“The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) Soil is alive. Dirt is dead. It’s a viscous spiral that starts with tilling and ends with dead dirt, eroded land and polluted waterways. A teaspoon of healthy soil contains billions … Continue reading →
A stunning relationship between forests and rainfall: trees add 50-75% to the total precipitation in the world. Moisture moves inland from the ocean only about 100 km. If it weren’t for the forests, the rest of the land would be … Continue reading →
Here are details for the “Implementation Week” workshops that will be offered by Graham Calder of P3 Permaculture Design at the Blockhouse School Project during the week of May 28 to June 1, 2012. The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday sessions are open … Continue reading →
Permaculturalists design for water before anything else. Water is the limiting factor in many landscapes. Even in wet places like Nova Scotia it could be, and often is the limiting factor in late summer. As the climate changes, we can … Continue reading →
Today’s theme encompassed the broad strokes of world climate as well as the small details of microclimates created by features in the landscape. Graham emphasized the oversimplification of the hydrologic cycle as it is usually taught in schools, ignoring the … Continue reading →
Today was less intense than yesterday and rather fun, as we looked for patterns in individual plants and then on the grounds themselves, and speculated on the causes. For example: Only one of the apple trees is in full blossom … Continue reading →
A few times during today’s class, immersed in techniques for living well on the earth without depleting its resources, the spell broke and I recalled my life and how very far most of us are from that goal. So far, … Continue reading →
A spontaneous Graham Calder quote from Day one of the PDC. Natural systems are abundant. They produce a surplus. Squirrels, for example, only eat about 15% of the nuts they store away. The rest become compost or oak trees. Sustainability … Continue reading →
Today we said goodbye to Alexandre Royer, who spent the last week with us at a very busy and sometimes chaotic time as we prepared for the PDC course. Alexandre is a Katimavik volunteer from Victoriaville, QC. He is part … Continue reading →
We are 14 students in the Permaculture PDC course, and there were others who attended the Intro talk on Friday night who would have jumped in if they could. It’s a very interesting collection of people, some from the South … Continue reading →
