(Perma)Culture and Sanity

Articles on Permaculture, Mental Health and the Environment

Zen Mind, Permaculture Mind

Toward a Permacultural Way of Seeing

• Trees and Water in the Southwest discusses some of the relationships between humans, trees and rainfall as they relate to the arid Southwestern US. First published in the Casas de Vida Nueva Therapeutic Farm newsletter.
• Permaculture and Connections explores some ways in which modern humans' loss of connection with self and each other has translated into impoverished ecosystems and a failing agriculutre.
• Permaculture and Water in the Southwest looks at the sustainability (or lack thereof) of how we obtain, use and 'dispose of' water in the arid Southwest. Considers how our ideas about water cause us to refuse the purest source of water (the sky) in favor of often-polluted and rarely-pure sources (ground and surface waters) which we then pollute even further.
• How Land Recovers From Cataclysm shows how land subjected to cataclysmic destruction recovers, and discusses the archetypal stages through which recovery passes on the way from bare ground to forest.
• Soil—Or Dirt? discusses relationships between dirt, subsoil, and topsoil and soil organisms in a healthy, productive organic soil.

Culture, 'Sanity' and Mental Health

On the Relationship Between How We See the World, and How We Treat the World

• Linear vs Cyclical Processes looks at some of the differences between linear and cyclical modes of seeing and thinking. In linear thinking, we attempt to 'dominate' Nature, creating our own systems which run off energy supplied by us. In cyclical thinking, we cooperate with Nature and work synergistically with existing natural systems. Originally published in Casas de Vida Nueva Therapeutic Farm newsletter.
• Problems, Resources and Perception uses examples from permaculture to explore how our unconscious ideas about 'reality' influence whether we see problems or opportunities when we look around us. First published in Casas de Vida Nueva Therapeutic Farm newsletter.
• Ecology and Addiction looks at the relationship between social/ecological problems and our culture of addiction.

Permaculture 'How-To' Articles

Techniques and Practices for Creating Sustainability Locally

• Planting Trees in Drylands gives directions for successful tree planting under the difficult circumstances and conditions found in semi-arid and arid lands.
• Garden Bed Shaping shows how the permaculture designer incorporates surface variations into her garden beds in order to maximize microclimates within the garden. This allows her to enhance her garden's health, diversity and yield with a minimum of inputs.
• Theory and Function of Constructed Wetlands Part One lists some pros-and-cons of constructed wetlands, man-made canals built for natural gray and black wastewater treatment. Constructed wetlands can naturally produce water clean enough to drink, and rather than dispersing the resulting clean water in leach fields the water can be collected in pond(s) and used for watering landscapes and for other purposes.
• Theory and Function of Constructed Wetlands Part Two discusses issues surrounding how to clean polluted water, and how to keep it clean in the first place.
• Theory and Function of Constructed Wetlands Part Three discusses removing metals and other persistent pollutants from wastewater streams using constructed wetlands.
• Theory and Function of Constructed Wetlands Part Four discusses the working parts of a constructed wetland wastewater treatment system, describing their biological functions and variations.
• Understanding Water-Harvesting, Diversion and Soil-Conservation Swales notes differences between and uses of water-harvesting, diversion and soil-conservation swales.
• Trees and Pastures in Permaculture shows how trees interspersed in pastures can increase forage production as well as adding to variety and quantity of overall yield.
• Designing and Establishing Multi-Use Windbreaks to protect livestock and crops, increase comfort and supply yields over and above expected crop and livestock increases.
• Windbreak Plants for Diversified Yields lists some plants suitable for diversified-yield windbreak plantings in semi-arid, cold temperate zones.
• Starting Healthy Plants From Seed gives a full description of the steps to follow for great results germinating seeds and growing them into healthy garden transplants. Gives tips for making your own seed-starting potting soil.
• Collecting Wild Plants gives some tips to increase your success collecting wild plants, together with a collecting ethic and guidelines to ensure ongoing health of wild landscapes under increasing pressures on many fronts (suburban encroachment, grazing pressures, roadside mowing schedules out-of-sync with seeding times, etc.).
• Creating Backyard Wildlife Habitat gives tips and guidelines for creating wildlife habitat for birds, butterflies and a variety of other fascinating animals in your own back yard (with some plants suitable to the southern US).

Seed-Saving and Plant Conservation

• The new, 2nd Edition Vegetable Seed Saver's Handook shows you how to save seeds from any common Heirloom garden vegetables. Goes to howtosaveseeds.com, also by Jack Rowe.
• 5 Laws of Genetic Conservation discusses practical aspects of genetic conservation as listed in Cary Fowler and Patrick Mooney's Shattering: Food, Politics and the Loss of Genetic Diversity, University of Arizona Press. Originally published in Seeds of Texas Seed Exchange newsletter.
• Review&mdashShattering: Food, Politics and the Loss of Genetic Diversity discusses food politics and genetic loss through a review of Cary Fowler and Patrick Mooney's book of the same name (University of Arizona Press). Originally published in Seeds of Texas Seed Exchange newsletter.
• Genetic Preservation Notes touches on saving heirloom garden vegetable seeds as well as preserving wild plants' genetic viability vis-a-vis loss of habitat to grazing, roadside mowing and human encroachment.
• Codependence and Modern Food Plants talks about some of the ways humans have affected our food plants, both making the plants we eat dependent on humans for their continued existence (since in most cases they are too weak to survive by themselves), and how in turn humans are dependent on a small group of relatively-weak plants needing lavish care for production.
• Genetic Loss and Mankind's Dominion discusses the way modern Humankind's vision of 'dominion' over Nature has failed agriculturally and caused impoverishment of ecosystems and erosion of their genetic bases.

Toward a New Economics

• Money and Ecology exposes some of the layers of how our modern monetary system works to exploit both social and ecological systems, mining them unsustainably for materials or labor, and mentions some rising alternative economies (such as local barter groups) which give hope and new possibilities.

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