Gidday,
Just as my last course at Zaytuna Farm was ending (a few weeks ago), Geoff (the main teacher there) asked if any one had any questions before the course ended. I did have one, of sorts, but I waited until the end of class and spoke to him privately. I told him that I didn't feel I cognized all the large amount of information given, from either not having yet cultivated an eager interest in the paricular subject, or just by zoning out in the classroom (I was quite good at that, as I think I'm quite bad at learning in a classroom environment). I was kind of looking for some kind of hope from him. I don't remember everything he said to me, but he honestly didn't look at all worried about my statement. He seemed convinced that all the relevant information had gone in subliminally and it was just a matter of researching whatever was necessary for what I had to do in the future. He listed a lot of things that I don't necessarily need to have an interest in, with the exception of 'gardening'. I think when he said this, a penny dropped, so to speak.
Since then I have, at times, taken a sincere interest in botany. Recently, I've quite often fantasized about creating productive, diverse and beautiful kitchen gardens and food forests (also sometimes called forest gardens or agroforestry) attracting all kinds of life, which has motivated me to research about it (along with caring for chickens and ducks which can play a vital role in permaculture gardening, as well as the obvious of giving organic eggs and meat)
Another relieving aspect of not feeling 'I got it all' during the Permaculture Design Course, was Geoff constantly stressing throughout the course: "Getting an understanding of the mainframe of design is far more important than examples of techniques. The devil is in the details." When I caught myself paying no attention whatsoever, I often repeated the phrase 'get the mainframe' like a mantra (I also took notes on a lot of things I didn't follow or understand at the time).
Permaculture is rooted (rooted here, meaning it's the most important thing) in 3 ethics:
1. Care of the Earth
2. Care of People
3. Return of surplus (to the 2 above)
The next most important aspect is principles, then strategies, then techniques. Because Permaculture is synnergistic with so many different disciplines (gardening, farming and architecture, perhaps being the main ones, or some of them) it is clearly impossible to know everything covering this subject, and I for one, am not interested in taking in any information that I don't feel I need to know.
For over a week now I have been WWOOFING at the Southern Cross Permaculture Institute (www.southerncrosspermaculture.com.au) which is about an hour and half away from Melbourne. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I've mainly been weeding, pruning trees. Other odd jobs have been planting beans for the spring, helping build a new chicken house, digging water pathways for overflowing dams (this is a very high rainfall area as far as Australia goes) and shovelling manure. There's a wealth of relevant research material here for me to study and it's a conducive environment for me to do that. I'll you keep you posted.
Just as my last course at Zaytuna Farm was ending (a few weeks ago), Geoff (the main teacher there) asked if any one had any questions before the course ended. I did have one, of sorts, but I waited until the end of class and spoke to him privately. I told him that I didn't feel I cognized all the large amount of information given, from either not having yet cultivated an eager interest in the paricular subject, or just by zoning out in the classroom (I was quite good at that, as I think I'm quite bad at learning in a classroom environment). I was kind of looking for some kind of hope from him. I don't remember everything he said to me, but he honestly didn't look at all worried about my statement. He seemed convinced that all the relevant information had gone in subliminally and it was just a matter of researching whatever was necessary for what I had to do in the future. He listed a lot of things that I don't necessarily need to have an interest in, with the exception of 'gardening'. I think when he said this, a penny dropped, so to speak.
Since then I have, at times, taken a sincere interest in botany. Recently, I've quite often fantasized about creating productive, diverse and beautiful kitchen gardens and food forests (also sometimes called forest gardens or agroforestry) attracting all kinds of life, which has motivated me to research about it (along with caring for chickens and ducks which can play a vital role in permaculture gardening, as well as the obvious of giving organic eggs and meat)
Another relieving aspect of not feeling 'I got it all' during the Permaculture Design Course, was Geoff constantly stressing throughout the course: "Getting an understanding of the mainframe of design is far more important than examples of techniques. The devil is in the details." When I caught myself paying no attention whatsoever, I often repeated the phrase 'get the mainframe' like a mantra (I also took notes on a lot of things I didn't follow or understand at the time).
Permaculture is rooted (rooted here, meaning it's the most important thing) in 3 ethics:
1. Care of the Earth
2. Care of People
3. Return of surplus (to the 2 above)
The next most important aspect is principles, then strategies, then techniques. Because Permaculture is synnergistic with so many different disciplines (gardening, farming and architecture, perhaps being the main ones, or some of them) it is clearly impossible to know everything covering this subject, and I for one, am not interested in taking in any information that I don't feel I need to know.
For over a week now I have been WWOOFING at the Southern Cross Permaculture Institute (www.southerncrosspermaculture.com.au) which is about an hour and half away from Melbourne. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I've mainly been weeding, pruning trees. Other odd jobs have been planting beans for the spring, helping build a new chicken house, digging water pathways for overflowing dams (this is a very high rainfall area as far as Australia goes) and shovelling manure. There's a wealth of relevant research material here for me to study and it's a conducive environment for me to do that. I'll you keep you posted.
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