My Permaculture Path To-Date (in 500 words or less)

Joel Salatin was the gateway to my permaculture path.  Paul Stamets and Paul Wheaton ("the Pauls," in my household) have been tremendous guides.  But I have come to a point where I need what Helen Atthowe has to offer.

I was a city kid, taking an academic deep-dive into soil and gut microbiology.  We rented a house with a 1/8 acre, partially shaded, front-yard garden.  I found "the Pauls" and, giddy with excitement, inoculated everything that whispered "carbon," and built a big hugelkulture right there on 41st Street in South Hyde Park.  My neighbors called it the Effigy Mound.  Our date tree loved it.  

Then we moved to my family farm in rural Kansas, and I had my heart broken by the impoverished conditions of the conventional fields, ubiquitous in the surrounding countryside.  

We're trying feverishly to scale up our backyard-style guerrilla herb garden to something that can impact 100-acres, and the surrounding watershed, ecosystem, culture.  We are desperate to see regeneration, and Joel Salatin offered a model for that.  I still respect and take liberally from the tools he gave me.  Thanks, Joel.  We have run sheep and goats through the reclaimed, hard-pan wheat fields and surrounding woodland, and they have done their thing.  Their thing is good.  

But I really, really just love plants.  So we donated our livestock to the local high school, and we're taking Helen's course.  2023 for us is "The Year of Plants."

I am fascinated by all that intentionally wielded plants can accomplish - soil balancing and aeration, control of undesired species, wild-life habitat, soil-building, human sustenance, carbon sequestration.  I want to be a plant ninja.  I want to know how to use plants to do the things that animals do so well.

So we're hoping/planning to come to Montana to take Helen's Garden Master Course this January.  I just want to sit at her feet absorb all she has to offer.  

George Washington Carver was once asked how he learned so many amazing thing about the peanut.  He responded "If you love something, it will tell you its secrets."  

Helen knows the secrets of plants - their ecosystemic communities, quirks, habits, preferences, tolerances.  How to help your favorites thrive in a wild vegetative world.  She knows the secrets of plants because she carries for them a deep affection.  I want to learn from her, yes, all the the heady knowledge I can attain, but moreover I want to invite the embodied changes in me that will only come from community and shared affinity, from being present and osmosing her countenance in the classroom and in the garden.  

There you have it.  My morning ramble about the invitational mysteries of vegetation.

So, this morning, will you join me as I raise my cup of coffee . . . "to plants."

Beau, that is a great plan.

I only know a little about her work so I think I will start learning more about Helen.

Your enthusiasm has caught me.

And you gave all your animal to the local school, that was so thoughtful.

Thank you for sharing and have fun in Montana.

Thank you Anne, we are excited.  We have spent most of the last two years with my wife in the garden and me out caring for the animals. It has been good, but we are excited to develop the growing aspect together.  We'll probably bring animals back someday as partners in caring for the land, but for now we are excited for the singular focus.  

As for our animals, the local FFA, while not aligned with my ideals in many ways, will care for our milkers well and keep them out of the slaughterhouse.  The sponser is very interested in permaculture, and wants me to come share about "alternative and regenerative methods" to these dyed-in-the-wool conventional ag high school kids.  We'll see how it goes . . .

That's a wonderful opportunity to get to teach the high school kids. Showing them some different soil samples under a microscope would be very engaging and very illustrative of the benefits of regenerative farming.

I think taking a break from animals to focus on the plants and learn about them better is a great plan. We did something similar on a MUCH smaller scale. The year we moved in, we got a bunch of animals and learned a lot but gradually had less and less until now we have no animals (besides some frogs and fish in some aquariums) so we can have more energy to focus on growing our food forest, establishing all our perennials. But we have plans to bring back a few animals in a couple years.