http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/homesteading-what-it-is-all-about/

On – 22 Dec, 2017 By

http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/homesteading-wooden-pallets-chicken-coop-diy-project/

On – 14 Dec, 2017 By

https://www.familyfoodgarden.com/permaculture-backyard-permaculture-design/

On – 08 Nov, 2017 By

I had a wonderful surprise the other day. A friend of mine from high school, whom I haven’t spoken to in almost 30 years, contacted me out of the blue. It seems he’s also a prepper and recently came across our blog. Recognizing my name, he decided to reach out. Through the magic of Facebook, we instantly connected. Soon we were chatting for several hours on the phone.

Let me give you a little background. We both grew up in Northern New Jersey, right in what I like to consider the “chaos capital of the world”.  Growing up in this area, people seldom leave. The only contact they have with livestock is at the local super market where it’s neatly displayed in refrigerated cases. In fact my first experience with a horse was at the Meadowlands racetrack where my grandfather would take me. Man, he loved the “Ponys”. After graduating high school, we both went our separate ways. I moved down south while he stayed up north.

After the typical “hello, how are you” dialog, I told him about my life here in the country. I spoke of our little micro-homestead, the animals we raise and the plants we grow. Although he seemed somewhat intrigued by it all, he proceeded to tell me that he envy’s my lifestyle, but it wasn’t for him or his family. I understood completely, some people thrive on chaos and the convenience of living in the city, not I.

As with any conversation between preppers, the topic of Bugging Out came up. So I asked him “What’s your plan?”. As usual, I got the response that I hear a million times, “I’m Heading to the hills”.

OK! I’m Bugged Out, Now What?

Let’s get this straight, you have a bug out bag, a bug out vehicle, a bug out location and a bug out plan, That’s fantastic! Now what?

Hunkering down for a period of time requires practical skills that are not learned when growing up in an urban environment. Most importantly, they are not quickly learned. The attitude, “I’m a Financial exec with 3 degrees, how hard can it be to learn a redneck skill” will kill you and starve your family. Sounds harsh, but I personally know people like this. Hammer, what’s that?

Prepper comes from the word prepared, but what is being PREPARED? Does having the best gear make you prepared, does knowledge? Maybe a combination of both? Gear will only get you so far. The knowledge and skills you learn will last a lifetime.

Ask Yourself This

Living out in the sticks, we quickly learn to make due with what we have. Sometimes we do not have the luxury to drive down the road to buy a necessity or get something fixed. Take this small challenge if you will. For the next few days, examine your daily routine, take note of the things you use or consume then ask your self these questions:

• • If it breaks, can I fix it?
  • If I need it, can I make it?
  • If I plant it, will it grow?
  • If I shoot it, can I clean it?
  • If I clean it, can I cook it?
  • If I grow it, can I store it?
  • If I find something, can I use it?

Hopefully it won’t take long before that “Oh, Crap” moment sinks in. What the hell would I really do? You now realize that there are tons skills you might not know or even have thought of.

At this point you have 2 choices:

1. Put in an old “Air Supply” CD and cry over your failures
2. Get motivated, put one foot in front of the other and learn something new.

Be a Jack of All Trades

This figure of speech at one time was not quite flattering, It implied that someone could not dedicate themselves to master one trade in particular. As a prepper homesteader, I wear this badge with honor. I was lucky, my father a carpenter, my mother a gardener, it laid the foundation for the lifestyle that I chose later in life. Here is a recommended list of skills that I feel are important to learn whether your an Urban Prepper or Beginner Homesteader.

• Carpentry – I’m a little partial to this skill but nevertheless, I happens to be the one skill that comes in most handy here on the homestead.
• Welding – Another of my favorites, the fact that I can create and fix most things is not only gratifying, it saves me a ton of money (a rare commodity at our house)
• Plumbing – You may not be fixing many toilets during when the SHTF but there are so many great projects you can complete with this valuable skill. Make a still, create a steam engines, build a gassifier and more.
• Canning / Preserving – It’s not just for grandma anymore. The ability to save food is an essential skill and fun to learn.
• Hunting / Fishing – No matter where you stand on gun control and animal rights, I guarantee that after not eating for a while, Peter Cottentail looks mighty tasty.
• Cooking – OMG! Don’t get me started on people who can’t boil water.
• Small Engine Repair – Take a look on Craigslist and see how much they charge to fix a lawnmower. After an event like an EMP, these may be the only engines running.
• Bushcraft – Oh the memories from Boy Scouts. Quickly learned you can’t smoke the basket weaving kits even though its made from hemp.

I can go on forever but I assume you get my point. Best news is, most of these skills are probably taught at your local community college! Better yet, some classes are sometimes FREE.

How to make pemmican: The best survival food we can make, this pemmican recipe can live longer than you

http://preppersgab.com/index.php/2017/12/27/why-urban-preppers-should-learn-basic-homesteading-skills/

On – 27 Dec, 2017 By Preppeu

https://www.knowstuf.com/homesteading-canning-homemade-dill-pickles/

On – 06 Dec, 2017 By

Free Campgrounds by State (and Zip Code!)

https://www.shtfpreparedness.com/free-campgrounds-by-state/

On – 25 Dec, 2017 By SHTFPreparedness

In Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens (Storey Publishing, 2017) by Gail Damerow, she walks through the steps on what you can do to keep your birds healthy and safe. This includes how to choose the right breed, protecting your flock from predation and disease, managing shelter, feed, and water, and understanding fowl behavior. 

Fowl Intelligence

The term “dumb cluck” in referring to a stupid person is an insult to chickens. For far too long chickens have been considered not too bright, a perception that has gradually changed over the past few decades. In the 1960s, German physician Erich Baeumer wrote a little book — the title translates as The Stupid Chicken? Behavior of Domestic Chickens — in which he demonstrated that chickens are a lot brighter than most people believed at the time.

Since then, the status of chickens in general has improved to the point where some have moved from the coop to the house — and I don’t mean the hen house. Chickens have joined parrots and parakeets as house birds. I met my first house chicken in the 1970s. This hen slept at night in a basket in her owner’s bedroom, traveled in the car happily tucked in her little basket, and enjoyed watching television. I have since heard from several other house-hen owners that chickens love TV.

Although a chicken needs to spend daily time outdoors doing what chickens do — sunbathing and dust bathing, scratching in dirt, and snacking on such tasty treats as creepy crawlies and tender green things — more and more people find that a single hen of a calm breed makes an entertaining but challenging house pet. The limiting factor is the difficulty of house-training a chicken.

I have brooded lots of newly hatched chicks in my house — at one time I was known as the lady who keeps chickens in her living room — but I never had a chicken as a house pet. I did once have a rooster that was smart enough to come into the basement in the wintertime to warm himself by the wood stove whenever I was dumb enough to leave the basement door open.

Self-Control

That a chicken can recall the past and anticipate the future has been proven by British researchers. In 2003, Siobhan Abeyesinghe and her colleagues at the Silsoe Research Institute determined that chickens are capable of exercising self-control, which requires resisting immediate gratification in anticipation of a future benefit.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/raising-chickens/training-chickens-ze0z1712zburg

On – By Gail Damerow

https://www.imperfectlyhappy.com/homesteading-articles-2017/

On – 02 Jan, 2018 By Tiffany Davis

Propagation Techniques

Establishing a tree-based perennial agriculture system can cost a lot of money, especially if you´re planning on buying $30 dollar bagged fruit trees at your local orchard. Luckily, you can propagate many of the trees you are planning to plant by yourself. One of the easiest and best known ways to propagate many different trees, bushes, and other perennial plants is through planting seeds. Many nitrogen-fixing trees and bushes can easily be grown from seed, but other species are best propagated through other vegetative techniques that we will introduce below.

Grafting, Layering, and Air Grafting

Grafting is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion while the lower part is called the rootstock. Since most fruit and nut trees won´t grow true to seed (meaning that the seed from the Gala apple you grow will produce fruit that doesn´t resemble Gala apples at all), the way to reproduce a certain type of fruit or nut that you like is through grafting.

Let´s say that you have an old crab apple tree on your land that produces small, sour fruits that no one but the birds enjoys. You can graft a bud or a small branch from a delicious, heirloom apple tree on your grandma´s old farm onto that Crab Apple tree. If done correctly and the cambium layer (or green layer inside the bark) of the two species are touching, that bud or branch will grow into an heirloom apple bearing tree. There are several different types of grafting methods you can use including cleft grafts, bud grafts, whip and tongue, etc. While it does take practice for a graft to be successful, the good news is that once you master the art of grafting, you can reproduce all the fruit and nut trees you need for your land.

Furthermore, grafting techniques can also be used to renovate old and unproductive fruit and nut trees on your farm. When my peach orchard was growing old and production began to slow, I cut several of the trees down to stump height, used a machete to open a horizontal cut across the stump, and placed small branches with exposed cambium layers into the cut on the stump. Within two years I had new production from those renovated trees and also succeeded in diversifying the types of peaches (and nectarines) I was producing in my orchard.

Layering is another propagative technique where a part of the parent plant is placed underground in order to create its own root system. Once the plant is established, it is severed from the parent plant through pruning. Layering occurs naturally in many species and is a great way to propagate plants that send out multiple shoots near the base of the parent plant.

Air grafting is a great way to reproduce quality trees from the prunings you were planning to make on those trees. To do an air graft, pick a medium-sized branch (between 1 and 4 inches in diameter) and cut a ring around the bark exposing the cambium layer. Once the cambium is exposed, cover that exposed ring area with fertile topsoil that is slightly humid and cover it with a dark colored plastic wrap (any plastic bag will work). Through this method, you are trying “to fool” the branch into thinking that it is underground. Over the course of a few weeks, the exposed ring you cut will start to send out roots into the soil surrounding it. Once you see a fairly well-developed root system, you cut the branch below the new root system with a pruning saw, and plant your newly propagated tree somewhere else on your property.

Starting Your Own Nursery

Starting a nursery to propagate your own plants will save you thousands of dollars as you collect the plant and genetic material you need to begin to diversify and plant out your land. However, starting a nursery is also a great way to make money through selling the excess plants you propagate and grow. A successful nursery is considered to be the most profitable way to take advantage of a small piece of land. If you don´t have any parent material to begin with, you can purchase root stock fairly cheap. One established apple tree will offer you all the scions you need to graft onto that rootstock.

A good way to get started with a nursery is through purchasing a one or two trees of every different type fruit, nut, or ornamental plant you plan on selling. If you don´t want to purchase rootstock, simply find a wild apple tree and take cuttings from that tree for your rootstock for your grafted apples. Local rootstocks tend to be hardier and better adapted to the local conditions. As long as the local rootstock is the same genus, it will accept any type of graft. For example, a pear rootstock will accept an apple tree scion and a lemon tree rootstock will accept an orange tree scion.

Spend a year getting the trees well established on your land. Once they have several branches, you can begin to cut branches and buds to graft onto your established rootstock. You could also try and air graft small branches as well.

Related

Popular

https://permaculturenews.org/2017/11/20/propagation-techniques/

On – 20 Nov, 2017 By Tobias Roberts

http://www.manitoulin.ca/2017/12/06/honora-bay-permaculture-operation-receives-premiers-award-innovation/

On – 06 Dec, 2017 By Michael Erskine

This is the text of the talk that took place at the Gathering held in Hendon Natural Community Garden 2/12/2017.

This garden is being designed & developed using permaculture Ethics & Principles.
A little about permaculture:

Permaculture is a design process.

It helps design intelligent systems which meet human needs whilst enhancing biodiversity, reducing our impact on the planet, and creating a fairer world for us all, humans, animals and plants.

Permaculture combines 3 key aspects:

1. An ethical framework.
2. Understandings of how nature works.
3. A design approach.

The three Ethics are;

Earth Care
People Care
Fair Share

We have hopes that the community will embrace the idea of bringing their fruit & veg food waste to the site to be composted – and, in time – buying produce, in the knowledge that they are helping the future wellbeing of the inhabitants of the planet in several ways such as:

• Reducing waste headed for landfill or incineration
• Increasing the fertility of land which is providing locally grown food
• By buying local produce they will be supporting the local economy
• Buying food of local provenance produced without chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides means they are both reducing their carbon footprint – think air miles – & removing their unintended support from the current unsustainable & destructive global food system

 

Planting apple trees shows that we have an eye on food security – looking forward to what promises to be a challenging future – when we may once again see thousands of orchards across the country as there once were, helping to feed a growing global population with fewer resources.

The purpose of this event is both an introduction for the wider community to our group, the garden and to Permaculture Ambassadors whose aim is to connect both with the public and each other, to eventually form interconnected regional ‘Hives’ collaborating with each other. Hives will share information with each other, and as this event is the precursor to that end, here is a list of topics that follow.

The topics are:

1. Hot & cold composting

2. Soil food web

3. No dig gardening

4. Benefits of community orchards

5. Requirements of land for growing apple trees

6. Formative pruning of 1 – 2 year-old apple trees

Composting – The Science
Composting can be thought of as coming in 2 basic methods, cold & hot with a variety of stages in between. Most of the work of breaking down material in a compost heap is done by microbes, mainly bacteria. If we classify the types of microbe from cold to hot temperatures we have -:

PSYCHROPHILES Typically act in temperature range of between 10C – 20C. Even though they are present, you may not notice any heat build up or break down of material below 13C.

MESOPHILES Grow best in temperature range between 10C – 50C. Most of the microorganisms on Earth are mesophiles. If the temperature is just right they can double their population in 30 mins!

THERMOPHILES Some thermophiles are archaea some bacteria, they work best in temperature ranges between 32C – 93C.

Composting – Practical
Cold composting – can be thought of as what takes place in the average compost heap – say, the common black bin which many people have. Material is commonly added in small quantities as it becomes available, little thought is given to layers other than perhaps adding a thin layer of soil periodically. There is nothing wrong with this process, longer time periods (between 3 – 8 months) will accomplish much the same results as a hot heap.

Hot composting – has several benefits over cold; when done correctly it speeds up the process immeasurably sometimes as quick as 4 to 8 weeks in warmer climates; it minimises the risk of pathogens and weed seeds surviving the process and it produces more nutrient dense compost. There are many ‘recipes’ for making hot heaps, below is one I have used with some success in creating up to 65C heat in the centre of the heap. It is based on the modified Indore Method championed by Sir Albert Howard, whose work you can read freely – as well as many others – on a website called soilandhealth.org a one off donation is asked for.

To create a hot heap it is necessary to accumulate all of the material beforehand in order to build the heap in as short a time as possible – preferably in one day.

This is one of my hot heaps, these need to be quite large, a minimum of 1.2 cubic Mtrs preferably larger in order to have the mass to retain the heat which is produced by the process. Hot heaps need a good supply of air into the centre to feed the microbes which are creating the heat as a byproduct of decomposition, I have three plastic pipes with holes spaced along their length, they are placed on the bottom of the heap & one vertically in the centre.

On top of the three pipes, lay a 100mm layer of twigs, straw or any substantial organic material which will allow air to pass from the pipes. Then add a 300mm layer of a mixture of hay/manure (brown), above this add a 200mm layer of (green) material. I build my heaps in May when there is lots of Comfrey available which gives us a lot of available green material when there is not much available in most gardens. If the material in the layers are dry, add water. Keep building up these layers one on top of another until you run out of material or space, ( the height of the heap will decrease by more than half eventually).

Try to finish with a layer of browns, i.e. hay/manure to the top, and cover the heap with a tarp, cardboard or similar to keep excessive rainfall off it.

Within 3 to 5 days you should notice an increase in temperature of the core, this should continue to increase over several weeks, then level off, eventually beginning to decrease. At this point you should turn the heap into another bay, ideally with similar pipe work to aid airflow.

The purpose of this turning is to redistribute the material; the core temperature is dropping because the microbes in the centre of the heap have used up their food source. Try to ensure that you move the material on the outsides of the heap into the centre & the material from the centre, onto the outsides of the new heap. This will start the process of heating the heap up again, also ensuring that as much material as possible goes through the hottest part of the heap, the centre.

You can try this turning of the heap again when the temperature begins to drop again; I only do this 2 or 3 times, then leave the heap to mature for a year until needed.

Soil Food Web
While we are talking about microbes & bacteria it might be a good time to quickly mention the Soil Food Web.

For more than 4,000 years humans have grown food using natural processes, adding manure or green manure to the soil to build fertility. It is only in recent decades that science has come to understand the processes involved.

Soil is the very foundation of life.

There is a seemingly whole other universe of life beneath our feet consisting of:

Bacteria
Archaea
Fungi
Algae & Slime Moulds
Protozoa
Nematodes
Arthropods
Earthworms
Gastropods

It is the constant interaction of all these lifeforms going through their lifecycle – eating one another then pooping – that produces healthy fertile soil for us to grow our crops in. More info can be found on this by following Dr Elaine Ingham’s website here; soilfoodweb.com or by reading -Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web.

No Dig Gardening
As we can see by our quick view of the soil food web, digging soil can be disastrous for the lifeforms which we rely on to build fertility in our soil. How would you like it if someone turned your home upside-down? Historically we have become accustomed to this practice, it helps clear weeds, aerates the soil and aids the formation of a fine tilth for seed beds. Apart from these reasons, the upside of digging the soil over is that it does work in the short term.

Turning the soil kills some of the soil life, (in the same way it might you, had your home been turned over!) it buries grass & weeds; both of these occurrences release nutrients which the gardener takes advantage of when planting his crops.

But there are also down-sides; when this process is practised year after year, (not to mention several times a year, as currently practised by mainstream farming systems) the down-sides are:

• each turning of the soil weakens some of the soil life, in particular fungi which aid plant’s take-up of nutrients
• allowing the soil to be uncovered with nothing growing in it, increases the potential for soil loss through run-off caused by heavy rain
• if organic matter is not added to the soil it cannot hold onto water very well. Rain just goes right through it leaching nutrients as it goes down

To counter these problems many gardeners are turning to no dig methods which we’ll now run through.

One of the principle proponents of no dig in this country is Charles Dowding, more info can be found on his website here: charlesdowding.co.uk Much of this info is from his book – No Dig Organic Home & Garden.

The basic idea is to take a small area of land and cut down the existing growth of grass or weeds. Leaving the cut-down material in place, cover the area with cardboard overlapping the edges by 100mm -150mm (4-6”), then 100mm (4”) depth of compost on top of the cardboard, then place young plants or sow seeds directly into the compost. If seeds, these need to be quite large, i.e. beans. You may choose to erect raised-bed edges to this area, but it’s not necessary.

The idea is that the cardboard blocks the light from the grass/weeds below stopping or at least weakening their growth. In the meantime your plants will start to grow, pushing roots down through the cardboard into the soil. The compost feeds the existing soil life below. Worms will gradually pull down some of the compost into the soil, as would happen in nature with leaves.There are variations of this basic theme such as using polythene over the top of the compost with holes cut in to insert your plants.

The concept as a whole follows organic principles that manure/green manure should be applied to the surface of the soil, not dug in, allowing natural processes to take what they need when they need it.

Benefits of Community Orchards
I’d like to read the opening paragraph of a small book – Orchards, by Claire Masset which describes their benefits much better than I could.

“Orchards are, strictly speaking, spaces devoted to the cultivation of fruit trees, but there is much more to them than productivity. They have that irresistible quality of offering both bounty & beauty – while their fruit pleases the palate, their blossom delights the eye. Over the centuries, orchards have inspired great art & poetry, and have been the setting for medieval feasts, harvest festivals and, more recently picnics. Like forests they are imbued with a sense of magic and mystery, encouraging tranquillity and contemplation and helping us commune with nature in a profound way. Old orchards are also astonishingly rich habitats, offering food and shelter for over 1,800 species of wildlife, from birds and butterflies to lichens and mosses”

Orchards have been with us since roman times, they are seeing a renaissance around the country in the last 20 years, linked no doubt to the twin challenges that climate change and peak oil promise us.

Requirements of land for Community Orchards
Perhaps the first requirement of an orchard is some soil! Apples are extraordinarily resilient and can adapt to many different soil types, ideally they would have at least 450mm (18”) of medium loam, (if a site doesn’t have this depth, all is not lost the soil can be heaped up to create this depth). One thing they don’t like is water-logged soil, good drainage is essential and if not present, some kind of drainage system must be installed.
Sunlight is also essential to the production of fruit so the land must not be shaded too much by tall buildings. Shelter from strong winds is another factor to take into account, though this may be planned for in a garden design, i.e. growing a shelter belt of suitable trees or hedge.
Frost is another problem, early flowering varieties may be caught out by a late frost, killing the flowers, no flower – no fruit. So care must be taken not to choose a site lying in a frost pocket, i.e. a low lying area surrounded by higher land, where the denser cold air has nowhere to escape.

Formative pruning of 1 – 2 year-old apple trees
In the early years apple trees need to be shaped to the desired forms. Forms can be:

• bush
• half standard
• standard
• spindlebush
• pyramid
• espalier
• fan
• cordon
• stepover

The formative pruning of most of these is similar to bush form, and that’s what we are aiming for here. We have 5 apple trees which are:

Bloody Ploughman
Red Falstaff
Sunset
James Grieve
George Cave

All are MM106, (semi vigorous) as suggested by The Tree Council. All have been chosen to flower between early, mid & late season giving a long timeline of fruit production and ensuring that at least some, will fruit, given the unexpected weather events predicted for the future.

Formative pruning is the process of shaping a young tree for the rest of its life. It’s vitally important to build up a strong, evenly spaced framework of branches that will serve the tree well in the long term. Nearly all tree forms require a certain length of clear trunk before the first laterals (branches) arise.

The bush form is the most common for apple trees, it’s easy to grow & maintain and is suitable for a variety of dwarfing and semi-dwarfing rootstocks.

The aim is to produce a goblet-shaped tree on top of a clear trunk. The first branches will begin between 600mm – 900mm high (2 or 3’) up to 1.2m (4’) on MM106 rootstock.

In the first year, starting with a maiden or 1 year-old-tree, prune the leader about 150mm (6”) above the height you want the first branches to emerge, assuming the leader has reached the required height – if not let it grow on and wait until next year.

One of the aims of formative pruning is the creation of a number of well spaced laterals at a wide angle to the trunk. Branches with a narrow angle to the trunk are liable to split from the trunk later in the trees life when weighed down by lots of apples.

In the second year, a number of laterals will have formed. Those emerging where you want a clear trunk can be cut back to about 3 buds. These will be cut off completely the following year. Above this, look for 3 to 5 wide-angled branches spaced evenly around the tree. These laterals can be shortened by about half of the previous seasons growth to an outward facing bud (or an upward-facing bud if the lateral is horizontal). The process of cutting to outward facing buds helps create a spreading tree with a clear centre.

This brings us, along with the pratical content of this event, to the end of this session, thank you for attending.

http://www.transitionsunderland.org/2017/12/15/north-east-permaculture-ambassadors-gathering-2017/

On – 15 Dec, 2017 By Allan Rowell

http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/homesteading-natural-ways-to-rid-of-ants/

On – 01 Jan, 2018 By

Permaculture and Community Part 2: Using the Moral Imagination in Permaculture

In part 1 of this article (1) I explored how permaculture is very much linked to practices of peacebuilding and in particular to the use of our “moral imagination” (2). As a holistic lens through which to view the world, which encourages curiosity and creativity and includes the possibility of stepping outside of societal or cultural norms, permaculture has many similarities to the moral imagination as described by John Paul Lederach (2). Theoretically, then, permaculture can be a tool not only for landscape design but also for helping to re-imagine or rebuild communities which for some reason have ceased to function or are not functioning in a healthy way, as Lederach does in his line of work. But how can we apply this theory practically? This article will look at how using these theories can have a lasting practical impact, beginning on an individual level and rippling outwards to communities, societies and the world.

Building peace inside ourselves

Permaculture and peacebuilding are both on some level about finding ways in which a community or system is functioning ineffectively and changing that, hopefully for the better. It can be deceptively easy to go about this change-creation from an outside-in approach; i.e. to have an idea and then to try to apply that thing to the people, creatures and other things around you. This seems to be the approach of many governmental institutions. The idea that we can only create change outside ourselves once we have created change within is one so often repeated it could almost be called a cliché. Since much of our cultural training appears to lead away from this idea, though, I am going to repeat it again here (briefly) anyway.

Mohandas Gandhi published a paper in 1913 in which he said

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.” (3)

This simple idea has been explored by practitioners of all fields, for many decades or more likely centuries, though it seems of particular importance in today’s world of seemingly instant technology and desires for quick-fix solutions coming from outside. A lot of the time it is easy to see how Gandhi’s words are true on an intellectual level. It is quite another thing to apply the idea that until you change yourself you cannot change anything. From this perspective, any improvements you wish to make in the outside world have to begin in your own mind and body.

Healing inside and out

As mentioned in part 1 of this article, ‘violence’ is not necessarily the sole property of war-torn countries and states but may well be present in all of our daily lives. In the same way, many psychologists have theorized that ‘wounding’ of a psychological nature is not a rare occurrence that happens only to those doomed to mental institutions, but is, in fact, something which is unavoidable, particularly in a culture in which daily un-empathetic communication is to a large extent encouraged (see for example 4). Firman and Gila (4) call this “primal wounding”; damage to our psyches which occurs when we are not accepted as an authentic and holistic personality, and which can create psychological scarring. They are not the only ones to postulate that a lot of the environmental destruction we can see occurring in the world is made possible by the fact that we have received similarly destructive wounding in our psyches by being denied what they call an “empathic holding environment” (4), (5). Little wonder then, that we sometimes engage in

” massive abuses of the natural environment that threaten the holding environment that every one of us shares—the planet Earth itself” (4)

The key to these primal wounds, however, is that they can be healed. There are numerous ways to do this. Firman and Gila recommend reconnecting to the previously wounded parts of your psyche, through gentle and empathic therapy; David Abram recommends reconnecting to the wordless language of the “animate landscape”, through enlivening and enrichment of our senses (5). The key seems to be that we know in theory what needs to be done but until we do it ourselves on a personal level we cannot hope to create real and lasting change. As Bill Mollison put it,
“Once you’ve said to yourself, “But I’m not using my physics in my house,” or “I’m not using my ecology in my garden, I’ve never applied it to what I do,” it’s like something physical moves inside your brain. Suddenly you say, “If I did apply what I know to how I live, that would be miraculous!” “ (6)

Art and soul

As I touched upon in part 1 (1), Lederach repeatedly refers to peace-building as a creative endeavor and appeals to the artist inside all of us (2). He correlates peace, art and healing as being of the same kind of thing. This seems particularly important to bring into the world of permaculture. Permaculture is scientific in that it is based on using your senses and what is directly observable, in the same way, that peace-building is scientific in that it looks at patterns of cycles of violence and tries to create formulas for transcending these. However, permaculture is also about observing and working with energies, some of which may be unpredictable or even invisible, such as those of social interaction. Without a capacity for creatively working with these energies, we may be in danger of losing the whole point of whatever we are designing in the first place.

“The challenge of the artful connection”, says Lederach,

” is how to respect what we create, nurture love for what we do, and bring beauty to what we build, even in the simplest tasks. We have come to see our work for social change and peacebuilding too much in the line of an intellectual journey… Politics, as usual, has not shown itself particularly capable of generating authentic change for the good of the human community. We have to recognize that constructive social change, like art, comes in fits and starts. The greatest movements forward, when you look really closely, often germinated from something that collapsed, fell to the ground and then sprouted something that moved beyond what was then known” (2)

Art and progress

To sum up this part of the series, then, we can begin to draw some lines between the seemingly diverse practices of permaculture, art, healing, and peace. Key to these connections is the centre of any action that you take; your own personal psyche and the care you take of it. Hopefully, this article has gone some way towards giving hints for practical exploration of these themes; more will follow in part 3.

“To believe in healing is to believe in the creative act” (2); what creative acts can you bring into your life to help yourself to heal?

References

1.Ashwanden, C, 2017. ‘Permaculture and Community Part 1: Permaculture as a Tool for Peace’. Permaculture News, 2/11/17. https://permaculturenews.org/2017/11/02/permaculture-community-part-1-permaculture-tool-peace/ – retrieved 4/12/17

2.Lederach, J.P, 2005. The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

3.Gandhi, M, 1964. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume XII, April 1913 to December 1914, Chapter: General Knowledge About Health XXXII: Accidents Snake-Bite, (From Gujarati, Indian Opinion, 9-8-1913) The Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi at www.gandhiheritageportal.org)

4.Firman, J; Gila, A, 2002. Psychosynthesis: A Psychology of the Spirit. SUNY Press: New York City, USA.

5.Abram, D, 1996. The Spell of the Sensuous: Language and Perception in a More-Than-Human World. Vintage: New York City, USA.

1.Atkisson, A; Mollison, B, 1991. ‘Permaculture: Design for Living’. Context: Making it Happen IC#28. https://www.context.org/iclib/ic28/mollison/ – retrieved 4/12/17

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https://permaculturenews.org/2017/12/14/permaculture-community-part-2-using-moral-imagination-permaculture/

On – 14 Dec, 2017 By Charlotte Ashwanden

At the ongoing International Permaculture Convergence, 2017, Sultan Ahmed Ismail, a soil biologist and ecologist spoke about the importance of soil health and how permaculture can nurture soil as well as ensure crop yield.

Deteriorating soil health has led to a sharp decline (see figure below) in the production of crops since 1990, shows a recent report by the Delhi-based Indian Society of Soil Science. Extensive use of chemicals kills bacteria and micro-organisms in the soil, making land uncultivable.  

 

Soil health is considered good when it has at least 5 per cent organic matter. Unfortunately, the national average for organic matter in soil in India is 0.4 per cent, said Ismail, who is also the Director of the Chennai-based Ecoscience Research Foundation. Earth worms and termites are organisms which help increase soil health.

In permaculture, a natural way of farming which originated in Australia in the 1970s, soil health is the priority of farmers. Rajashekar, a farmer from Andhra Pradesh who attended IPC, said that he makes compost to increase soil fertility and that he also mulches the soil.

While soil health and quality of the produce is an intrinsic part of permaculture, in modern farming, crop yield is the only focus, said Rajasherkar. 

“In the olden days, after the harvest, the top portion of the crop was used for human consumption, the middle portion was used as a feed for animals and the bottom portion went back to the soil and supported the growth of microorganisms. But today so much salt is being dumped into the soil that it is losing important microbes and land has become uncultivable. More salt means that the soil demands more water, which has also led to water scarcity in certain areas,” explained Ismail.

Permaculture can restore the system and is also a way to make farmers independent. If we bring back the worms, they will take care of the soil, Ismail added.

 

 

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