Hi there! Kayla here. So I attended a permaculture conference at UMass this week and I had a blast, so of course I needed to make a blog post about it!
What’s permaculture you ask? Great question! Permaculture is is a term coined by Australian biologist Bill Mollison which is short for permanent agriculture, or permanent culture. It is a system of agriculture which mimics ecological systems to provide a diverse group of food which all grows together. It highlights polycultures, or guilds, like the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash. These groups of plants form beneficial relationships that you wouldn't ordinarily find in a monoculture (production of only one crop). For example, corn provides a pole for the beans, the beans fix nitrogen in the soil, and the squash provides ground cover. The increased diversity of a permaculture garden cuts down on weed and pest invasion as well.
UMass Amherst has been one of the leaders in campus permaculture. Over the past few years, they have established three permaculture sites on campus and others in the local area. Their efforts have even been recognized by the White House! As such, they've been a great resource for anyone who wants to create a permaculture garden on their campus.
One of the UMass Amherst permaculture gardens
Harvest of peas from the garden shown above! Photo by Lauren Lemire.
Water capture system on the garden shed. Photo by Lauren Lemire.
The first day of the conference started out with a tour of either Willow Lane Permaculture Garden in Amherst or the Food Forest Garden in Holyoke. I attended the tour in Holyoke, lead by Jonathan Bates and Eric Toensmeier. They wrote a book called “Paradise Lot” which went into depth about their design process and the time spent creating and working on the garden over the past 10 years. Here is a description of their book to give you an idea of what they’re up to:
When Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates moved into a duplex in a run-down part of Holyoke, Massachusetts, the tenth-of-an-acre lot was barren ground and bad soil, peppered with broken pieces of concrete, asphalt, and brick. The two friends got to work designing what would become not just another urban farm, but a "permaculture paradise" replete with perennial broccoli, paw paws, bananas, and moringa—all told, more than two hundred low-maintenance edible plants in an innovative food forest on a small city lot. The garden...also features an edible water garden, a year-round unheated greenhouse, tropical crops, urban poultry, and even silkworms.
That evening we heard the keynote presentation by Majora Carter who is an awesome urban planner who focuses on sustainability in places like the South Bronx. Check out her TED Talk!
Over the following days, we heard success stories from other campuses about their permaculture projects and we brainstormed with each other about creating a campus based on permaculture principles like leaving no waste and supplying fresh food for the campus. People from all over the country were at the conference and it was really cool to see how their projects differed because of climate differences. I got to work with Jonathan Bates (see: Paradise Lot) and got some hands-on experience with creating a permaculture garden at the UMass Chancellor’s home.
entrance to the Chancellor’s garden. Photo by Lauren Lemire.
After learning how to sheet-mulch, we were ready to plant in the newest addition to the Chancellor’s garden!
One of my favorite talks throughout the conference was the endnote speaker Eric Toensmeier (again, see Paradise Lot). He spoke about how permaculture could be seen as a way to combat climate change because of its focus on regenerative perennial agriculture. One of the things I like about permaculture is that it stresses the importance of regenerative agriculture. So unlike traditional agriculture, permaculture seeks to regenerate the soil and leave the ecosystem more lively than it was when we started! What’s cool is that perennial agriculture acts as a carbon sink. Annuals, which are planted every year, are only a temporary carbon sink. Perennials have more developed root systems and woody parts which sequester carbon for long periods of time.
According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we need 630,000,000 hectares of agroforestry expansion in order to effectively combat climate change. That’s twice the size of India! Mainstream agriculture is one of the largest causes of climate change and ecosystem degradation because of the use of pesticides, planting in annual monocultures, and the need to ship crops all over the world. Perennial permaculture can solve a lot of these problems! Many of our staple crops have perennial alternatives which can be grown in polycultures.There are even plants which we can use to make bioplastics and diesel alternatives. Eric Toensmeier is currently working on a book about the subject and I can’t wait to read it when its done!
a bunch of folks from the conference!
This is only a slice of what I’ve learned about permaculture. If you’re interested in learning more, here is a list of recommended reading!
- Paradise Lot by Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates
- Edible Forest Gardens by Eric Toensmeier
- Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison
- Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets (mostly because mushrooms are cool and totally a really important part of permaculture. I also recommend Paul Stamets’ TED Talk).
Special thanks to Lauren for the photos! Lauren Lemire is a student at Holyoke Community College studying permaculture and graphic design.
No comments:
Post a Comment