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Food & agriculture - Sept 24
Energy Bulletin - — ... grip on their purse strings, leading to significant funding shortfalls for international organizations dependent on government contributions. The WFP, which currently targets 108 million people on the brink of starvation in 74 countries and is entirely funded through donation, has been one of the worst affected: At the beginning of the year, it tabled a 2009 budget of $6.7 billion. By September, it had received a little more than a third of what it solicited.... (21 Sept 2009) Awesome Tour of a Permaculture Allotment [image] Sami Grover, Treehugger From permaculture design ...

Permaculture Principles: Recycling Nutrients
Planet Green Articles Feed — ... - so we shouldn't either. Waste from one process should, wherever possible, become food for another. There are plenty of obvious examples of this principle that'll be familiar to any organic gardener - waste from the kitchen or garden feeds the compost heap, waste food gets fed to chickens or other domesticated animals etc. But permaculture design often seeks to go further - designing our whole gardens to keep nutrients flowing within a system as much as possible. In his excellent tour of his permaculture allotment that I posted over at TreeHugger, Mike Feingold explains ...

Cardboard Makes Awesome Mulch!
Planet Green Articles Feed — ... . But while I was watching a video of my old friend Mike Feingold's permaculture allotment , I learned that he incorporates a cardboard mulch into his regular crop rotation. So that's what I'm going to try this year, simply placing a layer of cardboard over the soil and planting through it with garlic and onions. (I just punch a hole through with a trowel and push the bulb in.) I then place a layer of earth, compost or leaf mold over the top to hold it down. The idea is that cardboard acts as a permeable mulch - allowing water through to the soil, but preventing perennial and ...

Fight Frost with Knowledge: 6 Tips for Working With Your Garden
Planet Green Articles Feed — ... Warmer Soils: Just think back to the last time you wore a black t-shirt in the sunshine. Hot, wasn't it? Darker soils warm up more too, and are slower to release their heat so add plenty of organic matter like peat or compost, and place delicate plants in your heaviest, darkest soils. Terracing and Slope Creates Warmth: With decent slope, frost can literally roll off a surface and collect in pockets. It also angles the soil to better catch winter sun. According to this video of permaculture expert Mike Feingold , every 5 degrees of slope is like being 100 miles further ...