posted 11 years ago
I've been researching colonial (U$A) gardens and was amazed to see how much of their techniques were those of modern permaculture and organic gardening! They used wide raised beds, mulch, intercropped, planted in those same beds among the vegetables and herbs, and planted fruit bushes and even trees!
I had to wonder... what happened to all this? Why did most of it have to be reinvented 2 centuries later? I think the answer is that the introduction of machines made straight monocropped rows necessary on commercial farms, and industrial food production reduced the need to grow your own food.
Additionally I was amazed to find that people grew a lot of varieties, had among the vegetables all the medicinal herbs they needed...
Well, this is one example of the clock needing to be turned back!
