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I live on a 1ha (2.4acre) property in far southwest (Zeeland) Netherlands, an area of mostly commercial farming. Our neighbors on all sides are commercial farm
by blunte 7y ago
I live on a 1ha (2.4acre) property in far southwest (Zeeland) Netherlands, an area of mostly commercial farming. Our neighbors on all sides are commercial farmers.
We, however, are permaculture novices/enthusiasts. My girlfriend knows what each plant does, why it grows well or does not, and what it provides to plants/insects around it.
Since moving here a year ago, we have seen a marked increase in bee and bird numbers. Unfortunately, the owners of the property have the "tidy" mentality; periodically they come and destroy flowers and "weeds" that they think do not belong. It's utterly depressing. Tonight, after a culling, I walked and observed many large bees ducking in and out of the flowers on cut plants. And while I don't know the name of the bees we have, they live individually in holes dug in the ground (like the ones in the article).
It is such a battle to educate people that think the right way is to cut the grass on the lowest setting, to use herbicides to remove plants that are not simple grasses, and to otherwise sanitize things they don't understand. When I walked out and spoke to the guy and said, "We really enjoyed the fresh parsley we used from this plant that you just destroyed", he seemed a bit shocked. To him it was a weed.
If the glaciers are indeed melting at unprecedented (in human terms) rates, and the ice caps are melting, and the co2 is accumulating, sea levels and temperatures rising, etc. etc., it becomes quite difficult to see a decent future for humanity beyond 100 (or 40?) years. It's enough to make one want to just burn everything down and finish the job to get it over with.
- vram22 7y agoGood work, keep it up. I'm just getting interested in permaculture myself. Had done some organic gardening in the past.
- blunte 7y agoLook up "food forest" while you're at it. A successful food forest is balanced and requires no maintenance, but you get fresh edible food just for the effort of walking in and picking it.
- vram22 7y agoThanks. I did come across the term "food forest" a few years ago, had read some articles and saw some pictures of them. Very interesting. It definitely works. Also there is precedent for it. In some articles, Wikipedia or other, about the term, I saw that traditional gardens in places such as Kerala (India), North-Eastern states of India (like Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, etc. - which have climate partly like Kerala, in the sense of getting a lot of rain), and probably places in other countries, like maybe Thailand, Philippines, etc, are basically like food forests, or rather, food forests are like them (since they came earlier). For example, in home gardens, as they are called in Kerala, common plants grown in the same area (polyculture), often just part of and outside some person's home, include species like banana, coconut, jackfruit (all three are medium to big trees, although banana is more like a herb) (also all three being wonder trees in the sense of having many uses), spices like cardamom, pepper, clove, various edible greens, herbs and spices like turmeric, coriander, cumin, onion, garlic, etc. All growing together in natural symbiosis and helping each other. >requires no maintenance, A bit of a nitpick, but they do require maintenance. It is not a closed loop. Since we keep harvesting stuff, nutrients decrease, so we have to add inputs too, like organic manure, compost, etc. Can't keep taking without giving back.
- jelliclesfarm 7y agohedgerows. if you can plant hedgerows of yarrow or sage or lavender ...they will look neat and also provide forage for pollinators and fall food/shelter for birds.