Several years ago I posted a four-part discussion about permaculture and my concerns with the blend of philosophy, science and pseudoscience that it contains. (Here are links to Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.) So I was pleased to be part of an Extension tour group that visited an established permaculture farm in the San Juan Islands earlier this spring. This gave me an opportunity to see whether there was any perceptible shift in the permaculture community towards practices based on applied plant and soil sciences.… Continue reading this article “Can Permaculture and Good Science Coexist”
Tag: permaculture
Is “lasagna gardening” really worth the effort?
This week I got a complimentary copy of Urban Farm, dedicated to “sustainable city living.” The cover story is Lasagna Giardino – follow this recipe for a lasagna garden that grows perfect plants – Italian or not.
This is not a new idea, but was popularized several years ago as a way of preparing soil for planting. The article relates the steps:
1) Prepare the ground by mowing the lawn
2) Dig up the first 12″ of soil (double digging)
3) Place a layer of “noodles” (paper and cardboard are popular) – the low nutrient material
4) Place a layer of “sauce” (the green material)
5) Repeat as often as you like and “let it cook”
I like the first step of this. … Continue reading this article “Is “lasagna gardening” really worth the effort?”
Permaculture – my final thoughts
We’ve had some good, vigorous discussion about permaculture, specifically around the book Gaia’s Garden. I’ve pointed out some problems with the author’s understanding of relevant plant and soil sciences and will wrap up this week with a look at the glossary and bibliography.
Glossary
The glossary contains a number of scientific-sounding words and phrases with unscientific definitions; for example:
“Buffer plants: Plants placed between guilds or between allelopathic species. They should be compatible with the trees in each guild and should have a positive effect on one or both of the guilds to be linked.”… Continue reading this article “Permaculture – my final thoughts”
Permaculture – more concerns
One of the gardening topics I’ve researched extensively is the use of landscape mulches. (You can read a literature review I did a few years ago here.) So I was more than a little frustrated to see one of the worst mulching techniques – sheet mulching – extolled in the book Gaia’s Garden (pp. 85-90).
Sheet mulches, like newspaper and cardboard, can be used successfully as a temporary weed control measure (i.e. a few weeks before planting a vegetable garden). … Continue reading this article “Permaculture – more concerns”
Permaculture – the discussion continues
We’ve started a robust discussion on the topic of permaculture, especially as applied to home gardens. Let’s continue looking at some of the advice provided in Gaia’s Garden targeted towards home gardeners.
The book contains several lists of plants suggested for specific functions. For brevity’s sake, I’ll just mention two:
“Host plants for Beneficial Insects” (pp. 157-159)
This list is prefaced in the text with “many of these florae are very attractive and can (and should!)… Continue reading this article “Permaculture – the discussion continues”
Permaculture – beginning a discussion
Among other things, part of my job involves reviewing educational materials for use in WSU’s Extension programs related to urban horticulture. One of the books is “Gaia’s Garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture” (T. Hemenway). It occurred to me that my review might also be of interest to our GP readers.
I’ve created a fairly extensive review and I will break it into separate posts over the next few weeks. So let’s start the discussion off with a topic we already know is inflammatory: invasive species. … Continue reading this article “Permaculture – beginning a discussion”