by Tao Orion This excerpt is adapted from Tao Orion’s book Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration (Chelsea Green, 2015) and is printed with permission from the publisher. Aquatic ecosystems have been largely mismanaged, and the growth of invasive species demonstrates the lack of appropriate interaction with these valuable natural…
Permaculture
Book Review: The Permaculture Promise
The Permaculture Promise: What Permaculture Is and How It Can Help Us By Jono Neiger Published by Storey Publishing, 2016 Anyone who has fallen short trying to explain permaculture and why it’s important can look for help in The Permaculture Promise. The book’s subtitle tells us exactly what author Jono Neiger hopes to convey: What…
Takeaways from Landscape Heroes
by Meghan O’Connell On January 31st, NOFA and the ELA teamed up to bring farmers and landscapers together to learn about three key components for creating healthy soil—and in turn, help reverse the effects of climate change. Those three featured “landscape heroes” were carbon, water, and biodiversity.
Can Permaculture Go (More) Native?
by Dan Jaffe Permaculture is on the rise. Like small-scale, local farming in general, permaculture is fueled by increasing reports of damage caused by industrial-scale agriculture – pollution of land and water, neurotoxic pesticides, inhumane treatment of domestic animals, and sweeping destruction of habitat.
Book Review: The Permaculture City
Written by Toby Hemenway Published by Chelsea Green Publishing, July 31, 2015 Reviewed by Trevor Smith This is not another Herb Spiral how to! Toby Hemenway’s The Permaculture City is a manual to practice permaculture, not a compilation of permaculture practices. Hemenway provides a tool kit “general enough to be applied to nearly any situation…
Keep Winter Gardens Working with Permaculture Strategies
by Lauren Chase Rowell I was asked to come up with five permaculture suggestions as to what could be done with the spaces in our gardens that remain empty after the harvest. These are the open areas in our annual vegetable, herb, and flower growing spaces that appear after the first frost and then often…
The Case for Native Medicinal Plants in the Landscape
by Todd Lynch In the wellspring of DIY that has made permaculture and edible landscapes household terms, native medicinal plants are outside many conventional conversations about edibles. Although institutions and homeowners rarely consider the value of these plants when weighing their options for a “productive” or self-sustaining landscape, medicinal plants are a valuable landscape resource…
Growing Permaculture at Greenfield Community College
by Shannon Dry and Abrah Jordan Dresdale Permaculture can be explained as a two-step practice: 1) observing the beneficial relationships, patterns, and processes found in ecosystems, and then, 2) mimicking those relationships in the design of systems that meet human needs equitably while regenerating the land. The student initiated and implemented permaculture garden at Greenfield…
Beginner’s Mind
Starting an ecologically-based farm business on marginal lands in the highlands of western MA by Kate Kerivan The rough-mowed trail led through an old field of asters and goldenrod edged with native high bush blueberry and American cranberry, humming with native pollinators. The trail continued through a stand of multiple-trunked ash, red maple, and beech…
Diversitree: Polyculture in Action
by Rebecca Leung Reprinted with the author’s permission from the Spring 2013 Wellesley College Botanic Gardens News. During the summer of 2012, one of the projects undertaken by the Environmental Horticulture and Sustainable Agriculture interns at Wellesley College was the planning and implementation of a permaculture garden at Ashland Middle School located about ten miles…
Book Review: Paradise Lot
Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One-Tenth of an Acre and the Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City Written by Eric Toensmeier, with contributions from Jonathan Bates Published by Chelsea Press, 2013 Reviewed by Penny Lewis Like a well-designed polyculture, Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates have packed a lot of valuable and interesting…
First Year’s Harvest from Wellesley’s Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden
by Dave Jacke and Keith Zaltzberg On April 2nd, 2011, a team of perplexed students, gardeners, and community members gathered with shovels and rakes in hand at the base of Wellesley College’s observatory telescopes pondering the forest of purple, orange, and green stakes poking up from a snow-covered meadow. Mother Nature pulled an April Fools…
