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#permaculture
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In order to reach 350 ppm—the level we were at in 1988—we’d need to remove 500 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. To hit the pre-industrial mark of 280 ppm, 900 billion tons. If we were to use plants to accomplish this, we would need them to add 138 billion tons and 249 billion tons of biomass, respectively. This is roughly the equivalent to 1.3 and 2.5 Amazon rainforests, respectively, if we count both above and below ground biomass. So, what can we do with all that carbon? As the Amazon analogy implies, growing more forests would do the trick. In the last 10,000 years, the Earth has lost 7.7 million square miles of forest, equal to 2.85 Amazons. So we can exceed our target for atmospheric CO2 removal by returning to the 57% forest coverage of Earth’s habitable surface that we had at the end of the last Ice Age. That was the climate that allowed for the vast expansion of humanity, so that approach holds a lot of appeal. Additionally, the Amazon analogy demonstrates that vast reforested areas can support human civilization beyond simply sucking down CO2. The Amazon itself is a vast food forest filled with edible species that were planted 4,500 years ago by its human occupants, who built a thriving civilization based on the readily available food surrounding them. A contemporary global reforestation initiative should also focus on edible species, thus serving the dual purpose of creating an abundant perennial food source and sequestering CO2. A mature food forest can yield at least 2,100,000 calories per acre with minimal inputs, enough to feed two adults. A stable climate PLUS more free food than all of humanity could possibly eat sounds pretty good. It goes without saying that climate change is not the only ecological catastrophe facing humanity. We have crossed six of nine planetary boundaries, any one of which could spell our doom. A globe-spanning food forest would help address those looming disasters, such as biodiversity loss and biogeochemical flows, as well. But there are challenges to the forestry approach. Environmental conditions have degraded immensely in the last 100 years, and it's possible that not all previously forested areas would now support trees. Some estimates put the possibility of reforestation at half of the 7.7 million square miles lost and argue it would take thousands of years to accomplish. I have doubts about these estimates, but it's important to be cautious. Additionally, the principle of redundancy is crucial in permaculture, and it's not hard to see how it applies here: we would not want to put all our eggs in one basket with the future of life on Earth at stake. So how can we move faster while diversifying our risk?
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I think it's so adorable that early humans took wild gourds - a tiny fruit that hollows out as it dries, making it float - and decided to make something out of it
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they thought the tiny fruit was so good that they bred it for thousands of years, making it larger to form into bowls and cups, and different shapes to become bottles and spoons
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and musical instruments
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And then, people took the hollow gourds they farmed, and they turned them into houses for birds. We adapted them into the perfect houses for birds, and now there are specific breeds of birdhouse gourd just for making into birdhouses
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And humans dedicated gardening space and time and thousands of years of breeding to make the gourds so absolutely perfect for birds, that there is a species of bird that lives almost exclusively in them
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headspace-hotel · 1 month
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LOOKlooklooklooklook LOG GARDEN BEDS!!!!
Rotting logs hold moisture like a sponge so it would keep the conditions moist for your plants, It would provide fertilizer to them and ideal conditions for symbiotic fungus, it creates the perfect habitat for useful beneficial creatures, and it could be used on an eroded area to make a barrier against erosion.
If a tree ever falls down in a storm or has to be cut down for whatever reason this is an excellent idea to consider. You could even raise the log off the ground to allow for trailing vines or place things underneath
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divine-nonchalance · 10 months
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Making Desert Land Fertile with Water Bunds
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thesolarpunkworkshop · 5 months
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Built a greenhouse out of reclaimed windows and scrap wood, took me an embaresing amount of time but it looks good now.
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convexcave · 9 months
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ok so instead of going on my usual the earth is doomed spiral I started looking into solar punk solutions and stumbled across the practice of permaculture & found a free 50 video series from the university of oregon on it if anyone else would like to learn abt ways we can actually start restoring earths whole deal
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balkanradfem · 3 months
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Anti capitalistic methods of self reliance!
Everyday items:
Plastic bags can be replaced by cloth bags you can sew, without any prior knowledge of sewing, from any old shirt you were going to throw away
Toilet paper can partly or completely be replaced by 'Family cloth', which is a series of cloth napkins cut to the size you like, which are then washed after each use! There's no risk of disease if only used for number one, for number two they need to be submerged into peroxide liquid in order to be safely cleaned. Even if you only use them for number one to stay safe, being reusable and costing nothing they will save you a lot in not having to buy toilet paper
Paper towels can be replaced by little cut-out cloths you can easily wash after use, or a simple kitchen and bathroom cloth for cleaning
Paper tissues have originally been handkerchiefs, washable and reusable, zero waste option (and they can be very pretty too!)
Laundry detergent can be replaced by horse chestnuts, or conkers! If cut open and submerged in water, they will produce soapy water, which is equally good at cleaning as your laundry detergent, completely environmentally friendly and free if you foraged the chestnuts. They can be collected and dried to use for the entire year, and you can tie them up in a sock to put in your washing machine.
Cleaning products can be replaced by vinegar, and if you hate the smell you can change it by infusing citrus peels in it! It will smell like oranges and lemons after you leave them in there for a few weeks
Cleaning products can also be self-made, by fermenting food scraps, it's called 'enzyme cleaner' and it can clean most of things in a completely environmentally friendly way!
Shampoo can be self-made, or replaced with options like herbal teas, which will also ensure that your hair no longer gets greasy, as grease is the result of using shampoo
Menstrual pads can be sown from any discarded pieces of cloth, they only need to be submerged in cold water after use in order for blood to wash out. Additionally you can make washable menstrual panties, which make sure your pads don't move in there!
Simple medicine for aches like stomach cramps, headaches, anxiety, sore throat can be found in the basic knowledge of herbalism, and simply making teas from herbs that soothe these issues. They will not be able to cure a heavy disease, but are able to provide momentary relief from annoying aches!
Immunity booster syrup can be made out of elderberries, if you're careful about not getting any seeds or stems in!
if you're growing food, you can grow your own dish sponges, and washing sponges, the plant is called 'Loofah' and you can grow a whole lot in one season then use them for years
Reuse plastic items for as long as you can, to lessen the amount being thrown into landfills, and if you need new items, aim to get a not-plastic one
If you have lots of paper trash or newspapers, you can learn to make baskets from it.
Instead of throwing away food scraps, you can try setting up a simple composting bin and also get some valuable free soil, that is great for growing little plants and herbs in it
If you're composting on a big scale, the heat compost produces can be used to heat a room
getting into hobbies like soap making, pottery, woodcarving, sewing, knitting  or weaving can also save you a lot of purchasing because you realize you can simply make that thing yourself, and in better quality than it would be available at the store
Saving water and energy:
Accumulating water in a big pot while you're washing dishes, then using that water to water your houseplants is safe, especially if you're not using a lot of detergent, and it saves a lot of water
To save energy when cooking in a pot in the stove, wait until your pot starts boiling, then take it off the stove, and wrap it in a cloth, then a towel, then a blanket, and leave it wrapped up. The layers of cloth are making it difficult for the heat to escape the pot, ensuring it will keep very high temperature for half an hour, cooking as if it was on the stove. If it needs to cook longer, you can just put in on the stove for a minute to get it back to boil. You can cook pasta, rice, beans, potatoes, soups, stews, risotto, pretty much anything with long cooking time like this.
If your water boiler is big, you don't need to leave it on at all times, I've reduced my electricity bills by a lot by turning it on only when I intend to use the hot water. In the summer, if you have access to a natural body of water, use that for washing!
If you own a property, watch where the water is naturally going and accumulating; you can collec t this water and set up a system to use it for gardening/any outdoor use
if you're building a structure, making sure that the sun hits the windows in the winter, and that the place is protected from the wind by growing trees as a wind shield, will save loads of energy in heating and cooling it, as well as making sure the structure is well insulated
Heat/cool only the parts of the structure/house that you're using, making it both environmentally friendly and ensuring you don't have a too big temperature difference when you go outside, making you healthier
Try an experiment were you go a day without electricity and see what you can use as alternative in this situation; it's okay if you fail, it will provide you with knowledge of how dependant you are on the energy, and the ideas of what you can possibly do when without!
Clothing:
If sewing clothing from scratch is something that appeals to you, that is ideal for self-reliance! It is likely that after just a bit of practice, you'll be able to sew more quality items than are sold, because current fashion items are made to fall apart, and you can make your clothing strong and durable.
Sharing clothing you no longer want to wear, and letting others know they can offer their unwanted pieces to you can provide you not only with practical clothing, but you can use all fabric, buttons, zippers and other materials to sew! You can, again with minimal practice and even by hand-sewing, make your own bags, tablecloths, placemats, pillows, blankets, decorations, hats and scarfs
Visible mending, embroidering, adding details or creating your own little alterations on clothing will not only provide a sense of accomplishment, but enrich your life in the way of skill development and being able to make and mend things with little resources
Learning about history of textiles and what fast fashion is doing to the environment provides appreciation and love for sewing and creating textiles, and could inspire you to try and see how it feels to do!
Any piece of clothing that is no longer fit to be remade into something new, can still be cut into pieces and used for cleaning, as a paper towel replacement, for wiping the floor or wiping your shoes, and if it's soft, for pillow filling!
For extra clothing or furniture, you can join online groups named 'buy nothing' and 'sharing is caring', where people will often gift extra clothes and furniture for free, sometime appliances and electronics too
Food:
If any outside space is available, learning to garden is an excellent investment in food security
Seeds can be harvested from plants you already have, gifted from neighbour or friend gardeners, and some can even be taken out of store-bought produce
Soil can be taken from the forest ground which has composted leaves as topsoil, dig under a tree for best results
If no outside space is availabe, dwarf plants, herbs, and greens can be grown in containers, clean your air while they also provide food
Learning to forage for wild edible plants will provide both entertainment and free food! Any wild plant you find is likely to be more rich in nutrients than a cultivated plant, making your diet well rounded and healthy
Learning to grow trees and care for them will provide free food not only for you, but for generations to come, as well as offset the damage from the climate change. Knowing how trees work and how to prune and nourish them is powerful knowledge.
Preserving food:
Ways of preserving your food long-term are curing (for onions, potatoes, garlic, pumpkins), canning (tomatoes, peppers, fruit), fermenting (cabbage, hot peppers, turnips), dehydrating and sun-drying (tomatoes, fruit, herbs, hot peppers, mushrooms)
Growing and collecting food during warm months and then saving them for winter was done by people for centuries and it provides a safe and reliable access to food all year round
Buying cheap produce when it's in-season and preserving it can save you a lot of money and bring you far in self-reliance
Making your own recipes and then getting to eat them later in the season bring a sense of accomplishment and pride, as well as providing a zero waste food option
Cooking food from scratch is made easier by having some of your food preserved, because a lot of the time you've already prepaired most of your ingredients, and only have to place them in the pot
If you already know to make your own bread, you can also try making your own yeast, by mixing flour and water, and letting it ferment while adding more flour and water every day. It can last forever.
If you're interested in knowing more about gardening, herbalism, tree care, and foraging, check the 'Homesteading Survival Knowledge' masterlist, filled with links on these specific topics!
These are not ideas that anyone should quickly or immediately integrate in their life; instead, trying whatever seems interesting and appealing, slowly learning about it and trying one thing at the time is more encouraging and sustainable! I myself have spent years learning and integrating these, enabling me to feel happy and confident doing any and all of this. If this is overwhelming, pick whatever feels appealing and do only that! Forget the rest until it feels easy and fun thing to try out.
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davidstortebeker · 1 year
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The Permaculture Spiral Garden - A Great Starting Point
There is probably no other structure as popular for illustrating Permaculture in practice as the Herb Spiral. Okay, I guess I could mention the lasagna sheetmulching method or also the cob oven that tends to be the first hands-on project at a typical Permie intro session. But when it comes to showing how landscape design, zones and sectors, stacking functions, and efficient use of space and water come together in one unique structure, the Spiral Garden is unbeatable.
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Turning Theory into Practice
In typical Permaculture Designer Certificate courses, but even in brief intro weekends to Permaculture, there tends to be a lot of theoretical discussions. Since the numerous design principles can be applied to any climatic region, from the tropical to the subarctic, and on any scale from the humongous to the tiny, the practical aspects of the ideas can easily get lost. That's where a good hands-on application comes, where the participants get to move around rocks and dirt, while realizing how much it ties in to the concepts they've just discussed. This way the apparent "main purpose" of "building something to grow all your kitchen herbs on", becomes a neat side feature.
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Adjust Your Landscape!
The first thing to realize that landscape is welcome to be modified and adjusted to bring out the best in it. Clearly, while it is important to work with what's there already, it doesn't hurt think about mounds and valleys. And before you bring out the excavators for your large-scale farm, it makes sense to start small… say on a circle of 2-5 meters (6-16 feet) diameter. In other words, the Spiral Garden is a hill with a spiral shaped surface, leading down to ground level, or further down into a water hole. It can be made out of rocks, bricks, concrete debris, or anything else you have lying around that can hold your soil.
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Design According to Your Scale
Looking around for existing Herb Spirals it's easy to get confused. Some are so big you can actually climb on them (that is, you have to in order to reach what's growing on top). Others are so tiny that you may not even want to step on them. The question is: which size is the right one for you? Since this is something you will have to decide almost daily in Permaculture, it doesn't hurt starting out with this important question.
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Organizing Your Spiral Garden
While there are seemingly endless types of Spiral Gardens, there are a few things they all have in common: They all start out with a region on the top, where water is bound to run off right away, leaving the soil relatively dry. This area is also the most exposed to the wind. Keep this in mind when choosing the plants that are going to live here. Ideally, the spiral should start sloping toward the East from here. Delicate plants that benefit greatly from the morning sun will appreciate this region. As the slope continues toward the South and West, it becomes more suitable for sun loving species. Finally, as the spiral reaches the ground level in the shady Northern part, it will be perfect for herbs that prefer less sun, more shade and more water, since the soil tends to be wetter here. (Note: This is for the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere North and South are reversed.) To make full use of the runoff water, many people add a small pond at the base of the spiral, where additional aquatic plants, such as watercress, can be grown.
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The given illustration offers a good number of herbs for a nicely diverse kitchen. Depending on what else you want in your Herb Spiral, you can add it in the most suitable region. Mint and lemon balm love the cooler, shady part with more water. Lemongrass is great in the sunny area, and tarragon and estragon prefer the dry top of the spiral. Of course, the idea is not limited to kitchen herbs. For maximalists, the same theory can work with a mountain you might want to terraform into a spiral farm. But right now I'd prefer to stay small scale.
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Plenty of Benefits (That's Why It's Permaculture)
As explained above, the main purpose of the Spiral Garden is not only to increase your gardening area by making use of the vertical, but also to create diverse climatic conditions, which do make a difference on the smallest scale. But as Permaculture tends to be, there are many other benefits to it. The structure itself offers great habitat for numerous animals, such as frogs, salamanders, lizards, but also pollinating insects, and of course others that may not directly benefit us, but by feeding on others they all add to the stability of our ecosystem. The structure itself will suppress weeds and make use of material that you're not likely to use elsewhere. Finally, depending on the size and location, it will be an ideal place to grow all your kitchen herbs right where you can access them most easily.
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Some Things to Keep in Mind
When building the structure, make sure it will contain the soil in a nice trough, slanting slightly inward. That way bits and pieces that fall off will roll towards the center, until contained by the main mound.
Make sure the slope is always nice and gradual, avoiding sudden drops where the water can rush down quickly, eroding the soil.
If you're going to walk on your spiral, include a separate walkway that won't compress good soil. Most importantly, it should be sturdy enough to provide stability and make access safe.
Don't forget that while the structure is important to keep the soil in place, it is the soil that you'll be growing plants in. So it should have a good depth of 20-50 cm (8-20 inches) throughout the entire spiral. This can be the trickiest part!
Apply your own observation to which plants do better in which parts of the spiral. Also, with time you will find many other plants growing in it that you didn't plant. Before removing them, consider how much they actually bother your herbs, and whether their benefits may not outweigh their drawbacks.
Go Out and Build Your Own!
I hope this brief overview got you inspired to go out and try building an Herb Spiral yourself! I would love to hear your experiences with it!
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4
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reportsofagrandfuture · 8 months
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solarpunks · 1 year
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How to turn your Neighborhood into a Village
Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison journeys to Portland, Oregon to talk with architect Mark Lakeman, founder of Communitecture Architecture and the City Repair Project. Mark initiated a movement in Portland to transform the homogenous neighborhoods of the city into places that have many of the qualities and characteristics that are found in some of the most treasured villages on Earth. Mark reveals the things you need to know to transform your own neighborhood into a village.
Previously on Solarpunks: Ideas & Inspiration For Better Cities: Sprawl Repair Retrosuburbia
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records-of-dirt · 2 months
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Create Your Own Soil Profile!
A garden’s soil is the base of all its growth, and knowing how to properly  interact with your soil can make all the difference!
Step 1 Site Observations
Take a few photos of your site (project area)
Note down:
what vegetation is there?
is it near water?
the slope
approximate exposure to sun
Step 2 Take a soil profile
Set out a tarp or a garbage bag
Dig a hole about 3 feet deep (you may want a friend’s help!)
Place that soil in piles onto the tarp, sorted into different soil layers
Remember horizons! (O, A, E, B, C, R(bedrock))
Make a sketch of a soil profile, and measure the depth of each horizon
The top of the profile should start with 0 cm
Refill the hole, and try to return each type of soil in order!
Step 3 Build your profile
Describe each layer of soil, moisture/structure/color/smell
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Use the “feel” method to take notes
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Step 4 Drainage
Dig a hole 1 foot deep and 1 foot wide(ish)
Fill the hole with water and measure how long it takes to fully drain
An ideal time is around 10 to 30 minutes!
Note down the time
Keep in mind that even if the soil type would suit desert-like plants more, think of the weather. If it rains a good deal the drainage can matter less(or more!)
Step 5 Biological Activity
Bury a pair of cotton underwear(I know it’s silly)
Wait about 60 days
Unearth the undies, the more tattered they are the more activity there is!
Step 6 pH Testing
OSU Lab for Oregon, and many states have soil testing labs
Soil pH Meter
DIY Test
Step 7 Hardiness Zone
This just takes looking at a map!
Hardiness zones can tell you about the weather’s highs & lows in a particular area
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USDA Plant Hardiness Map
And that 's it! It's a lot, and you don’t have to do everything. Each step can provide a better view of how to properly support your garden, and can be fun activities to do with friends and family!
I’ve included a template for a complete soil profile, but feel free to make them as fancy as y’all want!
Sincerely,
records of dirt
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thrivingisthegoal · 8 months
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Hey, hey, don't cry. Plants fruiting and flowering, okay? The earth is laughing and exhaling and taking up space, right?
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turtlesandfrogs · 1 year
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So, this is cool:
We need to convince more municipalities to plant more trees. I would suggest looking into trees that are more heat and drought tolerant (oaks, not western red cedar, for an example) & also those that grow more quickly. Planting on the west and south (or north, if you're in the Southern hemisphere) of a building matters the most for heat reduction.
If you want to get into it, I'd suggest finding your Köppen climate classification, and then finding either native trees that can thrive in a hotter-but-otherwise-similar climate than yours, or trees from such a climate. For example, I'm in a warm-summer Mediterranean climate so I'm looking at plants from Hot-summer Mediterranean climates that are hardy enough to still survive our winters (oaks, I'm looking at oaks. Fortunately, one species extends from here to down there, so that's easy).
I wouldn't usually advocate for non-native plants, but I'm seeing the climate change quickly enough that I think maybe humans should help with the pole-wards migration of plants.
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urbansoulfarmer · 1 year
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sidewalkchemistry · 5 months
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from the 'wholistic + abundant {lifestyle}' Pinterest board
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