Permaculture, the science, understanding & practice of life

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====== Gardening techniques permaculture no nonsense 2015 ======


  - How to start the garden
    - From grass. take it upside down, cover it compost on it (choke the grass clean black soil. Advantage = all kinds of layers in the soil.
    - From plowed fields. 5-12 cm (1/5 years) (12-20 cm max 1/10 years) when you go too deep, you hustle the different bacteria’s. the non-aerobic will want to go down, when you pull them up. The aerobic bacteria that get deeper in the ground will die. Plow is only needed if you don’t keep your soil clean.
    - From forest. take in a account where the sun comes, the rain, the wind and how the slope goes. If you find a spot, you take an animal (cows, pigs, chickens). The animals will dig and scratch the soil. You can leave them or take them away.
    - From stones. take out the stones, put them aside. Make flat areas with the stones raised beds. Take the soil where it is least polluted, put it between the raised beds. Bring outside fertility (straw). Leave the stuff (plastic etc.) in the ground.
  - Water (H<sub>2</sub>o) H<sub>2</sub>= conductivity O= burning, oxygen water is unstable electro=magnetically. Is basic to any life&flexible/soluble.
    - Rain too much it drowns the aerobic bacteria, minerals go deeper down. It goes down the slope. Put your beds in a way that when the rain comes, water runs off slowly without leaving puddles, so you can use it the right way. When water comes up, raised beds are better (15-20 cm higher than the highest the water probably will come). too little foresee hedges so evaporation fro; them can provide morning&evening mists/dew
    - Evaporation plants have stomata’s to drink evaporated water on the underside of the leaves absurdity of spraying from above+importance of proximity of lake/pond
    - Weather when it has rained recently , you can’t do a lot for the soil. When the sun shines, he should scratch the soil from 05:00 am. Around 12:00 p.m. you scratch again. You create a weed-clean soil in 1 day. dry farming(from the he hopi Indians where it rains once every 3 years they put a lot of love in breeding the plants,indoor, during winter, a lot attention(chanting). They don’t plow. The three sisters corns, strong stalk, out them far apart, soil will dry out runner beans, more shade pumpkin, covers the soil with leaves. Capillary action pulls the water out of the ground, but the three sisters will use the evaporation of this water.
    - Giving water stupid to do except for evaporation (tunnels/food forest)
  - Raised beds
    - Raised bed - because of too much water, creates fertility by multiplying the amount of soil under the plants. Root mass will be much better (60 cm of soil you can use). +° 2/3 Celsius. Here you have H<sub>2</sub>o, life and material for soil life to make humus from.
    - Hot beds - same as raised beds but more manure+added water+cover with plastic to start up. On the heat you can make pre-seed beds. make holes in it, water, horsepoo, air, heat> Put plastic over it, boxes on top of it with earth, it warms up, for a week> take away the plastic, seed in it. 12 weeks of extra heat makes 4 early crops possible
    - Tunnel: plants love heat, water, soil, air. Warm heap with tunnel on it. Rope with bag of sand to keep it down. Circular form makes recirculation of water vapour possible.
  - Seeding
    - Pre- seeding - flowers make seeds. Yang= seeds/ put it in the soil. Think about where you want it to grow and when. There will be many weed roots and seeds in the soil that will come upanywhere. Let them come up, scratch them(=false seed beds), otherwise they disturb you garden. If they are gone, you can plant new plants (that you pre-seed in a pot etc.)
    - Out of season - seeding out of season is a good thing, if you don’t lose them in weeds. Nov/ dec/ febr, you will get stronger plants during spring. Ex: garlic, onions, peas
      - Winter -  going back up again
      - Spring - capillary action
      - Summer - creation of flowers
      - Indian summer - creation seeds
      - Autumn - rotting process
    - Wild seeding - one plant can occupy a whole fields. You create edible cover. No seeding, no working. It gives access to fertility from nature. The plants can decide where they want to grow.
  - Fertility
    - Fertility vs destruction: Over fertilizing with too much nitrogen, phosphor&kalium kills soil life.
    - cellulose, carbon, nitrogen, minerals, oxygen, water humus complex. Sand has a big particle, loam has many small particles. Loam can get really big all together (x50). Sand can only grow a little (x2). It is a cycle that is really important. By this farmers can multiply their soil fertility a lot, on condition that they know what they’re doing. Keep the level from the cellulose up. N/C balance should be 1/33 at least, preferably more.
    - Humus=living biodiverse structure made up of fungi, bacteria, viruses&bigger soil animals
    - Structure - every time you hustle up, you disturb the soil. Humus is really easy to kill. Structure is basic of humus
    - Layering=gradual from aerobic to anaerobic, from fermenting/composting to rotting
  - Fields vs small gardens
    - Zoning zero to seven
      - Body
      - Group
      - House
      - Herbs, small fruits
      - Garden
      - Animals
      - Fruit trees
      - Nature
    - 3D gardens - fruit forest never ending cycle. 7 levels of evaporation, etc.
  - Techniques for fields - try to avoid bad weeds
    - Scratching - scratch to get the weed out of the soil.
      - Scratch to prepare for seeding
      - Scratch to wake up soils in spring
    - b. Mulching
      - technique by which the weeds that want to come up are choked. To keep the weed coming up, you keep air, water, light, heat away. Does not really work well.rather put  it on the roads. Plan when you mulch in autumn and take it off the field in spring ? A weak point, mulching takes a truck load per square surface&should be replenished regularly. 
    - c. Nylon - thin layer of nylon- heat, sun, air, rain can come through, but not the weeds
    - d. Weeding. don’t take everything out. Do it creatively. Weed away any stuff that goes to seed. Avoid nettles, they come everywhere. On a sunny day, scratch (morning), weed in between the plants (at noon), scratch again (after weeding).
    - e. Lines keep 50 cm distance between the lines for seeding in spring. This way you make place for plants in between. Reseed in between when first crop is nearly ripe
    - f. combinations. keep in mind the way plants grow. You visualize how the plants are going to grow and how long it takes. Keep the weeds away. 
    -        g. Edible cover crops
    -      h. With an edible cover crop you always have cover for the soil, you always harvest. 
  - 8. Harvesting.         a. Group: harvest for your group on a regular base        b. we can help nature by harvesting the bigger ones. This way the smaller ones have the chance to grow further. What is growing when, how big will it become, when do I need to seed, when should I harvest. This way one can grow a multiple of the 1 row/1 vegetable plan         c. Season. According to season take some(seed !), all(clearing for winter), the biggest(making room for the next crop already seeded underneath)
   - 9. Year around food         a. Planning you should store, propagate the year around vegetables. Stock root vegetables. Make preserves&pestos etc
   - 10. Seed saving        a. Cycle of the year most plants will give flowers from month 6 and seeds in month 9. Manage the plants that seed, so you can dry the seeds. You do seed saving, but you also plan it (wild seeding & the seeds you throw). After a while you will find balance. 

Composting= stuff that is put in for fertility for the plants (C) first 30 cm. aerobic bacteria

Rotting= stuff is de-compost, will become minerals (N+) beneath 30 cm non-aerobic bacteria

TRANSITION
Daniel T odum