This is my dream: To live as my forefathers once did - in harmony with the land that sustains us. A project to investigate and innovate the creation of a low impact home with methods of living in a form of permaculture designed to sustain my family and improve biodiversity. To leave the land richer than before and in doing so enable others to do so.
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A carnival of Green: Permaculture
Posted 10/10/08 by Matt B in the Online category
I have decided that it may be fun to write a somewhat regular carnival of green issues in blogging at the moment. This first edition will focus on recent blog posts on the subject of permaculture. But next time - who knows.first up we have permakent.com with a permaculture concept video. It's a good way to start off today's topic and set the tone for the remaining posts.
The next item I found was kyrasbw talking about Edges and Social Permaculture. For those that don't know the meeting point between two things is quite important in the concept of permaculture. Interestingly on a social level this news item looks at a similar idea of exploring the space we use. Meanwhile transitionculture.org takes a look at the early days of Transition in Flanders.
Caffeevino of Caffe e Vino blog gives thoughts on permaculture on the personal scale and how this might intersect with one's faith. Also looking at the personal scale is Deborah Fries who talks about The failure of backyard permaculture and the joy of growing vegetables in an older first ring suburb while rose works talks about using permaculture in garden design.
Now for the last few few odd bits.
Permaculture & Regenerative Design News talks about "Plan C" (some US based thing I think).
A little while ago Dismantle Civilisation talked about "sustainability in a nutshell".
What can you tell us about Financial Permaculture?
Financial Permaculture?
Posted 05/10/08 by Matt B in the Questions category
I came accross the concept of Financial Permaculture recently - what can you tell me?» Read More: Financial Permaculture?
Reading List
Posted 04/03/08 by Matt B in the Online category
I think it would be somewhat wrong of me to start out without sharing some of the sites that I respect and use. Those sites that I go back to again and again for further information. Blog's that I subscribe to and just generally providing a good set of resources of the greener life.The story of stuff - if you have not seen this site and the video on it then you have missed out! Get yourself over to the site right now and view that movie. It really is that good and more.
Story of stuff, blog - the blog by the creative force behind the video.
I am a geek. It's part of who I am. Due to my geeky nature I like things like the wikipedia and Google. I find Tipi's fascinating and have that page bookmarked so I can get back it regularly. Yurt's are probably more practical in the UK though.
Foraging for food is another topic I have a real drive for. As an idea I find it simply appeals to me on a deep level. I freely admit that I know far too little about it but that does not stop me wanting to read about it. naturali.co.uk has some good content on this topic as do pfaf.org, wildmanwildfood.com and lowimpact.org.
» Read More: Reading List
What do you want most?
Posted 04/05/08 by Matt B in the Online category
A fellow geek and Internet business man by the name of Mark over at 45n5.com recently posted about the desire to be self sufficient. To grow his own food and basically find contentment in doing so. It's a desire I can fully understand as it is something that I truly want to do too.The post is called Veggies, Fruits, And Goals and you can read my reply in the comments (it's signed Lord Matt because that's the online name I picked back when I started and I'm kinda stuck with it now).
Mark reminded me about why I started the Green Moral. It was not to make money (I've never exactly pumped this place with adverts or targeted keywords or any of the other stuff marketers do). It was to document my quest to live in a permaculture style environment integrated with the fruits of modern technology and science.
If that sounds "far out" then maybe it is but it is my dream and I don't exactly plan to give it up anytime soon. The idea of a lifestyle that is in harmony with my surroundings to the point that I am part of the ecosystem rather than an enemy of it is something I am now so taken with that I could not stop dreaming about it even if I wanted to. I think it would fair to say that this is something I long for.
It is why I work. It is why I blog and it is why I get up in the mornings.
So a general question to my readers (you few that find me interesting on this topic) - what drives you? What are your passions?
My Dream
Posted 12/03/09 by Matt B in the Green Moral category
I have a dream. It is a driving desire. A yearning so intrinsic to who I am that sometimes I feel I might expire should I be unable to chase my dream.My dream is a simple one.
A desire to live close to the soil, the trees, the natural world.
It's like the British woodlands are calling to me and they call ever louder with each passing year. Even in my flat surrounded, as it is, by concrete and brick. With the tiny pointless patches of mostly toxic ground growing just a few shaggy areas of weed infested grass I can still hear the call.
The call I can not ignore.
That is why I have created this blog. I can think of no other way to express that, which for lack of a better word, I shall call "My Plan".
This plan, our plan, your plan, the plan is grounded in reality and has been conceived because it will in coming to pass also fulfil my dream. A dream I will build with nothing but my bare hands if I must.
The plan is to create a feasible way of establishing an Permaculture Based Eco Village in Kent. (Kent is in the South East of England).
To fulfil my dream it seems the only answer is to fulfil the dream for many and in doing so enable others to live that same dream.
I can do nothing else it is part now of who I am and will never let go. The woodlands call to me and I must find a way to answer them.
If all that sounds a little melodramatic it is maybe because I am a little odd.
If all that sounds a little too spooky and mystical it is because I like to use poetic language to describe how I feel.
If it scares you imagine how I feel.
If it inspires you then join me.
Join me as I try to outline my plan. Document my success or failures and largely answer the call of woodland.
An ecologically informed approach to education.
Posted 28/06/08 by Matt B in the Unspecified category
As ecologically minded people it falls to us to investigate if a more "natural" lifestyle and ecologically informed methods of doing things can have a positive benefit on commonly accepted practices.Take, for example, schools - currently children start school very early and are pushed academically right from the start. However, The Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) are suggesting that school starting age should be increased to seven years of age. [BBC News Story]
Child development expert Elizabeth Hartley Brewer writes in the Telegraph "Does early schooling harm our children?" asking exactly the same question (also of British Schools). The issue is raise in theage.com.au
Also raising the question is this academic study: Is Early Learning Really More Productive? The Effect of School Starting Age on School and Labor Market Performance by Peter Fredriksson and
Björn Öckert. (Germany).
This study shows clearly the school starting ages in different countries. Four years old being the youngest age (Northern Ireland) with a few countries opting for five years of age (Malta, Netherlands England and the rest of the UK) while the bulk opt for six years of age (Austria, Belgium, Norway, Portugal and many others).
» Read More: An ecologically informed approach to education.
Only smallness can save us!
Posted 28/07/08 by Matt B in the Feeding Yourself category
Thanet is a small island district of Kent in the UK. It is one of just two ideal locations for growing cauliflower but the credit crunch has exposed a single point of failure in the current aggricultural methodology - the supply of potash and phosphates the price of which has shot up.Kent News has an interview with one of Thanet's last few cauliflower farmers as the news slowly trickles through that the price Supermarkets pay and the cost of production do not match up.
the year before [...], Peter Linlington of Birchington, who Mr Philpott called “the best cauliflower grower ever”, stopped producing caulis on his 400 acres.
It is this very problem that is addressed by the creation of "micro farms", permaculture installations and the return of the owner farmer and the family run small holding. George Monbiot suggests that the most efficient farms are the small farms. He is talking about something called the "inverse-size yield relationship" [more] which basically stats that the productivity of the farm is inversely proportional to it's size.
Big business is killing small farming.states Monbiot
by developing plants which either won’t breed true or which don’t reproduce at all, it ensures that only those with access to capital can cultivate.
Yet the credit crunch is killing access to capital and with it our only reliable access to food. Now is the time to consider every way we can to take back control of our food production.
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