Self & Resource Development

A large element of Permaculture is resource management. Collecting rain in cisterns, supporting or improving biological diversity, planting a cover crop to increase soil texture, fertility, and protect land from soil erosion, are examples of recourse management.

With Personal permaculture the primary resource to be managed would be each of us. The primary managers would be us as individuals, taking responsibility for ourselves; something that from an ecological point of view as a culture we are failing, so it must fall to the individual.

My greatest passion is in the cultivation of the interior realms. When One wakes up within life- to feel the connectivity of all things… one lives life in an integrated fashion. The problem being the masses are not awake and not integrated, so their psyches and the environment suffer.

Because the Environment’s clock is ticking, I’ll rant briefly before moving onto the interior realms.

Let’s start with lawns. Lawns are a strange American religious icon. So much so that in many subdivisions there are rules which dictate every home has a lawn. In San Diego County California where we live, 60% of the water goes for lawns. For those who don’t know the region, the climate is semi-arid so the water is begged, borrowed and stolen to support a mass addiction to lawns.
But wait, there’s more…

Last year access to agricultural water for our grove in Fallbrook was reduced by 30%. No water restrictions were placed on lawns. Thousands of trees in our county were cut down, stumped, or let to struggle without adequate water, something which will weaken the trees immune systems and increase disease. Crop production plummeted, while lawns flourished.

Weird weather from climate change means disruption in food production. Bee Colony Collapse (virus enhanced because the new pesticides deplete the immune system,) is reducing food production. Choosing lawns over agriculture and forcing growers to cut down producing trees is frightening. More than 100 trees were cut down in our small grove alone. This year our water will be reduced by 40%...

Your Personal Permaculture advice is Food First. Plant some soon. Grow it organically. Eat it.

Tuck a tomato plant in-between the rose bushes, basil between the society garlic, which (by the way) those little purple flowers can really add flavor and beauty to a salad. Green onions and chives can grow most anywhere, and you may already have rosemary growing in the yard. If you have an unsightly fence plant beans, berries, passion fruit. Better yet, get a book on landscaping with food along with reducing or eliminating the size of your lawn.

Oh, and stop using chemicals on the lawn and flowers. They stress the environment and poison pets and food.