Withlacoochee Permaculture Guild

Sprouting seeds for food involves germinating them by first soaking them, then putting them in a moist, warm environment for a few days, rinsing them at least twice a day. Over the years, sprouting has been mentioned to us as a beneficial and easy method of increasing the nutrition of cereal and legume seeds. We have wondered about the actual benefit of sprouting. Does it change the nutrient content of seeds significantly?

The permaculture design for our place in Dade City is completely different from when I started and is getting closer to being finished. Lots of recent changes but the most interesting probably are Keyline-inspired rainwater irrigation for almost the whole site, two food forests, and the Fukuoka method for grains and legumes. I am grateful for any feedback or comments. :)

http://wcpermaculture.org/files/rob_design_draft3.doc

Catchment Area – Runoff Calculator/Spreadsheet. Download and adapt this spreadsheet for your site’s average annual rainfall and/or surface material. Use as a dynamic computer spreadsheet or print out a hard copy to use as a quick reference guide for estimating runoff from variously sized catchments.

Note that the spreadsheet default is a 90% runoff coefficient, meaning 90% of the rain falling on the catchment will run off. The other 10% will be lost to evaporation, wind, leaks, infiltration into the catchment surface, etc. This is typical for an asphalt or concrete roof or hardscape such as a patio, road, or driveway. You can change the runoff coefficient in Excel for different catchment surfaces if needed. (Metal: 95%; Concrete/Asphalt: 80-95%; Tar Roof: 85%; Sonoran Desert Uplands: 20-70%; Bare Earth: 20-75%; Grass/Lawn: 5-35%; Gravel: use coefficient of material below gravel).

I'll be facilitating a group discussion on permaculture at Sweetwater's Community Garden Workshop & Open House on Sept 19 at 11AM [Facebook event]. I'll be talking about our food forest plans and companion planting with mushrooms among other things. Would love to speak with others practicing or interested in permaculture in the area.

Let's continue our exploration of permaculture design principles. From sectors in permaculture to permaculture zoning to relative location to the ideas that one element should have multiple functions, and one function should be met by multiple elements - we've already covered a vast array of tools and techniques that permaculturists use to create low input, high output sustainable gardens. The next principle on our list is probably the most familiar to most greenies - energy efficiency. But the permaculture take on energy efficiency goes a little beyond those Compact Fluorescent Bulbs you just screwed in.

In landfills studied by researchers, paper makes up the largest item by weight and volume. Most of this is from virgin lumber, trees that have taken sometimes hundreds of years to grow cut down just to be used for a day for print media. Not having trash service out in rural Dade City, we are acutely aware of how much paper in the form of junk mail is sent to us, the far majority of it unsolicited. That and all the unnecessary packaging, like huge cardboard boxes, adds up quick.

I've been reading about growing mushrooms and decided to channel this energy and clean out some of the recycling bins we had piling up. Oyster mushrooms are known for their vigor and adaptability, growing on nearly anything that has cellulose. A perfect match!