Permaculture

It’s been a long long time since i haven’t write here. Of course there are a lot of reasons but this is not the place to tell these stories. That place is about PERMACULTURE, its applications in my garden, my house, my neighborhood and in my life in general.

1- the garden

Actually it’s almost a wild garden. As i’ve been often away from home, i let genuine plants invading the land. Of course that means the productivity is low, speaking about plants that give food (tomatoes, carrots, etc, etc) but, as i started permaculture after 40 years of mechanical and chemical gardening, the soil is not completely healed and counting with local pollutions and climate changes it needs a couple of years to feed me correctly…

By the way, last month an amazing training happened here. A great specialist of ecology, biodynamics, permaculture, etc, Marc Grollimund, came here after an invitation of a friend of him, living in my village, Jean-Pierre Berlan (ingeneer in biology at CNRS & consultant of Kokopelli and a lot of other eco associations). The program was simple : let us walk around some gardens and speak about what is happening under our feet and in front of our eyes. Gosh ! It’s been like a couple of years at the university. Maybe more…

Here, the word to resume is " wow!". From the 12 people who came here, Marc and I were the only ones not to be afraid. Afraid because its so rare to see that kind of garden in a "civilized" place, a 6000 hbts village in a million and a half region. At this time there were not a lot of "normal" plants to analyze, but Marc did ! After four hours of descriptions and various analysis we’ve been obliged to stop him for a well deserved buffet. In few words, i’m doing well and i just have to put some old rusted nails here and there to balance the needs of the soil and installing a chicken house. And some other chairs and relaxing places to help visitors taking their time to discover little by little this revolutionnary place. Marc said : "don’t feel guilty if a few people can help you in your project of garden-sharing, it’s unthinkable for them, it’s like steping on a flying carpet to visit the moon!". Of course everybody laughed… and only one of the group joined me. )

Permaculture is not a revolution, it’s an evolution, a simple and radical adaptation of human manners on the planet. If the majority of humanity is not yet practicing it, the reasons are where you know : junk tv, supermarkets and ultra-liberal economy.