Nice coverage of fruit tree guild planting by Chris Condello: Practical Permaculture – Planting Under Fruit Trees.
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Cultivating Community: The 2nd Annual Florida Permaculture Convergence
Category Social Permaculture
The very first thing which comes to my mind post-convergence is this now-famous quote: “The map is not the territory”, after months and months of meeting and planning and discussing and deliberating, we pulled it off—a ‘more mature’ event than the first—a progression down the path to mapping and connecting our community. And what a community! Holy cow, as I go through, card by card, the results of the Regional Roundup (yes, actually—I did in fact volunteer for this honor, as oftentimes this sorting and compiling is somewhat soothing. Must be those 20 years in accounting, I dunno.) I am amazed, yet again, at the extraordinary glimpse of the underbelly of this State such a gathering allows. We are more diverse…stronger, hardier, and far more connected than we know. Aho. (Yes, I meant that to rhyme, yet another oddity.)
As in virtually every permaculture gathering, it rained. It didn’t just rain, in fact—the deluge on opening day Friday was such that it, no doubt, kept many arrivals from happening that day. The 2 – 2½ hour trip it should have been for me turned out to be five hours, most of it at a jerking, clunking, sputtering 35 miles an hour—the truck does not like rain. The soaked, shivering, dripping bunch in the registration tent when I arrived were so reminiscent of Cuba that I immediately felt at home. There is something about the state of discomfort, that once it has been reached—that’s it–there you are.
Sandhill Farm
We easily managed to cobble together 20 or so people for a tour of a local tiny eco-home, with its amazing array of fruit trees and organic and biodynamic methodology. The area surrounding Crooked Lake on the Lake Wales Ridge is an awe-inspiring pocket of diversity, and both Hunter and Linda, our hosts for the tour, really know their history, so the tour was quite the treat!
The rest of the weekend went pretty much the same way—nothing quite as planned, perhaps, yet still rich with the compost of the community already formed. To say the event was ‘enriching’ would be an understatement—it truly was cultural cultivation. We could not have chosen a more fortunate spot for this gathering–H.E.A.R.T. is not only one of the best examples of permaculture principles and applied ethics in Florida, it is also located in one of the most diverse regions.
∞
And, now I must digress into the realm of Pinellas County authorities, and “Officer Unfriendly”—the harsh glare of reality outside of those happy permie, weed-infested weekends. Because, no matter that I have taken great care to remain under the radar, regardless of my hours upon hours (upon hours and hours) of back-breaking labor and uncharacteristically pleasant and neighborly demeanor… ‘the man’ is after me. Because I chose to share my journey with the public, and divulged such things as the (extra four) loads of mulch I had to scramble to deal with, once Pasco County deemed my yard their new favorite dumping ground. Because I like to experiment with designs, such as combining my freestanding water colle
ction and hopefully graceful, artistic structure with a Warka, now used in Ethiopia for village water collection, miles from other potable water sources. Because I like to share my findings with other like-minded people in the community. Because my yard(s) do not look like cookie-cutter manicured, chemical-laden, water-sucking, bee-hating landscapes—I get to take my time to pay a visit to the County courthouse, to apply in retrospect for permits for dirt which has been used, and for structures and cultivation which no one has complained about. Yes, this is a rant, because I chose to invite the public in, thinking that if only they knew what I was about, that the whole idea is about helping people (People Care), and saving the planet (Earth Care), that ‘they’ could not possibly choose to stop me, and even if they did try, they would not succeed. So much for thinking.
As was said at the convergence—in my intro to the keynote speaker panel, I compared this group of permies–not as ditch-diggers, ‘in the trenches’–but as a swale, the event on the whole was very swale-like, an appropriate application of a design technology for the purpose of slowing down, absorbing, and creating an absorbent layer of material, which all of us have access to. The panel participants have been at it here, in this state, for anywhere from one to ten years, and there are those not present who have been at it twice as long. One might think we’d have re-charged the aquifers by now, but there are forces, still, running contrary to our ‘Mother Nature’. The greatest of these forces is not, as one might think, “The Man”, but is ignorance. It is the sheer weight of mis-information fed to the masses every day, the tick-tock sleepytime lull of our society’s metronome and mantras: “get a job”, “pay the bills”, “sit still”, “mind your manners, ”be good, Johnny”…”clean your plate”. Nobody warned us (ok, a few did), that our plates were heaped with poison.
It should come as no great surprise to those who know me that I have taken on the task of undermining such acceptance of “ignorance is bliss, ‘Tis folly to be wise”, when said folly leads us to…well, pretty much where we are, on this planet. I’ve pretty much had it, in fact—for one who does not believe in terminology or strategies of war, this uphill battle has become, for me, much as I remember the battlefield of Gettysburg—over a century later, the stink and despair hang over the place like a dark cloud of carrion birds. So, my mentor Dave Jacke says: “…instead of focusing only on the size of our footprint, we need to increase our handprint” [paraphrased]. I will not share my evil visualizations of how one might just go about increasing ones’ handprint, flapping and jazz hands notwithstanding. It is encouraging to know, to be in the company of others who know, that the future lies, not in the hands of those who have already done so much damage, but in our own hands. The simple act of being in the presence of, granted, a very small percentage of the population, but one which is growing daily—less than half of our 200 or so attendees this year were also part of the 200 last year—is an indication of the hidden masses underlying this great, green iceberg. Or, perhaps a tree is an even better metaphor, as our glaciers are melting, because over half of the body of trees and many other plants, is below the ground. Like mycelium, the invisible structures we are forming through these convergences are creating a tightly woven web of inter-connection. “The basic idea, and evidence from our experience…is that as people feel more connected and aligned, the thought of collective action becomes that much more inviting and its potential impact that much greater and longer lasting.” The more people I meet and converse with from these connections, the more I hear how good it is to have someone to talk to who “gets it”. These connections are now forming on a very basic, root level—deep, shallow, or broadscale. As we continue to grow, as a community, and as each of us individually takes a look at our own inner landscapes, and whether that design serves us—the entire ecosystem will mature, revealing the natural, inherent design. Eventually, the hope and design is that this polyculture will eventually sort itself into guilds—true, needs-and-yields based design, where the overall stress to each component – what Dave calls ‘resource partitioning’, in which cooperation is essential, and competition minimized.
In people systems, this requires a high level of self-actualization from the individual components—again, the requirement here is that each person does, has done, and continues on a regular basis to do the work on his or her own inner landscape. Unless we understand what our own needs really are, we can’t hope to become enmeshed in a highly developed system based on needs and yields. This process cannot happen, outside of a community, which is what is at the core of the current PDC certificate debate—many feel that “permaculture is a design science”, therefore can be taught virtually. I believe that the environment of the digital age is very efficient for delivering the bulk of the informational goods, and it completely ignores the majority of what makes this study a ‘culture’, and not a ‘science’ alone. Culture does not occur in a vacuum, and we cannot effectively teach or learn the components of social permaculture unless we spend time in a group with other people (uncomfortable though that may be, at times!). So…when would now be a good time to get out there and learn some, hands on, with some other like-minded people?
© Loretta Buckner, 2014, We Grow From Here
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Loretta Buckner and WeGrowFromHere.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Resources:
Thomas Gray “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”
Why Networks for Social Change? “Thinking in terms of networks can enable us see with new eyes.”
– Harold Jarche
2nd Annual Florida Permaculture Convergence
Creatively Use and Respond to Change
Category Permaculture Principles
‘Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be’
This is the last post in this series, and if you have read them all you, too, may have seen the progression in my vision, because I have indeed grown over the course of this endeavor—both as a writer and a permaculture designer. And that is the essence of this last principle: you don’t know what you don’t know, until you find out. Design science is all about vision—all about taking what ‘is’ and creating something else, first in your mind, then in reality.
I can tell you from experience—the reality isn’t always what you pictured, often it is very different, which is why adaptability is so important. If you set out, as a designer, with the goal of ‘just so’, you will fail—because nature doesn’t work that way, and none of us can predict all possible outcomes. Our job is to go slow and adjust the design as new factors present. In Essence of Permaculture, Holmgren states:
“The adoption of successful innovation in communities often follows a pattern similar to ecological succession in nature. Visionary and obsessive individuals often pioneer the solutions, but it generally requires more influential and established leaders to take up the innovation before it is widely seen as appropriate and desirable. Generational change is sometimes necessary for radical ideas to be adopted but this can be accelerated through the influence of school education on the home environment.”
As a second-generation organic farmer, I believe that what we are seeing is just that generational change—really no more than a re-adoption of prior practices, but as a country, the ‘wingnuts’ of our parents’ generation are now the elders of ours, and these are the ones—the baby boomers, who can easily cause a shift to happen, if they choose to be so inspired. It happens through patience, perseverance, and passion—which means education, and commitment. We can plant all the trees and feed all the people, and just as “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,” until the changes in thinking happen on a broad scale, the system will continue to collapse—over, and over again. Which is what we have been seeing, in the past 50 years, perhaps more—those in power sway the masses with propaganda, or simply distract them with some kind of conflict elsewhere. This pattern has repeated itself again and again throughout history–the whacked-out visionaries lead the charge, and whether or not their intentions are good, the design is not, therefore the system falls into conflict and chaos again. Complacency is the bane of change, and the lifeblood of corruption.
Permaculture teaches us that chaos isn’t all that bad—from chaos comes order—it is part of the pattern, it’s just not a very comfortable place to be. It is, however, a very creative place to be—after all, how many tidy artists do you know? OK, maybe a few—but it’s usually that they are partnered with a neat freak. Creation is messy, whatever art form it takes. So, why not embrace a little chaos once in a while?
May I inquire after your precuneous? How dare I, you say? This part of the brain, finely tuned by such creative activities as, dare I say–writing–fires up in ‘creative cognition’, and in some folks, it does not shut down… ever heard ‘there is a fine line between genius and insanity’? That could very well be the pernicious precuneous:
“For most people, this area of the brain only lights up at restful times when one is not focusing on work or even daily tasks. For writers and creatives, however, it seems to be constantly activated. Fink’s hypothesis is that the most creative people are continually making associations between the external world and their internal experiences and memories. They cannot focus on one thing quite like the average person. Essentially, their stream of ideas is always running — the tap does not shut off — and, as a result, creative people show schizophrenic, borderline manic-depressive tendencies. Really, that’s no hyperbole. Fink found that this inability to suppress the precuneus is seen most dominantly in two types of people: creatives and psychosis patients.” Cody Delisraty in Human Parts (The Depressing Downside of Creative Genius)
Tell that to these guys:
Alex Grey TEDx talk: “Cosmic Creativity: how art evolves consciousness” |
Yes, if you must ask, I have been feeling a little ‘unhinged’ lately—It does not help that two of he kes on m keboard quie suddenl and with no good reason sopped working, and he are wo of he mos commonly-used letters—“t” and “y”. You would not believe what I had to go through to coax those just then, or the gyrations I must perform to fill in the blanks as I type. Not fun, no—not at all.
Thank you, Universe, for providing me with yet another opportunity to unleash my creativity in response to change.
Read the Series:
- Observe and Interact
- Catch and Store Energy
- Obtain a Yield
- Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback
- Use and value renewable resources and services
- Produce no waste
- Design from patterns to details
- Integrate rather than segregate
- Use small and slow solutions
- Use and value diversity
- Use edges and value the marginal
- Creatively use and respond to change
© Loretta Buckner, 2014, We Grow From Here
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Loretta Buckner and WeGrowFromHere.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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