Gardening often feels like magic, but it’s not magic enough to make something out of nothing.
The trouble with many gardening systems is that the something that you have to put in ends up costing as much as what you get out. Smart gardening is as much about minimising what you have to put in as it is about making what you get out as luscious and prolific as possible. Really smart gardening – which is what I reckon permaculture is – is about finding resources that you get paid to take away – problems that you can turn into fertiliser.
An example of a problem that makes a really good garden resource is the problem of getting rid of your kitchen refuse. If you keep a box of earthworms, or a couple of chooks, you can turn the problem of what to do with all those container gardens that need cleaning out of the fridge, into the resource of nice sweet smelling rich garden soil, for next to no effort.
You can do it for so little effort that it becomes economical to take on other people’s problems, and dispose of kitchen scraps for your neighbours, your workmates, your local school, even the neighbourhood snack bar.
Another great problem to have is what to do with lawn clippings and garden refuse – your own and more interestingly, your local lawn mowing service. He probably has to pay to dump lawn clippings, and in the bigger towns he has to do an expedition to the outer suburbs as well. He’s likely to be very pleased to find a free, handy disposal site. He may well even have a mulcher to chomp up the garden prunings.
Again there’s an IF. Lawn clippings tend to matt down if you use too many without anything to balance them. But if you can track down a good local source of animal manure to go with them, preferably some that is a problem where it is, then this is compost that is worth the making.
Another example is the problem of a local creek or waterway that is clogged up with waterweeds. If you take on the job or clearing some of them out, you get a free, easily collected bulk compost ingredient, or worm food, and the credit for environmental clean-up work.. Or a local park or playing field or vacant lot that needs mowing. These resources take effort to collect. But at least you get paid double for the effort – once in kudos for the clean-up job, and once in compost for the vegetables.
The trick is to of have an eye for the resource value of everything that was once living. You need to identify every bulk source of organic matter that is within your normal range. Nothing you have to go too far out of your way for, because then it ends up costing more effort than its worth. But in every locality I’ve ever come across, there is somewhere that organic matter is accumulating in such bulk that it’s causing a problem.
Designing your gardening system around the kinds of organic matter that represent problems in your local area, is the first step in setting up a garden that operates at a profit – where what you put in doesn’t need carrots made of gold to justify it.
I am reading your book at the moment and fell very inspired by Permaculture. It is also very nice to be in touch via this blog. Being naturally a person who loves the Op shop and the hard rubbish collection I think that Permaculture’s relyance on recycling of “waste” is fantastic. Thankyou for your generosity Linda!
Hi Linda,
My kids bought me your book (requested) for ‘present day’, I wore out the one in our local library. I have a small garden and cant accommodate chooks but would like to build a big worm farm straight onto the ground like the one Stephanie did in your book. Do I need to use some sort of base material for drainage such as gravel? And will I need to provide some sort of mesh barrier to prevent rodents from burrowing up into the worm farm? Is this likely to happen? The farm will be made out of besser-like blocks and will be lidded with an ag-pipe in the bottom for drainage.
Your feed back will be greatly appreciated.
Helen
Hi Helen, Ag pipe in the bottom should provide enough drainage. Make sure you lead it into a nutrient capture plant as it will contain a rich fertiliser. The question about rodents is an interesting one. Rats do like worms. They raid worm farms both to steal the food and to eat the worms themselves. So a mesh barrier, or a well buried foundation is a good idea.
Thanks Linda.
Would you know what type of mesh could be used underground without deteriorating?
Helen
I scored some crimsafe mesh that was being thrown out, and it’s wonderful stuff. But that was just lucky. I don’t know what you might find that is readily available, but there would be something. The kind of mesh they use in septic trenches maybe?
Thanks. I’m sure I will think of something suitable.