Random shot-in-the-dark here but does anyone have any land within 3-4 hours drive of SF on which they would like to try out these techniques? Hügelkultur and "eco-mimetic" horticulture generally?
I live due east of the SF Bay Area in the Sierra Foothills. Per Google Maps right now it's only 2 and half hours by car, realistically it's typically at least a 3 hour trip or so to make it out here.
I have been working remotely as a software developer out here since 2014, when I left the Bay Area and my commute behind. My property is a little over two acres.
I got into permaculture right around the time we moved. I have yet to try Hügelkultur specifically but am working on establishing a food forest and various other perennial systems. It's slow going - there are challenges to this climate and elevation that I certainly didn't face in the mild climate of the SF Bay Area. Our summers are very hot and irrigation is pretty critical. But working outdoors on the weekends and PTO days is actually a very welcome change from being in front of a screen all day.
Living here the past six years, I have learned tons about what works and what doesn't on this property.
If you want to hear more, seriously reach out - there should be a pointer to my LinkedIn and an email in my HN profile.
You should also look into permaculture design (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture) as well as Sepp Holzer’s work (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holzer_Permaculture)
There is a lot more than just ecomimicry. Holzer made extensive use of those beds. He also did things like using his hogs instead of an excavator (by laying down things in the places he wants to dig, and letting the hogs have at it), or manipulating effective hardiness zones and microclimates to grow fruiting trees at elevations that are normally impossible.
(I just laid in seventy seeds in a mini greenhouse to start: melons, the Three Sisters: corn, squash, and beans, some dwarf Tamarillo and ground cherries, etc.)
Sharedearth.com looks awesome (not technically, technically it's crude but functional) and I just signed up and made a profile. Finger's crossed! Thank you!
I only started deep diving into permaculture a couple months ago, but it pulled together many things that I had been exploring for a long time. It was like coming across the keystone piece in a lot of things for me. But it has been chasing me for a while. I had been fascinated by the design diagrams I would see popping up, and finally looked up what this funny word “permaculture” meant.
I think permaculture is the next evolutionary step for our civilizations, even if on the surface, if appears to go backwards. But it is not. It is progressing forward into post-industrial, decentralized practices. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and it was easy to be blind to what “Information Age” meant (globalized control of industry), but I now see what it really enabled is the decentralization of agriculture and industry through the interconnecting web of relationships of people. We finally have the technology that put us on par with the mycellium network, and start understanding — having the lived experience of — network effects of ecology.
It definitely affects how I evaluate tech and startups.
Pretty much, almost every permie I have encountered have this intense optimism and fertile generator of fresh ideas, even with COVID-19 going around the world. I don’t think there are many other groups that are like that. It is good to see :-)
Have you seen "What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjD1aLm4Thg https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18736698
BTW, I joined SharedEarth and messaged some people but haven't heard back from anyone yet. Do you know much about it? It kind of seems like a demo (from a technical POV.) And there's no "contact us" page for it.
I got the SharedEarth from this podcast episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/permaculture-for-the-f...
The host interviewed someone who got 100% of his food from forage or grown, for 1 year. He did not own land, and made deals with landowners to start gardens in their front yard. He was the one that mentioned this side. I had just heard about it a couple days ago as I was making my way through listening to the back episodes of that podcast.
Maybe this is another avenue to contribute— contact the operator and see if they need help adding features.
My email is talktohosh at gmail if you want to continue this conversation off of HN.