Comfrey (Symphytum spp.) has a great reputation as a "dynamic accumulator" of soil nutrients, but there's precious little published evidence of this fact. I decided to do my part to change that, with the help of some before-and-after soil tests.
Read the whole story with comments at Permaculture News, or just the article and my updates below.
(I originally wrote this article as a submission to PermacultureNews.org, but decided it would be better as a blog.)
I don't know about you, but I was really shaken by Peter Harper's insightful critique of permaculture last summer, “Permaculture: The Big Rock Candy Mountain.” It has caused me to rethink the way I approach my urban farm, at least for the coming year. Let me explain.
Back in September, I attended a class in Kansas City on Designing Edible Forest Gardens, and while there I was interviewed by Craig Lubow for EcoRadio KC. (The instructors of the class not unavailable to interview.) You can listen to it here -- the interview begins at 38:43 and ends at 58:20.
Slides from a class given October 26, 2013 at Flint Hills Technical College:
[updated July 2017]
A number of friends and colleagues have asked me recently about what I would recommend doing to regain some Internet privacy, given my background in Web development and technical support. The guide at PRISM-BREAK is authoritative but too technical for most people to follow. In recent weeks I've gone down the proverbial "rabbit hole" to see how secure I could make my Internet experience and then dialed the paranoia way back to a more practical, useful level. Here's what I've found.
Below is a series of videos we recorded originally to try to promote a fundraising campaign to go to Cuba for the International Permaculture Conference and Convergence (IPCC). In the end we did not reach our fundraising goal, but the videos are still here for your enjoyment!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDsRk37Oduw&list=PL7TLfy2vmpNCgksIzpegD…
revised 1/28/2013 for presentation at Butler Community College, El Dorado, KS.
This tour was recorded Sunday, May 6, 2012 (International Permaculture Day). It is illustrated with a series of photos, each marked with the time in the recording when it is described. Click the (i)nfo button to see the timestamps and descriptions; click the right side of each photo to advance to the next.
When I teach intro classes on permaculture design, when we're talking about boundary optimization -- that is, when to maximize the edge and when to minimize it -- one of the questions I like to ask students is along the lines of, "How many strawberry plants, spaced 6" apart, can you fit in 16 square feet and still reach them all easily for harvest?" The exact numbers are not important; what I'm looking for is the ideal design of a strawberry planter to maximize production in a minimum of space.
