10 February, 2014

Two rants: the joys of a sickle and my troubles with Permaculture

Sickle

I got myself a sickle because I couldn't afford a scythe and my grass patches are small. I had been electric whipper snippering but my machine burnt out.I've had it with mowers and powered brushcutters.

So I thought $25 for a sickle? Why not?

I needs to keep the neighbours off my long-grass-indifferent back.

Cutting with a sickle means you have to bend and you can't maintain a fixed height as you can with a scythe. But I'm not fixing to play golf or bowls.

We had a sickle way back in the 50s. Rusty old thing. Combined with hammer you can be a bolshevik.

But I tell ya, I can cut my patch quicker with my acoustic hand tool than I can with electrics or petrol.

(So long as you don't cut yourself: always cut with the right hand (if not a southpaw )and hold a short walking stick in your left.The more efficient scythe displaced the sickle for reasons such as these...)

And a scythe is the Tai Chi of mowing...and I look and think: what a hobby! what a exercise regime! What grace! It's groovin....add an ipod and you're there.

But hey the blade is gotta be sharp.Handy for later suicide attempts or decapitating the neighbourhood bully...

Maybe one day I'll graduate to a scythe but for now I'm sickling it.

My troubles with Permaculture


For many years I've done my homework and I've put in the gardening hard yards. And I've created a few gardens in different places. While I respect and endorse all those who take the sustainable growing path, the heavy doses of evangelical hype that accompanies omnipresent Permies annoys me no end. 

The pieces below by Peter Harper captures some of my hesitancies in regard to Permaculture. I'd also add that the way the system is so often packaged, dependent as it is on perennial plants, sponsors a menu mainly of fruits and the occasional nut...

I don't eat that much fruit....So what's the charm in growing it?

So growing perennials, sensible as it may be, has a limitation in that we aren't hunter gatherers of the olden day ilk and would like a more frequent turnover of comestibles. So I don't believe the hype, because I don't think much of the Permaculture Cook Book. 

But that's not the be all and end all of sustainability. Design surely matters and is no doubt useful, but it ain't the be all and end all of gardening....

So I'm saying partake with a grain of salt. Be pragmatic. In a 'food forest' you can't always see the wood for the trees.

My attitude isn't alone. With a little homework you can find some very useful and well argued critiques of Permaculture that do mark it down where it matters, while respecting it for its utility :
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