Permaculture Design on the Edge – Patterns of Coastal Settlement and Regeneration
Aquaculture, Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Global Warming/Climate Change, Land, Regional Water Cycle, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Storm Water, Waste Water, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Jason Gerhardt November 27, 2012
The author scopes out an oyster reef in Pamlico Sound, NC
Photo Credit: Jason Gerhardt
Being a resident of the dryland Western US, I should probably be thinking more about wildfire and drought than storm surge and coastal erosion, but for some reason, I’ve been drawn to the shoreline recently. As I have yet to come across any significant permaculture analysis or design strategy for barrier islands and associated coasts, most of this discussion is drawn from applying permaculture design thinking to other research. My hope is that this article will inspire others to develop and contribute more specific permaculture content for such important ecosystems and communities.
As large hurricanes continually batter the Eastern coast of the United States, causing catastrophic damage and human suffering, it is time to think about how permaculture design applies to human communities in such environments. From 100-year floods to wildland fire to coastal superstorms, modern infrastructure is proving to be insufficiently designed to deal with such destructive forces of nature. As permaculture designers, we attempt to work with nature, harmonizing what we design with natural forces, while using those forces as a resource, patterning after them, pacifying them, or deflecting them.
The inherent nature of barrier islands and associated coastline is one of rapid and constant change — literally a foundation of shifting sands. Constant disturbance is perhaps the antithesis of permaculture (permanent-culture), so the question must be asked: how does permaculture apply in a place like this? Do we attempt to create greater stability or do we work with the changing nature of the place? Or, do we suggest that people shouldn’t be living in such places at all?
Comments (4)The MEGGA-Watt Project Moves Forward
Aquaculture, Building, Demonstration Sites, Energy Systems, Fish, Land, Retrofitting, Urban Projects, Waste Systems & Recycling, Water Harvesting — by Rene Michalak November 6, 2012
The "MEGGA-watt" Project (Micro-Energy Generating Garage Assembly) is a demonstration / prototype to turn everyday detached garages from simple storage units (aka ‘car-holes’) into food-growing and energy-generating systems using permaculture design.
The basic concept is to partner a garage with an attached greenhouse and renewable energy to create sustainable 4-season growing systems with minimal fossil fuel input that serves both practical and recreational purposes.
Owners of a MEGGA can then customize how they want the system to function — what they want to grow and how they want to grow it.
Comments (1)Reflections on Dryland Water Management in Portugal
Aquaculture, Compost, Conservation, Dams, Demonstration Sites, Fungi, Irrigation, Land, Material, Potable Water, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Structure, Surveying, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water, Water Harvesting — by Richard Perkins September 15, 2012
A reflection following a great time finding solutions for dryland water management in Portugal
I’m enjoying working on a job connecting up extensive irrigation in the mountains of Extremadura, Spain, and relaxing for a couple of days after a successful and effective Dryland Water Management intensive at the budding Permaculture Institute, Vale De Lama, near Lagos in the South of Portugal.
This week we have been looking at all aspects of water design, focusing mostly on this varied site where all manner of interventions are necessary to halt the onslaught of the desertification process and regenerate the diverse mixed polycultures and rich soils that had a biological diversity comparative to more tropical regions at one time.
Something that is clear after working so intensively with integrative and regenerative systems design around the globe in different climate zones is that most places I turn up at have been degraded heavily and the localized cultural approach and ecological understanding is often limited by familiarization with the current conditions and often destructive agricultural practices.
Comments (7)‘Quaquaponics’ – How to set up Aquaponics with Ducks!
Aquaculture, Biological Cleaning, Bird Life, Food Plants - Annual, Irrigation, Livestock, Plant Systems, Urban Projects, Waste Systems & Recycling, Working Animals — by Charlie Jones August 22, 2012
You don’t need to eat fish to set up a backyard aquaponics system! Ducks are a great alternative and produce a huge amount of nutrient for growing veggies (not to mention providing eggs, meat and snail and slug control!) and they’re generally good friends to have around. At the Farm of Fluff, Chris and James set up this ‘quaquaponics’ system with a few bits and pieces we’d collected from the side of the road — and so far it’s doing brilliantly! You need a strong pump and good filtration to cope with the large particles coming through though! (We found a whole tomato blocking the drain one day, so check and clean regularly!)
Comments (7)Growing Fish and Soil on Pool Algae
Animal Forage, Aquaculture, Compost, Natural Swimming, Plant Systems, Urban Projects — by Ecofilms December 7, 2011
Here is Geoff Lawton explaining how this particular swimming pool is growing fish and soil on algae. This is a clip from the recently released Urban Permaculture DVD, which has over 90 minutes of sustainable solutions you can try at home.
Comments (0)Urban Pool-to-Pond Conversion – Two-Year Progress Report
Aquaculture, Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Fish, Irrigation, Natural Swimming, Plant Systems, Urban Projects, Water Harvesting — by Stephanie Ladwig-Cooper October 28, 2011
We’re writing on-going articles about the many aspects of this urban permaculture project in a Mediterranean climate, here in California, now two years underway. Today’s article: pool-to-pond conversion — complete!
My husband and I have been actively working on an urban 2/3 acre permaculture project for two years this month. We began the design and subsequent installation at a residence in October of 2009 and it continues in multiple phases today. As we complete the swimming pool to aquaculture pond conversion, and reflect upon our progress thus far, we would like to share our experiences — the trials, corrections and successes made along the way and to basically let more people know about this Mediterranean climate permaculture project.
Comments (10)Small Dam/Fish Pond Installation – October 2011 Earthworks Course with Geoff Lawton
Aquaculture, Conservation, Dams, Irrigation, Land, Natural Swimming, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 26, 2011
In this short video Geoff walks us through an overview of a small dam/fish pond installation at the PRI’s Zaytuna Farm in northern NSW, Australia. If you’d like to get a better understanding of the why and how of permaculture earthworks, you could purchase the Water Harvesting DVD, or, better yet, book on one of our upcoming Earthworks courses, listed in our Courses section. Small dams like this, appropriately situated and intelligently designed, can both drought-proof and flood-protect your property, whilst creating a foundational hydrological infrastructure from which can spring an abundance of biodiversity to create a foundation of resilient self-sufficiency.
For good measure I’ll throw in a few pictures that Nadia has just sent me of permaculture abundance at Zaytuna Farm. Earthworks like that shown in the footage above ensures food harvesting like this can continue at Zaytuna Farm even in the driest years, when neighbouring properties are shriveled and barren….
Comments (7)A Look at Hawaiian Aquaculture – and How You Can Learn More About It at the Keawanui Fish Pond, Molokai
Aquaculture, Courses/Workshops, Fish, Land — by Nichole Ross October 6, 2011
It was a typical October day on Molokai — 82 degrees, sunny and breezy. I had just arrived at my favorite tiny airport on a nine-passenger Cessna turbo prop-plane from Honolulu. I came from the Big Island to help my Permaculture Research Institute (PRI) USA colleagues facilitate a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) already in progress. The PDC was part of a four-course series we were doing to train a local group made up of key players working to promote sustainability on the Island.
When my ride told me that the class would be starting the day at the Keawanui fish pond, I was both excited and nervous. Much like the time I had gotten an All-Access V.I.P. Guest Pass to the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, I would soon be in the presence of celebrities I admired. I was not only about to meet the Rittes, but they were students in our PDC.
Comments (0)Permaculture in Nyumbani Village, the Birth of PRI Kenya, and a New Course With Warren Brush
Aid Projects, Aquaculture, Biological Cleaning, Community Projects, Conservation, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Irrigation, Land, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Nicholas Syano August 9, 2011
Nyumbani Village, which is a program of the Children of God Relief Institute (COGRI) caring for both HIV infected and affected children, aims to establish a self-sustaining, community-based residential village serving children orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS. This is being achieved through providing a family like settling where the orphans are under stewardship of destitute elderly grandparents in a family like structure and are provided with adequate social support, high quality clinical nursing and counseling, and both educational support and vocational training.
Comments (5)Sea Water Farming
Aquaculture, Community Projects, Fish, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Plant Systems — by Oyvind Holmstad March 30, 2011
The two videos below are much about scaling up mangrove systems for sustainable sea water farming, done in a true permaculture spirit from which both people and nature benefit. Sadly this is in stark contrast to industrial aquaculture, where they throw cheap energy on unsustainable systems to maximize profit.
Today mangroves are disappearing fast. Thirty-five percent of mangrove ecosystems disappeared between 1980 and 2000, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Shrimp farms have been a primary cause of mangrove loss, as well as urbanization and agriculture. This is why the message from The Seawater Foundation is of such an importance, as they show how to change and provide hope for the future.
Greening Eritrea — Part 1
Permaculture in Public Spaces
Alternatives to Political Systems, Aquaculture, Biological Cleaning, Community Projects, Conservation, Courses/Workshops, Land, People Systems, Village Development — by Lindsay Dailey March 19, 2011
Lake County, California, is a rural area on the edge of the San Francisco Bay Area. Though it’s surrounded by extremely wealthy areas, Lake County is unique; it is one of the least densely populated counties in the state of California, with one of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment. The agricultural industries that once thrived in the area are mostly gone, and most people struggle to earn a livelihood.
Leave it to the permaculturalists to find opportunity in this seemingly barren edge! And there is indeed permaculture activity on the rise, in the most unlikely of places… the county government.
Comments (1)Chinese Salt Water Fish Ponds
Aquaculture, Fish, Land — by Geoff Lawton March 7, 2011
Like the Hawaiian salt water fish ponds, there are some traditional Chinese salt water fish ponds that work very well. Many of these have been modernised into fishing and angling ponds to capitalise on the urban population, but when you look into the traditional systems there are some very interesting variations.
Comments (7)Ecofilms 2011 – What Are We Working On?
Animal Forage, Animal Housing, Animal Processing, Aquaculture, Bird Life, Breeds, Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books, Developments, Fish, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Livestock, Plant Systems, Presentations/Demonstrations, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Ecofilms January 2, 2011
We’re planning a number of exciting new titles to be released in 2011.
Urban Permaculture DVD
One of the complaints we often get from people living in the city is that we focus a little heavily on Permaculture titles that require a large scale farm to get the most benefit from practicing Permaculture.
So we are happy to announce that in 2011 we will be working on the Urban Permaculture DVD with Geoff Lawton.
Actually, we really started shooting a lot of footage already that we were going to include in the Permaculture Soils DVD that we completed, but for various logistic reasons we found the segments would work best in a video that focuses in detail on adopting Permaculture techniques in small scale domestic environments instead.
From courtyards to backyards to places where you thought you could never do anything with, we want to make this DVD a Permaculture techniques DVD where people can be inspired by what is really possible.
Here’s an example of the kind of thing we mean. It’s a sneak preview of Geoff Lawton visiting a beautiful Mandala garden in an urban permaculture garden. It shows permaculture can be aesthetically pleasing to the eye with a richness of patterns as well as a productive food source:
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City Kids Move to the Country – Part III
Animal Housing, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Demonstration Sites, Insects, Land — by Nicola Chatham December 25, 2010
Pit-falls, projects and laughs from our Permaculture journey
When Chris and I first got together, he used to wake up to his socks, t-shirts and towels carefully draped over his DJ equipment, where I’d laid them during the night to cover any glowing or flashing lights. A somewhat sensitive sleeper, trying to sleep in a discotech wasn’t my idea of a restful night’s sleep. So when we mention we’ve built a frog pond outside our bedroom window, more savvy and experienced Permaculturists respond with anything from a raised eyebrow to declaring we’re ‘very game.’ A polite way of saying ‘you guys have no idea what you’re doing, do you?’
Comments (5)Constructing a Fishpond Dam
Aquaculture, Biological Cleaning, Dams, Fish, Land, Natural Swimming, Plant Systems, Water Harvesting — by Geoff Lawton November 26, 2010
The spillway that sets the height of the water and allows for passive
discharge of surplus water during large rainfall events
We can build a dam to serve specifically as a fish pond and which can be designed to be more productive for aquaculture systems generally, compared with stocking an existing farm dam with fish. As most of the production occurs in the upper levels of water, a depth of under 2 metres allows you to feed and harvest the fish easily and bring them to a desirable size as quickly as possible. Using an example of the chicken tractor, infrastructure design can also be applied to fish to create a more intensive system where resources such as the animals’ manure are cycled and productivity is increased whilst benefiting the surrounding systems. The ideal style of dam for the purpose of fish production is the contour dam, which is dug into the side of a shallow sloping hill (on a reasonable flat landscape) with a dam wall of a semi-circular curve or a semi-square shape. The profile of the dam floor can be easily constructed so that it is flat, and the inner walls and back-cut of the dam can be reasonably steep, maximising the volume and minimising the challenges of harvest, whilst maintaining a consistent temperature.
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