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I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
Archive for “Permaculture” category
Showing results 36 - 40 of 105 for the category: Permaculture.
20 Oct 2008
For many years I have taught permaculture courses, and like many who do so, I start my courses with the Tale of Two Chickens. This is a very useful way of looking at inputs, outputs, and the science of maximising beneficial relationships, and it concludes with describing one of permaculture’s Holy Grails, The Chicken/Greenhouse. However, now, as I stand on the verge of actually trying to make a chicken greenhouse, I am finding it very difficult to find actual working examples of chicken/greenhouses. Might I have spent years unwittingly promoting a permaculture urban myth?
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18 Sep 2008
In Totnes, one sometimes hears the term ‘old hippy’ used as a term of abuse. Last week in Totnes, Albert Bates, an old hippy of the highest order, thrilled a full house at the Methodist Hall with the story of the Farm Ecovillage in Tennessee. It was a delight for me, as I first heard Albert speaking in 1995, when I was a fresh-faced, just qualified permaculturist who was lucky enough to get a bursary to attend the ‘Eco-Villages and Sustainable Communities’ conference at Findhorn. The speech Albert gave there, one long evening, was a life changing moment.
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22 Aug 2008
I am feeling a bit like a Head of State who has gone away from his/her well-ordered country, only to return two weeks later to find complete anarchy, breakdown, looting, gangs in control and the country’s infrastructure in tatters. When I left to go away for two weeks, my garden was a model of neat and tidy vegetable production. On my return a couple of days ago, it was a picture of carnage, laid low by the the Four Horsemen of the Gardening Apocalypse, slugs, caterpillars, torrential rain and bolting.
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10 Jun 2008
It is often said that there is nothing new under the sun. As we stand on the collective precipice presented by peak oil and its many companion challenges (recession, runaway food prices, climate change and so on), it is easy to think that we are the first generation to have to face these issues, indeed, for many of us, anything else has not really happened within our lifespans. However, we have been here before, and the idea that rampant oil prices will necessitate a major rethink of society is not a new one. The oil crises of 1973 and 1979, although politically rather than geologically imposed, focused the mind in much the same way that peak oil is starting to now, and there is a great deal that we can learn from the experience of that time.
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7 May 2008
David Holmgren‘s permaculture principles are integral to the Transition concept, and are touched on in the Transition Handbook. I see them as really being the design principles underpinning the design of anything in a post-peak context. David has just launched a new site, PermaculturePrinciples.com, which takes a deeper look into the principles. You might find it a useful resource. We are currently exploring how they might be applied to businesses in the Transition concept, more on that later…
Read more»
For many years I have taught permaculture courses, and like many who do so, I start my courses with the Tale of Two Chickens. This is a very useful way of looking at inputs, outputs, and the science of maximising beneficial relationships, and it concludes with describing one of permaculture’s Holy Grails, The Chicken/Greenhouse. However, now, as I stand on the verge of actually trying to make a chicken greenhouse, I am finding it very difficult to find actual working examples of chicken/greenhouses. Might I have spent years unwittingly promoting a permaculture urban myth?
