I first came across the term ‘Chop and Drop’ in Geoff Lawton’s Establishing a Food Forest DVD. I reviewed the DVD here. Chop and Drop describes the actions of cutting branch wood from fast growing trees ‘nurse’ trees, and then using that wood to feed soil fungi, in order to help the production trees, planted amongst them. Chop and Drop is linked to the use of a more dense tree planting, often fast growing and nitrogen fixing, with many of these trees not destined to remain until maturity. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Forest garden
Observe and Interact Part One
Observe and Interact is one of the Permaculture Principles promoted by David Holmgrem. One interpretation of this principle is that we observe what we see around us, and then use that information to help us to create or modify systems in our designs. However this only touches the surface of what Observe and Interact can help us to do. I try and use this principle with everything that I do Including my reading and research. This post is about the conventional use of the Observe and Interact principle, and will be followed by Observe and Interact -Part Two, which will focus on reading and research.
Eleagnus ebbingei planted in my Forest Garden
Willow Trial Update
Earliest Flowering Willow Trial
Last year I published a post about My Earliest Flowering Willow, and was surprised to see that the willow that flowered earliest for my was a hybrid called ‘Lapin’. I was up in the Forest Garden again today, ‘weeping’ at the damage done to my willows by rabbits, and noticed that again, the earliest flowering willow variety was ‘Lapin’. This was one of the three varieties that I had obtained from the National Willow Collection, at Rothamsted Research.
Chicken Scavenging System or Chicken Forage?
Not everybody likes the term ‘Chicken Scavenging System’. World renowned Permaculture author, Patrick Whitefield would prefer me to use something that sounds less desperate. Most permaculturalists use the term Chicken Forage, so what’s the difference, and what are the implications of using one system or another?
Permaculture: The Prequels
The word Permaculture was originally formed from the words Permanent Agriculture. What may surprise you is that the words Permanent Agriculture appear in the titles of at least three books, and predate ‘Permaculture’ by about sixty years. I am currently reading one of those books for the second time, and thought that it would be interesting to discuss all three in the same post.