Resilience: Suburban Permaculture Homesteading 2/3
Urban homesteading is probably one of the most important topics in resilience. When urban homesteaders apply permaculture principles, the results are spectacular. Let's follow Rob and Michelle Avis, who have transformed their suburban Calgary, Alberta property into a resilient paradise. We're following three brief videos over the weekend, one each day. (Part 1 was 13 mins, Part 2 today is 10 mins, and Part 3 tomorrow is 11 mins.) And learn stuff together, eh! :=) More below.
I've been so focused on learning about rural living that I sorely need to learn more about urban resiliency. Let's check out the Avis' Permaculture Homestead clip 2/3
Here's clip 1/3
Here's the link to Part 1. I recommend reading the comments - lots of cool stuff by resilient c99ers :=)
http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-suburban-permaculture-home...
I so look forward to your comments: I always learn so much from you.
Peace be with us, if we learn urban homesteading together,
gerrit
Comments
For some reason, they creep me out.
I have no problem with their solutions to zero footprint. I aspire. I just heard him talking plant theft from a wetland. I have done the same but feel guilt. Master of their Universe.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
well. you always have to filter thru
what others have done to figure out what might be useful for you. I haven't watched this installment, am busy gardening this weekend! My question is more or less, how productive food-wise is this really? A small lot CAN produce a lot of food...I am over 60 now, and this type of exercise is not new, maybe just seems new now to people with new jargon but these experiments go way, way back.
It is a lot of fun to think about. I have a large garden, I guess over 2,000 square feet. It's out of production now as during my long illness it got overrun with weeds--we are treating the bindweed now with cover crops and tilling, hope by next year I can grow veggies there again. Anyway, I used to do calculations of how much garden I would need to grow ALL of our food, and it would need to be doubled, at least. And we still wouldn't be "self sufficient" in that we'd need inputs like my hay mulch. So self sufficiency is not my goal, better nutrition is.
Morning sillia, agreed across the board, my friend, with all
your points. Yes, I myself have abandoned the goal of "self-sufficiency." The best we can do is make ourselves and our families and local communities more resilient. Raising the nutritional value of your large plot is a prefect resilience goal.
BTW, I do have good news for those of us who are crossing over that health border from the state of "ouch, that hurts when I do it now" to the state of "yikes, I can't think about trying that now." Here in Ontario, our high schools require students to do 40 hours of community work in order to graduate. A talk with the principal should add an older urban gardener to the list of eligible community works. Also, our local French school now has an environmental stream. My son took environmentally-oriented courses and the kids work in the school's greenhouse. Those kids could also get some form of credit for helping seniors with urban gardening.
Enjoy your day, my friend,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Morning, riverlover, I travelled most of yesterday and couldn't
reply. Sure enough, just take from it what works for you. Or just skip it :=) Life too short, my friend, no worries. Besides, you know most of what they know anyway. I always enjoy and appreciate all your comments. Enjoy your day, my friend,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
This video is inspiring.
I think my projects have to be smaller and less ambitious to begin with. My first step is to find links and resources, read and figure things out then take on some small projects.
Effective composting and mulching is at the top of my list this summer. Building and enriching soil is part of that project. I will be concentrating on my blackberries, grapes, etc. to experiments with and will see what happens.
Thanks Gerrit as always...cool stuff.
Here are a few links I've come across. I'm not sure they are the best but hopefully those who know the best ones can inform us.
http://permaculturenews.org/
http://www.permaculture.org/new-to-permaculture/
Morning, rand, I hope your day is going great. I'm so glad the
videos are helpful, mate. And I agree so much with your approach: take it easy, start with small projects. Then we learn from them and we try something new. And we take on only the things that make sense in our situation.
Ty for the links. The pm news site looks great. It is an extension project of Aussie Geoff Lawton, one of the premier global pm teachers. I hope to introduce c99 folks to Geoff Lawton over time. He has done some incredible things from all the old wisdom that we urban moderns have forgotten. I don't know the New Mexico site, but he talks "right" and has links to another Aussie, Bill Mollison, the first pm guru. We could get loads of inspiration from both those sites.
Have a great day, mate,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Thanks for your input Gerrit
I appreciate that.
Here in South-central Texas we're anticipating rain for the week. My plants should be happy as long as we don't overdo it. The temperature is about 70ish. It's very green and looks a bit tropical. The prickly pear, oleander, and pomegranates are in bloom. Some of the veggies have already done their thing and we are in the middle of harvesting the first things to bear. The radishes have already done their thing and have been consumed.
All in all it's a good sunday and the plants are looking very pretty. Hope you and yours are having a good sunday up there in Canada as well.