted on: December 3, 2009
Keyline Swales – a Geoff Lawton/Darren Doherty Hybrid
Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Earth Banks, Food Forests, Irrigation, Land, Rehabilitation, Swales, Trees, Water Harvesting — by Campbell Wilson
A swale on Zaytuna Farm – © Craig Mackintosh
(Remaining images below © Cam Wilson.)
Geoff Lawton and Darren Doherty are the two highest profile people in Australian Permaculture when it comes to broadacre water harvesting earthworks. They’ve both had success in some very tough environments, and yet it’s interesting that their styles are quite different, particularly when it comes to infiltration strategies.
This article is a short comparison of their approaches, along with an idea I had recently for amalgamating the benefits of each.
Comments (3)Posted on: November 29, 2009
Exploring Dryland Strategies for Resilience – Atacama, Northern Chile
Community Projects, Developments, Education Centers, Land, News — by Grifen Hope
Desert Flowers
Recently we had a whirlwind tour of Atacama in the north of Chile, the driest place on earth. This was a learning experience rather than teaching – in this hostile and vulnerable landscape that has been occupied for thousands of years we find strategies for building resilience.
Comments (0)Posted on: November 27, 2009
Rethinking Water: A Permaculture Tour of the Inland Northwest
Conservation, Earth Banks, Food Forests, Land, Plant Systems, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Trees, Water Harvesting — by Kyle Chamberlain
Ever since I’d first read of it, I felt I would never understand the state of my bioregion until I saw the Milner Dam. So, when a road trip finally brought the opportunity, I made a somber pilgrimage. Unlike its famous counterpart, the Grand Coulee Dam, Milner Dam is not a tourist destination. It has no museum, no bronze statues, no gift shop, and no laser light show. Finding Milner required navigating the ambiguous grid of numbered and lettered roads that cover much of the Snake River Valley in Idaho. On my map, the square and orderly roads seem reminiscent of city blocks, but buildings of any kind were sparse. The nameless roads and the checkerboard of crops between them stretch as far as the eye can see in some places: potatoes, alfalfa, sugar beets. As conspicuous as the crops themselves was the ceaseless artificial rain. Despite the oppressive summer sun, the air was heavy with humidity and the chirp of giant motorized sprinkler systems.
Posted on: November 1, 2009
Permaculture Design Course at Pine Ridge Reservation
Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Land, News, Rehabilitation — by Warren Brush
by Warren Brush, co-founder of Quail Springs Permaculture & True Nature Design
We are eight days into a 13-day Permaculture Design Course here at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the home of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The Permaculture Guild has organized this exciting course in collaboration with the Oglala Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitalization Initiative (OLCERI) and will be offering other courses here in the coming year. Students from as far away as Florida and California have joined local tribal members in learning about how to integrate permaculture into their lives, livelihoods and cultural regeneration processes.
Comments (0)Posted on: September 24, 2009
Keyline Plowing with Compost Tea Application
Land, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Structure — by Benjamin Falloon
This article forms part of a series concerning the development of methods of compost tea application via the keyline plow which are being published on taranakifarm.com.
Part I: Introduction
Employing the methods developed by P.A. Yeomans, keyline pattern plowing is a proven component in the job of revitalizing degraded soils. The plow performs deep ripping with minimal plant disturbance. At its most basic this offers many benefits, including opening compacted soils (without destructive tillage), breaking up the hard pan, allowing moisture and oxygen to re-activate soil life, thus restoring fertility. When used in concert with controlled grazing or mowing through a managed cycle, top soil is built rapidly.
In the related field of soil biology, Dr Elaine Ingham (the eminent biologist) has made breakthrough discoveries studying soil life and developing methods of brewing compost tea. Her work promotes the pressing need to re-populate our damaged soils with the necessary microbial biota. Without the essential micro organisms our soils cannot develop balance. A balanced soil offers fertility, that builds through the exchange for nutrients that is the tireless work of soil life. A multitude of symbiotic connections evolved in harmony.
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