Monica Rocha

Hey Y'all,

I'm setting up to get a garden going on my parents' lawn...

They are the type that buy lots of processed foods, are pretty ignorant about what work goes into their produce. The great thing is that they are pretty open to me doing this.
I'm looking for a good, short explanation of what's wrong in the food industry. Of course, youtube offers tons of videos, but if anyone knows a good one in particular, that'd be really helpful.

Planting eggplant, lots of different varieties of tomatoes, sunflowers, potato, corn, red peppers, parsley, cilantro, onions, chamomile, lavender etc...

The trees in the picture are a big oak tree and two mango trees. The smaller tree in the other picture is an orange tree.

If I cover my lawn with cardboard, will it kill the grass underneath?
Are there any bed configurations that are especially good for these vegetables?
What are some elements that can increase biodiversity?
What can be done with a small spot that floods? It has an area of about 4 cubic feet

So far, I'm doing this completely by myself, so any help would be appreciated.

Marketing permaculture to the skeptics doesn´t start just with financial sense and cute how-to videos. It starts with the way ideas have been adopted in our day and age.
Permaculture has to be sold to the people who don´t want to buy anything anymore, and it isn´t as difficult as it sounds. There´s a way when a tiny anti-consumerist Canadian magazine called Adbusters
can permeate and become the incentive for one of our youth´s largest political momentums.
As niche as Adbusters may be, it was completely obscure before Occupy. Permaculture doesn´t have to try to be cool, it just has to make sense socially as well as financially.

Ben Stallings a made a very strong point that relates to eco-business: some people don´t want to be self-sufficient, they want to be sold it, depend on it, and consume it.

The public conception of work has to change. Most consider unpaid work, giving unconditionally (great boot idea) a hassle.

i agree with most of what´s being said, but we must not forget that financial incentive plays a dance with cultural ones. If permaculture is going to be "proven" to anyone, it´s going to be through example. It´s going to be through the suburban lawns-turned-gardens in suburbia and in the city neighborhoods where people care
to take care of their neighbors.

I think this will come about not through small ready-to-eat instructions, but by giving the 20-35 year olds a radical option, be it through collective group meetups and Transition Town ideas translated into the city. This is based on a series of assumptions, but I´m curious as to what you guys think

My internet has been down for the past few days, sorry about the delay

Angelika, I find value in gardening, and have been gardening since the 4th grade. You are not being harsh, but I´d like to know why you think college is silly in the first place, as its a claim thats difficult for me to accept at face value. If you care to explain why or send a few links in the form of a purple mooseage, we can trade some ideas rather than some commands. Meditation is great, it´s the reason I´m living in a buddhist community at the moment I think it doesn´t address all aspects of mental health, nor can touted as a panacea for a lack of "good" temperance towards life. Living in the moment and out of love, not fear, is a 24/7 practice, and meditation surely helps if you approach it as non-technically as possible.

Landon, it seems like you have a very thorough treatment of the matter. And the subjectivity and fluidity of a political reality can drive one insane, or just trying to predict the future in general. I completely understand the enthusiasm to be free from state-sponsored financial holes. And the original intent is not lost, better, its transformed into an invitation for you to give some cogency to a difficult topic, among other things.

George, I like your take on permaculture as an answer to many questions. I imagine that self-reliance is fun and rewarding in itself, and I hope to experience this soon. There is also peace in not looking for answers, but understanding the wisdom behind the questions asked.

CJ, thank you for the videos!

Merrin, this is something I´ve been looking into. Thank you, and I´ll take you up on the invitation!

I´m in the middle of a move, but I´ll be taking a closer look at the sources and post thoughts soon.
I imagine there must already be a thread on this, but opinions on permaculture courses in college? Thinking of Eugene, OR in particular

Monica Rocha wrote:

Cj Verde wrote:

John Elliott wrote:While I like what Adam has to say, and while I hate to be a downer, I have to bring everyone back to Earth (Gaia, if you will), and point out that we have been living on borrowed time. The fact that the world didn't fall apart in the 60s and 70s and 80s ...

It's a logical fallacy to say that since the world didn't fall apart in the past few decades it won't ever fall apart.

Also, the 20th century saw so many societies fall apart I'd have a hard time listing them all.

I think is argument is exactly that, Verde. He is saying that just because it didn't happen before doesn't mean it won't happen now. Thanks for the podcast by the way.

I wonder why the Pacific Northwest has such a threat of drought, keeping it in mind.

Cj Verde wrote:

John Elliott wrote:While I like what Adam has to say, and while I hate to be a downer, I have to bring everyone back to Earth (Gaia, if you will), and point out that we have been living on borrowed time. The fact that the world didn't fall apart in the 60s and 70s and 80s ...

It's a logical fallacy to say that since the world didn't fall apart in the past few decades it won't ever fall apart.

Also, the 20th century saw so many societies fall apart I'd have a hard time listing them all.

I think is argument is exactly that, Verde. He is saying that just because it didn't happen before doesn't mean it won't happen now.

I wonder why the Pacific Northwest has such a threat of drought, keeping it in mind.

ferFal looks very interesting, it'll be a good read. Thanks Mike!

To Landon: I'll get back to you on the potential of war.

to Adam, yes, I agree, and it is good to keep this in mind. There is no reward to living in fear. Learning to live with it seems more important. However, whatever path I choose, for it to be meaningful, it makes sense that it is responsible as well. This is sort of a no-brainer, but it all depends on the extreme to which personal explorations are harmful or helpful to the earth. Should I concede a life-long dream of traveling because of the huge carbon footprint that flying all over the world brings? Does it really make a difference that I stick to my principles? It makes much more sense to limit travel to car and bus in my view...

And what is a carbon footprint, if its for a good cause (educating others and myself about permaculture)?

And if corn and oil suddenly disappear, you'll find me in the northwest researching alternative energy and growing my own vegetables before I'm in a hostel in southeast asia. Whether or not there is a real potential of collapse, it seems important to have a base at this point to actually implement permaculture. I'm just not sure where that will be yet.

Sorry if this is all a bit personal mapping. Hope its relevant to the larger discussion of the dilemmas of living permaculturally and following one's heart.

Hey folks.
I'm currently living in brazil in a buddhist community, applying permaculture techniques to the local garden after taking my PDC this past year. I am looking for a job in the northwest so that I can live there, start living a permaculture way of life, and go to grad school. I was trained in painting and urban studies in my undergrad.

I am looking for jobs in/near seattle at the moment so I can begin to live there. In the meantime, I'd love to help out with a permaculture project as a wwoofer and as a traveler. Contact me here if you have a project that needs a hand and/or a brain. Long hours and physical labor are no problem, and I love to brainstorm solutions.

-Monica

John Elliott wrote:Australia....really? Have you thought this through looking at what the heat and drought is doing there?

One of the short slogans of the climate modelers is: "dry places are going to get dryer and wet places are going to get wetter". Australia is already quite dry and they are going to have their hands full trying to adapt to less rain. A lot of their wheat growing land may have to convert to sorghum or millet to be able to make a crop.

When I had the choice of where to settle, I opted for a wet place, although I have spent most of my life living in dry places. Even still, the increased variability of rainfall, months of "below average" followed by weeks of non-stop rain is giving me a lot of difficulty in adapting.

Probably the most pessimistic view of collapse comes from Guy McPherson, who thinks humans are going to go extinct this century. Gwynne Dyer looks at it from the geopolitical point of view, and it ends up being "Grim 'n' Dire". Other names to search on YouTube are James Hansen, Richard Alley, Michael Mann, and Jennifer Francis for the science of Climate Change. The big picture is included in the scenarios covered by the 1972 work "Limits to Growth", and Dennis Meadows is still giving talks and updates on it 40 years later. Once you've acquainted yourself with the YouTube content on the subject, you should be able to Google yourself to the printed material.

No, I have not thought about that to be honest. I figured australia because of the concentration of permaculture projects there, and I assumed they are more sophisticated out of how long they've been established...yes, an assumption. Perhaps its best to take a step back and see what is really best.
I think about moving back to the states (Im currently in Brazil), and the Northwest comes to mind. I keep running into ideas of war breaking out with the collapse, especially between the US and China, and I'm also looking for resources, POV's on that.
Some extra info: here there is a very very small mountain town where my aunt and uncle lives that is rather difficult to access. I've wondered about prepping there as well, though I do not have much money, and it is MUCH more difficult to save up money here than in the states. Brazil is a very unsafe country generally speaking, but when the collapse does happen, I wonder if the small, isolated towns will really have it that much better than the cities.

Thank you for all the information John! I'm definitely getting on this.

So I am looking to move from brazil to australia soon. Anyone know of any particular towns that have a strong presence of preppers?

Hey y'all,
I've been interested in permaculture since I realized how unstable our survival grids are.
So I come to permaculture from an angle of preparation, and fear, admittedly, not because I find myself exceptionally interested in permaculture.
This is not to say that there isn't value in communing and negotiating with nature's bounty. That's the beauty of the thing.

I'm looking to move to australia and begin prepping, then once I have this stability, go to college for social change from there. But I find myself unsure and uneducated on the real potential and reality of collapse.

Bottom line: where can I educate myself about collapse, from a reasonable point of view? documentaries, pdfs are welcome