Permaculture and the Internet

Peachtree Apartment Garden, Spring 2013 [alexanderpf]

alexanderpf — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:36:36 -0600

Peachtree Apartment Garden, Spring 2013 [alexanderpf]

Create a Garden That Works for You By David Deardorff and...

alexanderpf — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:03:44 -0600

By David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth

Polyculture!!!!! Basically, planting many different vegetables/flowers/herbs all together in a group and encouraging beneficial pests and soil diversity. They get more into the specifics in the article.

Mass agriculture is usually monoculture farming, or one giant field of one plant.

Not only does it promote disease…. it’s just no fun. Permaculture gardens (which demonstrate polyculture practices) are some of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen.

via sustainable-sam:motherearthnewsmag

Urban and biodynamic farmer interview: Maria Prieto...

alexanderpf — Sun, 05 May 2013 17:05:35 -0600

Urban and biodynamic farmer interview: Maria Prieto via organicandurban

Video

alexanderpf — Sun, 05 May 2013 03:16:48 -0600

What is resilience?

alexanderpf — Sat, 04 May 2013 03:38:46 -0600

What is resilience?:

An introduction to social-ecological research (via climateadaptation)

Redesigning Civilization — with Permaculture

alexanderpf — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:09:58 -0600

Redesigning Civilization — with Permaculture

cabinporn: The Coopsicle is one of the 14 original chicken coops...

alexanderpf — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 22:31:59 -0600

cabinporn: The Coopsicle is one of the 14 original chicken coops in the recently released book Reinventing the Chicken Coop.

permaculturelife: The All-Native Edible Forest Garden: Eastern...

alexanderpf — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 22:29:05 -0600

permaculturelife: The All-Native Edible Forest Garden: Eastern Forest Edition by Eric Toensmeier

The Wartime Kitchen & Garden

alexanderpf — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 02:52:24 -0600

The Wartime Kitchen & Garden

Data Farming: Demonstrating the Benefits of Urban...

alexanderpf — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:41:48 -0600

Data Farming: Demonstrating the Benefits of Urban Agriculture

Transforming underutilized land into productive urban farms was one of the many topics which were presented at the recent Kansas City Design Week. Jerome Chou, past Director of Programs at the Design Trust for Public Space, presented his unique experience with the implementation of the Five Boroughs Farm in New York City and the impact that urban agriculture can have on low-income areas of a city.

Chou pointed out in his presentation that having the land available for an urban farm is only half of the battle. The other half involves changing local zoning laws, influencing political opinion, garnering economic support, and proving the project will have a net benefit to a community. These challenges where not unique to just New York City but also to Kansas City’s 18th and Broadway Urban Farm which was also presented at Kansas City Design Week.

The constraint of influencing the community and political leaders is what forced Chou and the multi-disciplined team lead by Design Trust for Public Space to rethink how urban farms were a beneficial investment for New York City. Chou knew from past experience that the repurposing of vacant lots provided both fresh produce and employment for local residents in the Red Hook Community Farm. Chou also pointed out that the city officials were very reluctant to provide their support for the project, particularly in a city where Mayor Bloomberg was famous for tweeting “In God We Trust. Everyone else, bring data.” The team’s first step was to find studies on how urban farms influenced local communities and present their collective data to gain political support. Design Trust had difficulty finding studies on urban farms, but did find miscellaneous pieces of data such as how having bees in a city increases biodiversity of plants and access to healthy food improves the health of local residents. The team realized they would have to retool their approach and the end results would be the first of its kind.

Design Trust put together a metrics framework that measured the associated activities of urban agriculture with the known benefits derived from various studies. This framework was an important step for Five Borough Farms as it became a marketing device to help convince city officials of the positive impacts that urban farming could have on the community. Chou knew that collecting the required data to reinforce the framework would not be an easy process since passionate urban farmers do not have time to conduct large studies. Design Trust is currently developing a tool that helps urban farmers measure these benefits. The sample tool on Five Borough Farms website measures the economic benefits that urban farmers can easily record like the amount of food produced in weight and the number of people trained in a specific job skill on the urban farm.

The larger tool – currently in a closed beta – measures the work done on a holistic level of the metric framework. This tool will measure the broader social, ecological, economical, and health indicators such as the number of school students participating in food system ecology programs, the money generated from urban agriculture-based farmer’s markets sales, and the percentage of low income shares in CSAs linked to the farm as only a few examples. Combining this data will other sites like 596acres.org, a website that charts available vacant lots that can be used for farming in New York City, gives citizens the tools they need to start an urban farm and farmers the means to see the progress they have on a community over time.

Design Trust for Public Space has plans to release their Data Collection Tool out to the public in the near future with the metric framework and the new book about the group’s work is available online. This program will dramatically help urban farmers from the around the world to collect important data with ease and have the right tools to persuade public officials on the benefits that urban agriculture can bring to the city.

By Kyle Rogler, Studio 630

Via ThisBigCity, studio630

Cargo Cult Science - Richard Feynman … [S]cience does not...

alexanderpf — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:41:22 -0600

Cargo Cult Science - Richard Feynman

… [S]cience does not solely excist of explosions, excitement and aerospace adventures. Science is the art of verification and validation. Tests should be repeated and should isolate the question at hand in an controlled environment. But who am I to convince you, let Richard Feynman explain it in Caltech’s ‘74 commencement address. Almost 40 years later his speech named Cargo Cult Science [PDF] is still relevant. — placeofpluto

Read Cargo Cult Science by Richard Feynman

Interview with Charles Manson. I’m not endorsing his...

alexanderpf — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:03:00 -0600

Interview with Charles Manson. I’m not endorsing his actions, nor am I proclaiming his innocence.

Relevant because we all have to live on this planet together.

What are Hackerspaces, Makerspaces, and...

alexanderpf — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 21:03:16 -0600

What are Hackerspaces, Makerspaces, and Fablabs?

via personalfactory

For who loves gardening and has a balcony: Today I read this...

alexanderpf — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:50:39 -0600

For who loves gardening and has a balcony: Today I read this great book “permaculture in pots”. It is hands-on and gives you detailed advise based on the authors experience. It also including, many pictures, detailed description of plant care and benefits and culinary uses.

via naomirajaboean

Permanent Culture Now

alexanderpf — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:34:00 -0600

Permanent Culture Now:

The Permanent Culture Now Project:

“An outlet for the knowledge we have built up from decades of thinking about ways to address the major problems facing ourselves and future generations. We have now reached the point where we believe that there needs to be a move towards a Permanent Culture….

via ceevee5

Depave. From Parking Lots to Paradise - Guerrilla Gardening in...

alexanderpf — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:30:48 -0600

Depave. From Parking Lots to Paradise - Guerrilla Gardening in Action!

via healingtheplanetandthepeople

Photo

alexanderpf — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:26:05 -0600

apartmentgardeningproject: A great video on composting. Thanks...

alexanderpf — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:14:55 -0600

apartmentgardeningproject: A great video on composting. Thanks to the Ecology and Development Project for passing this on.

As Biofuel Demand Grows, So Do Guatemala’s Hunger Pangs

alexanderpf — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:58:22 -0600

As Biofuel Demand Grows, So Do Guatemala’s Hunger Pangs:

Recent laws in the United States and Europe that mandate the increasing use of biofuel in cars have had far-flung ripple effects, economists say, as land once devoted to growing food for humans is now sometimes more profitably used for churning out vehicle fuel.

Ant farmers (mutualism between ants and aphids) Ants and aphids...

alexanderpf — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 01:00:22 -0600

Ant farmers (mutualism between ants and aphids)

Ants and aphids have developed a mutualistic relationship with each other similar to the one between a farmer and his cattle. Aphids are known to suck sugar-rich fluids from the plants they are feeding on, to get adequate nutrition from these low nitrogen fluids the aphids must consume a lot of fluid, a large amount of food means a large amount of waste which is excreted as honeydew. This honeydew is high in sugar, this sugar is what the ants are after. Ants will actually milk the aphids by stroking the insects with their antennae stimulating them to release their honeydew, which the ants then take (some aphids have lost the ability to excrete the honeydew without ants to milk them). To keep their ”cattle” population producing honeydew the ants will keep the aphids safe from predators, and will actually move the aphids to a new plant when one runs dry. In some cases ants have been known to care for their aphids during the winter by carried the aphid eggs into their home and care for them until spring. While it might seem that the ants really care for the aphids they have their own interests in mind, and will stop aphid populations from growing wings and even disabling their ability to walk with a type of semiochemical.

Video (Source,Source) via astronomy-to-zoology