Of" MATlltlJ\L, l"D &oNe IO~-,~ natural forest succession. lt seems curious to me to reflect back on the numerous "methods" and "systems" we've developed to improve on nature. The whole concept of agriculture, the science and art, seemed to come full circle in those meetings. We had studied and practiced often very technological agricultural paths. Now we were back, looking at the edges of forests, seeing grains and shrubs, root crops and small trees integrated and enhanced by our studies but mirroring instead the unstudied. • That weekend the metaphor of harmonic growing environments became symbolic for our meetings themselves and the larger communities we'd return to. What we'd come to understand about gardens extends to our understanding of ourselves and our separate but shared work. "The most stable systems are the most diverse-the most fully occupied." "Every part should serve several functionsthat is the essence of stability." The individual pieces of the plan only work if they are inter-dependent-it is the linking that makes for permanence. cont.next page fro.m Permaculture I 4 Alft!R.NJCf:- OF ~ AReA , fl2Sr )fl?AR_ A~\ .f> ~ ~. C ~N0H&eS, D~,ty..t:> -SIIRJJ!6 ""'-- ~L:f ~ 16 ~ ~ Mvi.at ,i. ·cti,,me:Il!:l>. ·digging, in fact, is that manures and compost often end up too deep to be employed to their best advantage. Most microbiological activity takes place close to the surface of the soil where the habitat is ideal in terms of temperature, oxygen and moisture. If compost or manure gets buried deeper, it will decompose very slowly and be unavailable for use by the most active and helpful soil organisms. As an initial procedure, this deep cultivation at the right time of the year is beneficial and will enable the energetic gardener to obtain good results quickly; but once good tilth is achieved, the repeated deep digging can have the effect of working against itself. After good aggregation and stabilization of soil is established with lots of pore space, good drainage and thriving soil biota, continued double digging can expose stable humus to unnecessary oxidation, destroy earthworms and their tunnels, and break down soil aggregates. Another drawback is the amount of organic material required by this system. Resourceful gardeners can locate grass clippings, kitchen wastes and other constituents for compost, but for many, especially in urban and suburban areas, the quantities required are Aag./Sept. 1980 RAIN Page 13 impractical, if not unobtainable. Manures are even more difficult and their transportation can be a problem. Such reliance on importing organic materials raises a fundamental question of sustainability. In addition, many of the projections made by promoters of the system seem inaccurate. The most widely touted and least verified claim to date is that one person can grow $20,000 worth of vegetables per annum on 1/10 acre and still take a four month vacation. A number of major demonstration gardens have been developed in the past decade, but not one of them has been able to support itself through product sales. At a ten-year project in Santa Cruz and here at Farallones Rural Center, where several experienced people have been working hard for years at market gardening on plots twentyfive times larger than 1/10 acre, we have yet to see gross income even approach $20,000. Such claims, along with statements from popular garden and back-to-the-land publications, have helped to foster the illusion that food and economic self-sufficiency lies in the backyard. This has the effect of discrediting the whole system in the minds of people who know enough about agriculture to recognize quickly the improbability of these claims. A complete perspective on BFi must include the understanding that the way we approach the garden is at least as important as the methods employed. Chadwick insisted that horticulture is a craft and an art. By taking a mindful creative approach to a thing so comprehensible in scale as a garden, we make the vital first step toward creating places of health, beauty, and permanence, where our relationship with the earth is one of stewardship and symbiosis rather than possession and domination. Utilizing units of production as small as gardens poses a radical change in our approach to food production and culture. The implication points to a value system where the level of consumption is more consistent with our real, personal ability to produce, where work is more directly connected to our sustenance, and where the dignity of self-reliance and the opportunity for self-expression are considered meaningful. •
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz