Which, sadly, isn't as much as I thought it would be.
However, that has nothing to do with the course, and entirely to do with my expectations.
You see, it was an introduction to Permaculture design course - which means, essentially, giving you the basic information you need to then, well, design your "site" to do the most it can do. Not the actual ways that you go about it.
The course had information for a temperate climate, a desert climate, and a tropical one. Which means that there was even less information on specifics.
But, as a free course available to anyone who decided to show up, that means they can't just say "well, we're in Oregon, we're going to talk about Oregon." Well, they could, sure, but it wouldn't let the hundreds of people in other countries learn much. Though, it would have been helpful to me, because I'm in Oregon.
Which is actually a part of why I was interested in the course. It was from Oregon State University, which is South of where I live, though not by much, and has basically the same things to think about - and I was hopeful there would be some, well, examples.
There were, though. Kind of. From the person teaching the course and what they did in their backyard. For all of 1 minute throughout the course. And that was about it. They showed other places around the world, in large communities, that seemed to be doing a fabulous job from the small amounts of information we got about them - pictures and overlays of things, how they made their waterways and that's about it.
However, it was all bits and pieces. Nothing, well, specific.
Which, sadly, specific is my learning style.
At the end of the course, I was left with a "you know, I think Google would have been better for me."
It was interesting, sure. But I could have learned the same things from a few searches, with a lot less video watching.
There were plenty of links provided, but far too many to get through, and from what I saw, a lot of them were "what do we think" in regards to Permaculture and not "this is how we did it."
At the same time, the idea of Permaculture is, well, "what do we think" and "this is what you should think about" and it doesn't actually involve a lot of steps or necessary pieces, and there is definitely no list of things to have.
You, essentially, take the land you have, look at it, figure out how it works as it is, figure out what you can do with it to get the largest rate of return, and just do that.
And really, that's it.
You want to use the benefits of an area to your advantage. You want to make sure that you take any disadvantages and spin them (if possible) to be in your favor, even if a little bit. You want to be sure that whatever you are doing isn't going to hurt yourself in the long run (there's a lot of long-term planning involved!) and that you're planning for all seasons and weather possibilities.
Thinking of water, in both rain and storage and where it will run to and from. Thinking of warm and cold, where your house needs to be to be warm in the Winter and cool in the Summer. Thinking of the best place to keep the things you're growing that you'll eat most (and keeping them closer to your home for easy maintenance). Planting fruit tress that will grow and grow, giving you more fruit each year, versus something you plant each year and only get that one harvest (when possible, of course).
It's long term planning, being aware of the environment, and using it to your advantage.
So, no, a month-long course is not going to teach you everything you need to know about it. If it's something you're interested in, something you want to apply to your property, then you will have to look at what it's actually like there, what can grow there, what to build, what kind of energy you can harvest from the area (though I did learn that there is such a thing as biomass energy - and it is exactly what you think it is) - essentially, what all your land can do for you, as well as what you can do for it.
Which is the whole point of Permaculture. You're playing the long game. You'll learn as you go. There is no wrong or right way. You do you.
And that's a thing I can get behind.
Also, if you're interested, OSU is having the course again starting October 31st.
Or, if that's not your speed, Wikipedia is a good start.
~ Havok
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I had to google permaculture to get a handle on this! That's a shame that the course wasn't as useful as it could have been. Do you have a good local library? I'm always impressed by the books and online access to e-books ht they have, and often more e-book access to educational coursebooks and materials like this. Of course, every area's library is different.
ReplyDeleteHa, I guess I should have sum'd up a bit better xD
DeleteIt was useful, but it was very much so "go and do and keep in mind" versus "this is how you do," which makes sense, but isn't my kind of course.
There is, allegedly, a library in town, however it's constantly under construction, the roads to it are always mostly blocked off, and I've yet to try it out (because it always looks closed!). I have found, though, that the Internet on it's own is a fantastic resource for things like this, people's blogs who actually live a homestead-y kind of life. They may not have the perfect solutions, but they have solutions that work for them, in detail, and that's more so what I'm after (it's more interesting that way, too!).
Thank you so much for stopping by! :D