Hi All.
Blog number 14…here we go….
Let me start by thanking those of you who responded to my last blog and have taken genuine interest in the whole idea of self-sustainable neighbourhoods. I have come across a few people who have already started their own vegetable gardens and are keen to be involved in this project.

At the moment I am in the process of designing a template for a small garden that is roughly the size of your average bedroom door (2m x 0.8m). This garden is intended to require very little maintenance and effort on your part after the initial setup phase. Many people may not have the time or knowledge to start big, complex gardens, so this would be an ideal starting point for those people. Initially this garden will provide a portion of the family’s food, and once they are more confident with their small setup, and are willing to dedicate more space to vegetable gardening, they can expand and begin supplying food to nearby residents.

The two key things I’m busy researching for this design are permaculture and companion planting. Perhaps I should go into this in more detail for those who are not familiar with these terms. So far, this is my understanding of Permaculture, Companion Planting, Polyculture, and Monoculture.

Well the term companion planting is pretty self explanatory. Various plants perform certain functions that aid the growth of other plants or vegetables in your garden whether it be by repelling certain pests, attracting pollinators, or enriching the soil in some way. Examples of this sort of relationship would be the combination of tomato and basil, or the trio of squash, corn, and beans. Basil repels flies and mosquitoes, and also enhances the flavour of the tomato, so this combination is a must for any tomato lover. The trio of squash, corn, and beans form what is known to the Native Americans as the Three Sisters. First, the corn provides a trellis for the beans to grow on. With corn absorbing large quantities of nitrogen from the soil, beans are ideal to grow with them as they fix nitrogen from the air into the soil which helps feed the corn. The squash, which is grown around the corn and beans, shades the soil and prevents the growth of weeds. Marigolds are also ideal plants to have in your garden as they are a good natural pest repellant.

Companion planting and polyculture (planting multiple crops in the same area) form a large part of permaculture systems, but permaculture involves much more than just the production of food. It is sustainable, energy efficient and eco-friendly design. Every element is carefully considered, from the sun, wind, and rain, to natural topography and existing microclimates, to the placement of structures such as the house, barn, greenhouse etc. You could consider this to be the Western equivalent of Feng Shui.

With a full understanding of all the elements, they can be manipulated to serve any number of functions, and not-yet existing elements can be placed in such a way that they benefit from the existing ones without damaging them. With intelligent placement and harmonious relationships between all the elements, productivity is maximized, and energy consumption and maintenance costs are reduced.

On this note of maintenance costs and energy consumption, let us look at how most of our fruit and vegetables are produced today in what is known as a monoculture system.

Monoculture is the production of one kind of crop on a piece of land. There are a number of problems that arise with such a system. First is that it is a pest’s heaven as there are no natural defense mechanisms in place such as plants that attract predatory insects that feed on the pests, or plants that release an aroma that is unpleasant to certain pests. This leaves the crop vulnerable to attack, and leads to farmers having to purchase large quantities of pesticides as well as a means of distributing that to their entire crop. This has undesirable effects on the soil and sometimes the consumer as well. As soil quality decreases from both the concentration of only one crop and the use of pesticides, the farmer has to start buying in chemical fertilizers and even truckloads of new soil from an outside source. Keep in mind that this all requires added labour, and as the expense of maintaining that piece of land rises, so does the cost to you, the consumer.
Another thing to note is that with each chemical addition to the growing process, the quality and nutritional value of the food decreases, so in actual fact you begin paying more for food that is of a poorer nutritional value. I’ll take this further and say that while we continue to eat food that is lacking more and more of the nutrients that the body needs, so our body begins to function below its optimum and gradually our immune system weakens with it.

Eventually monoculture food production reduces the land to a desert. Even if crops are being rotated after each season, it only partially slows down the inevitable destruction of the land. Poly- and permaculture do the opposite. They work to maintain the natural state of the land and can even, over time, restore devastated landscapes. Perhaps it may initially require a bit more work and a few extra costs, but in the long run it is more cost effective, energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and more pleasing to the eye.

It is no mere coincidence that wild fruits, for example, grow so abundantly forests. It is unnatural to grow only one kind of fruit or vegetable in vast rows with nothing else planted around them. It is because of complex ecological models that they grow as abundantly as they do in the wild. Permaculture acknowledges that and applies this knowledge when designing one’s own piece of land, or even to a small back yard. Food can then be produced without the need for chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and grows together with beneficial plants that serve various functions from pest control to soil nutrition and flavour enhancement. So when it comes time to harvest, you have healthy, organic food that is much higher in nutritional value to what you may generally find in the supermarket. This is beneficial in maintaining a healthy body and strong immune system. Not only is the cost of fertilizers and pesticides eliminated, but also those of extra labour and transport. So both your body and your wallet benefit from the production of home grown, organic foods when making use of permaculture and companion planting knowledge.

There are plenty of websites you can visit that discuss companion planting and what vegetables are compatible with one another, but I will also try to compile a simple database with all that information at a later stage.

Until then, keep sending your comments, and again, I call to those who are seriously interested in getting involved in this neighbourhood self-sustainability idea which I discussed in more detail in my previous blog (One: 06-04-2009) to please contact me (this applies more specifically to people living in Port Elizabeth). For those of you living outside of Port Elizabeth, you are also more than welcome to contact me and we can chat about how you could get something going where you live, or if you already have a similar project running, I would very much like to hear about it.

As always it is a pleasure to share this with you and I hope you have found it to be informative and inspiring reading.

Your Brother in Light, Love and Service,
Ryan

PS. If you could please pass this on to anyone you think may be interested in reading it... that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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