Permaculture week 1

So this last week I have not been at the garden, I have been down on the farm. This was week 1 of the permaculture course that Leo Bakx of Aarwerk is running on Statia. We have been working at Greenblends Farm on Zeelandia road for 1 week in the mornings and then doing theory and 'lessons' in the evening at the Botanical Garden.

The course gives the participants the tools to create designs for homes, businesses, anything really for the outside spaces to create a more ecological, efficient, productive and sustainable existence. The first design for Laurens and Lois at Greenblends included a windbreak, pond area, dry gardens, extensions to the shadehouses and a nursery garden area where trees can mature. I gave the presentation on Monday, the night before our last day on site and when we arrived on Tuesday, Laurens wanted to start on the plans! So we planted a whole bunch of fruiting trees and bushes against the fence perpendicular to the prevailing wind to help protect the more delicate trees and plants on the other side.

We also conducted surveys, took soil samples, water samples and inoculated wood and tissue paper with fungi spawn to hopefully get some mushrooms!

On Wednesday we started our week at the Congo Preserve. Joshua's place is fantastic, he is already doing permaculture without even thinking of it in those terms and the place has such a wonderful vibe to it. I’m loving it over there, working and chatting with Joshua, he is so very wise (and of course all the fab fruit he has too!)

As part of the evening sessions we are watching some movies and other snippets of films. One thing we watched that caught my attention was a short 10 minute piece from the BBC. They were showing an experiment where they had a house rigged with cameras and all the electricity was coming from a bunch of people on static bicycles in a warehouse next door. The snippet we watched showed the Dad of the house taking a shower (they blurred certain areas, thank goodness!) it was only about a 5 minute shower but it was totally electric and so as soon as he switched it on the power started to drop, more people started to scramble to fill all the bikes until they caught up with 80 people all cycling at full pelt!

Now maths is not my thing but I worked out, if everyone on the island of St Eustatius had an electric shower (about 3500 people) we would need about 280,000 others to be cycling to generate the power needed. That is like nearly all the people from the other Dutch Caribbean islands, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba and St Maarten all cycling at the same time! Food for thought people!

Much love from the garden on the golden rock...