Comments on: Bees, Blessing and Permaculture

By: Anita Mathias

Anita Mathias — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 18:21:46 +0000

We bought a large beehive, and a colony (since we want honey). But we bought it last spring, so this is really our first year as beekeepers, and I hope we do nothing wrong, and everything right!! 🙂

By: LA

LA — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 05:41:06 +0000

Where we live EVERYTHING grows...allergy capital of the country. It's a very fertile area. But bees have been a challenge here. Even in this bee-friendly area, we are suffering from CCD (colony collapse disorder) and so I have to order my bees in the mail. They're really cute - they come all hibernated in this little tubes. I just drill out a block of wood and put the tubes in and when they're ready, the come out.

Anaerobic digesting is hard on the small scale. Which is why our city raised money through bond measures to build this wonderful food waste recycling center. I love living in an area that supports this kind of sustainable living.

By: Anita Mathias

Anita Mathias — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 19:39:49 +0000

Funny, I only learnt about permaculture when we were house-hunting in 2006, and I learned that one could feed a family of 4 on .25 acre if one practised permaculture techniques--planting in 7 layers, underground, ground cover of herbs, vegetables shrubs, trees, climbers. In the end, we were able to buy 1.5 acre, so will never have the energy or necessity to plant it extensively, but am still interested in the energy saving, in perennial vegetables and herbs, and in its potential for the third world.

LA, that's amazing. I don't compost meat, fish, bones, table scraps or dairy. I would like to, but haven't learnt about anaerobic composting.

Joanna, my husband's dad was a bee-keeper, and so I just hope he remembers something about extracting honey. We've had the bees for a year, but haven't taken any honey yet. Would like to get a bottle or so at some time.

Do you know Robert Hart's Forest Gardening? It's inspirational!!

By: Joanna

Joanna — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:02:53 +0000

Oh how I would love to keep bees! Good for you looking at permaculture – I think it really is the way to go if we want to live in a way that respects creation and preserves it for future generations.

By: LA

LA — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 01:56:05 +0000

Permaculture is a huge thing here in the Pacific Northwest of America. In fact, one of my friends teaches permaculture at the local community college.

Luckily, we got a really amazing thing in our small town here - an anaerobic digester that turns ALL our table scraps into compost. Instead of everyone having their own compost bin, all of us put all our table scraps including meat, bones, napkins, compostable plates, etc. into our yard waste bin, the trash folks pick it up and take it to the digester plant. As a participant in the program, you get free composted dirt from them and it's a win-win for everyone! And because it's all sealed and high temperature, you can put all your non-vegetable scraps in there without worry.

How strong it is when your whole community works together in sustainable living!

Thanks for the idyllic post...makes me want to come out and just hang out in your garden!