I forgot to mention, because I'm not using it here presently, Mollison's gardens which consist of a pit filled with organic matter, similar in principle to the technique Kathryn mentioned, but requiring far fewer inputs.  In a coastal situation, of course, seaweed is perfect as when used as a mulch it forms a glei that washes into the soil and holds moisture while releasing trace minerals, nitrogen and potassium.  Maybe some P, but I've no data on that.

For a description of Mollison's circle gardens, see the permaculture design course pamphlets that are a free download from our website.  We are resurrecting our Journal (The International Permaculture Solutions Journal) after a long comatose period, and the first born-again issue will contain an extensive article on patterning that includes a description of my modifications to Mollison's method, especially useful if working on sloping land.  (Actually it is a patterning section with articles by several authors, providing various examples of patterning in permaculture based on circles and hexagonal arrays.)

Whatever you do, you need copious amounts of organic matter which really aren't sustainable as you have to rip off some other place(s) to get the material.  Of course the organic subsidy may be acceptable if you scrounge materials that are going to be wasted anyway.  If you go this route, you want to concentrate in intensively managing a small area to minimize the amount of hauling (hard to do on this scale without pollution). 

There is a book by an American expatriot names Solomon, now living in Australia, titled something Gardening when it Counts or something like that.  He takes the inverse approach and widely spaces plants for arid landscapes and minimizes inputs.  Even though you may have an annual rainfall of 50 inches in your area (at least that's what we've got), like most averages, this one is meaningless and misleading.  First and foremost, the average includes the rainfall we get during hurricanes.  In one hurricane this year, some folks on the Atlantic coast got 3 feet of rain on one swell foop.  That goes into the average.  Secondly, the evaporation potential here is horrendous due not only high seasonal temperatures but all but constant wind in some seasons due to the coastal effects that, for winds, work well inland.  Finally, rainfall is very erratic here. We had the 500 year flood in my area several years back DURING THE 'DRY SEASON'.  I negotiated my 'land' in paddle boat, clearing cattle fence with lots of room to spare.  I'd been building up a chinampa in one area and I literally couldn't even find it.  Likewise, we've had droughts during the 'rainy' season. 
You don't have to worry about draining in the wet spells until your garden is close to under water.  (I build chinampas and use tall containers for that.)  Organic matter is all that you've got if you want to grow maladapted vegetables in the dry spells, including winter and early spring when weather is most favorable to conventional gardening.  (I've added clay and it just disappears, the fine particles sliding down between the coarse sand and out of root zones.)  The chinampas work partly because they are alternate layers of organic matter and muck (if I can get it) or otherwise the best soil I can get.  These are lots of work and very time consuming to construct--not for someone who wants to garden here over one winter.  Tree crops are the way to go.  I know I said that in the last post.

By the way.  I never got the post Kathryn mentions by someone names John.  I'm most interested in what he had to say.

Dan Hemenway



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Our 13th Annual Permaculture Design Course Online begins Sept. 28, 2008. The protocol for our Annual Permaculture Design Course Online is at http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/protocol8_4_08.pdf Simultaneously, we will begin a concurrent Permaculture Design Clinic Online, serving people who mainly wish to design their own homes.

A complete list of Yankee Permaculture publications by category may be downloaded from:

http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/YPCpublicationsbycategory.pdf



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