Permaculture Talk

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Comment by Gary Clarke on November 7, 2010 at 2:46pm

Thanks to everyone who chatted to the newcomer and made me feel welcome at my first event. Ruth gave an thought provoking talk on permaculture in which she made an interesting point about how the philosophy can be applied beyond crop production and onto social interactions.

In particular, I was struck by the concept of valuing the margins. I took this to mean that there is something potentially useful and valuable to be gained by bringing two seemingly contrasting activities into close proximity and seeing what happens as they overlap. In agriculture, the gain comes from cross pollination and beneficial planting partnerships. Socially, it could be the cross over of skills, ideas and sharing of resources. In both instances the outcome seems to be a greater "happiness".

If interaction at the margins produces happiness then the more of it the better. In agriculture, it makes sense to increase the physical area of interaction by planting edges in curves. Socially, it could mean one group of people engaging in one "flavour" of creative activity sharing the space with another group doing something else. The more I think about the analogies I can think of.

I'd like to read everyone else's thoughts.

Comment by Ben on November 7, 2010 at 1:18pm

Yeah well done Alex and many thanks to Ruth - fascinating! If only we could have had more time to talk about it - and eat cake!

Comment by Alex Cornish on November 6, 2010 at 10:41pm

Here's a little article to brighten your day!

http://greenupgrader.com/13190/beer-power-to-warm-uk-homes/

I was hoping that this talk might lead to a full Permaculture design course which we didn't quite manage to go into that too much but basically would any of you be interested? It's basically a 12 day course (this can be done over 2 weeks or 5 to 6 weekennds- be they monthly or consecutive) where you will go into more depth on the subjects touched on today and a few more. I personally cannot recomend it highly enough and it is what lead me to transition.

Comment by carolyn westlake on November 6, 2010 at 10:14pm

Thanks Alex for organising and Ruth for taking the time to come and talk to us. Would love to learn more about this fascinating subject and how we can apply it to so many things-and not just gardening. Great stuff!!

Comment by Wenderlynn Jane Bagnall on November 6, 2010 at 9:14pm

Took me a while to realise I had to RSVP before I could make a comment. Thanks Alex for bringing Ruth and her knowledge to our attention. She's great and very good at what she does. I was quite nervous when we all had to do the ice breaker type thing, felt like I was back at school. :-) What was the course you went on? I would be interested in going on it. I am sorry I couldn't part take of people's baking tonight but it all smelt delicious! Thanks to everyone for their wears and to Jane for getting the tea etc sorted.

Comment by Iain Bagnall on November 6, 2010 at 8:53pm

Thanks a lot for organising today's talk Alex; it was great - really interesting and nice to see everyone. Please pass on our thanks to Ruth next time you contact her.

Comment by Alex Cornish on September 27, 2010 at 9:07am

Permaculture is something that I feel passionately can change the world for the better, by actually intelligently managing the water and increasing soil fertility we can create incredibly productive spaces which increase our own vitality, community and happiness.