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Aug 04, 2012

Mimicking Nature - Can We?

The forest have many layers. 

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Permaculturists say 7 0r 8.  I think more.  Under the soil, many more layers to be discovered. I planted a small 50ft x 60 ft layer garden.  A meranti tree is the canopy tree.  Then eugenias and so on.  In no time, a multitude of life forms made the garden their home.  Lichens that I have never seen.  Fungi, frogs, birds, insects, and unseen, millions maybe billions of microbial life that infuse the garden with energy or qi.

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Can this multi-layered model of sustainability, successful for 150 million years, be applied to our modern food needs?

permaculture,layered garden,layered forest,new model for agriculture

The modern farm - a barren blight on the earth. Can we grow food and yet support a multitude of life forms and working with these lifeforms reduce chemical and energy inputs? Perhaps we should start with reexamining what is meant by 'productivity'.

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Life forms most of us have never seem have appeared in my little layered garden.

permaculture,layered garden,layered forest,new model for agriculture

permaculture,layered garden,layered forest,new model for agriculture

I have never seen this frog in a farm. Have you?

permaculture,layered garden,layered forest,new model for agriculture

This is the start of a layered food model. Can we extend this to a commercial scale and yet remain efficient in terms of labour, harvesting, cycling, inputs? What new measures do we need to work out its productivity against that of conventional mono crops?