Charmian Larke

Hi  Great to see this.  

I would like to suggest the following to improve the new site:-

     The top bar/ heading with other pages is made to stay visible all the time- helps move around the site
     The typeface is changed from Times to something more up to date - it looks really old-fashioned which is not where we are on this approach to life, maybe choose a sans serif typeface
      Put the logo or other generic label so we can see the link to other Permies stuff
      Make each page shorter and do more of them- I just completed a course on website design and a key thing I learnt was that many folk are now searching online via their phones - which show everything  very differently, so it is helpful to have less on each page.

As a aside I suggest when doing an online search that Permies choose Ecosia for their searches. They use 80% of their profits to plant trees and they do not track you. So plant trees with every search!  It is a good search engine - I use it for about 90% of my searches.

For those who want to move their citrus trees further northwards this article  which quotes Kris Decker  is well worth a read.

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-05-15/fruit-trenches-cultivating-subtropical-plants-in-freezing-temperatures/     It shows how the Russians moved each generation of citrus trees further north and the strategies they used for very cold winter times. Trenches being one main tool.  Training the trees at a few inches high is another successful option.  Old photos in the article show how it was done

I too suffer from couch grass in my vegetable garden.  It will grow up to 1.5 metre (4.5 feet)  a year if left unchecked including under and through whatever is in its way.  The solution I am working on is to put in a barrier around the veg beds. This needs to  be up to about one foot deep and made of something the couch grass will not grow through.   Ideas so far are heavy plastic - like bamboo barriers, wood- but this rots in about five years here, or old metal sheets cut to shape.

In the meantime I am trying the old fashioned method of a  trench at the edge of the bed which goes about 6 inches below soil level and is kept clear.  Roots cannot cross the air!  Provided I keep on top of keeping this trench clear I mostly stop the couch grass coming into the veg beds.
The problem then shifts to keeping the grass short on the outside of the beds where it will hang into the trench and make a lovely home for slugs and snails!

Another topic we often do not think about when deciding on personal carbon footprints is the amount of new stuff we buy.  Big purchases such as a  new car - a large SUV is around 30 tonnes of carbon embedded in the manufacturing, whereas a small hatchback is only around 6 tonnes.
Imported food is also massive in embedded carbon terms- especially if flown to the country from across the planet - eg watercress grown in America ending up in my local store in the UK- when we grown watercress not so far away in the same country.

So no more large heavy objects or getting new clothes all the time- as we know here- go for second hand, get high quality and keep for a long time.

These days the CO2 monitor is useful for assessing covid risks of poor ventilation in crowded spaces. They say we should be okay re the virus when CO2 levels are less than double the background level ie 415 ppm. This is increasing every year as we know with climate change emissions

Hi  
Is there somewhere other than Amazon I can get this book?

I am really keen to read all the learning you are sharing with us, but very reluctant to buy from Amazon as they are such an immoral company.

My understanding is that solid materials are needed to  be affective as a  noise barrier. Willow walls are a good example.   They are made of live willow cuttings placed into an earth barrier held in place with wooden or other material fencing to the height required. For the first one to two years the wall will need watering, but not generally once the willow roots are established. This type of construction looks green and healthy very quickly and can be built straight or round curves easily.  See  http://www.adc40.org/presentations/summer2012/Cubick%20TRB12.pdf  for a presentation on different types of green walls for sound attenuation.

It may be interesting to look at the use of a Stirling engine. These are external combustion engines and can take a range of heat sources. There are small ones available and one example is shown in
http://www.microgen-engine.com/      Stirling engines have struggled over the years to find a big enough market as they are not highly efficient, but in remote locations or special circumstance they provide a good solution.

Based in Cornwall UK- so fire not a problem- rain is a major element here!

As we are in Cornwall we are within an area of Cornish hedges- these are stone walls some 4 foot high made with stones and soil and planted on the top, with trees such as holly and hawthorn, black thorn etc.  Hence the starting point for all the brambles.  Hacking blackberry bushes back is a big task each winter- so that we can access different areas.   Interesting idea on distracting the rabbits with parsley- but it is not tough enough for round here, and would soon be grown over with grass and brambles, or ivy in shady areas.  Slugs are rather partial to sunflowers and all squashes/gourds. We had six foot high sunflower plants felled by slugs one summer.   Ideally we should be eating the rabbits..... in true  permaculture fashion.

Great to see the mix of tree species. We planted a range of tree species on one acre 30 years ago, and then another acre  seven years ago.  Main things we have learnt from this  are
- keep the trees in some kinds of lines rather than random- could be curved lines rather than straight- or it is too easy to lose them  in the long grass when they are small
- be careful if using a scythe to cut the grass- we lost a few to "Sheffield blight" i.e. cut them down by mistake
- chestnut is brilliant at keeping down the undergrowth really quickly as the leaves form a weed suppressing layer within four years or so
-  we planted at six foot centres and there have been so few losses that it would have been better further apart, as the coppicing and general management is difficult at this spacing- we need more room between trees
- maybe cut the grass for the first few years to deter brambles- this is the main problem for us in new woodland and even many years after the tree canopy has closed they are still strong- except under chestnut.
- if you can plant with mycorrhizal fungi as this speeds up growth a lot
- our main threat is rabbits- so every tree needs a rabbit guard- we have found that translucent ones break down in a year or so, so go for solid colour ones which appear to be UV stabilised and will last for many years