--It has been almost five months since my last diary. Things happen when you work full time and move to another country.--
The purpose of this diary series is to share my limited knowledge about a revolutionary mindset that is nothing short of a paradigm shift in our relationship to the natural world. What this diary will not be is a definitive, earth shattering work that claims to understand everything. What will be described here is not "Finchj's way" but rather my understanding of agroecology & permaculture and how I tried to internalize and apply it.
The first diary can be found here; the second, here; the third, here; the fourth here; and fifth here. As this form of land stewardship is knowledge based, I highly recommend readers to follow the series through- at least reading the diaries with "Introduction" in their title.
I will include an introduction simliar to this one in each diary for sake of continuity and disclosure.
I want to stress that ecological gardening is possible without formal training and is a DIYer dream. Nature will teach you everything you need to know, but since we have limited time here on earth, my aim is to share what I know and where I learned things so the growth will be exponential.
The rebirth of a diary series
Yes, it has been quite a long time since my last diary. I've been through quite a lot since my first entry in this series: having been accepted to UVM for agroecology, deciding 100k was too much for two years of college, being rejected by NC State for not having taken science while pursuing & completing a history degree at USF- magna cum laude with honors, winding up working for the Home Depot in the spring, and finally deciding that it was now the right time to emigrate to Finland almost a month ago.
So now that I'm here and waiting on a decision regarding my residency permit, I can devote time to writing, photography (although that will be hampered by the loss of my newest and favorite lens- death by two foot fall [fingers crossed that it can be repaired...]), painting, and urban gardening (if Dodo will return my messages). I have to stay occupied since I am forbidden from working until a permit is issued.
This is my first attempt at narrating anything before. What follows is the beginning of a series of slideshows depicting our family's transition from suburban lawn to a food forest based upon permaculture principles.
:fanfare:
I hope you enjoy it. I'll be posting the rest here regardless of viewership since I'm really making these for my parents back in the States.
PS- It is just past midnight here in Helsinki so I won't be able to respond until the morning. Seven time zones ahead of EST means rough times in regards to communicating with the audience. At any rate, the video is 47 minutes long, so that should delay any serious responses.
Oh, and to keep you busy til the morning, may I suggest (along with reading the previous diaries in this series, linked above)........
Additional Resources
Excellent, must see documentary: John Liu's Green Gold- extended version of "Hope in a Changing Climate" that was presented at the recent Rio summit. I'll have to do a diary on this documentary. It is astounding.
My favorite books:
Edible Forest Gardens, Vol I and II. David Jacke with Eric Toensmeier. Chelsea Green, 2006.
Sepp Holzer's Permaculture. Sepp Holzer, translated by Anna Sapsford-Francis. Chelsea Green, 2010. [UPDATED LINK] Realized what a fool I was not to point you to the website managed by Sepp and Veronika Holzer.
Gaia's Garden. Toby Hemenway. Chelsea Green, 2009 (2nd edition).
Let the Water Do the Work. Bill Zeedyk and Van Clother. The Quivira Coalition, 2009.
The One Straw Revolution. Masanobu Fukuoka. Link will point you to a decent review.
Akinori Kimura's Miracle Apples. By Takuji Ishikawa, translated by Yoko Ono. This is an absolutely fantastic story. My favorite part is towards the end, chapter 22, when Kimura is told of his family's first success. Give it a read!
For a much fuller list of books on the subject, see Toby Hemenway's Permaculture Reading List. The article I linked to up top is also a great read.
There are plenty of materials online as well. The Permaculture Institute of Australia is excellent.
Youtube has plenty of videos. If you want to see a slideshow of our garden from the first part of last year, click here.