Dear Reader,
It was with more than a blush of embarrassed self-recognition that I read Bob Nekrasov's description of the renter-dreamer:
“As us ‘renters’ forlornly scan open fields and acres — seeing real estate listings of eroded soils sitting below beautiful key points — we are designing lush, abundant landscape in our minds and whinging about the price and how we could easily ‘turn this place into a self-sustaining paradise’.”
I was caught in the dream trap, and needlessly so.
Nekrasov's article serves as an important reminder to the dream-rich/dollar-poor amongst us, detailing projects like container gardening, fruit tree cultivation, and seed-starting, and encouraging us to use the time we spend as renters honing our skills as permaculturalists.
Intro to Permaculture
Ethical Principles:
Care for the Earth
Care for people
Set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus
Design Principles:
1. Observe and interact.
2. Catch and Store Energy.
3. Obtain a yield.
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback.
5. Use and value renewable resources and services.
6. Produce no waste.
7. Design from patterns to details.
8. Integrate rather than segregate.
9. Use small and slow solutions.
10. Use and value diversity.
11. Use edges and value the marginal.
12. Creatively use and respond to change.
Zeno's paradox (as one can never touch the wall, we can never touch the limits of permaculture)
Time and Space (How I spend my time and where)
