How much mulch is too much?

How much mulch is too much is often asked.
Mulch is marvelous but it can cause collar rot if it is too close to the trunk of hte tree or plant.
Keep a distance of at least 25 cms from the trunk of a tree.
The larger the trunk, the greater the distance. A mulch free zone equal to half the width of the tree trunk is a good guide.

Mulch which is too deep, can stop rain from seeping through!

Mulch should be no deeper than 10cms.

Here's a free Permaculture book

Download from here.
http://permaculturevisions.com/what-is-permaculture-2/your-free-book-permaculture-in-a-flash/
 written by April Sampson-Kelly (post grad Dip sci), a permaculture graduate under Bill Mollison 1993

Permaculture Giants

Permaculture Giants

Picture: April Sampson-Kelly and Bill Mollison

www.Permaculturevisions.org

www.Permaculturevisions.com

Permaculture - concise

Write to us for a full file

Core tenets

The core tenets of permaculture are:

Care of the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.

• Care of the people: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence.
• Return of Surplus: Reinvesting surpluses back into the system to provide for the first two ethics. This includes returning waste back into the system to recycle into usefulness.
  

Permaculture design emphasizes patterns of landscape, function, and species assemblies. Determines where these element should be placed such that it provides maximum benefit to the local environment. The central concept of permaculture is maximizing useful connections between components and synergy of the final design. The focus of permaculture, therefore, is not on each separate element, but rather on the relationships created among elements by the way they are placed together; the whole becoming greater than the sum of it's parts. Permaculture design therefore seeks to minimize waste, human labor, and energy input by building systems with maximal benefits between design elements to achieve a high level of synergy. Permaculture designs evolve over time by taking into account these relationships and elements and can become extremely complex systems that produce a high density of food and materials with minimal input.

Remember, we stand upon the shoulders of those who came before us.

Maya Angelou said…”We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us”. Isaac Newton said…”If I have seen further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants”.

Lets always give others credit for their work.

**

Redesign!

Mother of All R’s is “Redesign”

Here’s a dozen R’s and the most important is Redesign

When researching and writing about waste reduction and the ‘classic 4 R’s’ focused on in the 90’s we realised the importance of a 5th R: Redesign.
Since then our wonderful students have suggested more. Lela Copeland, now one of our graduates in Hawaii, wrote about Re-use by modification (Retrofit). Permaculture North Sydney had more and there were 10 R’s to consider. Now Flavia Reis and Shane Moon (students in our face-to-faced course) and another student Ben Clarke have suggested a few more.

• Refuse
  
• Reduce
  
• Redistribute (share) 
• Re-use
  
• Retrofit
  
• Repair
  
• Recycle
  
• Refurbish
  
• Redeem
  
• Restore
  
• Regenerate
  
• Rebuild. 
• Redesign

Redesign

Redesign for durability, ease of maintenance and repair, and use of materials that are easily re-used and re-cycled without high energy input or toxic by-products. The concept of designing in parts called modules is a design feature that usually increases waste. However, if the modules are small enough, they can make repair easy (replacing just a steel blade or a brush head). Modules in many modern products such as white goods and cars are self-contained, and can usually only be opened when broken. If we design for common parts, sizes and materials with ingenious combinations and application then the design has a much greater capacity for re-use and repair. Few cars or even computers have common parts from one brand to another, this has often been to enhance the uniqueness of the product, ‘It’s different, better, sophisticated and new’. When consumers demand repair-ability, items will be promoted less on uniqueness and more on their common-ness or ‘standards’ and availability of parts.
Permaculture is about re-design. Clever design finds multiple functions and use for the waste, which is simply unused output [Mollison]. We can re-design our cities into self-reliant ‘villages’ and our home systems into responsible multi-functional productive spaces.

How to protect your animals in a heat wave

here's the link.
http://permaculturevisions.com/poultry/permaculture-visions-demonstration-site/geese-chooks-silkies/
sometimes animals need help, especially when they are fenced in and can't find their own solutions.
This is a very informative article.