I want to breathe air into the spark that is within peoples’ hearts until it becomes a fire roaring passionately for a life they love to live.

Through time i have learnt clearly that it is impossible to change anyone, the change just has to come from within the person. They must want and create the change for themselves.

In knowing this now, my energy is no longer outward, but within myself. Nurturing my truth so that i have the confidence to walk solidly and confidently as Jay.

So really, people find their own sparks when they get inspired and air it to flame all themselves… owning the process and the bubbling excitements that comes with empowerment and awakening.

I hope for nothing more than to be happily and wholly me, beaming into the world a special joy that i carry. An image of the place i know we are going and a heart so full of love i cannot hold it in.

One simple Permaculture principle is, “the problem is the solution” this is a very progressive and productive way to look at any situation.

These weeds get lots of people worked up and many people often revert to poisoning them. I DO NOT agree with using any poisons. So here is a very simple solution that will do more then just keep this particular weed under control it will also nourish you!

Grab an old bed sheet and with the help of a friend run this bed sheet over your seeding farmer’s friends (any of you that have come into contact with these seeds will know that they grab onto you and don’t let go!) The sheet will collect all the seeds it touches.

Turn the sheet upside down and spray it with water. before long ( a day or two) these seeds would have sprouted into lovely edible sprouts, that are awesome to eat alone or in a salad.

the problem can always be the solution.

have fun.

SO WHY DO WE?

This is something that we have become way way to comfortable doing. Literally shitting into water that is fit for drinking.

If we were to harvest all of our grey water and compost all of our Humanure in the cities then we would have an agricultural system right there! We would not have to truck in food from all around the country FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD! We would be eating out of our own parklands.

I know this concept may be a little too confronting for most of you to digest at the moment.

So instead of me going through all the nitty gritty, i will give you one short sweet example of an easy urban system and then attach the ‘HUMANURE handbook’ link by Joseph Jenkins for you to read at your lesuire. It is a hilarious read that i’m sure you will enjoy and learn LOTS and LOTS from.

example:

in an urban backyard in central melbourne, a active permaculturalist is composting her own humanure, in to beautiful rich humus ready to apply to her thriving fruit trees. In her bathroom she has a 20ltr container placed under a wooden squat box (squatting is another very important skill we have lost). The bottom layer is newspaper, then you POO, apply leaves on top then another layer of newspaper ready for the next participant! THAT EASY! when that bucket is full, take it outside and in to the 200ltr drum that is sitting on the bare soil with holes drilled in the bottom. Worms get inside the big drum and start chomping away on your humanure, whose nitrogen is already combining with the carbon of the leaves and paper to make beautiful safe nutrient rich COMPOST!!!

total natural brilliance.

take responsibility, turn your ‘waste’ into a resource

http://www.humanurehandbook.com/index.html

Really i think that this is one of the thing most important things that we should be taught in school. How to make plants grow. Especially productive plant, food, timber, pioneer plants etc.

Here is some interesting information i just came across – i’ll continue to update this post.

most plants can be grown from seed of cuttings. This means that there is really no need to go an BUY your plants. You can start from the beginning, grow whatever you like and as many as you like.

Growing from cuttings

Cuttings are best taken from last years’ grows, the part of the tree that is young, but has gone from green to brown and has a ‘snap’ when broken. Take a cutting with a sharp set of snips, just below one node and just above another.  dip one end in either honey or water that has had willow soaking in it for 24 hrs, this will add a grow hormone to the cutting and increase the strike rate. Plant the cutting 2/3rds deep in a shady well rained area and wait for it to set roots and grow leaves. Don’t plant out (move) again for at least 6 months.

Growing from Seed

Most seeds from most fruits and plants will grow. You will never get exacty the same specimen as the parent plant, but it won’t be too far off! If you eat a fruit that you think is particularly delicious then plant the seeds. Seeds are ready to collect when they drop from the plant, the fruit is ripe or the flower is dead around them. If the seed is from a deciduous tree, then place the seed in dry sand in the refrigerator for a month of so to make it think it has gone through a winter. Then plant them out.

more soon.

happy gardening

references

“the best of jackie french”

This is an interesting discussion. One that i am passionate about.

When we eat we are literally creating ourselves, building ourselves, we ARE what we eat. If we are eating toxic foods we will have toxic bodies, toxic thoughts and toxic attitudes. If we eat foods that are fresh, healthy and alive that is what we will be.

Two years ago was the first time that i heard that the raw food diet existed. I thought it was a joke! having been brought up on the Standard Australian Diet (SAD) my Mc Donald eating, coke drinking, candy munching self could not believe that people survive off of JUST foods that are still raw.

I started to research, and i found one of the truths that was to set me free. we are designed to eat raw foods and thrive off of them. The very reason we are sick is mostly due to the foods that we eat. Eating a diet of raw foods has resulted in people being cured from ‘incurable’ diseases, like diabetes, cancer, asthma and lots more.

When i find information like this, that i believe i cannot ignore it. How irresponsible would that be!? i couldn’t do it.

so two years later… What do i eat?

after a period of transition and more and more research, yeah, i eat only raw foods. After reading the book “the 80/10/10 diet” by Dr Douglas Graham, i eat mainly fruits, usually with a large salad for dinner. I frequent the online low fat raw vegan community, 30 bananas a day very often. It is FULL of beautiful conscious people, striving to create a sustainable planet, by changing their lives in the most intimate way possible, changing what they create their physical body out of.

By not eating animals, animals products and grain. I am not contributing to the MASSIVE factory farming industry which partakes in cruely towards animals which is beyond belief, nor am i contributing to the de-forestation that is happening in the amazon for the soy bean crops that are shamelessly spewing themselves over the once pristine virgin forests. I am no longer subjecting my body to unnecessary stresses that were making me sick.

I eat only local, in-season fruits. The world covered in fruit tress is nothing short of desirable. That is the world that i want, so that is the world that i am creating with my actions.

i have lots to say about this diet/lifestyle, if you have any questions i am MORE than happy to answer them.

for lots of amazing information visit my friends at www.30bananasaday.com

J

The farm was a treasure trove of plant life, boasting 130 medicinal herbs. The founder and owner of the farm, Ken atherton, trained as a pharmiist for 20 years. In the later stages of that occupation he also worked as a herbalist, gathering and distilling his own herbs to make tinctures that he found had very much the same effect as the chemical medicines that he was also perscribing. He took as step back and looked at his life, analyzing what it was that made him most happy. He found that without a doubt it wash the time out doors collecting the herbs that really made his heart sing. This was the realisation that changed Kens life and brought about the birth of Pindari farm, some 28 years ago.

The Farm is Ken and his Wife Jobi’s home and work place. they have been living there for 18 years. In the 10 years prior energies were put into developing the house built to satisfy the title self sufficient.

the tour was very generous. A comprehensive story of many of the nooks and crannies. the whole audience were captivated at the glorious health of the produce, the enormous size of the lettuce! and the careful steps ken had taken to make sure his soil biology was just perfect.

some photos will follow asap.

It is a dream for the world.

But more simply a dream for a website. A website that will aid the development of a whole world permaculture nation.

This website is ideally a GLOBAL DIRECTORY!

a place where anyone can come and browse a map of the world on their screen and select the little flags that are in their local areas to locate teachers, other PDC graduates, consultants, demonstration sites and much more.

this way we can start to connect locally. Connect strings locally bit by bit until we are all one.

NOTE:  this post is a constant work under construction and is derived straight from my notes, it is more a bounty of possibilities rather than ‘how to’s’

I hope you enjoy it and learn a lot.

A PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE

Permaculture is based on sciences that are known, it has nothing to do with metaphysics. This does not, however, disable an individual who entwines their lives with metaphysical and mysterious matters from practicing permaculture. A permaculture thrives on diversity in all aspects.

What are the major Problems that give us ‘evidence to act’?

Above are the three major contributors to the degradation of the state of our earth. They are all connected, we cannot soak up our pollution without the forests, but we are cutting them down for the fertile soil that lies beneath them, because other places we have used have already suffered from extreme soil erosion.

Our agriculture industries are unsustainable large monoculture crops that contribute 200 tonnes per hectare a year of soil loss. The 5 major crops that a grown for food and traded on the stock market are Soy, Wheat, Maize, Rice and Potatoes. When these crops are brought locally we receive the same nutrition from 2% of the equivalent area.

“The conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems that have the diversity and resilienve of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people, providing their food, energy, shelter, and their material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order.”

Bill Mollison – Co originator of the permaculture concept

The above definiation is only one of many ways to describe what permaculture is,  it depends on who you are asking to what answer you receive. However, at the very core of permaculture there are three ethics:

Earth Care - protect, preserve and nurture the earth.

People Care – care for all people, those that are close and those far away. No one should be made to do anything against their will.

Fair Share – share your surplus back into the first and second ethic.

I beleive that permaculture as a principle is one of the most natural

As of yet, i have done nothing overly significant with the information that i was bestowed, not that it is particularly my aim to do so. I aim to be a PART of something very significant. I aim to be an active part of creating a permaculture for the peoples of the world, where we care for the earth and each other willingly and with love. This can be done simply and perpetually by sharing our surplus.

This blog space was inspired by two people, Angelo the permaculture wizard of Melbourne, his amazing garden in Preston and his impeccable record of it at http://deepgreenpermaculture.wordpress.com/about/ i urge you to pop into his website OR even better contact him and see his beautiful garden, and Jonathon Chan one of the hardest working, passionate, kind, clever people i know of. Thank you.