WTF is Permaculture??

This is a question (although not always so colorfully phrased) comes up to practicing permaculturists often enough as to be a running gag; that awkward moment at any given dinner party when the permies look at each other with raised eyebrow to silently ask: who's gonna answer that question this time?

Googling (yes that's a word) 'what is permaculture' at the time of this writing yielded 5,222,000 or so results - you may have even heard of permaculture, described as anything from an idealist-hippie-lifestyle, to a survivalist-response-to-peak-oil-and-the-impending-collapse-of-industrial-civilization-as-we-know-it, to "Revolution Disguised as Gardening".

Photo: from 'The Lexicon of Sustainability' PBS series & traveling art show.

Permaculturists themselves have described permaculture varyingly as:

• an international social movement (and its regional extensions),
• a worldview and theory of human-environment relations,
• a design framework,
• and/or a bundle of practices.

So.... WTF IS PERMACULTURE??

Very simply put:  Permaculture is a framework for sustainable design.

Bill Mollison, who coined the word permaculture, defines it on page one of 'Permaculture: A Designer's Manual' (his 576-page treatsie on the subject) thus:

Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.

Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material and strategic components in a pettern which functions to benefit life in all its forms.

Because permaculture offers a framework for the this type of design, may I suggest that this  framework can be adapted and applied towards designing resilient human systems of any kind. 

While permaculture was initially conceived of as a tool to design & redesign our agricultural & food production systems, permaculture practicioners quickly realized that you cannot address food systems without addressesing waste management, water, energy prodction, social & economic systems, conservation, cultural diversity, and many other areas affecting human & ecological well-being. 

We discovered that permaculture design can be a useful tool to help us design solutions for the challenges we face in sorts of different contexts, whether we be building tools or working to create healthy, resilient communities.

In over 30 years of putting permaculture design principles into action & practice - in practically every possible bioregional & cultural context around the world - at some point in their practice, permaculturists everywhere stumble into the same blinding flash of the obvious: that everything in the natural world is interconnected.

The calling card of permaculture is good design - aka 'Uncommon common sense'.  Placing elements where they will create mutually beneficial relationships with other elements in your system, backing up your major functions, and patterning after natural systems are some of the design principles the permaculture designer will utilise to create a robust & effective design.

However, it is the ethical foundation which underpins the permaculture design approach that makes it so powerful as a design science.  In crafting a permaculture design, decisions are made through the ethical filter of: Care of Earth, Care of People, and Fair Share of Resources.

Every design decision made through a permacultural lens must pass through this filter : how does this decision take care of earth / people / steward our resources?  Utilizing this ethical filter acknowledges that the resources we have access to are nested within the biophysical limits of the ecosystems we live within, and that without respecting this fact, there are no people to care for, nor are there resources available to share.

It is perhaps this ethical filter which is the cause of so much confusion when it comes to defining permaculture; the power of these 3 simple ethical principles to frame & shape our decision-making (and therefore our worldview) can be deeply personal.

But that, my friends, is a topic for another post at another time.

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Matthew Lynch
Essays on permaculture
Honolulu, Hawaii
February 2013

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PS  For further reading, Toby Hemmenway (Field Director of the Permaculture Institute (USA) and best-selling author of Gaia's Garden) has posted a very well articulated essay exploring what exactly permaculture is, by starting with the question: 'What permaculture isn't'.

 

 

Banana leaf sheet mulch!

Photo: Banana leaf sheet mulch deployed in raised bed garden.  Hana, Maui.

Banana leaves have many uses in the Islands (and in all traditional cultures where banana plants grow), though here's one you may not yet have considered:  a natural, locally & readily available, biodegradable weed barrier for sheet mulching.

In urban and suburban Honolulu, cardboard is a readily available waste product that can easily be upcycled as a biodegradable weed barrier for sheet mulch gardenbeds and paths, though in remote Hana there is nowhere near the amount of waste cardboard available for us permaculturists!

There is, however, and abundance of banana plants (which love the chocolatey-volcanic soils and moisture), and therefore an abundance of banana leaves...

...which brings us to the point of this post:

Appropriate Design.
(an excerpt from Rick Coleman's essay 'The Role of Permaculture in Sustainable Aid')

If you are going to introduce a new technology / technique / tool, these are some things to consider:

• Can you use materials that are inexpnsive or free, that are easily accessible and safe?
• Will it have a tangible positive effect on the community (as well as the aid organization)?
• Most importantly is it able to be repeated (if you build a grand-darble-dooble-funky and leave it, can anyone build a new one?)..
• How can the technology be integrated to solve other problems or be connected to other elements (in the system) and therefore become more productive?

... which, of course, now leaves us with the question:

• What else could we use banana leaves for?

While we ponder that one, here's another example of a locally appropriate material being deployed for use in a sheet mulch garden being built in the drylands of Mexico:

 

 

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 36 - Dalanzargalan, Sainchand, and the Governor of Zamin Yyl

WELCOME TO THE GOBI

The sand-blasting wind which greeted us late last night did not let up.

On his first visit to the Gobi Dessert, Rick boldy predicts rain today [upon arrival, and after midnight] ...and the co-operative members who came out to greet us at the railway station shake their heads ‘No’ in amusement.

‘Don’t be silly; we’re in the Gobi…’

…this morning, however, the wind dies down as breakfast is brought in, the first drops of rain spattering against the window as the co-operative members who thought Rick was crazy last night are wondering if perhaps this strange man with the bright yellow shirt and loud red hat has brought rain to the Gobi.

THERE'S 3 MORE OF US IN THIS CAR!

We cram ourselves into the back of a tiny sedan and bounce out to the vegge plot, wedged into the back seat so tightly that dips which otherwise would have sent us crashing into the ceiling are rendered mere bumps along the way.

Jackets and beanies today against the cold and wet, sandy soil sticking in clumps to our boots due to the higher clay content here.

LOOK CLOSELY AND SEE IF YOU CAN PICK OUT ANY GEMSTONES...

The ground is also littered with rocks: quartz and ironstone and an outcrop of shale or perhaps slate and something that looks like amethyst, and something else that might be flourite.

RICK AND KAT WALK THE SITE

The co-operative plot is located in the middle of a windy, open desert plain, and the crops are windblasted throughout.

A Chinese mine can be seen in the near distance, their closest neighbour, though because our translator still has not arrived, we are unable to determine exactly what they are mining… if it is coal, than we may have access to coal dust, a waste product of the mining operation that could be used as a slow release mineral fertilizer for the cropping fields.

UTILIZING BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES

Three year old seabuckthorn trees are healthily established but stunted, and Rick plucks out a woody shrub growing nearby, walks over to the perimeter fence, and weaves it into the wires to demonstrate how to form a windbreak.

1. UNSHELTERED BEETROOT PLOT

2. WIND-SHELTERED BEETROOT PLOT

The beetroot plots are sparse, except for a patch nestled in a corner formed by the solar panels’ battery house and the water tank, forming an unintentional windbreak which demonstrates what a dramatic difference the simple adjustment of keeping the wind off can make.

DESERT WEED SUITABLE FOR 'LIVING MULCH' GROUND COVER;
WINDBLASTED AND STUNTED SEABUCKTHORN SAPLINGS CAN BE SEEN BEHIND RICK

The desert weeds spring up pretty quickly once fences are up to keep the grazers off, and we identify one groundcover desert species that is thriving in the harsh conditions [now that the animals are unable to munch on it] that would make a great living mulch.

THE GOOD NEWS :
WORD TRAVELS FAST -
ONE WEEK AFTER LEARNING ABOUT MULCH IN TOSONTSENGEL,
THIS NEW KNOWLEDGE IS TRANSFERRED AND REPLICATED
THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY IN THE GOBI DESERT

Kat is scribbling notes and I am snapping pictures furiously to keep up with Rick’s running commentary and analysis of the site so that we can fire questions at our translator when [and if] he arrives.

WIND DAMAGE VISIBLE TO FRAME ON RIGHT [WINDWARD SIDE] OF TOMATO GREENHOUSE

The greenhouse crops are doing well here, with the first red tomatoes we have seen on the vines all trip, just now ripening. However, the steel frame of the tomato greenhouse is visibly buckling from the stresses on its winward side and the plastic is beginning to rip in the corners; there is room for further improvement here.

SUCCESSFUL CUCUMBER CROP IN DOUBLE-GLAZED, SUBTERRANEAN GREENHOUSE

The cucumber greenhouse has been built into the ground, has an insulative double-layer of plastic sheeting, and a cage rock wall on the south-facing side of the north wall for thermal mass. The co-operative leader plucks a couple large cucumbers from the vines and offers them up for us to munch on as we continue the site visit.

MELON CROP LOOKING DISMAL

Spray irrigation is being used in the melon field, which exacerbates salination in the salty soils, and maximizes water loss to evaporation in the desert conditions. Indeed, the melon crop is looking dismal and will not yield any notable crops.

POTATO CROPS IN TOSONTSENGEL WERE ALMOST TWICE THIS SIZE,
AND ALREADY FLOWERING

Similarly, the potato fields are looking pretty sparse for this late in the season, and these are being flood irrigated instead. This also has the effect of exacerbating salination; as surface water evaporates, a salty film is left behind which compunds each time the trenches are flooded. Over time, the salt will build to unsustainable levels for cropping.

Trenching and mounding could also be done more efficiently here – mound, mound, trench instead of mound, trench, mound – to reduce labour inputs, and increase productivity.

THIS IS NOT A ZUCCHINNI!
[C'EST NE PAS UN MUSHROOM]

We are shown a fairly healthy zucchini crop that makes a sound like knocking on wood when we rap our knuckles on it; it turns out to actually be a variety of winter squash ...could be good for storing, some squash varieties will keep for up to six months.

WEAVING A WINDBREAK INTO PERIMETER FENCING
USING WILD DESERT SHRUBS GROWING IN FENCED AREAS

Then we all huddle into the solar panels’ battery room to get out of the rain and warm our hands and bodies with a nice warm cup of tea; time for a quick training...

DALANZARGALAN CO-OPERATIVE

…except that our translator is still missing…

…frustrated and full of unanswered questions, we pile into the back of a hand-cranked tractor and are taken back to the hotel to catch our 4pm train to Sainchand.

TRACTOR RIDE IN THE GOBI DESERT ...PRICELESS.

Sainshand is the largest aiymag [rural center] we have been to outside of Ulaanbaatar, with a population of approximately 37,000.

Its large train station is on the edge of town, and is a hive of activity, while the wind continues to whip us even as we shuffle towards the taxi stand in search of a ride to town.

As the muted light fades from the overcast twilight shy, our hotel lobby welcomes us in darkness as we stumble up the steps into the double doors.

There is a tense moment of uncomfortable silence as the startled receptionist tries to renegotiate the room rates - to double the price - when she sees our foreign western faces walk in the door.

We turn on our heels and march back out into the wind, and a staff member hurries after us to bring us back at the original rate – 20,000MNT [approx $20AUS] /night.

When the electricity is finally turned on [after eating the first half of dinner by LED flshlight], we find ourselves in the swankiest accomodation we've experienced yet. The hotel restaurant is decorated like a rich ger, hung with paintings of Mongol horsemen, archers, scenes of nomadic life, the obligatory portrait of Chinggis, and exotic portraits of half-nude Mongolian women lounging seductively in the royal ger.

Since we are no longer on official Aid Agency business, we try to order a cold beer, and find out that it just so happens that today is a ‘no alcohol’ day in this particular aiymag center. It seems that each time we try to go out for a cold beer, we time it so that it co-incides with a TOTAL BAN day…

…the first night in Ulaanbaatar, before we began the consultancy, we tried to sample the Chinngis beer on tap, only to be told that alcohol wasn’t served on Thursdays in Mongolia. Then, thirty days later, when we try to have a celebratory cold one for a job well done at the conclusion of the consultancy, we just so happen to go out, again, on a TOTAL BAN night:

"But it’s not Thursday,” we protest, and find out that, actually, every 1st of the month is a TOTAL BAN day in Ulaanbaatar.

Now, 4 days later, we find out that we have wandered into Sainchand Aiymag Center on the 4th of the month, which, of course, just so happens to be a TOTAL BAN day. Some Aussies have all the luck.

Rick wanders over to one of the exotic portraits in the corner of the restaurant to appreciate it from a better angle, and an important-looking gentleman in dark glasses glances up from his beer with a look that says, ‘What the hell do you want, mister?’

To which Rick smiles and says, ‘Sain Bain O! [Hello!]’

The important-looking man drinking the only beer in town on a TOTAL BAN night looks over his dark glasses, pauses for a few moments, then laughs heartily and waves us over to join him.

A couple cold Chinggis Drafts later, it turns out that we have made friends with the Governor of Zaimin Yyl, a soum located another three-hour train ride south from Sainshand to the Chinese border. He graciously invites us to visit his soum on our day off, promising camel rides and horse rides and good times, in exchange for a visit to his local vegetable-growing plot.

"Why not?", we shrug to each other, and it is settled, on Saturday we will go to visit our new friend.

It's easy to make new friends in Mongolia!

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 34 - Preparing for the Gobi Desert

AMAZING WHAT TREASURES YOU FIND
DUMPSTER-DIVING IN ULAANBAATAR...

Rest days in UB starting to blur together. Grateful for time off my feet to relax and heal, but getting itchy to move again…

We are each getting restless, and while we have been enjoying the variety of food available in the city [Korean last night, German yesterday, Vegetarian café the day before that, French café tomorrow morning].

We each share a common love of the thrill, the deeper connection, the rich experience of traveling with a purpose and something to contribute to the people and places we visit.

We’d much rather head out to the Gobi Desert for two weeks and teach a short course, or two ...pro-bono... for co-operatives that are struggling with even harsher growing conditions than we have seen so far.

This is so much more fulfilling than indulging in the cheap thrills of the standard tourist experience in Mongolia …or anywhere else in the world, for that matter.

Rick has extensive experience helping in dryland and desert areas, having worked in Africa, Mexico, Israel, and the Gaza Strip, and is particularly keen to get out there to see what he can contribute.

The Aid Agency is happy to support and organize this impromptu trip and training since we have fulfilled the original contract and deliverables. Still working on compiling the written report, and will deliver the verbal report The Program Director upon return to UB, three days before we fly home.

An impromptu training for Urban Design, and another short workshop on Sustainable Aid, open to all Aid Agencies working in Mongolia, are somehow also planned somewhere in those last 3 days.

Kat has taught us The Best Card Game in the World [according to Tichu players]: Tichu. An addictive kind of hybrid between poker, trumps, and 500, we played until the early morning hours last night before, and have unfinished business tonight.

Our new German friend Stefan is a seasoned 500 player, he and Rick partner up and provide for hours of hilarious entertainment as they analyze the game to pieces and rapid-fire hundreds of questions at Kat in their attempts to thrash us [as any serious card player would rightly do to a pair of We’re-playing-for-fun-why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along players].

I won’t waste valuable text space on this blog with uncouth trash-talk, especially since we were far too busy winning to waste time trash-talking…

…suffice to say that we had to let Rick win the 2nd game lest he be unbearably grumpy for the next two weeks on the road in the desert.

Competitive, what?!

Tomorrow we catch the train to the Gobi Desert.

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 31 - Sustainability is DEAD

IT'S TIME TO MOVE BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY

Ankle is better this morning.

Did some washing, caught up with the blog, and checked in with home. Main mission today is to replenish my funds with a visit the ATM round the corner.

Typing, typing, writing, writing, blog blog blogging… was it really only 2 days ago I was joking around in the kitchen with my newfound Mongolian friends?

Sorting thru all the pics taken that day and I am taken right back to Tosontsengel, now wondering where students go and what they will do with the Permaculture Design skills and knowledge they have developed…

It would be so interesting to see where each project is 2, 5, 10 years from now.

It would be great to be able to come back and revisit, though this is not a certainty.

Peak Oil, Climate Change, continuing Global Economic Crises… we live in such uncertain times…

It could be so easy to throw up our hands in frustration and disgust, to go down that dark road of disillusionment with humanity… to buy into the thinking that we’ve destroyed ourselves, and it is just a matter of time before the bomb we’ve set explodes in our faces.

Or, we could play for the best in humanity.

I have glimpsed the depths of the resilience of the human spirit in the eyes of my companions over the last month. I have experienced heartfelt connection and generosity that transcends language barriers, cultural differences, and geographic separation.

I have seen light in the eyes of our brothers and sisters here in Mongolia, who live closer to the land than I ever have in this lifetime, who have so much less than I have ever had, who give and share so much and so freely of themselves, to welcome us into their hearts and homes.

The light I have seen in students' eyes here on the Steppe, is that same light that goes on in people’s eyes at the end of the PDCs I have been on in Australia, the light that says HOLY CRAP I GET IT… we don’t need to have all the answers, just figure out the right questions… because it is all right there in front of us…

We do truly live in a Garden of Eden, with everything that we need to create a beautiful, vibrant, healthy community and life right before us… if only we train our eyes and hearts to see…

...suddenly, problems become solutions, waste materials become valuable resources… all with a slight shift in perception and a simple foundation of ethics and principles to guide us.

Maybe we really can solve all of the world’s problems in a garden.

Nature moves in exponential cycles, hence the quickening we are experiencing now, this hurtling towards potential and spectacular impending doom… ecological, economic, and cultural disaster, all converging into a gigantic cosmic SPLAT…

...though if nature moves in exponential cycles, than might it not also possible to harness this energy, and use the forces of nature to reverse the cycle of damage we have done?

High-intellect, high-tech design won’t solve our problems - you can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.

Low-tech, remembered knowledge of how to move and work in harmony with the natural world around us is, well, the natural way...

…Head thinks. Heart knows.

Sustainability is not just a new, trendy buzzword that hipsters and hippies wax lyrical about in coffeehouses about town.

Sustainability is how we lived, out of necessity, for millenia.

Sustainability is simply living, living simply, within our means, and working with natural laws and forces, to expand that means, to expand our lives – not forcing and bending nature to our wills.

In nature, energy cycles, changes form, and comes back again, and if you ignore this law… you get modern society. The Piper always collects his due in the end.

It is time to move beyond Sustainability.

We get what we focus on, so let’s play bigger.

Instead of focusing on how to reduce our footprints, what if we were to focus on creating systems inspired by nature, using biological resources, in order to flourish?

What if we were to focus on re-discovering and re-organizing the vast amount of natural living resources we have all around us, and incorporating them into our designs to create multiple mutual beneficial relationships within our systems?

What if we were to focus on how much we could create and contribute to the world, instead of how much we can consume and accumulate?

What if we were to focus on how big a positive impact we could make, rather than how much we can shrink ourselves to minimize our impact?

What if we were to focus on

• Restoring?
• Regenerating?
• Recreating?

…What kind of world could we create?

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 27 – Final Design Presentations

FINAL DESIGN PRESENTATION DAY

Today was the culmination of 6 months’ preparation in Australia, two weeks on the road in Mongolia, and two intense weeks of classes in the Suvraga Aguyt Co-Operative of Tosontsengel.

Students were assigned the task of redesigning the hasha we have been staying in over the last 12 days to be as intensively productive as possible, including 6 gers out on the river flats for managing livestock, if they choose to incorporate this into their design.

BAYAARMA, GUMBAATAAR, 'DASHNING', & OYUNAA
PRESENT THEIR DESIGNS

The 5 Design Teams must demonstrate an understanding of the Permaculture Design Principles they have learned, for example maximizing use of available resources, maximizing use of biological resources, and diversifying crops and income sources. Each team member will present a portion of the design to the class.

Design Parameters:

• Incorporate Permaculture Ethics of Earth Care, People Care, Resource Share
• Intensive as Possible
• Environmentally and Economically Sustainable
• No imaginary streams! …or sheep… [some imaginary elements were incorporated into earlier design tasks]

Some teams were awake until 2am last night putting the final touches on their designs. A couple team members didn’t get to sleep until 4am.

STUDENTS LISTEN INTENTLY AS TUMME PRESENTS HER PORTION OF THE TEAM'S FINAL DESIGN

Presentations begin at 10am and go all the way through until 7:30pm, with Kat and Rick asking questions and giving detailed feedback after each team.

We saw some great ideas, including:

• A ger design with a root cellar
• Compost tea irrigation systems
• Compost heaps in greenhouses to help warm them biologically from the inside during colder months
• Greenhouses adapted for use as animal shelters during winter
• Compost toilet designs
• Adaptive re-use of existing abandoned buildings in the hasha for restaurant, information center, more greenhouses, sewing & felting businesses, a welding business, food processing facility, and even a hot shower houses
• Mulch crops, herbal barriers, and green manures
• Intercropping and crop rotation strategies
• Use of vertical space for crops such as beans and squash
• Food forest design
• Orchards with future planning for grafting cultivars onto wild root stock

On a personal note, it was very gratifying to see that each Design Team started their planning with a SWOT analysis to further establish parameters for the design brief… such a wonderful feeling to have immediate feedback that the single session I facilitated was understood, internalized, and implemented so quickly.

SWOT ANALYSIS

I can only imagine what a profound feeling it must be for Rick and Kat, having taught the entire course and seeing how students have understood, internalized, and implemented so much information thoroughly enough to start making their own connections and create effective design solutions – not only to the parameters set by the design brief, but even further to the detailed parameters each team discovered through their own design process.

Each student demonstrated a solid understanding of the skills and knowledge acquired in the past two weeks. It is a foundation that will serve them well in their lives going forward.

One would be hard-pressed to find a better example of how to effectively Educate, Equip, and Empower a group of individuals looking to make a positive change in their lives, and in the lives of others around them.

DORLIG PRESENTS A FOOD FOREST SYSTEM

I am truly honoured to have been a part of this team, to bear witness and participate in the life-changing work that was done.

The work continues tomorrow, when the two day ‘Teach the Teacher’"course begins to equip students to go back to their projects and communities, and effectively transfer the skills and knowledge they now have.

It has been a long and intense day, we will all sleep soundly tonight…

CHICKEN TRACTOR DESIGN

PASSIVE SOLAR GREENHOUSE DESIGN


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Mongolian Permaculture: Day 17 - Mulch, Compost Tea, and BBQ Liver

THE ART OF MULCH

So nice to wake up this morning to find carrot plots freshly mulched with grass and weed clippings in the compound where bare earth baked in the sun yesterday. The knowledge being shared is already being transferred and replicated.

One minor adjustments needed to be made: southernwood species were slashed and dropped onto the growbeds for use as mulch, but aromatic plants may have oils and other compounds that could act as growth inhibitors for the seedlings underneath. Better to dry out the weeds for a couple days before using as mulch in order to allow these compounds to evaporate, and to ensure the weeds die and so do not take root and compete with their vegetable crop.

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

Soils, Green Manures, Vegetable Crops, and Needs/Functions/Products Analysis taught today, students are finishing up their last session outside the tent, opting for the shade of one the abandoned buildings. After the hailstorm two days ago, the heat of the relentless sun is unbearable inside the tent.

Made friends with the kitchen today with a packet of 'Choco-Pies', 1,500MNT well-spent in town today. I’m a quick learner:

THE COOK IS YOUR BEST FRIEND.
-Rick’s first lesson of working in Overseas Aid-

Class is progressing well, lots of interaction and discussion and connections being made. Personalities emerging through language barriers as we spend more time and get to know the students better.

Compost Tea prac taught by Kat this afternoon to get everyone moving and the blood flowing …there is now a small washbasin full of nutritious and delicious compost tea near the dining room entrance for everyone to turn and flow to keep the microbiology lovefest well oxygenated so that they multiply over the next 48 hours.

MANY DEFT HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK;
EVERYTHING EXCEPT FOR THE HEAD AND HOOVES IS EATEN

Just finished dinner, home made noodles with meat again of course, but the highlight of the day …invited out to watch the men butcher a sheep.

Bek and Michael stole away with the liver, which they wrapped with the fatty lining of the offal cavity, stuffed in a wild green onion shoot, pinned with a piece of kindling, and put directly onto the fire coals.

Best dish I have eaten in Mongolia so far – the charred fat crisped up while the liver cooked through just enough to be safe – think succulent foie gras wrapped in crispy smoked bacon and you get the idea.

Yum.

YUM! DID I SAY THAT ALREADY?

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 16 - Ethics and Compost

PDC NOTES IN CRYLLIC ALPHABET

 Students had an impassioned discussion today about Permaculture Ethics, Mongolian Culture, and Government Law this morning in Kat’s first class. Errka, the skinny smiling woman who was out host out in Tudvetey summed things up beautifully… [to paraphrase]:

“The Law sets out rules for what is right and wrong so that we can live together as a community. Our Culture guides us through all the nuances and grey areas that the Law cannot cover.”

It warms my heart to observe how readily Permaculture Ethics was accepted by the group.

Ever heard the saying:

‘Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink…’?

Well, the Mongolian version of that is:

‘Horseshit, horseshit everywhere, and not a drop to spare.’

Most of the dung here is left to dry and collected as fuel to burn through the cold winters. What is left behind provides just enough nutrient in the sandy soils for the pastures to support the grazing herds of livestock - a crucial part of the delicate balance between herders, their animals, and the Steppe.

At first glance, it would appear to be a permie’s utopia, a buffet of rich manures laid out on the grassy plains for us to collect, compost, and grow crops with.

Look a little deeper though, and we realize that we must take one step back in order to move forward:

1. Before we can start to harvest dung as a fertillizer, we need to replace this fuel with another fuel source. A bumper potato crop will not keep your family warm over the winter.
2. Pit latrines dug just above the water table in urban and rural settlements risk contaminating drinking water, and wastes a valuable resource that could be composted and used to safely fertilize timber and fruit tree crops.
3. If soum communities started to harvest the manures lying in the fields then the pastures will be unable to support current levels of livestock, which are already at the land’s capacity.
4. Community grazing strategies will be needed in order to properly manage pasture to allow it to recover and regenerate, so that over time soil fertility and resilience is built up, increasing the land’s ability to hold grazing animals.

So we must be careful in how this precious resource is allocated and used…

STUDENTS BUILD A COMPOST HEAP

 ...Compost prac today was fun, we used dried weeds, sawdust from the firewood pile, freshly cut green weeds, and of course manure from our poo buffet conveniently stored in one of the abandoned concrete buildings on the compound.

Interesting to note how quickly the Co-Operative Leaders jumped in to grab tools and start shovelling shit, while the Aid Agency Staff tended to hang back, take photos and write notes.

When we go back to de-brief, the Agronomists in the group get hung on calculations and formulae for converting 25:1 carbon:nitrogen ratios into weight quantities, and almost lose the lesson. Rick ends up jumping in front of the whiteboard: FORGET THE FORMULA JUST USE YOUR EYES AND HANDS TO FEEL WHAT THE COMPOST HEAP IS TELLING YOU!!!

• Too hot, too much nitrogen. Add more carbon materials like the sawdust and dried weeds.
• Too cold, not enough nitrogen. Add more nitrogen-rich materials like manure and green weeds. Better yet, pee on the compost stack to help activate it.

Today’s lesson was a great illustration of INFORMATION vs. CONCEPT.

Information without understanding will overload and paralyze you.

Understanding a concept allows you to process, filter and organize information in a way that empowers you to make an informed decision and act upon it.

It is the difference between

• TEACHING vs. TELLING
• EMPOWERING vs. ENABLING
• KNOWING vs. UNDERSTANDING

Small shift in emphasis, massive shift in result.

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 15 - Tosontsengel PDC, Opening Day

TOSONTSENGEL PDC, DAY 1

Bad weather and flooded roads mean that 9 or so of ADRA Staff flying in from UB to attend PDC arrive at Tosontsengel hasha at 4am this morning.

Nerves, adrenaline and snoring mean a fitful night’s sleep in the Instructors’ ger… Bek informs us very diplomatically this morning that he is moving out to room with non-snorers!

Breakfast this morning is thickly sliced salami on raisin bread with Tsu Te Tse Milk Tea of course, 19 students, 2 translators, 2 instructors, 1 filmcrew and 4 cooks crammed into a 12m sq lunchroom – great way to get to know your classmates!

Class starts just after 9am in a Russian Army-green circus-looking tent, with an introduction to Permaculture, taught simply and eloquently by Rick telling a story through our translators [Bek and Michael] of his travels… here is a condensed version:

“I have worked around the world in Mexico, Central & South America, North & South Africa, India, Indonesia, Israel & The Gaza Strip, and Australia …and everywhere I go, the weather is changing.

Permaculture is a design framework to create sustainable designs. Permaculturists know a little about a lot of things. We are constantly taking information and putting it into this framework to create sustainable designs.

All information, all skills and knowledge are of value. Any piece of information can be important to sustainable design.

Systems that have worked for thousands of years are no longer working. Some people are waiting for the weather to change back to the way it was.

Smart people are recognizing that it is time for change…”

-Rick Coleman-

Throw in a story about how a small piece of information gleaned from a book he read about Troutfishing in America transferred to a design used in Kenya to capture and control water in an erosion gully to create fertile zones to crop in, plus a brief opening ceremony presided over by the Governor of Tosontsengel, and you get the gist of the opening session.

Lunch is Offal [cue comic relief snare drum here] …broth made from simmering the organs of a sheep this morning, with rice, potatoes, carrots and turnips in the mix.

The temperature drops as we walk back to the classroom tent for the first afternoon session, and before you know it the wind is howling and we are being pelted with hailstones. A couple tent pegs are pulled out of the sandy ground and the whole classroom threatens to blow away like a giant Russian Parachute… Everyone grabs hold of a tent pole while the whole thing flaps angrily around us.

10km/h more wind and Mongolia might have seen its first flying circus act, twenty Mongolians and three mad Aussie permies hanging on to a giant green kite soaring across the Steppe…

Nothing like a bit of life-threatening mayhem to kick-start some group bonding.

But class must go on, group shivering in the tent as the hail subsides, it is somehow comforting to us that even the Mongolians are feeling this cold. Then, as quickly as the squall blew in, the clouds part and the sun shines just in time for the last session of the day: Observation Walk and Reading the Landscape.

Timing could not be better; the best time to do observe and read a landscape is just after a rainfall because you can see how and where water flows across the land.

EROSION GULLY LEADING INTO EAST WALL OF HASHA;
WATER POURED UNDER THE FENCE AND FLOODED EAST POTATO FIELDS,
CAUSING DAMAGE TO ONE OF THE LARGER CROPPING PLOTS.
A CO-OPERATIVE MEMBER CAN BE SEEN WALKING AROUND THE PUDDLE
TO HELP DIG A TRENCH AND MOUND TO BLOCK WATER FLOW.

The torrential river that cut through our camp during the last rainfall has been diverted by a hand-dug mound and trench barrier protecting the compound entrance, but this sends the water to the east end of the property, ripping through one of the potato fields and giving us a live example of another Mollissonism:

“Everything works both ways.”
-Bill Mollisson-

The precious water which feeds our crops can also destroy them when not harnessed properly.

Rick explains how water moving this quickly will wash away the nutrient in the soil and become a destructive force; though when slowed and allowed to seep in it becomes a creative force in which our crops will thrive… a poignant and very relevant case study.

Classic moment of the day just happened as I sit here typing the daily log:

One of the ladies on ADRA Staff walked in and asked “Cake Class?” Apparently they have heard of SCPI’s Course Kitchen Creations even here…

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 14 – Preparation for Start of PDC

FLOODED!

Flooded out last night!

Nothing too major, but an impressive stream flowing right through the compound and threatening to back up the well. Trenches dug to take the water… right off the property!

It’s an interesting situation: Mongolia is actually a dry country, and the sandy soils do not retain what moisture there is very well. So why are they diverting this excess water flow right back off the property?

It may seem to be a blinding flash of the obvious when I state it like this, but let’s remember that this is a culture with no history of growing vegetables. The nomadic herding lifetsyle has developed as an energy store to last families through through the cold winter, and is a system that has worked for thousands of years. There has simply been no need to develop any agricultural skills. Rick summed it up well in one of his faceBook posts:

You should try gardening here. -40 degree winters, beach sand, super short growing season and little acess to water. Some co-operatives are watering 20 plus hectares by watering can. Apart from that the Mongolians don't like eating vegetables. Unfortunately grazing patterns are no longer viable due to population growth and weather change.

...just about sums everything up!

We all slept in this morning, worn from the last week on the road. Discovered the solar shower I brought along for the trip in a secret backpack pocket after hankering for a decent shower for the last 5 days. The shower I had last night replaced my previous experience about a week ago as BEST. SHOWER. EVER.

Went for a walk around town this morning to research resources available in the aiymag center and replenish supplies: bottled water, dried fruit, and other nibblies to break the monotony of meat-based dishes and supplement energy needs while teaching so intensively.

Kat scouted materials to knock together a solar oven, finding the necessary reflective foil for $3AUS in the last shop we entered – after walking into every single store on the main street. We walk back out of town with our bags overflowing and hands full of empty and crushed cardboard boxes.

The compound has been transformed since we left, four more gers and an old army tent marquee where class will be held have been put up since we’ve been gone.

Another walk around the compound the do a resource inventory for the practical lessons, and I find myself scouting for manure, dry weeds, waste cardboard, sawdust and green weeds for the compost prac. There is a whole houseful of manure in one of the abandoned building shells, and a huge mound of dry, carbony material on one of the rubble piles.

Rick has just walked in at 8pm from another scouting walk, back into town to prepare for his Observation Walk / Reading the Landscape class on Day 1. The Andi and George Band, with a kind of jazzy, bluegrassy sound plays on Kat’s computer, the shadows are lengthening outside and the compound is a buzz of activity as last minute preparations are made.

Mongolia’s first two week intensive Permaculture Design Class begins at 9am tomorrow.

THE CLASSROOM

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 13 - Back to Totsensengol

MONGOLIAN B-BALL. WERD.

Played a dusty, epic game of 3-on-3 basketball in the family hasha [family compound] at Bayantes soum yesterday evening, then a few games of H_O_R_S_E [in Mongolian, of course!] with Bek, Rick, Ingktor, and a couple of the kids, who have improved markedly from the prior day's impromptu basketball lesson by twilight.

Camped out beside a river last night and had a visit from DrunkenMan, who has been hosting us for the last two days [and I thought was just SmileyMan until today] and his friend ChickenMan who Rick and Kat met a couple days ago. We shoo them away, wondering how they could stay upright on their motorcycle as they wobbled away.

Earliest start we've had all trip, we woke up with the sunrise [around 5:30am], and Ingktor picked us up around 7am so that we could get back to Totsensengol by early afternoon.

Six hours later we roll back into the compound where the PDC will be held over the next two weeks.

We've managed to pack in 5x the number of trainings we'd anticipated being able to conduct on the original schedule, and judging from the reactions of the co-operative members, and the happy look on Bek's face, we've also managed to leave everyone with at least a few ideas they can begin to implement for an immediate impact.

My favourite quote from Rick during each training:

"This knowledge and information is my gift to you, which I give freely ...I only ask that you share this knowledge with others as freely as I have shared with you so that all Mongolians can learn and grow from here."
-Rick Coleman-

This, he tells me, is to help ensure that the knowledge and information is transferred beyond the small group an NGO is working with, and into the community. It is very important to structure all the trainings, no matter how small, in an appropriate and replicable way - by using storytelling relevant to their culture, practical examples that can be used immediately, and hands-on training [literally in-the-field] - what he has taught can easily be taught to others willing to learn.

Representatives from each co-operative will now be attending the two-week intensive PDC in Totsensengol for in-depth training on permaculture design principles and teaching methodologies so that they can return with a deeper foundation to lead their groups from.

This is why two entire days are being devoted to 'Teach-the-Teacher' Training at the end of the PDC.

As Rick says, "It is one thing to know something and tell someone to do it: Go out and play a really great game of basketball! ...It is an entirely different thing to have the skills to teach someone how to do it: This is how you dribble, now let's practice and build this skill ...this how you shoot, here are some drills we can do to develop this skill ...this is how you defend, let's play some practice games to develop this skill ...these are the rules of the game, now let's play a few more practice games to understand and develop our own strategies for different challenges ...now we can start to think about going out and playing a great game of basketball..."

LAST NIGHT'S SUNSET AS WE CAMPED BY THE RIVER

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 12 - Bayanday Co-Operative

'SUMO BOY' WRESTLES A CASHMERE GOAT

Belly is better today.

Last site visit before heading back to Tosontsengel to prepare for Mongolia’s first Permaculture Design Course [PDC].

This site sits just above fertile river flats, nestled in the elbow of two nearby hills which take the edge off the winds. There are trees on the flats here instead of in the hilltops, a sign that fertility and moisture levels in the hills are not sufficient to support tree growth.

Instead, the forest clings to the seepage zone around the flowing river. There are also signs that there may be too much water here at a certain depth: once the trees reach a certain height they start dying, most likely because their roots hit the waterflowing underground and canot cope with the surplus of water.

Disease is ruled out as a factor because there are not entire swaths of forest affected, nor are there different-sized trees suffering from the dieback.

It seems to be uniformly the same size [age] trees, dying back in the middle of a cluster of perfectly healthy trees. This means an abundance readily available and easily harvested wood for Bayanday Co-Operative

Their cashmere goats are penned in the middle of the plain because compared the the last 4 Co-Ops, this group has a comparitively small space to work in.

Their herd cannot graze within eyesight 5kms away on the other side of the basin because they would be out of sight on the other side of those protective hills:

’Everything works both ways.’
–Bill Mollisson-

One of their challenges is keeping the tiny goats out of the nearby vegge plot, something that could be fixed by adjusting their existing fence design. Tree trunks have been laid horizontally across the fence posts, leaving space enough for the small goats to leap through.

Designing vertical pickets spaced closely enough would eliminate this problem and could have the added benefit of using less timber to create their fencing. Poles could be cut into planks to maximize efficient use of this resource.

The other huge challenge this group faces is the cost of petrol to pump their water 6 meters up from the river to the growing plot – their single biggest expense, which is severly hampering their sustainability.

Two solutions are immediately apparent here:

1. Switch to a renewable-energy pump such as a wind or RAM pump.
2. Consider using the fertile pad on the river flats where the existing pump sits as another growing area. The locals confirm that the river has not flooded in living memory, so flood risk would appear to be low.

BAYANDAY CO-OP – NOTES FROM PERMACULTURE CLASS IN A GER:

• CABBAGE MOTHS FIND CROPS 2 WAYS:
  I) SIGHT (LIKE EAGLE HUNTING RABBIT ON PLAINS)
  II) SMELL (MASK W/ OTHER CROPS SUCH AS CHIVES)
• INTERCROP TO CONFUSE CABBAGE MOTH
• ALSO SOUTHERNWOOD WEEDS …LEAVE IN ROWS WHEN THEY COME UP, CRUSH THESE UNDERFOOT TO RELEASE SMELL
• CHECK FOR GRUB EGGS UNDER CABBAGE LEAVES AND CRUCH THESE
• PLANT PRICKLY BUSH AS PERIMETER TO PROVIDE SHELTER FOR SMALL BIRDS WHICH LOVE TO EAT THESE GRUBS; ALSO CREATES BARRIER TO LIVESTOCK (SOLVES GOAT PROBLEM)
• 1 BIRD CAN EAT APPROX 50 GRUBS/DAY
  PERIMETER HEDGE --> 200 BIRDS = 5,000 GRUBS/DAY
• OBSERVE & USE NATURAL RESOURCES AROUND TO WORK FOR YOU
• BE CAREFUL USING DUNG BURNING SMOKESCREENS; IT IS SAME AS SMOKING CIGARETTES …CONSIDER USING JUNIPER BERRY BRANCHES INSTEAD
• USE UMBRELLIFEROUS FLOWERS TO ATTRACT PREDATORY INSECTS; PLANT CLOSE TO CROP.
• CHIVES, DILL & CARROT TOPS HAVE THIS SHAPE, ALSO MANY WILD FLOWERS HAVE THIS SHAPE
• DAISY FLOWERS ALSO DO THIS JOB
• PLANTS ARE JUST LIKE YOUR HORSES – THE STRONG ONES DON’T GET SICK OFTEN
  PEST INSECTS ARE JUST LIKE VULTURES – THEY TAKE THE WEAKEST
• NEXT THING IS, PROVIDE GOOD SHELTER, GOOD HEALTHY SOIL (FOOD), MOISTURE LEVELS CONSTANT (WATER) FOR YOUR PLANTS AS YOU WOULD YOUR HORSES
• TREE WITH THE WHITE TRUNK [NAARS TREE] GROWING BY THE RIVER WOULD MAKE A GOOD WINDBREAK
• RAM PUMP USES FLOWING WATER’S ENERGY TO DRAW WATER UP SLOPE, REPLACE PETROL PUMP WITH SIMILAR DEVICE TO ELIMINATE EXPENSIVE PETROL DEPENDANCE AND INCREASE PROFITABILITY
• CROPPING ACROSS SLOPE IS GOOD PRACTICE AND CATCHES ALL AVAILABLE WATER
• WHILE YOU PLAN & SAVE FOR RAM PUMP, LOOK AT OTHER STRATEGIES TO INCREASE WATER USE; MAKE IS WORK TWICE AS HARD
• QUESTION: 2 BUCKETS THAT HAVE HOLES IN THE BOTTOM, ONE WITH SAND, ONE WITH DUNG, WHICH ONE HOLDS MORE WATER?
  ANSWER: DUNG BUCKET …THE MORE ORGANIC MATTER IN YOUR SOIL, THE MORE WATER YOUR SOIL WILL HOLD
• COLLECT LEAVES FROM NAARS TREE WHEN IT DROPS THEM FOR WINTER, USE THIS AS A BLANKET IN YOUR GARDEN NEXT SEASON [MULCH]
  
• USE AS MUCH DUNG IN THE GARDEN AS YOU CAN AFFORD TO
  
• COLLECT 10 – 20 KG OF MONGOLIAN VETCH SEED FOUND GROWING WILD IN SURROUNDING PASTURES BEFORE WINTER.
  NEXT YEAR, ALLOCATE A PORTION OF YOUR PLOT TO GROW ONLY THIS PLANT.
  
• THE ROOTS OF THIS PLANT MAKE ITS OWN NITROGEN, WHICH IS MAIN INGREDIENT FOR PLANT GROWTH. THIS PLANT MAKES SUGARS IN ITS ROOTS WHICH HOUSE A BACTERIA WHICH CAN TAKE THE NITROGEN FROM THE AIR AND CONVERT IT INTO A FORM PLANTS CAN USE.
  
• WINDBREAK WILL TAKE WIND OFF TO KEEP MOISTURE IN SOIL LONGER.
  
• INCREASING ORGANIC MATTER IN SOIL WILL ALSO INCREASE WATER RETENTION.
  
• LET THE WEEDS THEY PULL OUT DRY FOR 3 DAYS TO ENSURE THEY DO NOT SET ROOT AGAIN, THEN PLACE AROUND YOUR CABBAGES AS A BLANKET. THIS MULCH WILL ALSO KEEP SOIL MOISTURE LONGER.
  
• TEST THIS OUT NEXT TIME YOU WATER BY PLACING A BLANKET ON ONE CABBAGE & LEAVING ONE BARE …I BET THE FIRST CABBAGE IS WETTER FOR AT LEAST TWICE AS LONG.
  

KAT ON SEED SAVING:

• Q: WHAT SEEDS ARE YOU SAVING RIGHT NOW?
  A: TURNIPS, REDBEET, SOME CABBAGE
  
• WHEN YOU SAVE SEEDS:
  IT COSTS YOU NO MONEY YOU HAVE MANY SEEDS, WHICH YOU CAN ALSO SELL
  1 CUCUMBER SEED = 400MNT
  YOU CAN ALL BE CUCUMBER MILLIONAIRES!
  
• THIS WILL CHANGE AS MORE MONGOLIANS GROW VEGGES AND SAVE THEIR OWN SEED, BUT YOU CAN BE THE FIRST
  
• SAVING SEEDS GIVE YOU SECURITY BECAUSE ADRA MAY NOT ALWAYS BE ABLE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH SEED
  
• LIKE CHILDREN, WHO LOOK LIKE THEIR PARENTS, SO CAN YOU SAVE THE SEEDS WHOSE PARENTS YOU LOVE MOST
  
• CO-OP ALREADY CHOOSES BIGGEST POTATOES, CARROTS AND TURNIPS TO PLANT FROM NEXT SEASON
  
• PLANT MUST BE MATURE AND FINISHED WITH CROP PRODUCTION BEFORE SEED CAN BE SAVED
  -->UNRIPE PLANTS AT END OF SEASON EG GREEN TOMATOES, CAN BE PICKLED LIKE THE ONES WE HAD TWO DAYS AGO
• LOOK FOR PLANTS WHICH ARE BIG, STRONG & RESISTANT TO COLD
• CHOOSE PLANTS WHICH SURVIVE WELL IN YOUR CONDITIONS
• E.G. SEED FROM RUSSIA BEFORE SEEDS FROM CHINA
• LOOK FOR PLANTS THAT HAVE BEST FLAVOUR & SELECT THESE FOR SEED SAVING
• OVER SEVERAL SEASONS, YOU WILL DEVELOP YOUR OWN VEGETABLES ADAPTED TO YOUR GROWING CONDITIONS
• IF YOU SAVE THE SEED FROM A FULLY MATURE POTATO PLANT, THE SEEDS WILL PRODUCE A POTATO THAT HAS BEEN CROSSED WITH OTHER PLANTS IN THE FIELD, AND SEEDS CAN BE SELECTED FROM THESE PLANTS.
• THIS WILL BE QUICKER THAN SELECTING FROM PLANTS GROWN FROM TUBERS.