A friend of mine knows a guy from the Pashtun region of Afghanistan. The guy told my friend that if he wanted to send money home, he would do it by giving cash to someone from the same culture who was traveling back. “What?” asked my friend. “Someone you know, or just anyone?”
“Anyone”, said the [...]
Plant guilds are formed when we intentionally grow plants that are mutually beneficial to each other near one another. This is also sometimes called a “community of plants”. Companion planting is also related to this practice. This is both an excellent theory to follow when creating permaculture garden spaces, and also when working to organize [...]
Greywater is water that is drained from sinks, washing machines and showers/bathtubs. Greywater contains lots of nitrates and phosphates from household products as well as the expected hair and skin particles, but is still safe for use in irrigation as both nitrogen and phosphate are important nutrients for plant growth. However, when greywater is allowed [...]
Recently, I spoke with Margaritte, a graduate of Starhawk’s Earth Activist Training (EAT) program, about her experience there.
“It’s very much an intensive,” she told me. The two-week program, which includes daily rituals, social justice activist training, nature awareness exercises, and traditional lecture formats, with a final design project assignment on one of five different topics, [...]
One of the things that permaculture has taught me is to view life as a work in progress.
Wandering around on a permacuture farm is a lesson in the health of scruffiness. Messy mulch and apparently out of control weeds are actually restoring the soil. Smelly, shitty chickens are actually eating pests and fertilizing the land. [...]
[Given the ongoing discussion about personal sustainability, it seemed like a good time to offer the concept of social esteem to the community as well. -- SL]
I have a friend who is put off when people compliment his good looks. He’s put off, not because he can’t take a compliment, but because complimenting him makes [...]
“Learn skills, cultivate knowledge, discuss ideas, question assumptions, revolutionize education ” the Tatamagouche Summer Free School website declares (http://freeschool.fairtrademedia.com). For four days each August, Waldegrave Farm in Tatamagouche Nova Scotia is transformed into a whirlwind of energy, discussion and skill-sharing, bringing in participants from across the country and over various borders. The Tatamagouche Summer [...]
Permaculture Activist is a U.S. based magazine dedicated to -you guessed it- permaculture. If you haven’t heard the word before, Permaculture is a term coined by Bill Mollison taken from “permanent agriculture”, or “permanent culture”, as more and more people are applying the principles of permaculture to social systems as well as ecological ones. It [...]
Let’s face it, in terms of simple pleasures, it’s hard to top a batch of eggs freshly collected from your own backyard. And if you thought having chickens was restricted to country living, think again. Many urban areas allow for small farm animals, such as chickens, to be kept in peoples yards… providing they’re not [...]
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