permaculture

Making raised beds longer

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified)
on Wed, 02/15/2012 - 14:00

For two days we have been making eleven of the raised beds longer in both ends and by this process made the whole section into a lovely droplet formation. In the new ends we mixed in a portion of manure and one of mulch after which we covered it with dry grass as a last protection. What we take away from the experience is that when you get a task as simple as making raised beds longer there’s a lot to think about.
Tags: 
raised beds
permaculture
mulch

Tribodar the Movie October 2011

Submitted by psichael
on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 22:59

Tags: 
tribodar
movie
october
2011
permaculture
eco-village
eco-building

Olive Pruning Workshop

Submitted by psichael
on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 11:18

At our olive pruning workshop, we had the guidance of Sr. Manuel, a retired professional pruner. At first he was a bit hard to follow as he immediately jumped up a tree and started working, but as people gathered around him, and the end result for the first tree started to appear,  things got clearer.

The trees we were pruning where trees I had been pruning partially last year and others that had been neglected for over a decade. Last year I had chosen to leave some major secondary branches on all primary branches, to avoid reducing the crown so much, that the roots would suffer.

Tags: 
permaculture
olive
pruning
agriculture
workshop
event

The rains have come and the swale...

Submitted by Moabi
on Fri, 02/18/2011 - 19:41

 

After a couple of days of rainy wether; at last water in the swale :) After the first big rains there was hardly anything. This is because it had been dry for a month or so, and the land was absorbing almost everything. Then, after a couple of bigger rain storms spread over a couple of days and many hours of lighter rain, The swale got on average some 20 cm of water. As I didn't quite finish the leveling, I could easily sea where more work needed to be done. When finished, I gues the capacity will be at least twice wat we had now, so we will be able to handle most rainstorms.

We are

Tags: 
swale
permaculture
water harvesting
rain
berm and basin
water shed

Figuring out the swale

Submitted by psichael
on Tue, 02/08/2011 - 19:29

I'm working on our first swale. Today I had the idea to make some deeper parts in it, so we could have small ponds, where frogs and lizards can live in the summer. I keep them small on purpose so we can easily fill them when the water evaporates in the hottest of the Alentejo summers. I will put a polyethilene liner in it and later cover part of the water surface with floating cork, to reduce evaporation.

Tags: 
swale
permaculture
water harvesting
berm and basin
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