I will admit to not being much of a gardener. Honestly my problem is seedlings. The transplanting of this delicate little baby plant into the earth where it is left in the open to the elements and susceptible to drying out, drowning or any other random event is just not my cup of tea. So I am not lying when I say that my approach to gardening has always kind of been stick a whole bunch of seeds in the earth somewhere that looks like something might grow and see what happens. I’ve had success and failure but never really put much stock or science into it.
The other day someone asked me, ‘Have you heard of permaculture?’ I answered a quick yes and then they asked, ‘Do you know what it is?’ This was a very powerful question because I had to answer, no not really. And oh my goodness has my world been turned upside down. All of the pieces are finally fitting. When I was looking around my city and thinking this is crazy there must be something better we can be doing, there was. There is.
There is a man named Masanobu Fukuoka who saw this clearly. There have been others as well. Bill Mollison for one he wrote the book on permaculture, literally. And then there is David Holmgren as student of Mollison’s who has visited food forests around the world and worked to create some of the most unbelievable permanent gardens in some of the driest areas of the world. They are nothing short of oasis. All of this is happening and has been for a while now but the word ‘permaculture’ is still not one that many gardeners or ecologists or the like are familiar with.
While the worlds problems grow more and more complex the solutions are surprisingly simple. It is up to us to take the world back from the point of no return. Nature did not do this we did and nature cannot repair it but we can.
And the best part is it is MY kind of gardening. This makes sense to me in a way that planting a row of carrots never did. So that is a little bit of what I have been up to. The wheels are always turning the trick to to make them stay on the path.
If you are looking to learn more there is tons of info out there this is a good place to start: http://www.permacultureprinciples.com
