Vildniseksperimenter

Jeg havde et par områder af haven, som har nydt godt af en vis lazzeiz faire holdning i år.

Skovjordbærrene overlevede fint, og jeg har plantet dem under mine ribs- og stikkelsbærbuske. Til næste år kan de så dække området under den grimme busk. 

Det ene er området omkring en nedklippet busk ved vores terasse. Jeg valgte at smide en pose blandede blomsterfrø, resten af en pose hvid hør og diverse blomsterrester fra frøposer og sidste års frøsamling. Det blev sådan ser ok, men lidt tyndbenet i det. Hvis jeg skal gøre det igen, vil jeg nok vælge at tilføje noget, der er lidt lavere og med større blade og kan dække jorden mere. Men jeg tror nu at jeg ender med at plante skovjordbær der også, når dem jeg har, har bredt sig godt.

Og så havde jeg en ordentlig stak græstørv fra jeg havde gravet ud til køkkenhave. Jeg formede en lille høj (med græstørvene omvendt, og lod jorden ligge brak. Så kan det ligge der og passe sig selv).

Jeg havde i tankerne, at det kunne være interessant at se, hvad der kom op, når jeg bare lod jorden være. Det var ret interessant. Der kom selvfølgelig en del tidsler. De er altid en pioner. Men der var faktisk overraskende mange af blomsterne fra min og naboens have, som også slog rod.
Til næste år, skal højen så i egentlig brug.

Tanker/Thoughts

This permacultuture-thing is beginning to get under my skin. I can't believe that I haven't taken this view on gardening and sustainability before.

The idea which is at the basis of permaculture: Making things natural (or "natural", as it would be if it was wild nature). Suddenly a whole new way of thinking about garden design, plant choice and companion plants. In stead of shooting in the dark as to what is good for the plants, I just have to think about how and where this plant grows in nature or how plants grow together.
- Of course the strawberries prefer a very light shade, to full sun...they grow in the open forrests, like beech forrests.
- Of course there should be no bare ground in the garden, where do you ever see that in nature except after land slides, fires, earth quakes? Bare soil is unnatural. Even i organic gardening you can see bare soil, but not only is it unnatural, using the bare-soil approach when growing organic also means that you will be toiling and breaking your back to pieces removing weeds.
- And where do you ever, in nature, see a monocrop of grass? There is always lots of other plants amongst the grass.

Amongst organic growers extensive rather than intensive growing/farming is hailed. But permaculture says:

If productivity is raised using permaculture (which makes bigger amounts of food
avalible from the same amount of land - in opposition to monoculture that is
more inefficient), not as much land needs to be cultivated and more of it can be
allowed to be wild nature. We make space for greater biodiversity.
(My parafrasing from 'Permaculture in a nutshell').

That turns things upside down for me and opens up for at whole new way of thinking.

Or what about:

Environmental problems cannot be solves through consuming more (even
environmentally friendly) or by recycling - it is only treating the symptoms.You have to go deeper and treat the disease: Consume less. Especially of unrenewable ressources of overused renewable ressources.
(My parafrasing from 'Permaculture in a nutshell').

Of course! I did think a lot about consuming less goods before (and does consume very little), mostly out of financial reasons, but this quote really put it into context for me. And made me also think about my consumption of heat, water, electricity.

And I could keep going on and on.... ;).
I really appreciate this new approach that has revealed itself to me. Organic seemt a bit stuck in "like conventional growing, just without pesticides". Sustainability just kept focusing on the latest fad, and I lacked a holistic approach. And selv-sufficiency was so focused on production, that nature's ways seem to loose ground.
In permaculture everything knits together to form a unity. It has refreshed my enthusiasm and creativity and given me so many new ideas. Looking very much forward to see where I'll end up....

A definition of permaculture/Hvad er permakultur?

Might be good if I defined and explained exactly what I have going on here ;). Both so that you can se what my overall idea is, and so I myslef get a clearer picture of what direction I should go.
So here is a little resumé of what I have read and learned until now about permaculture, then we'll also se if I actually have understood it correctly.

You can define permaculture differently, the broadest is probably:

• A desgin method where things are connected to the mutual denefit of all the parts, and that the whole system functions harmonically.
  So it is about more that simply growing plants - it is a method that can be used on all areas of life.

In principle you could avoid being environmentally friendly using this definition, but at the core of permacultures background is the concept that it is "green" idea that you connect to a whole. It is about replacing the physical labour, fossile fuel and pollution with well thought through design.

• You can also view permaculture from the angle that it is about sustainable lifestyle and sustainable housing.
  Then fokus will e.g. be little use of energy in production, avoiding lon transports of goods and environmentally friendly disposal of waste.
  It is also about taking responsibility and changing lifestyle without expecting that other will make things easier for you ("someone should so something....")
  
• Are we taking growing plants, either in your own garden or in production, then it is amongst others about promoting great biodiversity and mimicking nature's ecosystems.

In Danish:
Ja det ville måske være godt om jeg definerede hvad det egentlig er jeg har gang i ;). Både for at I kan se hvad min overordnede idé er, og så jeg selv får et klarere billede af hvilken retning jeg skal i.
Så et lille resumé af hvad jeg har læst og lært indtil nu, så får vi også at se om jeg i det hele taget selv har forstået permakultur rigtigt.


Man kan definere permakultur på forskellige måde, men den mest overordnede er nok:

• En designmetode, hvor tingene i designet forbindes til gensidig nytte, og at hele systemet fungerer harmonisk. Det handler altså om meget mere end bare havebrug/dyrkning - det er en metode, som kan bruges på alle områder af livet.

Man kunne i princippet undgå at være miljøvenlig med denne definition, men det ligger i permakulturens baggrund, at det handler om at forbinde "grønne" idéer til et samlet hele. Man kan sige at det handler om at erstatte indsatsen af fysisk arbejde, fossile brændstoffer og forurening med velgennemtænkt design.

• Man kan også tage den vinkel at det handler om bæredygtig livsstil og bæredygtige bosættelser.
  Så er fokus f.eks. på lille forbrug af energi i produktion, undgå lang transport og miljøvenlig og bæredygtigt bortskaffelse af ting.
  Det handler også om selv at tage ansvar og ændre livsstil uden at forvente, at nogen lægger tingene til rette for én ("Nogen burde gøre noget....." ikk').
  
• Taler vi om dyrkning, enten i ens egen have eller i produktion, så handler det bl.a. om at arbejde mod stor biodiversitet og tilnærmelse til naturens økosystemer.
  
  

Man kan og