Episode-259- Learning to Harness Permaculture Zones and Layers
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Today I discuss an introduction to permaculture principles and explain the 7 layer system along with the 5 primary zones, how they interact and how you can harness them to improve your sustainable production whether you live on an urban lot or in a rural area.
I also name Franklin County Washington as asscowns of the day for paying residents to kill fruit trees and replace them with non produces and yes they are really doing this. I also name 3 UK soldiers as heroes of the day for their actions in Afghanistan.
Join Me Today as We Discuss
- The high canopy layer
- How low trees begin the transition to the “edge”
- How shrubs complete the edge transition
- The herbaceous layer is more then you realize
- The rhizosphere (root crops) and its overlap with other layers
- The soil surface (cover crops) the over looked layer that gives so much
- The vertical (climbing vines) layer that bridges other layers and zones
From there I explain the 5 zones of permaculture beginning in zone one (closest to human habitation) and progressing to zone 5 (wild forest).
Resources for today’s show…
- Members Support Brigade
- Join Our Forum
- Region Six Get Together
- Ready Made Resources – (sponsor of the day)
- Tea Party Silver – (sponsor of the day)
- Three Soldiers from the UK – Heroes of the Day
- Franklin County Washington – Assclowns of the Day
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Great show! Thanks for all the permaculture information. Love these ‘growing stuff’ shows.
What is the best book for permaculture?
Permaculture One by Bill Mollison is “The Bible” is is also expensive even used.
http://tinyurl.com/permacultureone
Also a lot more affordable with a lot of action items is “Getting Started With Permaculture” it gives 50 pretty cool projects you can do.
http://tinyurl.com/perma-getting-started
I’ve not had a chance yet to listen to this episode; but the same question came to mind about a good book to start with as a tome/bible for Permaculture; what would be your preference when comparing Bill Mollison’s book “Permaculture One” to “Getting Started with Permaculture” to “Gaia’s Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture”? I am just curious as I want one that not only gives the basics and the theory; but is also timeless and versatile for any area.
Gaia’s garden is on my wishlist. Seek out many of the mollison videos online via youtube and other video sharing sights, while his core principles are excellent – not knowing any of the plants he is using, nor being able to grow most of them in my climate is not very helpful.
I paged through _The Backyard Homestead_ by Carleen Madigan at a local bookstore and it looked excellent and more US based. It is on my wishlist too.
Searching for nitrogen fixers has been challenging. Many of them that grow in my area are not native and are classified as invasive. I don’t want to introduce something that will take over my production plants. The advanced search here: http://plants.usda.gov/adv_search.html has been excellent. I use it to drill down to the plants that fit my need, then search my county extension office website (which is outstanding) to see if it is a good candidate here.
Keep in mind plants that are not invasive in one area may be so in another — for example a plant that can not handle hot dry summers without irrigation in Texas will never take over there. Put that plant in Minnesota and it goes nuts and crowds out natives and food producing plants.