Savvy Vegetarian Blog

Permaculture, A Designers Manual, by Bill Mollison, who is THE Permaculture Guy: My daughter Zoë visited briefly this week, and was on fire about this book that cost her the weeks food budget. I pointed out to Zoë that it's a 10 lb, 2 inch TEXTBOOK - she just nodded and smiled happily. That's how far gone she is on the permaculture trip.

Don't get me wrong, permaculture is very important, but Zoë being Zoë, she seriously expects me to jump right on board, take over the neighbor's yards, and start constructing swales, a pond and an elaborate rainwater collection system - immediately without fail. When I remind her that I am only one non-robust 59 year old maxed-out woman, farming a 400 square foot garden without a big strong man available, she just looks severely disappointed in me. So I had to promise to set up a rain barrel, at least.

Zoë left the 10 lb book right beside my computer and pointed out the parts I should read. Zoë then left for a few days, but she'll be back! I know she'll interrogate me when she returns on Monday, so I bowed to the inevitable, and lugged Permaculture to bed with me. Before I passed out, I read part of Chapter 8: Soils. It was great!

I don't know if you feel the same way I do about soil, otherwise known as dirt, but I'd guess my DNA is 50% farmer. It makes me happy to think of worm populations growing, and building the soil in my garden while I sleep. Non-gardeners think I'm not quite right in the head.

If you are in the love-dirt camp, you'll enjoy the following quotes about soil taken from Bill's Permaculture Manual. If you're not a dirt-lover, give me a chance to convert you - Zoë would approve!

"...despite all our knowledge, in spite of soil services and soil analysis, and despite the best attempts of people to care for land, we are losing topsoil at an ever-increasing rate. Australia, where I live and write, has perhaps 30% of its original soils in fair condition. The rest are washed or blown away, or sadly depleted in structure and yield; this is true of most countries of the world where extractive agriculture and forestry occurs..."

"The only places where soils are conserved or increased are:

• In uncut forests
• In prairies and meadows of permanent plants
• Where we grow plants with mulched or non-tillage systems"

"These then are the core subjects of sustainable societies of any conceivable future."

"...very few, if any, modern agricultural systems do not carry the seeds of our own destruction. These systems are those that receive public financial support, yet they destroy the countryside in a multitude of ways, from clearing the land of forest, hedgerow, and animal species to long-term soil degradation and poisoning. We are thus obliged ... to pay for the destruction of our world, regardless of the long-term costs to be borne by our chldren and our societies"

"...A reduction of the ecological deserts that we have called agriculture is well overdue, as is a concomitant reduction in the twin disasters of newspapers and packaging derived from ancient forests."

The moral of the story is, we must all work hard to curb our impulses to dig the dirt. Only worms and other subterranean life-forms are allowed to dig the dirt. Naked dirt is bad - put some clothes on it; organic natural fibers - grass clippings, leaves, weeds, green manure, compost, manure etc. No synthetics please.

Well, that's enough dirt for today. I'll be back tomorrow to talk about Bill The Permaculture Guy's views on 'pyramids, food webs, growth and vegetarianism'- with which I strongly disagree.