Toby Hemenway, American author and educator, Died at 64

Toby Hemenway was born on April 23, 1952 and died on December 20, 2016.

He was an American author and educator.

Hemenway has written extensively on permaculture and ecological issues.

Hemenway was the author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture and The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience.

Hemenway served as an adjunct professor at Portland State University, Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University, and a field director at the Permaculture Institute (USA).

When he had obtained his degree in biology from Tufts University, Toby worked for many years as a researcher in genetics and immunology, first in academic laboratories including Harvard and the University of Washington in Seattle, and then at Immunex, a major medical biotech company.

Toby Hemenway passed away at 64 years old.

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UN recognises unique Australian farm built around Natural Sequence Farming as sustainable

abc.net.au writes…

“A radical environmental approach to holding water in leaky weirs on a farm — one of only five in the world — has been recognised by the United Nations as sustainable.

Mulloon Creek, near Braidwood in New South Wales, uses the Peter Andrews method of Natural Sequence Farming — growing weeds and slowing the movement of water in the landscape.

The farm has proved itself in the past seven years, increasing pasture growth through the drought and feeding more cattle.

The farm was run down before the owner, Tony Coote, adopted Mr Andrews’s methods to rehydrate the land.

As it sits at the headwater of the Shoalhaven River, it feeds into the Sydney Water Catchment.

“We are making more sustainable agriculture, improving the environment, [producing] cleaner water,” Mulloon Institute chairman Gary Nairn said.

Having left federal politics, Mr Nairn has taken over running the institute that hosts workshops and field days on the farm…”

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NEW BOOK: PERMACULTURE TEACHING MATTERS

 

bluemountainspermacultureinstitute.com.au writes…

“We are happy to announce the release of the NEW book: Permaculture Teaching Matters, written by Rosemary Morrow and designed by Alba Teixidor.

This book was funded by a crowdfunding campaign early in 2015. It is a step by step guide to assist holders of a PDC to become effective and inspiring teachers. We look forward to them training the next generation of permaculture practitioners.”

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RIP Bill Mollison – Bruce Charles ‘Bill’ Mollison 1928-2016

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‘Brilliant’ Climate Change Cartoon

 

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Home Made: 3 Bathtub Greywater System

Milkwood writes…

“Greywater is a fabulous, though often underused, household resource that should be used wherever possible. Here’s a home made 3 bathtub greywater system that’s simple but effective.

If you live in an area where water is precious at certain times of year (and when is it not?) then catching, storing and using every drop you can to create a more liveable home and surrounds is an excellent idea.

At Melliodora in Victoria, the studio cottage does its best to do just that, by catching, filtering and re-assigning the greywater to useful purposes in the garden.

While this design will not suit everyone, it will suit some, and it’s a simple, cheap and effective way to deal with, process and make the most of a small household’s greywater…”

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From Tree to Shining Tree – “wood wide web”

“A forest can feel like a place of great stillness and quiet. But if you dig a little deeper, there’s a hidden world beneath your feet as busy and complicated as a city at rush hour.

In this story, a dog introduces us to a strange creature that burrows beneath forests, building an underground network where deals are made and lives are saved (and lost) in a complex web of friendships, rivalries, and business relations. It’s a network that scientists are only just beginning to untangle and map, and it’s not only turning our understanding of forests upside down, it’s leading some researchers to rethink what it means to be intelligent. ”

Source: Radio lab and listen to the podcast here

Related article : Scientific America

Bananas Are Berries?

By Greta Lorge

Oddballs of the produce stand, tomatoes and avocados are fruits, as most people know. Yet more often than not they’re found alongside vegetables in savory culinary preparations. Working on this issue of the magazine got me wondering what it is, exactly, that makes a fruit a fruit. It turns out that the plant world is full of strange cases of counterintuitive classification.

Botanists define a fruit as the portion of a flowering plant that develops from the ovary. It contains the seeds, protecting them and facilitating dispersal. (The definition of a vegetable is a little fuzzier: any edible part of a plant that isn’t a fruit.) Subcategories within the fruit family—citrus, berry, stonefruit or drupe (peaches, apricots), and pome (apples, pears)—are determined by which parts of the flower/ovary give rise to the skin, flesh and seeds.

Strawberries and raspberries aren’t really berries in the botanical sense. They are derived from a single flower with more than one ovary, making them an aggregate fruit. True berries are simple fruits stemming from one flower with one ovary and typically have several seeds. Tomatoes fall into this group, as do pomegranates, kiwis and—believe it or not—bananas. (Their seeds are so tiny it’s easy to forget they’re there.)

One might think that owing to their superficial similarities to stonefruits, avocados might be classified as drupes. But no, they’re actually considered a berry, too—with one, giant seed.

So, bananas are berries and raspberries aren’t. Who knew?

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Tomato Beds

“The past couple of springs I’ve written about new research  on controlling tomato viruses, from Texas A & M University, and tried their recommended methods. It didn’t control all of the virus problems, thanks to an unusually wet, cool and humid spring we had last season, but I still saw considerable improvements, and will continue with their methods this year.

The methods I use for helping to control tomato virus (often called, “the wilt.”) are as follows. First, I incorporate agricultural cornmeal into the soil early in the year and again just before planting. Whether your local feed store calls it agricultural. cornmeal, or simply ground corn feed, it’s the same thing. Texas A & M has demonstrated that pulverized corn, with some cobs and husks, it’s worked into the soil and causes the growth of beneficial bacteria which attack tomato virus in the soil. I apply 2 lbs. of cornmeal and 1 lb. of dry molasses (which studies show helps the cornmeal work better) per 12 feet of tomato row, poured on top then mixed into the soil…”

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What is the difference between permaculture design and landscape design?

 

‘What is the difference between permaculture design and landscape design?’. This is a common question when people are first developing an understanding of permaculture design. It’s a good question!

Permaculture design goes deeper than landscape design. While both seek to create a functional and aesthetically pleasing environment, permaculture design thinks beyond the boundaries of your block. It aims to create connections that will sustain the design well beyond a lifestyle trend. The result is natural and urban elements that are better able to co-exist.

Permaculture design is systems thinking that can be applied to many situations beyond landscape garden design. This depth contributes to conditions that support permanent culture or as we know it, permaculture.

Let’s explore the difference between permaculture design and landscape design. Here are three points that make permaculture design stand out for us…

Read more here