Permaculture on Bali

IPC10 is on...

2011-09-17T15:06:00.002+08:00

IPC10 is the International Permaculture Conference, which takes place right now in Ammann, Jordan. it is live streamed on the Internet. Just tune in http://www.livestream.com/ipc10

Garbage Enzyme

2011-02-10T20:30:00.003+08:00

It is always very inspiring for me having Permaculture-Friends visiting. So many things to learn and share! Fiona from Malaysia, who recently did her PDC at Embun Pagi and stayed a few days at our place, showed me how to make my own all purpose household cleaner from Garbage Enzymes. Find the recipe and a video about making and using it on the Wild Asia website.
Good luck and just do it!
All you need is a container with lid, water, sugar and some fruit and vegie scraps.

Opportunity in East Timor

2010-11-09T10:24:00.002+08:00

Merrilyn sent me some information about a project based on permaculture principles in East Timor. Their website www.naterra.org is currently under construction but you can read their newsletters or get in contact with Fernando at info@naterra.org. They have accomodation available for participants in the project.

"the best way to predict the future is to invent it"
naTerra's theme

Visit at Moon River Lodge

2010-11-07T21:49:00.010+08:00

Pioneering for ...

... their future

Sometimes when our high-flying enthusiasm hits the ground we need a little refresh from friends or likeminded people. So I took the chance, when I was in Kuala Lumpur for a Visa Run, to visit my Perma-Buddies Billie and Peng Keat from Melbourne at their project site Moon River Lodge in the Sigar Highlands. I boarded the new ETS which took me in a little more than 2 hours from KL Sentral to Ipoh, a city which emerged out of the tin boom of the 1880's. Billie with a car full of kids picked me up at the station and we headed strait towards Moon River Lodge which is located near the Cameron Highlands. On the winding road we passed many commercial plastic tent farms who export their fresh produce like vegetables, strawberries and flowers to Singapore. Good short term profits but not sustainable as they depend on cheap oil for earth moving equipment, carry in fertilizers, run the pumps for the irrigation systems and carry out the produce to the markets. They just use the cooler climate and don't care about the soil. With Moon River Lodge and Sigar Highlands as projects based on permaculture ethics and design principles Billie and Peng Keat are the pioneers in the region.

Commercial Farms in the Cameron Highlands

Many family members, friends and volunteers are involved in the project and I meet some of them. Peng Keat's mother Nancy supervises the earth works for the access road into the jungle and organises the kitchen crew. Peng Keat's father and Mr. Loo share their knowledge about seeds and growing veggies with me. From Tom, who is visiting with his girlfriend Julie for the weekend, I learn about his turtle protecting project on Tioman Island. It is a vibrant and inspiring atmosphere amongst all these people and I feel welcome and accepted like in a big family.
Billie takes the visitors on a tour around the lodge. Food and flowers are growing everywhere. The passionfruits are abundant and taste like heaven. Lots of leafy green delicacies to pick just outside the open kitchen. A herb spiral, covered nursery and tomato beds, chicken shed, rabbit hutch, worm farm, composting area and tool shed complete zone 1. A little further away is the area for the children's garden, easy to oversee. Some of the mandala- and keyhole-beds are already laid out. Lots of cuttings covered in compost are waiting to be planted by the volunteers who will arrive the following Monday. Later we follow one of the workers on a treck along the little river into the bamboo jungle to a water fall. After one day city jungle in Kuala Lumpur it is a blessing to be here. In the fresh mountain air and with nature's night tune I sleep like a baby.
Sunday is family day. Kid's playing, sharing delicious food and interesting stories, going again through the garden, observing, taking my time and some pictures. Then the family leaves and stillness spreads over the place. The Weekend is over.
Monday is snake day. The workers catch an impressing python which is injured at the back. After breakfast I hike the 9km long trail around the valley of the Moon River Lodge. I collect some nuts and seeds I have never seen before. The trail is quite challenging, lots of ups and downs, but also rewarding with its many view points. After 3 hours already tired and a little worried whether still on the right trail I stop and look around. The sun is already shining hot and nothing is moving. I lift my foot, look down and freeze. Just in front of me lies a 1.5m snake across the trail taking a sun bath. It is definitely not a python, but what then? Better stepping back first and then guessing. I take a picture and then I throw a piece of wood to give her a chance to escape. She takes the offer and slowly winds into the bushes.
In the afternoon Peng Keat brings two volunteers from Holland, Sofie and Stefanie. Together we start sheet mulching the mandala beds and planting the cuttings. The day and my stay ends with a tasty dinner at an Indian Restaurant in Blue Valley. It is Tim's birthday. Delicious roti and roti tisu and many colourful little bowls of yummy-yummies.

Just outside the kitchen: Zone 1 facilities

Trail into the Bamboo Jungle

Wild Vanilla climbing up a tall tree

Snake sunbathing...

Seeds and nuts collected on the trail

Volcanoes: Are you ready?

2010-11-06T19:53:00.000+08:00

Just imagine you live in a village near Gunung Merapi.
If your village is within 20km from the peak you will have to evacuate. How do you leave? What do you take with you? Where do you go? Which route do you take?
If your village is outside 20km of the peak or the way to evacuate is blocked you will have to seek shelter from raining ashes and stones and hot gases and rivers becoming mudflows and other hazards. Where do you shelter? What do you need in your shelter for the next days, weeks? What do you need to protect yourself when leaving the shelter? Imagine there is still a lot of ash and debris and toxic gases. How do you keep informed and in contact with the outside world?
The following links might give you some answers:
- Current reports of the activity of Gunung Merapi from PVMBG (Pusat Volkanologi dan Mitigasi Bencana Geologi)
- Eruptionblog of Eric Klemetti, a passionate volcanologist
- Desaster preparation from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency, USA)

Stay alert and prepare!

Opportunity

2010-09-17T13:49:00.004+08:00

Have you ever dreamt of living in a tropical paradise? This is the chance to make your dream come true! Great opportunity to learn about Permaculture in a tropical climate, to join in Balinese village life or just take a break from a stressful lifestyle. JUST DO IT!

Greetings

We will be returning to New Zealand end of October for one year and would like to rent out our beautiful home in Kayu Putih, Buleleng. It really is a peaceful place set at the end of the village in the hills above Lovina, surrounded by beautiful gardens and if you are here in mango season we have a whole organic mango grove you can help yourself to! Only a ten minute drive from Central Lovina.

two bedroom
two bathrooms (one outdoor)
upstairs space which could be used for study or storing etc.
beautiful balcony with sea views overlooking east java volcanoes, beautiful sunsets
hot water
set on one and a half hectare of organically farmed land full of fruit trees and vegetable gardens, also four horses available for riding.
including full time house maid trained to western standard who can bake and cook great food
2'500'000 Rp per month

Please contact Tanya on +62(0)81 264 703 085 or email to pegasusonbali@gmail.com.
Find more details and pictures on our website: www.pegasus-organic-farm.blogspot.com

Thank you and kind regards to everyone

Tanya & Gede

Meeting at Warung Bambu on 23 Aug 10

2010-08-24T16:40:00.006+08:00

The meeting took place at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, 3pm-5pm.
Participants: Beate and Nana, Tanya, Susanne, Ibu Widi, Wayan Ardika and myself. We welcomed John Palmer as a new participant.
The main subject was to organize a marketplace in Lovina for local organic products like fresh vegetables, herbs, homemade preserves, traditionally manufactured arts and crafts, recycled products, natural cosmetics etc. and for sharing information about healthy and sustainable living.
The following issues came up:
Where, when, how often
Conchita is asking the permission of the members of the Rotary Club for the use of their meeting hall. The market will take place every Saturday from 9am to 12am. The starting date and the details still have to be decided with the members of the Rotary Club.
Certification
As it might be difficult to get organic certification all products for sale must state their origin with producer name, adress and phone number and it should be possible to visit the production or growing site.
Who, what
We made a list with products to start with:

Pegasusfarm: herbs, vegetables and seedlings
Susanne: aloe vera, seasonal fruits
Gaia Oasis: aloe vera, eggplants, salads, basil, rucola, lemon grass, honey
Beate: Bali rice, Bali Asli products, Neem Oil
Wayan: cocoa powder, oranges in May/June, compost, eggs, honey
Justin: natural cosmetics and mosquito repellents

As soon as place and start date are fixed the organic market will be announced to the public by local newspapers, flyers, round letters, information boards, websites etc. If you want to take part in the market as a seller please contact one of the participants.

organic Bali rice on the left side

Nana provided a rice tasting of his organically grown Bali rice and the conventional rice where we could see the difference with our eyes and smell it with our taste buds. The Bali rice takes 140 days to ripen while the conventional rice is already ripe in 90 days.
Susanne informed that the Indonesian government currently imports rice and garlic from China which is cheaper than the local rice and garlic and gives the local farmers a hard time. So watch out what you are buying!
Wayan informed that the quality of the cocoa beans of our region is very good according to some german chocolatiers who tasted them.
Beate wants to know how F1 Hybrids are made and how they work.
Nana mentioned that the flavour of fruits from plants which get seabreeze is often more tasty.
Please have a look at the website of Embun Pagi. It is a newly opened Permaculture Education site 40km from Kuala Lumpur where you can join the 72h Permaculture Design Certificate Course from 23 Nov to 5 Dec taught by Greg Knibbs and Chakra Widia from Bali.
By googling for "organic indonesia" I just found the website for all things organic in Indonesia which I added to the link list.

Our next event will be an excursion to Green Leaf Farm in Bedugul at the end of September. Details will be emailed.

Meeting at Pegasus Farm on August 6, 2010

2010-08-16T09:35:00.002+08:00

Mark explaining the life of soils under the Bamboo Pergola at Pegasus Farm

After more than a year we met again at Pegasus Farm where for some of us the journey into the Permaculture adventure started. Tanya and Gede were our hosts and invited us to sit under a lovely shaded bamboo pergola. As usual Beate guided us through the gathering not losing the red thread. We were quite a croud, 5 people from Gaia Oasis, Beate with her gardener, Burgel, Burkhard, Anne with her son Jens and Wayan with his wife, Susanne and Marylin, Klaus, Gina from Sananda Center, Annette and Nyoman, Conchita from Lovina Pages and myself with my gardener Kadek and last but not least Mark Garrett from Australia who offered to join us and share his knowledge about Permaculture Design with us. Everybody was very interested to learn more about soils, the different qualities, its life and how it can be built, taken care of and improved.

Some facts about soil to keep in mind:

In the tropics 80% of the plant nutrients are held in the foliage. Therefore crops can only be sustainable if these nutrients are used from tree leaf-drop and root mass.
We are not feeding the plant, but the beneficial biota and microorganisms in the soil which later release the nutrients in plant usable form. Grow your soil! Encourage soil life!
Bare soil is damaged soil. Always cover soil with mulch. Grow the mulch you need around the gardenbeds and chop and drop. Good mulching plants are lemon grass, vetiver grass, comfrey, canna lillies and legumes such as pinto beans (ask Beate for seeds).
Grass and fruit trees compete with each other for nitrogen. Prevent the grass within the area of the trees drip line by mulching or planting a ground cover such as marigolds or pinto beans.
Why is it important to know the pH of your soil? The pH is a measurement for the acidity - alkalinity of the soil. It ranges from 1, very acid, to 14, very alkaline, with 7 as its neutral point. The pH-Level influences the availability of nutrients to the plants. At pH 7 all nutrients are available. At a lower pH, which means more acidic soil, some nutrients such as phosphorus, calcium and magnesium become less available and can manifest in plant deficiencies. The same happens with a more alkaline soil. Usually in the tropics you find acidic soils.
How to test the pH of your soil? There are easy test kits available in Australia. If anybody knows a provider here in Bali, please let us know.
How to bring your soil towards pH 7? As a general rule mix in compost and mulch heavily. For specific situations analyze your soil well and observe the plants if they show any diseases or deficiencies. As a fast cure use foliar spray of seaweed extract or liquid manure.

For more details on soils there is a specific chapter in the Permaculture Designer's Manual of Bill Mollison.

Some questions were raised regarding treatment for pests and diseases. Try not only to treat the symptoms but also to find the cause, very often an imbalance in the system. Nobody knows all the answers. Go and try, come back and tell!

Beate's red tiger compost worms from Temesi have been very busy and turned all the cow manure and food scraps into worm castings. What to do next with them? Just put everything on a plastic sheet into the sun. The worms will retreat to the coolest spot. Take away the worm castings and put the worms back to their container with new cow manure. Worm castings are excellent for seedlings.

Conchita will write an article about our group and the meeting in the october issue of the Lovina Pages.

Marylin offered 2 DVD's about Permaculture to the group. She will also take orders for things that are only available in Australia.
There will be another meeting in August at Warung Bambu to discuss and organize an organic market in Lovina.
The meeting in September will be an excursion to design the new site of Beate in the village of Manuksesa.
Detailed information and dates of the events will be sent by email.

THANK YOU Mark and all the participants for contributing time, interest and sharing knowledge!

Excursion to Temesi on June 18, 2010

2010-06-30T21:54:00.009+08:00

Beate had organised an excursion to the Temesi Waste Recycling Plant near Gianyar and offered to drive us there. She is a great example for Permaculture fulfilling so many functions in one person! Thank you, Beate. Burgel, Burkhart, Gede and Komang from Villa Manuk and me joined the group. Thank you, Burkhart for navigating us there through the maze of Bali's roads.

our group with our compost guide

huge pipes are aerating the compost heaps

After an early babi guling lunch at a Warung we reached the plant around 11am. David, the enthusiastic, crazy and persistent heart of the project, greeted us and a skillful employee took us on a tour. We were very impressed by the sheer size of the plant and the little smells. In a big open hall several huge heaps of organic waste lay in a row. 40 tons of waste are daily delivered from the region of Gianyar to the plant. The drivers have to pay an entrance fee. At one end of the long hall workers from Java sort the waste into organic and non-organic. They are paid 40000Rp. per ton. The bigger parts in the organic waste are shreddered first and then put together with the smaller parts onto a heap. This is the first heap in the row. All heaps are aerated several times every hour and after 2 weeks turned over to the place of the preceding heap. The last heap of the row is sieved and packed into bags. The rest goes through the process again. Some of the mature compost is mixed with cow manure and then granulated to be used as fertilizer. The plastic which was sorted out is recycled into various products like shopping bags and woven storage boxes.

end of the composting process: sieving machine

After the tour David offered us some time for answering questions and sharing some insights like:

How the plant covers its costs.
How soil analysis is done by measuring pH, connectivity (mineral content) and content of organic material.
How the diseases of coklat and banana trees probably can be healed by the microorganisms contained in compost.
The principles of aerob vs. anaerob compost.
How the kyoto protocol works by selling CO2 credits.
How difficult it is to sell the compost because many farmers already forgot how to use compost. The price for a 20kg bag high quality compost is 20'000Rp.

As a souvenir we all got some red tiger compost worms.

View from Sari Organik Restaurant in Ubud

Our next stop was Ubud, where we walked through the rice fields to Sari Organik, an organic farm with restaurant. We had a delicious lunch with wonderful view over the rice fields. Then we visited the organic garden.

Solar drier at Sari Organik, Ubud

On the drive home we discussed about promoting walking and setting up a website for trecking in Buleleng connecting existing information and documenting new discoveries.

Meeting at Warung Bambu on May 15, 2010

2010-05-29T21:34:00.002+08:00

The Meeting was held at Warung Bambu from 3pm to 6pm. Burkhard, Johann, Beate and partially her husband Nana, my friend Teres from Portugal and myself shared the following topics and experiences:

Evelyn about Mind and Life Conference in Zurich, Switzerland, about Altruism and Compassion in Economic Systems:
I was very excited to be at the same time in Zurich as the Dalai Lama and having the opportunity to participate in the above Conference which was accompanied by him. The Conference was held as a dialogue in 5 parts on 3 days between leading women and men from the fields of Economics, Neuroscience and Contemplative Sciences such as Philosophy and Buddhism. On the detailed proceedings of the conference please read this blog and find information about the Mind and Life Institute here.
picture
My highlights from the conference:
When I studied economics in the eighties, emotions and compassion were explicitly excluded from economic laws and the whole science was based on a egocentric view of the human being which only wants to maximize his own benefit. This view is changing. Finally altruism and compassion start to be included into economic science.
It is not only talking. There exist already many projects which are based on ethics, compassion and generosity like

the barefoot college in India, which trains grandmothers from Africa and India as solar engineers within 6 months
the Forma Futura Invest company which invests and manages funds based on 180 criterias including ethical and ecological ones
big banks who suddenly invest in microfinance projects. ok, they do it because they realize that these projects are successful.

The conclusion that we are all connected and therefore everyone counts and is important. Start with yourself and be the change you want to see in the world.

Evelyn about her visit of Tamera Healing Biotope in Portugal:
Tamera is an experimental and educating site for the building of peace villages worldwide. It is located in the Alentejo, a very dry region in southwest Portugal, on 134ha of land. Currently more than 200 people live and study there. A part of the project is the permaculture design for a village with 300 people. The main issue in this region is the water supply. With 600mm/year there is enough rainfall, but due to mismanagement like overgrazing and roads built in the valleys the water runs away too quickly leaving the soil dry and causing erosion. Tamera asked Sepp Holzer, a permaculturist from Austria, for help and he immediately envisioned a landscape with connected lakes where the water can slowly sip into the earth. 2 years ago they started with building dams, moving the road and terracing the land around the lakes. Thanks to heavy rainfalls in the winter the lakes are already filled, the terraces are planted with various fruit trees and guilds of veggies. It looks like a miracle. Many wild animals are already attracted to the lakes. The river which usually went dry in summer runs now all year round. Yes, it can be done! Please find more information about Tamera on their website.

Beate told us that for a Visa to Germany you have to apply now at the embassy in Jakarta instead of Kuta. She went there and had a great time shopping.

Beate told us about her experiences from the participation at the Earth Day in Ubud. The theme was "what are you doing to make the world a little better". Many locals took part and were very motivated. Beate made valuable contacts. Her highlight was riding an electro bike through Ubud. She suggests that we take part next year with our group.

Beate has contacts to a group who wants to find and build trecking paths in Bali. How exciting to walk around Bali by foot. In the Algarve in Portugal they just finished the Via Algarviana, a walking path through the countryside to promote a sustainable development of the region.

BIWA wants to sponsor a digital mammogram machine at the cost of US$ 69000 for breast cancer diagnosing. Teres mentioned articles and studies that this does not prevent breast cancer. The only way to prevent breast cancer is a healthy lifestyle. So instead of investing money in an expensive machine it is probably better invested in promoting and educating women in a healthy lifestyle.

Burkhart informed us that in Lovina from now on only cow shit is allowed as fertilizer for rice.

We talked about how the meetings could be improved so that more people get interested and take part. The next meeting will be an excursion to the Temesi waste recycling project on Friday, June 18.

A visit in Sambirenteng. Minutes of the meeting on 15 April 2010

2010-04-22T09:17:00.006+08:00

Last week a small group of us (Annett, Nyoman, Beate, Johann, Pak Suwenten and me Burgel) went to visit the building site of Holiway in Sambirenteng, north east coast Bali. Thank you Maria and Stefan for inviting us!
It's a large plot of land, a part will be built up with villas and the other part with bungalows. The concept is to create a place for "holidays with sense" in an environment friendly surrounding. Therefor buildings like seminar rooms for different kind of seminar and body work, swimming-pool and installations for waste water treatment and alternative energy are planned.
First we inspected the land protecting wall towards the sea. "Geotextil", a 100 year lasting material, is put in layers in that way, that soil is not washed away (and it even catches sand towards the land). To hold everything large volcanic stones are put to a wall with a slope. It is important to arrange the stones in the right way, then it will last a long long time. No concrete at all is added. For better protection vetiver grass with its very long roots is planted in a long line the whole length of the retaining wall. Hopefully the place is not too salty for this excellent land protecting plant.
Besides "geotextil" another interesting materiel is used there: a kind of styrofoam with both sides covered with thin aluminum. This is used as roof isolation to keep the coolness inside the rooms and to reflect the heat from the sun. Air conditioning is planned for the rooms, so with this isolation for sure energy will be saved.
Electricity from solar energy is planned for machines and devices which are used during day time, such as washing machines and pool pump. So, no need for batteries.
Johann recommended "Solahart" to make hot water with their solar water heater. The cheaper product line from Solahart is called "Handal".
For the waste water treatment they use the system from "IndoBio". 5 houses are joined together for one 3-chamber-system. One chamber has aerob bacteria, the other one anerob bacteria and the last one is with ozone. In the end the water is 95% cleansed and it will be used to water the garden. Too much toilet paper causes problems to this system. Unbleached toilet paper can't be found in Bali.(Does someone know where? Please tell us!) Therefor toilets with integrated hygiene "wiping" with water in stead of dry cleaning with paper are already ordered. Hopefully the future guests and owners will understand.
A nice lunch filled our hungry bellies before we were leaving this interesting site.

Bali, Greece, Africa, trees everywhere!

2010-04-15T01:04:00.003+08:00

Remember the beautiful story by Jean Giono, The Man Who Planted Trees, which Norm gave to us to read during or Permaculture seminar last year? Well, there are people who turn fiction to reality.
Please watch the following inspiring video about a man who planted one million trees in his homeland Ethiopia.
I started also, here in Paros, Greece :)
My warmest wishes to all of you

Permaculture-Excursion to the Bukit on 23rd of March 2010

2010-04-14T21:06:00.010+08:00

On the 23rd of March a few of our club joined an excursion to the South of Bali to learn more about Solar-Energy.
Thanks to the kind invitation of Florian Nitsch from Contained Energy to meet in the R.O.L.E Foundation we all visited for the first time this place with great Education, Awareness & Assistance Programs. We were specially interested in the Eco Construction and Organic Agriculture.

At first we got information about solar energy, solar dryer, biogas and how to produce small torches from Jatropha oil. Sitting in the shadow on the top of the site in the nice ROLE café (with amazing view!)we enjoyed to discuss in detail all our ideas and question we had concerning solar energy. Thank you Florian for all the useful information and your time.
solar dryer

torches made of jatropha oil and kapok

We finsihed our visit in the R.O.L.E foundation after we got a guided tour through other parts of the area where we could visit the Spa and got explanation about Aloe vera, also very interesting the weaving program and the Organic Agriculture Site.
For sure it was not the last time we have been there.

Afterwards we visited the office of Solar Power Indonesia. Without having an appointment we were very lucky to meet the Engineering Manager who gave us also valuable information.

Battery Recycling

2010-04-11T22:41:00.003+08:00

Waste Collecting Station in a Supermarket in Switzerland

Hello from Zürich in Switzerland where it is still quite cold and spring is only slowly taking command. I want to let you know about the souvenirs I carried with me on my trip from Bali to Switzerland. Because there is no battery recycling plant in Indonesia as far as I know I took the used batteries I had collected with me. It was about 2kg. Quite heavy but they didn't need a lot of space in my baggage.
In Switzerland exist 12000 battery collecting stations in various shops and supermarkets. There is a law which obliges the shops which sell batteries to take them back for free. The recycling costs are included in the price of the batteries. More than 60% of the sold batteries are returned for recycling with increasing tendency. Source of these facts: http://www.littering.ch/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=318
So I took the batteries to the nearest collecting station and deposited them there. Now wondering where they will go next. As I had heard of waste transports from industrialized countries to development countries I wanted to be sure that my batteries were not shipped back to Indonesia or another country or dumped somewhere into the ocean. I was very happy when my research led me to Batrec Industrie AG, a company situated in Switzerland specializing in recycling. All collected batteries in Switzerland go there and are recycled according to the highest quality standards.
For your used batteries I suggest, as long as there is no recycling plant in Bali or Indonesia, to collect them in our group and whenever I travel to Switzerland I will carry them there.

The Meeting in Pictures

2010-02-22T19:28:00.015+08:00

opening the grease trap at Gaia Oasis

listening to Beate

wastewater garden at Gaia Oasis hillside

markisa or passionfruit at Gaia Oasis hillside

Aloe Vera growing at Gaia Oasis hillside

Beate and Mank, old team mates

Swimming Pool at Gaia Oasis hillside

Burgel really wants to know how this Pool Chemistry works

herbgarden at Gaia Oasis

view from Gaia Oasis hillside

Burgel, Markus and Burkhard discussing

wastewater garden at the home of Markus and Mank

finally...Rambutan-break

Minutes of the 13th Meeting on Feb 17, 2010

2010-02-21T21:34:00.006+08:00

Beate organised again a day fully packed with exciting events:
- at Gaia Oasis, Tejakula and Abasan: waste water garden and organic vegetable gardens
- at the home of Markus and Mank: waste water garden and solar energy system
- at Renate's place: Aqua Fitness

When I arrived at Warung Bambu 15 minutes too early I met her munching homemade bread and cake and joined for a kopi Bali. Soon after Burgel und Burkhard arrived and the cake had to be saved for Beate's kids. At 8.30am the expected transport had not arrived so we mounted our motor bikes and headed eastward along the coast to Gaia Oasis where our host Sabine welcomed us with drinks, lots of fruits and these yummy belinjo chips. As there were some new faces around the table we started with an introductory round: Burgel, Carlos, Jenny, Markus, Beate, Mank, Burkhard, Sabine, Renate, Violetta and me. Welcome everybody! Great to see so many people interested in Permaculture.
For those not so familiar with Permaculture, find a definition here.

1. Soap nuts or krerek in bahasa
Beate told us about her first experiments in using them for washing, as dishwashing liquid and hair shampoo against dandruff. Better don't try to mix them in a blender as you can get explosive results with soap nut liquid splattered all over the kitchen!
Burgel gave us her recipe for using the soap nuts in the washing machine: soak about 12 nuts in water, open them, wrap them in a textile bag and put them into the washing machine. It is not recommended to reuse the nuts because most of the saponine will be rinsed off during the washing cycle. But they still can go to the compost heap.
Here you can find more information about soap nuts or just google soap nuts.

2. Waste water garden
Beate showed and explained us the waste water system at Gaia Oasis with the grease trap and the cleaning plant.
Most of the waste water of restaurants and hotels in Bali still go untreated to rivers and to the sea. Reasons for this might be ignorance and giving low priority to the issue by owners when investing. We all can help to build awareness of the issue by getting interested and curious and asking questions in the hotels and restaurants where we are guests.

3. Garden tour at Gaia Oasis Abasan
Sabine and her gardeners took us on a tour through the vast property. The Lontar palm indicates that the climate here is more dry than around Singaraja. We discussed the local way of composting: just digging a hole and filling it with organic matter and then covering it with earth. Very energy saving, but during the rainy season probably too moist and no oxigen. We opened a hole and found some sticky earth with rotted leaves, not bad smelling, but not as good as this crumbly, black, earthy smelling stuff from a compost heap. We still wonder how anaerobic composting works and why it is less recommended than aerobic composting. This is some homework, guys!
Another subject was the water treatment in swimming pools. How does a chlorinator work? What chemical processes and elements are involved? Some more homework! But even without understanding the pool chemistry the water in the swimming pools of Gaia Oasis looked very clean and refreshing and there was no chlorine to smell.
The garden beds were not mulched. Sabine explained that it is difficult to motivate the gardeners for mulching. They usually just put the cow shit on top of the earth. Does that hurt the plants or can this cause diseases in humans when they eat the plants?
During the tour the gardeners kept feeding us with freshly picked rambutans. The markisas were thriving and we passed beds of beans, corn, basil, aloe vera, salads and other greens and medicinal plants.
The first rain drops and a rolling thunder reminded us to head back to the restaurant. But not before we got that lemon basil plant that Sabine offered us for taking home.
Time to say Good-bye to Sabine and her gardeners, to Jenny, Carlos, Renate and Violetta who had other duties.

4. Visit at the home of Markus and Mank
After a stopover at a Warung down by the beach we went on to the home of Markus and Mank to see their newly installed solar energy system.
There are 2 providers for solar panels in Bali: Contained energy and Solar Power Indonesia. Markus brought some of his equipment like the inverter from germany. He explained us the main elements of his solar energy system: solar panels, car batteries, inverter and control unit. Well done! We all except Burkhard envy Mank for such a technically talented husband.

As it was already 4pm and the clouds looked heavy with rain I passed on Renate's invitation to water therapy.

Thanks a lot to Beate for organizing the day and to Sabine, Markus, Mank and Renate for hosting us.
Next meeting: Beate plans a trip to South Bali to visit the show room of Solar Power Indonesia. She will email the details.

Minutes of the 12th Meeting on Jan 24, 2010

2010-01-28T15:19:00.005+08:00

Excursion to Manuksesa on Sunday, 24th January 2010. Beate offered to host the meeting at Villa Manuk in the home village of her husband. Elena arrived already on Saturday at our construction site and we spent some time indulging in her plans going back to Greece and doing permaculture design work at the Tao's Center on the island of Paros. On Sunday morning we all, which means Elena, Burgel, Beate and Nana, Burkhard and me, met at Warung Bambu to drive together to Manuksesa. As it is Rambutan season now we stopped when we saw a man standing by the road with a basket full of the juicy hairy fruits. With a big smile he just gave us a big bundle of fruits as a present.
In the village Beate first showed us the current situation with the grey water from the houses along the village road. From each house a 1.5" or 2" pipe comes out of the foundation wall and goes at right angle down to the gutter along the road. As the road is not very steep and the people don't seem to use much water (maybe there is no running water in the houses), the dirty water is dripping out of the pipe into the open gutter leaving smells and solids there while seeping away. The houses seem to have toilets with septic tanks. All the same some older people still have the habit to shit into the little river which runs through the village. Beate received a generous donation for her Children Project. So the idea is to use that money to improve the waste water situation in the village. A few ideas came up:

collect the greywater in a pipe system which leads to a common waste water garden in the village
build a waste water garden for each household
build a common bath house with waste water garden

The project now needs to be defined more clearly like identifying the needs of the people, identifying all resources, choosing a site, doing a functional analysis of a bath house etc.
Nana led us to the house where he was born and his family still lives. In one room the organic rice which was harvested the traditional way a few month ago was stored in a big heap, the rice corns still on the stalk.
Then we toured Villa Bambu and the garden where our eyes were caught by some monster papayas and a spinach with a stem like a tree. The vetiver grass in the waste water garden is thriving and the Sawo trees are hanging full of fruits. The pool is surrounded with various flowers which attract a variety of butterflies. Beate did a great job furnishing and decorating the rooms.
After a yummy nasih goreng from the organic rice we enjoyed a swim in the refreshing water of the pool.
Beate told us the feedbacks she received for the waste management concept which we discussed during the last 2 meetings and Elena volunteered to do the final editing before it is handed over to Ibu Ambari from the Governor's Office.
Our next subject was health. Who knows a good docter? Which hospitals are recommendable? What to do in case of an accident? Where to get a good treatment or therapy?
Burkhard informed about an initiative to form a fund which guarantees the payment for a helicopter flight in case of emergency. Often here in the north of Bali the problem is how to get somebody who is seriously injured from the accident site to a good hospital or the airport in order to be flown out to a good hospital. Burkhard will research the actual state and conditions of the fund.
Before we left Villa Manuk Beate showed us the simple but very effective grease trap made from 3 plastic buckets connected by pipes. The buckets are close to the compost place. So it is very convenient to clean the buckets often and throw the grease to the compost heap. Hidden in the lids of the buckets and some half cutted bamboo stems we found some standing water with moskito breeding places. So, don't forget to check for any standing water around your house to avoid Dengue Fever.
More informative articles about health issues you can find on the website of Bali4kids.

And last but not least some news and hints from our guru:
Wish I could come this Sunday, but we've haven't got a tutor for this school term, starting next Monday, so I'm it. This means I have to start preparing to teach, so I won't be able to join you... For the wastewater system, just remember the Principles that guide your design.

For septic tanks and treatment gardens, bigger is better! The longer the wastes are in the system, the more time there is for treatment. Longer time in the system is better.
Watch the slope in piping, always. The absolute minimum is 3%, but 5% is better. Avoid 90' L's in WC piping to the septic tank. Use 45' L's.
Make sure you prevent any solids from getting into the perforated garden piping.You may need something like a grease-trap, to catch solids like hair, soap, plastic etc...
Put a P Trap between the Mandi/Wastafal (all grey water) and the septic tank. DO NOT RELY ON THOSE CHEAP, FLOOR-DRAIN FITTINGS TO STOP SMELLS COMING BACK INTO THE MANDI, FROM THE SEPTIC TANK! Buy P Traps, with a screw-cap on the bottom, so you can drain off any solids that accumulate there.
Short breather pipes mean smells and mosquitoes! Breather pipes should go above the eaves of your roof, if possible.

Do please email me, if you need some help, or confirmation, for your design. (Don't forget the Sikaflex..! :)
Same for the waste management program. Stay with the basic Principles, and feel free to email, if I can help. And, at the risk of repeating the same thing too often... The Key is... a Collection Service, which does not (usually) pick up organic wastes. Transporting garbage is expensive. If possible, work with Pemulung, let them collect the recyclables. If you can, build a TPS, and give someone a job managing it.
I seriously can't wait to swim in B & N's natural pool. Enjoy, you guys!

NORM'S CURRENT WORK: I'm currently doing a tree-planting project in the protected forest above our place. We are planting 4,000 fruiting, native trees on 5 hectares, that was cleared illegally, back in the 70's. Locals have made money supplying the bibit, and doing the work. More and more large corporations are willing to sponsor this kind of project. This one is being paid for, by Standard Chartered Bank. We've just erected an information sign (attached) on the road to the rainforest. Including the structure, and the sign itself, the whole project cost Rp4.5mil. We have Indonesian in big letters and English in small letters. In other words, the sign is primarily for locals, not tourists. The sign was sponsored by one of our guests. I've attached pics of the sign and a (water cycle) drawing we used. I have all the graphics in pdf and jpeg formats. You're welcome to use them. Just email me and I'll send them to you. We feel information signs, including rules and regulations, are one more part of what's needed, to protect our natural areas.

I'm currently building, and doing a PC design, for a lovely new family, who are moving from Australia to Bali. They've contracted 1.5h, not far downhill from our Lodge. They're building a very similar place to ours, which in this case, they'll call an 'Eco-Stay' I invite you guys, to come and look at this project sometime. They have a lovely clean stream to swim in, and we're hoping to install a micro-hydro electric system (they have a 12m waterfall) to power the whole property.
For those of you with diesel gen-sets, Chakra is reporting 25% fuel savings with his latest hydrogen set-up. He's busy and hard to get hold of, so it's best to go to him, in Ubud. He also does very simple, biogas digestors, and he teaches SRI (organic) rice farming.

LINDA, Is currently setting up a TK at our local Banjar, and she recently joined a PKK meeting to bring reliable information, about typhus and rabies, to local women. She also put a range of nice vegetable seeds in small packs, and sold them to the ladies. In our village, 1 year ago, Linda started sponsoring a new Silat class, which has been a big hit, especially with the girls. She is about to try soap nuts, to replace expensive, liquid soaps (thanks Silv'), and she continues to manage the Eco Lodge, brilliantly.
It's the wet season, so, If you're getting rains, especially in that tough, North-coast climate, this is definitely the best time for you to be planting your fruit trees!

DISASTER STUFF: There's lots of disaster talk around nowadays. For what it's worth, in my opinion, the most likely threat you face (apart from the obvious threat of earthquakes) on the North coast, is Storm Surge, possibly, combined with storm-water flooding. It's a temporary raising of sea-levels, caused by weather, it can reach heights of several metres, and more if combined with heavy rains. You'll get the picture from Google or Wikapedia... Those of you on the coast, might consider raising important infrastructure up, a couple of metres off the ground - for example, gen-sets & water tanks.
Elena has been doing wonderful things for us, up here in the mountains, but she's looking forward to catching up with all of you. She could probably use a bit of sun too!
Take care everybody, Norm

As date for the next meeting Wednesday, 17th of February 2010, is scheduled. Please let Beate know about sites to visit or subjects to be covered in the meeting. Wishing you all a good time SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI!

Minutes of the 9th Meeting on Oct 25

2009-11-03T11:43:00.011+08:00

Excursion to Renate's construction site in Bondalem. Some members were out of order (sakit perut) due to too much babi guling or busy, so it was again Beate, Burgel and myself, who were driven by Pak Ketut Suasa to Bondalem. Burkhard followed us on his motorbike while his wife Yuli took care of their new construction site. After a call for directions we found Renate's place on the beach and - surprise, surprise! - many interested people I haven't met so far, most of them german speaking. To my relief our ceremony mistress Beate guided us skillfully and joyfully through the day.

Renate explaining the plans of the buildings

Although Renate just had moved to the place the day before she was already very well organized and started giving us some information on the path that led her to Bali and on her vision for the project. Have a look at her website for more information. After 4 years of travelling and preparing she had decided to make the property in Bondalem her new base for living and began to draw the plans of a healing place inspired by the clarity and calmness of zen monasteries. As she is not a professional designer she let an architect go over her sketches and draw the final plans to get the permit for construction. To help understanding the plans and communicating them to the workers Renate had made a colorful paper model of the buildings.

paper model of the buildings

The main theme of the place is water: the healing power of the ocean nearby combined with a special water therapy for which a 35 degree Celsius warm pool is built and a regular swimming pool. Xavier, an experienced water therapist and as such very aware of water quality, explained us the challenges a pool designer is faced with. Luckily in Bali we usually can enjoy good water quality. Our skin is not waterproof, there is an exchange of molecules through the skin with the surrounding water. Infinity pools have the advantage that the chlorine gas which usually floats above the water level right in the area where we breathe can drift away while it is trapped by the surrounding wall in skimmer pools. There are various water treatment technologies, many of them not available though in Bali. So it is wise to choose a system that is available and can be maintained locally which are pool ionizers. The swimming pool contractor from Denpasar which was expected for 4pm does not show up. The holiday of Kuningan the day before might be a reason.

swimming pool by the ocean

enjoying the breeze from the ocean

Pak Willis explaining "constructing needs time"

After the introduction Renate guided us through the construction site where her contractor Pak Willis, another sweet Balinese guy, explained how he liked working for Renate and excused himself for any misunderstandings and not progressing faster. Everything needs time. Yes, and then it was time for lunch. The javanese workers had grilled 2 big fresh fish and the kitchen fairies had prepared wonderful salads, fritters and rice for us. What a delight!

grilled fish for lunch

After lunch some of the participants had to leave and the rest of us shared some information:

Beate told us about her traditional Bali rice project. The rice has already been harvested. As the halms are higher than the fast growing species it is harvested in an upright position, back straight, not bent, with a special knife. After the rice is dry enough it will be gedrescht in the traditional way.
Beate informed that she received a generous donation for her children project. The children and the people from the village would like to use the money for public toilets and a waste water garden in the village
Beate talked with members of the environment department in Denpasar about the waste problem. They are really interested in supporting a project. So Beate asks us for help in designing a waste treatment system for Buleleng.
Evelyn shared some insights from the PDC with Bill Mollison which she attended in Melbourne lately.
Then we talked about solar energy. Renate showed us the brochures of Contained Energy which offers now solutions in Bali. The problem with solar energy very often is storage of the energy for the time when the sun is not shining. Batteries are needed which are expensive and tend to break. Burkhard recommends to bring down the peak energy usage by not using all the power consumers together. Like this a contract for less KW can be agreed on with PLN.
We discussed strategies how to interact with the local communities. Sometimes our good intentions can lead to aversion by the local community if we don't integrate them very carefully into the projects. Watch out for open doors and open minds!
Nicole distributes an introduction into MET (Meridian Energy Techniques), an easy-to-learn method for dealing with stress and fears.
Renate told us how the coconut poles were made termite-safe. They split the poles and filled them with cement and iron and put them together again.
On the way back we stopped at Bali Mandala Resort to return a pair of shoes following the permaculture desing principle: every element, like in our case the ride home, supports more than one function!

Please note the date for the next meeting: Sunday, November 15, 2009. The venue is not yet clear. Maybe Beate's place in Manuksesa. An information will follow by Renate a few days before.

concrete filled coconut poles

Update: Next Permaculture Meeting on 25th of October 2009

2009-10-06T14:44:00.004+08:00

Our next meeting will be on Renate's site in Bondalem on Sunday, the 25th of October 2009 at 10 am. I am sure there will be a lot of interesting things to see, i.e. solar energy and other environmental friendly building ideas. Please contact me if you want to join because Renate has to organize the lunch. Thanks and selamat hari Raya Kuningan!

Back from PDC Melbourne

2009-10-05T14:05:00.000+08:00

spreading the wings (by Elena)

I would like to start the posting with a few words from Marcel Proust, which characterize pretty much my experiences during my stay in Melbourne:

The real journey of discovery is not to seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.

That's what Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton did with their stories and teachings: opening our eyes so we can look at the world around us from a new perspective, the permaculture design perspective, which is based on the 3 ethical pillars for any action: caring for the earth, caring for the people including oneself and using any surplus for the latter two. Just imagine if every family grows their own food in a sustainable way. Healthier and more nutritious food, healthier people, less transportation and storage needed, less energy consumption and pollution, healthier environment, less stress, less aggression, less greed, happier people, more peace....Why not try? Why not here and now? Why not you and me? That's what Bill and Geoff made clear on the first day of the course: it is time to act, time to become part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. Our planet probably faces the biggest challenges in her history, but at the same time humanity had never such a vast knowledge and so many hearts and hands to heal. In the course we were 84 highly motivated students from all over the world, all age groups, various cultural and social backgrounds, all sharing the same vision and there are many more out there already designing, digging swales and building dams, reafforesting, gardening, composting, teaching etc. These are the good news. The bad news are that we are really in serious trouble with climate change and all its effects about which you hear in the media daily. We are in trouble NOW! So every one of us is important however small or big the contribution is. JUST DO IT!
Today I just want to give you my overall impressions and some highlights from the course. I have a full notebook with details and drawings which I want to study further in the next weeks and put in postings from time to time. I am still very busy on our construction site preparing for the rainy season.
The course covered basically the contents of the Designer's Manual enriched by many stories and project experiences from Bill and Geoff. Here are some websites that might interest and inspire you:
- magic in melbourne by Craig Mackintosh with picture of Bill
- www.homegrownrevolution.com
- www.urbanhomestead.org
- www.freedomgardens.org
- www.happyearth.com.au
- www.spinfarming.com
- www.chirchofdeepecology.org
- Banana Circle Recipe to cut waste

As you can imagine with 84 students from all over the world there was much more to learn than "only" what was taught in the classroom. So actually there were 86 teachers and students. Bill's wife Lisa and some helpers in the back pampered us in the morning and afternoon breaks with delicious snacks which saved me the money to buy lunch, quite expensiv in Melbourne. One banana at the SevenEleven costs 1.20 AUD, 1 kg apples almost 7 AUD, more than a worker at our construction site earns in a day.
The first eight days of the course were filled with lectures and mainly listening. On day 9 in the afternoon we were randomly grouped and each group received a brief from a pretended client to design the empty 4000 m2 area just outside the lecture theatre. Quite challenging for me first to find my place in the group, then to apply the various methods of design, come to a result and then present the result in the class. It was great to have Elena as room mate in these times, relieving my stress in just listening to my worries and telling me that we are here to learn from our mistakes and not to be perfect. After the presentations it was party time which meant performance time. Challenging me again beyond my habitual behaviour so that I was tempted to sneak out and escape. But Julia gave me a warm brazilian hug and talked me into staying. So thanks to her I stepped over another of my limitations and danced the life of a butterfly for my fellow students who all did awesome performances. What do we need TV Shows for when we all have such amazing talents!
The last day of the course was dedicated to receive the Permaculture Design Certificate from Bill and Geoff and then everybody told the group what will be her or his next steps and intentions towards a more sustainable life. May we all find the courage and the energy to realize our beneficial intentions!
Thank you, Norm and Elena, for inspiring me to attend this great course! And my husband Johann, who supported me with his good wishes and love.

receiving certificate from Bill and Geoff (by Elena)

Minutes of the 8th Meeting

2009-09-17T16:03:00.002+08:00

Excursion to KEV. Some members were out of country or busy so it was Beate and myself, who met at Burgel's place to drive together to KEV. On the way I was listening to the funny stories of Beate and Burgel about their time-out from their families while enjoying the luxury of an air-conditioned car driven by Pak Suasa Ketut. We are heading towards the end of the dry season now with very hot weather during the day.
We all were curious about the progress of KEV since we last visited in January for setting up the first waste water garden there. Brigitta and Silvia, both tanned and healthy looking from outdoor working, welcomed us together with a refreshing breeze from the sea.

Brigitta's Beach House

Brigitta, Silvia and Evelyn looking at the sludge blanket

septic tank with sludge blanket

Brigitta first took us on a tour through and around her new lovely beach house. The tiles are painted bright to reflect the heat and the windows are designed that the breezes can cool the house. We could not resist to open the septic tank after having heard so much about sludge blankets and never seen one. It is much less smelly than expected and the plants in the leachfield seem to enjoy the nutrients from the tank as do the maggots around the lid. We wondered how they got in there. I fell in love with the bathrooms which Brigitta decorated with jadegreen pebbles and tiles in meandering curves with little mirrors in between. Very playful and serene!
The place for the diving equipment has 2 basins for washing the gear. There is also hot water available. With a switch Brigitta can choose depending on the saltiness of the water if it is drained to the septic tank or the got which leads directly to the sea. At the moment the shed for the generator is in construction. To reduce the noise the walls are built as a sandwich of 2 brick layers with a layer of rice husks and cement in between.
Then Silvia took us to her site. Amazing what she has done since January! The restaurant and the big kitchen are in the finalising phase. It will be very spatious and airy with its big roof made from alang-alang which people from a mountain village have brought. They lived and worked on the construction site until the roof was covered.

Silvia's farm shop with thermal chimney

The store where Silvia will sell fresh vegetables from her garden and other products made from local plants like natural cosmetics is also in the finalising phase. It will be cooled by air which is sucked in through an earth pipe and then circulated into a thermal chimney. And the first guest bungalow is on its way. All buildings are made out of adobe. As the earth for the adobe is always different they do first a sample. Depending on how much clay the earth contains more or less sand has to be added that the adobe does not crack.

mulch on the veggie beds and sawdust on the paths in the mandala garden

seedlings ready to move

The vegetable garden is laid out as a mandala, the plant beds thickly mulched and the paths covered with saw dust. The first seedlings are soon ready to be planted. More than 60 young fruit trees are planted and the pigs look happy and healthy. Sweet potatoes, rosella and maniok are already available for cooking.
As the sun was setting we returned to Brigittas house and enjoyed coffee and cake on her peaceful terrasse. Great excursion with lots of inspiration! Thank you, Silvia and Brigitta.
Elena and I will attend the Permaculture Design Certificate Course with Bill Mollison in Melbourne from Sept. 21 to Oct.3. We will keep you posted here in the blog.

Please note the date for the next meeting: Saturday, October 17, 2009. The venue is not yet clear, maybe Renate's construction site in the east.

Guru's Talk

2009-09-14T21:40:00.003+08:00

Hi Folks

Tomato blight, like so many other pest problems here, is fungal. That's why you see the grape growers spraying so much, it's usually a fungacide to control fungal outbreaks on the grapes.

Traditionally, gardeners have used Bordeaux Mix* for fungal problems. I don't any longer consider it organic, but in my opinion, it is ok to use occassionally when you're having problems with fungus.
*Copper Sulphate & Washing Soda (many recipes on the 'net) You can get the ingredients at Saba Kimia in Denpasar.

You were right, Evelyn, about creating the conditions to encourage fungus by watering the leaves. Better you water well around the roots and keep the leaves dry. Also better to water thouroughly say twice a week (so the soil is soaked to the roots), than a light watering every day (which will keep the surface moist ie. fungal, but may keep the roots thirsty).

Finally, it's a good idea to germinate your seeds in a sterile potting mix (if your seedlings are falling over because the stem has shrivelled, it's probably fungus). Just spread your potting mix out in the hot sun for a day. You can quickly rebuild soil-life later with compost mixed with water.

Have you all got some pigeon peas in? Silvia's didn't grow well but try one seedling in a poly bag till 30-40cms then plant them out. They are fragile until established - keep weeds away from them and give them some water - so look after them until they're about 1m tall, then they should be ok.

Something to remember, in the tropics, heavy rains wash nutrients out of soils leaving them quite infertile. In nature or a well managed garden, nutrients are constantly cycled by leaf-drop, plant/animal wastes or compost & mulching, but in most modern gardens, there is little nutrient cycling and soils become infertile.

If the macro-nutrients (Nitrogen, Potassium & Phosphate) are low or missing, nothing will work. So, you need to get your maco-nutrient levels up to achieve strong plant growth. You'll do this over time with good management, but in the short term, some fertilizer will help.

Once again, it's not considered organic, but for a new project where the soils are not yet too good, I suggest an occassional (1 or 2 times/year)light application of NPK fertilizer to get your garden going. Ignore the manufacturer's advice, just a light dressing over your gardens will do. After this, concentrate on building and balancing micro-nutrients, minerals and soil carbon...

Are you preparing seedlings and sites for wet season plantings? Have you thought about stormwater drainage BEFORE the wet season? Save yourself problems later by sorting out your drainage issues now...

Silvia, I love your project, it will be one of the best examples of sustainable development in Bali - I especially like your pig system. We're looking forward to linking our Lodge guests up with your place.

Attached, a pic of Norm's new hideaway and workspace.

Ciao
Norm

Minutes of the 7th Meeting

2009-08-16T21:41:00.005+08:00

Instead of a meeting I had invited the group members to our construction site in Selat Gintungan and Burgel came up with the glorious idea to go trekking. So I asked my neighbour Sri who runs the restaurant Biergarten and offers trekking tours to organize the tour and cook lunch for us.
We, that is Burgel, Renate and her two visiting friends Beate and Marianne, Nicole and Jochen, Johann and me, met around 8.30am at restaurant Biergarten where our guides Pak Suwi and his son Ketut and our gardener Kadek were waiting for us. They carried the water and the snacks, so that we could concentrate on the jungle trek which led along a steep hill flank over a river to a valley which is enclosed with high rock walls over which the water falls spectacularely during the rainy season. Many families in the region take their water supply from here and the water pipes accompanied our way. As it is dry season now the water was only dripping over the rocks. The air was cool and refreshing at the foot of the rock wall where we took our break and ate the sandwiches and fruits. Sorry for the missing chocolate!
Renate had already turned back because she had her shoulder operated recently and was afraid to fall on the sometimes narrow and slippery path. On the way back Pak Suwi discovered a huge bee's nest high up in a tree. So he left us to tend to the honey. Our gardener Kadek who made the trek the first time guided us safely back to the Biergarten while Ketut tried hard to prevent Nicole from falling.
At around 1pm also Silvia and Brigitta from KEV had arrived and we all enjoyed Sri's delicacies. During lunch a lot of information and stories were shared. I got a little confused with so much talking around me and missed Beate's gentle, but determined guidance through the meetings. So if you miss a subject, please add it in the comments section or send me an email and I will add it here.

Brigitta planted the first tree in her garden at KEV: a mahony or tulip tree.
Nicole told us about Meridian Energy Therapy, a method which helps to get rid of unwanted habits, fears and phobias. In english it is also known as Emotional Freedom Technique. She offered to introduce the method to everybody interested at her soon opening Cili Emas Beach Resort.
Jochen told us about LED lamps which use even less energy than the ecology bulbs and are available at the following store in Denpasar:

MULTI DAYA ELECTRIC
Jl. Teuku Umar No. 62 (70)
Denpasar
Tel: 0361 225020
Fax: 0361 236661
Email: multidayabali@yahoo.com

For everything around wood (floors, sliding doors etc.), stone floors and basins Jochen recommends the following store:

LARAS Bali
By Pass Ngurah Rai 465,
Sanur
Tel: 0361 726505
Fax: 0361 722167
Email: laras@indo.net.id

For ecological building material Silvia recommended again The Little Tree. See Link List. Although the shop is not yet open, you can buy materials by this contact adress:

Little Tree 0361 8585053, Pak Yudhi, or product information via email with Ibu Ketut: product1@littletreebali.com.

After lunch and coffee we started for a site tour on our property. Thank you for all your comments, questions and suggestions! If you are interested in details about the construction please have a look at my blog or email me your questions.

Next meeting will be an excursion to KEV on Sunday, September 13, 2009 . Details will follow when arranged.

Discovering Neem

2009-08-03T10:03:00.002+08:00

I want to share with you the very informative website of Birgit about many uses of the Neem tree. She put all the information together in an easy understandable and usable way. Just inspired me to start spraying the cocoa plants in the garden with a 1% Neem Oil solution today. I add the website to the link section that it is always accessible.

Tomato Blight

2009-08-02T22:37:00.004+08:00

Just before the tomato, I got from Gede, started to become red and ripe the leafs of the plant turned brown and dry and the skin of the fruits developed growing brown dots and finally fell down rotten. The same happened to the chillies that stood next to the tomato, except that the leaves stayed green. Now there is only the eggplant left in the bed and the leaves don't look very healthy. But the fruits still grow and look ok, so I decided to leave the plant and watch it. As I have once read about tomato blight in a gardening book I started to research about it in the Internet and learned that:
- early tomato blight is caused by the fungus Alternaria solani which is hosted by plants of the solanaceae family (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplants)
- the fungus needs water to multiply
- the fungus will survive if it has a host

So planting tomatoes together with chillies and eggplant and showering the plants from top was creating the best conditions for the fungi to thrive. I did not find a better solution than to throw the plants out, let them dry and burn them and then not plant any plant of the solanaceae familiy for 3 to 4 years at the same place.
I asked my neighbours how their chillies are doing and found out that quite some have the same problem.
I wonder what your experiences are and what advice you can give.

Keep learning

2009-07-19T17:51:00.003+08:00

walls becoming teachers

When Elena asked in her Greece Report "anybody wants to join me?" my heart jumped up and jubilated YES. So I will join her for the PDCC in Melbourne. Flight and accomodation are booked and I got already the eVisitor entry permission for Australia. I want to learn as much as possible from Bill Mollison's book in advance. So when I read I make notes and sketches and decorate the walls with them that they are always in my sight.

Minutes of the 6th Meeting

2009-07-15T12:52:00.002+08:00

Meeting was held on July 15, 3-5pm at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, Bali

Present at the Meeting in Warung Bambu: Beate, Renate, Yuli, Burkhard, Burgel, Tilli, Evelyn
Absent: Brigitta and Silvia are very busy packing and moving their things to their new home in KEV. Gina is back in Bali, but busy with preparing for a guest group.

Next meeting will be an excursion to KEV. Details will follow when arranged.

As it is peak tourist season in Bali, everybody is busy taking care of guests in one way or the other. All the same we are glad we met and Beate provided again her cosy place for us. As there were no subjects on the agenda we just let the subjects arise and we ended up in a festival of the senses with lots of tasting and smelling and watching and touching. But first the more serious things.

Beate informed, that the organic rice which she and her husband planted on 30 are (1 are = 100 m2) is growing well. The price for 1 kg organic rice is 15'000 Rp., 3 times as much as for regular rice, which gives the farmer a better income and is more healthy and nutritious.
Some members made the experience that their gardeners don't water the vegetable garden properly, same amount of water for every plant or forgetting to water the seedlings regularly. It seems that Balinese gardeners are not used to tend to vegetable gardens. They usually plant rice or another crop and then leave it grow. Renate suggested to put the tasks in writing and hang them somewhere where they can be read every day. It also helps to set priorities. We need to understand how Balinese people think and learn in order to help them. Sometimes we just take it for granted that they think in the same way as we do and forget how fortunate we are that we were born in Europe and had access to a good education.
Beate reminded us about our goal to set up an organic market in Lovina until the end of the year. We talked about products to be sold and a good location for a start.
We found out how little we know about coconut oil. How is it produced? Yuli explained us how her mother used to make it by grating the white flesh, soaking it in water, pressing it and then heating the resulting coconut milk until the oil swims on top, skimming it and heating it again until it becomes clear and all the water is gone. Beate let us smell and taste the local made coconut oil she uses in her restaurant. What a delicacy for tongue and nose and fingers! We compared it to an older sample of cold pressed coconut oil from Bali Asli which smelled more like Bounty but also a bit rancid.
This led to the next question: What other oils are available in Bali? Luckily the kitchen was not far and one of Beate's lovely staff members heated a kemiri nut so we could experience the kemiri oil. Probably the most widespread cooking oil in Bali is palm oil like Bimoli made from oil palms which are planted in huge monocultural plantations.
From oil to water: Filtering the water or buying bottled water for drinking? What brand and what kind of filter? Tilli has a filter but can not buy the filtering replacements any more. Beate recommends the water filter from AMWAY, which is available at ABD Shop in Singaraja. Is there a laboratory for testing water quality?
From water to bread: Big issue for western people. Where to buy good flour for making bread? How to make good bread? Beate's bread maker just finished a loaf and she let us nibble on a slice. Very yummy! And later Beate's daughter Narayani shows us how simple the use of the bread maker is after the mother has read the instruction manual for all the different buttons. Reminded me of my old friend in Portugal who baked bread for the Saturday farmers market there. She just bought the grains. Thursday evening she started preparing the dough by grinding the grains in her mill. Have you ever smelled and touched freshly grinded flour? Then she mixed the different kinds of flour and added the sourdough and let it rest and develop for the night. The next morning she added the salt, some more flour and water and finished the dough by kneading it with her skillful hands. When the dough was finished it was cut and weighed and filled in the oiled forms where it rested again while she was busy making the fire in the oven. Sorry guys, just became a little bit nostalgic when I saw the automated bread maker. Different times, different places, different circumstances!
Probably no grains and no mills available in Bali, but you can get various flour mixtures from Prambanan Kencana, Jl. Bypass Ngurah Rai No 99, phone 0361 288767, prbbali@indosat.net.id, www.prambanan-kencana.co.id recommended by Burgel.

Please add your comments and amendments to the posting. If you don't know how just send me an email and I will include them in the posting. Further research on the above questions is very welcome!

Minutes of the 5th Meeting

2009-06-17T12:34:00.002+08:00

Meeting was held on June 17, 2-5pm at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, Bali

Present at the Meeting in Warung Bambu: Beate, Brigitta, Silvia, Burgl, Dominique, Renate, Burkhard, Evelyn

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 15, 3-5pm at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, Bali

Although some of us are in the middle of their construction projects and very busy and stressed with their own stuff, we made it to the meeting. What an effort and dedication! As a new guest we welcomed Dominique from Switzerland.

Beate let us know what happened with her waste water garden project after we left Villa Manuk on Sunday, May 24. As you remember 2 of the pipes for the leachfield were quite curved because they probably were leaned against a tree in the sun instead of storing them in a plane protected place. So before we drilled the holes, we turned the pipes until they were laying flat on the floor, because we remembered very well how important it is to lay the pipes even into the leachfield. But still it was not possible to install the pipes evenly in the leachfield how hard Beate and her Tukangs tried. So they decided to buy new pipes. They found white pipes instead of the grey ones which were stronger and of good quality. After having sold this problem Beate faced the next one. The leachfield was not filled properly due to a misunderstanding and soil was washed into it with the rain. Probably the top layer of the leachfield has to be replaced. This happened when Beate was not on site. So she came to the conclusion that it is crucial to be on the construction site all the time when you install a waste water garden the first time.
Burkhard told us about his problems of getting a kartu keluarga, the indonesian family document, with correct data.
And then Brigitta challenged us to help her design the waste water garden (WWG) for her new house at KEV. She brought a plan of her property and wanted to know where we would put the WWG. The specialty on her property is the dive operation with its basins to clean the dive equipment from saltwater.
Where to put the saltwater from the basins? Not to the septic tank said our Guru. But why not? The idea came up to make a leachfield with Halophytes, salt-tolerant plants. And we asked ourselves if these plants are just salt-tolerant or if they are also salt-reducing. Another idea was to desalinate the water. How does that work? At the end we came back to the simple solution: just let the water run into the drainage from the rice fields which leads to the sea.
Where to put the septic tank? led to further questions such as Where are the paths? Where are private and common areas? How is the slope on the property? We all agreed the septic tank should be as close as possible by the source of the waste that there are less chances of a blockage in the pipes.
Where to put the leachfield? The plants in the leachfield can be used as a hedge to give privacy.
Brigitta designed a freshwater tank in the earth to keep the water cool. There is enough slope to fill her private tank from the common water tank at KEV without pump. But in her house she depends on a waterpump whenever she opens a tap. Why not put a second watertank under the roof? Then the waterpump is only needed to fill that tank.
Where to put a waterpump? As close as possible to the water source, because waterpumps are strong in lifting water but weak in sucking water. The diameter of the lifting pipe should be narrow. Like this the water column who stands above the pump has less weight and the pump can work with less power and survives probably longer. Thank you, Burkhard, for the technical explanations! I hope, I repeated them correctly.
Burgl mentions that the height of the watertank is a defining factor for the water pressure. It seems that the longer the pipes are the bigger has to be the slope. She had to install a waterpump to use the water from her water tower in the solarheater on the roof because the water pressure was too low.
Why are we trying to find solutions by ourselves instead of hiring an architect or an expert to do it for us? Usually architects and experts do not work on site and do not design permaculturally. Often they make idealistic plans which then have to be realized by a constructor. Lucky who finds a good constructor and experienced plumbers in Bali!
Finally Burkhard informed about a cleaning-up festival that Yuli organized with their neighbours.
Beate has Neem Oil to sell which can be used to spray plants against pests.

So we just keep on learning by doing.
Belajar sambil praktek!

Next Permaculture Meeting on 17th of June 2009

2009-06-16T11:46:00.003+08:00

Dear friends,
we will meet on 17th of June at 2.00 pm at Warung Bambu Pemaron.
I am happy to see you tomorrow.

Greece Report

2009-06-04T05:11:00.005+08:00

A bit less than two months in my homeland and I have not stopped missing you since day one, especially since I am following closely your endeavours and successes in Kalisada, Villa Manuk and elsewhere on the island.

But I don't stay idle either! I am joining a Permaculture Design Course in Melbourne in September, where Bill Mollison will teach (hurray!). Anybody wants to join me? There is still time! I have also joined the WWOOF network (thanks to Linda who talked to me about it) and am searching to visit and give a hand to organic farms in Greece in an effort to gain insight into how things are working here. Do you guys know anything about Fukuoka and natural farming? I came across this technique while looking for WWOOF farmers in Greece and it seems quite interesting. Next week I am finally visiting the island of Kythnos, where I could end up if I were to stay in Greece for long and where Fukuoka farming could be applied successfully.

In the meantime I set up my first compost heap, in an old barrel I found in my sister's house in the countryside where I am residing at the moment ("Just do it, said the guru and this is exactly what I did :). And I am mulching and mulching and enjoying every minute of it! I planted my first tomatoes, bell peppers and herbs, I'm fertilising the plants with nettle and seaweed fertilisers I'm making myself and I am surveying the greek society in order to see if I can let it adopt me once more.. Not so bad for an engineer, don't you agree Norm? Any suggestion or comment about arid lands, dry climates and poor soils is more than welcome!

My favourite pastime though is spending time with my nephew, who is taking me with him to the wonderland of childhood while I am introducing him to the wonders of nature. Fantastic journey!

Minutes of the 4th Meeting

2009-05-24T21:50:00.012+08:00

gathering in the shade of the bale bengong

Instead of a meeting Beate invited us to the construction site of Villa Manuk in Manuksesa where she and her husband Nyoman planned to set up the wastewater garden. We, this is Beate, Tanja, Gede, Silvia, Brigitta, Sudi, Burgl, Johann and me, met on Sunday, May 24, 8.15 am at Warung Bambu. Beate and Sudi drove us in their cars to the village. Renate and Tilli arrived a little later from the east coast and finally also the newly wed's Yuli and Burkhard joined us.

What a miracle had happened since we have visited Villa Manuk during the Permaculture Workshop in January. Beate first took us on a site tour:
- The fresh springwater swimming pool together with a bale bengong became the new center of the property. Just finished a couple of days ago. A fish pond surrounds the pool and the bale. The water source is abundant enough to fill the pool in one day. The overflow of the pool runs into the fish pond and from there the water can be used to irrigate the garden.
- Behind the kitchen Beate has set up a compost heap and a vegetable and herb garden.
- The concrete structure and the roof of the new Villa Bambu are finished.
- The construction site is busy with female and male workers from the village. The materials for the construction are as much as possible local. The wood for the floor comes from an old mango tree which was growing next door. The walls are made of bamboo, plywood and bedeg. To protect the bamboo from bugs it was cut on a favourable day according to the balinese calender and then soaked in water for one week. The roof is made from alang-alang.

After the site tour Beate explained again the principles of a wastewater garden and how she designed it. Instead of a plastic water tank they built a concrete tank and waterproofed it. We defined the height and position of the inlet and outlet, measured the slope from the outlet of the tank to the leachfield, a 1 by 8 meter wide and more than 1 meter deep trench and calculated the number of holes to drill into the leach pipe. And then we started doing it step by step.
At 1pm everybody was sweating and starving. Beate's lunch packets arrived just in time to bring us back to life.
At 2pm the children of the village arrived for their permaculture teaching. Gede explained them why to mulch the vegetable beds and showed them how to do it. He learned that ants like it underneath the jerami (rice straw) and build long tunnels there and eat the roots of the plants. So he recommends to use other mulch material like lemon grass.
Around 4pm we left Villa Manuk a little tired but full of joyful and satisfying experiences.
On the way home Silvia wanted to stop at Annette's place to find out how many vetiver plants Annette needed to stabilize the sloping border of her property. We took the opportunity to have a look at her almost finished adobe house and were all excited about the progress and the beauty of it.

Another inspiring permaculture day! Thank you, Beate and all, who joined and shared their knowledge!

Next meeting is scheduled for 15.6.2009, 3-5pm, at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, Bali

As soon as we start doing, we learn how to proceed.
Bill Mollison

swimming pool and fish pond

Brigitta taking notes

Johann, Sudi and Burgl drilling holes into the leach pipe

Burkhard checking the septic tank

Tanja overlooking the trench

Yuli setting a pole for the trench assisted by Beate and Silvia

Beate and Gede explaining the art of mulching to the village children

Brigitta and Annette having fun in the outdoor bathtube

Next Permaculture Meeting on 24th of May 2009

2009-05-18T10:39:00.002+08:00

We will meet on 8.15 am in Warung Bambu Pemaron to drive together to Villa Manuk or - for those coming from the east - please be in Villa Manuk at 9.00 am.
I hope we can then install together our new Waste Water Treatment Garden for the new Villa Bambu.

Next Permaculture Meeting in Villa Manuk

2009-05-13T10:06:00.001+08:00

The club meeting on 15th of May 2009 is cancelled - we will meet end of next week instead (exact date I will inform you asap) in Villa Manuk.
Finally again some practical work - we will install the waste water treatment garden of our new Villa Manuk Bambu. Hope a lot of you can join.

Minutes of the 3rd Meeting

2009-04-19T17:42:00.003+08:00

Meeting was held on April 15, 3-5pm at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, Bali

Present at the Meeting in Warung Bambu: Beate, Gede, Tanja, Burgel, Nicole, Jochen, Yuli, Evelyn, a little later 2 ladies from the Rotary Club Lovina, Ibu Lia and Ibu Summy, joined us

Absent: Burkhard was in Malaysia, Silvia and Brigitta were busy with their projects

The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, May 15, 3-5pm at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, Bali

At 3pm it was pouring with rain, so we waited until everybody escaped from the rain and dropped in. Not so easy to arrive in time in this weather!
Tanja brought a colorful basket full of fresh herbs and vegetables from their organic farm for Warung Bambu. Looked so tempting that Mahesa, Beate's son, could not resist to nibble a Cherry Tomato!

Burgel's easy-to-use compostbox

First we had a look at the different compost containers. Burgel had built a compost container using welded iron as a frame and attaching split bamboo to it. The container has a round outline with a diameter of 1m. The cost for all materials was nearly 100'000 Rp. Gede brought the compost container he made from split bamboo. What a great artwork and a jewel in a garden! It looks like a box on legs, has a removable bottom and is a bit smaller and cheaper than Burgel's container. The different containers will now be tested.
Beate told us more about the science of composting. There are many different kinds and systems. So be open to it and find out by yourself.
Beate informed us about the Temesi project near Ubud, a waste recycling station that was founded by David Cooper.
Beate showed us the pictures that were made from the children in her project. They splitted in two groups. One group took photos from things they liked, the other group from things they did not like. Very interesting and informative to look at the children's view and judgement! And nice pictures, too!
Nicole told us that a pitch of Vitamin C powder in the water helps clean the vegetables.
Ibu Lia and Ibu Summy from the Rotary Club of Bali Lovina gave us details about their river and beach clean up and fun program for school children on April 24. The children are asked to bring their own glas and spoon so that no plastic needs to be used. The food will be served in banana leaves. Adults who want to join the event and contribute their help are very welcome. For further details contact Ibu Summy at 081 338030275. This event will be the start of a 3 year project to clean up villages. The project is sponsored by Coca Cola. Kaliasem will play the role of a model village.
The question was raised if it is culturally accepted in Bali to give comments when somebody is littering. The Balinese participants give the advice, first to become friends with someone and then comment when there is already a base of mutual respect or short "use the backdoor".
We all agreed that the relationship between Permaculture in Action and the Rotary Club is valuable for both sides and want to nourish it further with whatever help is needed and can be given. Thank you, Ibu Lia and Ibu Summy, for joining us!

Gede brought for everybody a cherry tomato seedling. Trim its shoots when it is about 50cm high. And give it a grate vine to climb. Water only every 2 days. With too much water the fruits become too heavy and will fall.

Luckily the rain had stopped when we finished the meeting!
As always Beate had led us very easy and skillfully through the meeting.

Good luck with your projects!

3. Meeting Permaculture in action

2009-04-15T11:55:00.001+08:00

Today, 15.04.2009 we will meet in Warung Bambu Pemaron from 3.00 till 5.00 pm.
See you :-)

Excursion to Ubud

2009-04-07T21:50:00.007+08:00

Lo explains Silvia the ingredients of BioSoap

Finally last Saturday Silvia and me made it to Ubud. Our first stop there was the Organik Market which is held on the verandah of Restaurant Pizza Bagus. I couldn't resist the tempting Cappuccino and so we sat down at a table in the Pizzeria and watched the coming and going on the verandah. On several stands organic products were offered like vegetables, seedlings, home-made jams and nut butters, bread and cakes, colloidal silver, soapnut liquid and others. We were looking for Ibu Sayu from Yayasan IDEP and found her behind a stall with lots of bright green bags with seeds.

shopping bags made from newspapers instead of plastic

I won't forget her bright smile and her name which sounds almost like sayur which means vegetable in bahasa indonesia. She explained us how to find the permaculture demonstration site of IDEP: just 500m down the road, after passing the wairingin tree watch out for the IDEP sign and turn right into the road which takes you to the IDEP site. I was impressed by the strong and healthy looking salads, comfrey leaves and other greenies in the beds thickly mulched with rice straw (jerami).

Gotu Kola at the IDEP site

From there we headed for the Botanic Garden where we spent the heat of the day walking along the little river under the shades of big trees. We were delighted by the Islamic garden with its fountain, fig trees and walls of climbing flowers and passion fruits. We discovered the bright red fruit of Mahkota Dewa and tasted the refreshing fruit of the Roselle Bush, which is related to the Hibiscus family. The dried fruits are used for making tea and are for sale in the shop at the entrance. The strong Taro's in the pond were an eye catcher. Silvia might use them at the ponds in KEV.

Taro in the pond at the Ubud Botanic Garden

Mahkota Dewa Apple in the Ubud Botanic Garden

We ended our Ubud tour with a tasty lunch at Pizza Bagus.
On the way home we stopped at a rice fabric where I filled up the car with bags of rice husks and rice straw thinking of the permaculture principle of making multiple use of resources.

Instead of Polybags

2009-03-25T21:07:00.003+08:00

Before the lights switch off for Nyepi I would like to share with you what I found in the shops and on the market of Lovina on my search for alternatives to Polybags as pots for seedlings. Balinese people are very creative in making containers for their ceremonies and they use all kinds of materials like coconut leaves, split bamboo or others. Have a look at the picture. I think most of the Balinese women can make these containers. For the coconut leave containers on the left I paid 1000 Rp., for the bamboo container 4000 Rp.

Visit at Organik Manik in Sanur

2009-03-18T10:14:00.004+08:00

Inspired by Elena's vivid description of the fancy bamboo water dripping system at the Manik Organik Health Food Store & Natural Health Centre in Sanur I went there on March 12 to see it with my own eyes and make some pictures for you. Here they are.

I enjoyed a lunch of broccoli almond soup with brown bread and butter while studying the bamboo pipes and the singapore tree on the verandah. And I couldn't resist to buy some organic chick peas and pinto beans to plant around my baby trees and the freshly mulched new terrace beds. I found also the Colloidal Silver there that our guru Norm always carries with him in his first aid kit. The bottle with 375ml costs 89'000 Rp., the pocket spray 32'500 Rp. They offer also essential oils, herbal teas, natural cosmetics and imported organic cereals. What a difference to the stressful shopping experiences I had before at Carrefour and Makro.

Address:
Manik Organik, Jl. Danau Tamblingan 85, Sanur
Phone: +62 361 8553380

Minutes of the Clubmeeting

2009-03-15T20:00:00.000+08:00

15.03.2009 15:00 – 17:00 at Warung Bambu, Pemaron

Person present:
Elena, Silvia, Beate, Gede, Tanja, Burkhard, Burgel, Brigitta, Evelyn

Yuli joins us afterwards; Doris and Peter left already for Germany; Nicole and Jochen couldn't arrange transport because of a ceremony in their village

Next meeting:
15.04.2009 15:00 at Warung Bambu, Pemaron

Greetings and message from Norm: Just keep on doing something!

Everybody was excited to share good news:

Silvia found a supplier for special fruit trees just opposite Kubu Lalang on the main road from Lovina to Singaraja.
Silvia has already Vetiver Grass to sell for 1500 Rp per plant. The Vetiver Grass, she planted to stabilize the riverbank at KEV, survived already the first flooding during the last big rain and prevented any erosion.
Gede told about a javan lady who sells fruit trees in Suwug. To get there drive east from Singaraja to Sangsit, there turn right into the road to Suwug and Sudaji.
Beate informed that the springwater pool at Villa Manuk is finished and that they will start to build another guest bungalow.
She already set up a travel agency for eco-conscious travellers. The idea is to find an eco certification agency for all businesses who are interested and then promote these businesses through the travel agency. The new homepage designed by Elena and Beate is on its way. Have a look!
Beate's Children Sponsoring Project started very well. Every month she meets with the children and wakes their interest for plants and nature. In the first meeting she asked them to bring a plant from their garden. In the second meeting they talked about these plants and their characteristics. For the next meeting they will plant seeds that they later will sell. Instead of Polybags made from Plastic they will use locally made containers from natural fibers.
Tanja and Gede inform that the people of their village finally become interested in their organic farming methods as they can see that the organically grown rice plants are stronger and have deeper roots than the conventionally grown ones.
The group agrees that it would be great to have an organic market in Lovina similar to that of Ubud. So let's keep our eyes open for a suitable location.
Silvia informs that the Rotary Club would like to start with a 3 year program in Lovina (Kaliasem) to clean up the village. Important part of this project will be the education program in the schools. On "Earth Day", April 22, they will "kick off" the project with a "beach clean up/educational fun program" for school children from Lovina schools.
Burgel initiates an easy-to-use compost container for small compounds. Gede offers to build a prototype compost box made from bamboo mat that Burgel can test before it will be promoted.
That we don't get too excited Burkhard tells us about his observation of "mountains" of plastic bags piling up on the beach.
Elena will continue her travels in the coming week and says good-bye. It was great to start the permaculture way together with you, Elena! Thank you and good luck!

Selamat Hari Raya Galungan dan Kuningan!

A Global Nyepi

2009-03-15T10:16:00.004+08:00

Two days after Nyepi in Bali, the world decides to switch the lights off and to vote for Earth in "the world's first global election between Earth and global warming". It is great to see good ideas spread the world over with the help of the world wide web, that celebrated its 20th anniversary in the research institute I was working while I was diving in the Liberty wreck in Tulamben ;)

Fellow Permaculturists, you may want to vote for the Earth, too!
See you later today :)

Earth Hour 2009 by WWF - Sign up for Earth Hour!

Minutes of the Permaculture-Club-meeting 15.02.2009

2009-03-10T12:02:00.007+08:00

15.02.2009 15:00 – 17:00 at Warung Bambu, Pemaron

Person present:
Beate, Brigitta, Burgel, Burkhard, Doris, Evelyn, Jochen, Nicole, Peter, Silvia, Yuli

Next meeting:
15.03.2009 15:00 at Warung Bambu, Pemaron

Ideas, expectations, requests

We started the meeting asking the members to explain what they expect from the Permaculture-Club:

· Find and exchange ideas how to take permaculture ideals into consideration when planning housing / gardens:
Several of the members are planning or realizing housing- / garden projects. They would like to follow permaculture ideals when possible. It would be helpful to exchange experiences with materials and tradesmen and to realize a list of good sources (shops).

· Cooperation with local people:
Realize a permaculture-project like wastewater treatment (public toilette, Kindergarden / school).
Encourage locals to start business with permaculture products / services. As an example, some Balinese in Kalisada founded a company to build wastewater-treatment-gardens (Contact Sylvia).
Teach permaculture ideas to locals which can help to spread them to other Balinese people. For example help farmers to change to a more sustainable production.
Work with children / teenager. For Example Beate’s project in Manuksesa.

· Pestscontrol:
Get informations about non toxic pestscontrol. Encourage locals to change to a healthier pestscontrol.

· Organic food:
Find sources for healthy food. Encourage locals to change to the production of organic food.

· Find Environmentfriently accomondations for friends / guests

· Refuse disposal:
Install / Improve the town refuse collection service.

At the meeting we talked about cleaning. This informations should be transferred to the PCCH (PermaCultureClubHandbook)

2. Meeting Permaculture in action

2009-03-09T10:58:00.002+08:00

On Sunday, 15.03.2009 we will meet in Warung Bambu Pemaron from 3.00 till 5.00 pm. If possible, please write me in advance if you have some ideas or wishes for the next meeting.
See you soon!

Beate

1. Meeting Permaculture in action

2009-02-11T18:21:00.002+08:00

Dear permaculture friends,
Just a reminder and an invitation for those not knowing yet:

Our “ club” - Permaculture in action - will meet the first time on 15^th of February in Warung Bambu Pemaron at 3.00 pm till 5.00 pm.

Hope to see you then and please feel free to invite other people interested in permaculture.

A new seedling

2009-01-30T18:50:00.002+08:00

On the first day of our permaculture course we met in Pegasus farm, an organic farm run by young Tanya and Gede, in Kayuputih. It was my second day in Bali and I had just started to appreciate the island's beauty. I was enchanted by the place and the two young people working hard to make a difference. Later on during the day, I realised the enormity of the task and I decided that I would try to give a hand to this young couple with my own modest means.

So I offered to make a website for them, in an effort to give them some visibility and promote their business to the tourist market of the island. We formed a pretty unique crew, who worked very well together, was very efficient and in two days (!) the website/blog was ready. Thank you Gede, Tanya, Martin, Manni. I think we did a great job and we had a very good time, too. And the organic meal, cooked by Gede himself and his mother was truly delicious, I don't think I have ever eaten such tasty sweet corn in my life!

Have a look at the Pegasus website and tell us what you think, we will be grateful for your feedback.

Morphological Analysis

2009-01-26T22:50:00.002+08:00

After we had collected a list of around 10 potential community projects of KEV, I wrote into my notebook the question: How to integrate different projects without going crazy? We probably all were a bit intimidated by the complexity of the task. But with the guidance of Norman we went through all the 9 permaculture design principles from the second day and eventually came up with a satisfying result after a few battles with papers and pens. As a former Software Engineer I thought there must be a method to avoid the paper-pen-battles and so I did some research. I remembered a method which we once used in a very complex project. It was called Morphological Box. I googled for it and found the Swedish Morphological Society which had done a lot of research on Morphological Analysis and even developed a Computer Program to support the method. On their site you can find a tutorial about the method and how to apply it. You will also find that the name is derived from "morphe", which is - surprise, surprise - greek and means form. The method was developed by Fritz Zwicky, a swiss-american astrophysicist.

"... within the final and true world image everything is related to everything, and nothing can be discarded a priori as being unimportant." (Fritz Zwicky: Discovery, Invention, Research through the Morphological Approach, 1969.)

"Morphological analysis is simply an ordered way of looking at things." (Fritz Zwicky: "Morphological Astronomy", The Observatory. Vol. 68, No. 845, Aug. 1948.)

Doesn't this sound like a permacultural view?

I wrote this posting because Norman reminded us several times how useful it would be to have a Softwaretool for Permaculture Design. Maybe Morphological Analysis could be a start.

Sustainable communities, day 3

2009-01-25T21:42:00.003+08:00

Today the ongoing exercise about selecting and designing community projects for the Kalisada Ecovillage based on the permaculture design principles did help me stay coolheaded and not too sad that this was the last day of the workshop. It was actually great to apply all the permaculture design principles to potential projects and some great ideas emerged. From the long and rich list of ideas we had, Norman suggested that we all selected individually the ones that seemed most appropriate, of higher priority and also feasible, to come first to the KEV agenda. It was very interesting to see that we did not have many differences among us about which projects could be realised first. We also concluded that a set of guidelines and rules should be put together for all the members of the KEV project to agree upon.

The most confidence inspiring and motivating part of the day came last: once we had the list of projects that we figured would be the best kick-start, we set off to determine the beneficial relationships these projects will generate among all stakeholders and among the projects themselves. It was fascinating to see the results: a rich web of connections and links, that revealed the advantages of each project and justified their realization almost without any effort.

What the teacher did not let us say in the classroom

As we were approaching the end of the session and the whole workshop, I was really frustrated that Norman asked us to give him our feedback about the workshop via email rather than 'live'. I felt so grateful to him so often during the workshop that I was really looking forward to expressing this gratitude in the 'class'. And I am a Greek, on top of everything, so I love being dramatic and emotional. My frustration went away quickly, though, because I thought "he he, I will write it all on the blog, Norman, I haven't said my last word yet". And so I will.

Very often during these twelve days of the course I could not help thinking how great it would be for kids and young people to have teachers like Norman at school, how inspiring it would have been for me and for people like me to have teachers like Norman in the university. Teachers who are enthusiastic, inspired, engaging, full of energy, teachers who lead a life consistent with what they preach and live a happy and fulfilling life for this very reason. The way I understood it, permaculture is a way of life, a truly alternative solution to modern man's dead ends, an invitation to wise action even if the results are not perfect, since life itself is not perfect. Thank you Norman.

Sustainable Communities, day 2

2009-01-24T21:27:00.005+08:00

Before we started today's session we got armed with two important permaculture principles, that actually apply to any project design:

Spend more time in planning and design than most people do in order to avoid wasting time and resources later.
Try as a strategy to build beneficial relationships between as many components of your project as you can.

We also mentioned the basic steps towards the realisation of a project:

Create the project concept.
Design and budget the project.
Identify the funding sources.
Plan for adequate management and sufficient follow-up.
Initiate the project.
Be happy about what you have accomplished :-)

It proved relatively easy to select between the community projects we had proposed yesterday: the Kalisada EcoVillage has been in the centre of our interest during quite a few sessions of the whole course and many people from the course are involved in it. So we chose to focus on the KEV (let's put this acronym to the test, shall we?) community projects.

When we actually put all the ideas for community projects in Kalisada on the table, or more accurately put on the white board, the whole endeavour seemed intimidating, especially to people like me, who are not involved in the project and have not been involved in building a business from scratch (and of this size and scope and with so many stakeholders, wow!) But the attack strategy that Norm proposed was so interesting that I almost forgot my cold feet. The idea was to apply the eight permaculture design methods to the design of the Kalisada Community projects. Impressive, eh?

Impressive, yes, but not so easy, especially on a hot, humid afternoon like today's! But we were brave and inventive and the brainstorming worked pretty well and we managed to come to the middle of the exercise, that is, apply four of the eight methods of project design to the ten (!) broad categories of community projects the Kalisada EcoVillagers could take up. Tomorrow it the last day of the course and we will go on with the exercise. I am eager to see how we will combine all the elements discussed and what criteria we will use in order to chose the projects that will be actually initiated and curried out! The excitement should help me forget the sad fact that tomorrow is the last day of the course and that this wonderful experience will soon end, hopefully giving way to new, exciting collaborations and endeavours.

Sustainable Communities, day 1

2009-01-23T20:24:00.008+08:00

When coming home from the course today, I started browsing a book that Norm recommended, Managing the Non-profit Organization and I stumbled upon the phrase "Good intentions don't move mountains bulldozers do". It's quite interesting that Norman started today's session by writing on the white board "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". I think that the message is clear, good intentions are not enough to make this world a better place and sometimes they can even cause more harm than good. We may not want to move mountains at all (and permaculture-wise I wouldn't think it is a good idea..) but, in whatever project we engage we should try to get our act together, follow certain rules and principles, and go out there and realise it!

Some things to remember when considering any community project, or any personal project for that matter, would be:

Check the social, financial and environmental sustainability of the project (does this ring a bell?).
Check if the project is need-based.
Involve the beneficiaries in the process from the beginning. A community project is not worth doing if you don't have cooperation with the locals (in other words, don't knock on closed doors).
Avoid, if possible, complicated structures in order to get funding and try working with your personal network.
Do a cost-benefit analysis.
Do what you are good at or what you have passion for.
Focus on your local community. Buy locally, employ locally.
You don't need to say yes all the time, if you think you cannot handle a project or carry it out properly, don't promise to do it or don't start doing it.
Make yourself aware of legal issues, so that you avoid getting exposed to unnecessary risk.
Be patient and have long-term commitment: things don't change from one day to the next.
Work with people who care.

Reef Protection Markers in the Whitsundays, a marker of a successful project that Norman took up in Australia with OUCH volunteers.The first of the Toblerone generation?

We also talked about real-life projects and why they succeeded or failed, about different kind of structures that could be used to run projects and about different types of projects pertinent to the Balinese context.

It was high time we'd had a brainstorming about possible projects this group could take up! We came up with quite a few ideas, which we'll discuss tomorrow. Yes! Permaculture in action!

P.S. Sri from Adinda Rose joined the team today. She had a lot of interesting input for us, being a Balinese active in community work and wild animals' protection. I hope she enjoyed the course as much as we enjoyed her participation.

Permaculture exercise

2009-01-21T20:52:00.006+08:00

Yesterday, we went with Evelyn for lunch to Gina's place in Selat, Sananda Centre, a lovely place with bungalows and a seminar centre.
We budding permaculture designers went around the property, trying to see it from the permaculture point of view and trying to suggest solutions to problems or beneficial changes that could make a difference.

I felt a bit like an apprentice magician, struggling to apply my limited knowledge on a real-life case and without Norman's guidance. It was fun! We talked about the position and design of the swimming-pool that Gina plans to have built, changes and improvements in the garden and in the buildings. We saw what termites can do to wooden structures and that was impressive! And costly to fight and repair!

I don't know if we were good consultants (although the ideas we had were pretty good, don't you agree Evelyn?) but we certainly gave all our good energy and best wishes to Gina with her nice project. And I think she appreciated it, too.

Sustainable building, day 3

2009-01-18T21:41:00.010+08:00

It's hard to imagine a better way to finish the 'Sustainable Building' workshop than we did today.

In the morning we went to Kalisada to see to the completion of the Waste Water Garden piping in Lynda's and Glen's house. Mr Murphy forgot us today, and the works progressed very well.

The working crew went on with the pipe connections, put the tank in its place filled with water and also positioned accurately the pipe on the leach field. I was very happy to see the physics principle of communicating vessels (Prinzip der kommunizierenden Röhren :-) in action, more than two decades after learning it at school :-/. We used it to position the leach field pipe flat (not sloping) on the ground.

After Kalisada we went to Annete's place and we had a unique opportunity to reflect on one of the permaculture design principles that are harder to grasp: that of random assembly. The way I understand it, permaculture is about working towards a certain quality of life, about meeting our 'non-material needs in a sustainable way' and for this to be attained, intuition, art, our personal vision and philosophy of life join forces with scientific method and technology. (I tried it to make it sound not so cosmic, Norman!)

This is what Annette and Nyoman are doing, building Annette's wonderland.

Norman tried hard to keep us on the ground, faithful to the permaculture principles (Stay on the ground, be practical) and he asked us to interview Annette as if we were permaculture designers and she were our client. We discussed concrete solutions about the most important issues in the property, like water storage and quality. We then made a tour of the property, we finally visited the snake and the new house they are building entirely from natural materials, like earth bricks, wood, mud and thatch and we discussed a bunch of interesting ideas about natural materials and building techniques.

Since we were on a coastal area, Norman did not miss the opportunity to talk about the global warming effect on areas like this, that will probably be apparent in the not-so-distant future. Although this is quite gloomy prospect, I remember how Norman opened this workshop, by saying that 'yes, the future may not seem so bright, but there are things we can do and there are ways out of the mess we have put ourselves in. We just need to go ahead and start doing something about it!' And this is exactly what we are aiming for in the next Workshop about 'Sustainable Communities', do something about it....

Sustainable Building, day 2

2009-01-17T20:42:00.000+08:00

Today the day was about how much theory differs from reality, about Murp hy's law and about how you get Norman stressed.

We went to Kalisada to follow the construction of the waste water management system of Lynda's and Glen's house. The drill was not working properly, the glue pistol was not working properly, there were missing parts without which the septic tank could not waterproof, the slope of the pipes leading to the septic tank was not enough, the septic tank was not high enough so the vegetated leach field had to get a bit deeper, the ground water was constantly filling the bottom of the septic tank pit, at one point it started to rain.

We were all bombarding Norman with questions and suggestions while he was trying to organise and give instructions to the working crew and give us the course of the day.

By the time the rainbow came out, Norman was a nervous wreck. Well, I am exaggerating a bit, but I think that today we finally managed to exhaust out guru, who seemed inexhaustible.

Apart from the practical, hands-on part of the session, which was really interesting, we talked about building in areas prone to earthquakes, like Bali and how we brace our buildings, about protection of houses against fire by planting fireproofing trees close to the buildings, and even about protection from volcano eruptions (!). I found this really exotic but Norm did not go into a lot of detail. Maybe we'll have a chance to get him to talk to us about it some more!

I have to say that we are very good students, indeed! We actually thought about the 'Windows to the world' school in Buanasari in our little spare time and came up with quite interesting ideas.

Make 'living' huts and mazes by real trees and plants, for children to hide and play in.
Make a vegetable garden.
Introduce animals, like rabbits or ducks.
Stabilize the land (does this ring a bell?).
Let more sunlight reach the garden by cutting some tree branches
Make a pleasant, colourful compost pit and rubbish bin area.
Plant more beautiful and appropriate plants for a school garden, that would attract butterflies, birds and other animals.
Make a kind of fitness or adventure path, so that the kids get some exercise.

We concluded that any feasible project for this school should have a small budget, be easily maintained and be carried out in a short time by some volunteers.This could very well be the first project of the 'Permaculture in action' team.

From the clients point of view

2009-01-17T06:07:00.000+08:00

Hi guys
I just would like to share a few thoughts and feelings I experienced yesterday when I was in the position of a client and you visited our place. Some worries popped up in my mind like "will they like my place? what will they think about it? Have I done it right?". You know, silly thoughts, but very often we can not control them and owners can get quite attached to their projects. So I was a bit nervous about the visit. But then, when you arrived and I felt your enthusiasm, joy and respect my nervousness was quickly gone and I could open up to all your advice and comments. So, a big compliment to all of you for being such sensitive and respectful permacultural designers and thank you for giving me the opportunity to be in the position of a client.
We will start removing the suckers from the banana trees and leave only a mother plant which produces fruits and one child plant so that the energy of the mother can go to the fruits and not to the suckers.
We will focus more on stabilizing the terraces so that the rocks do not grow any further although they looked nice to me. I start now looking differently at things!
And we will definitely consider to put a pergola in front of the west wall to protect it from excessive heat from the sun.
Yes, and we will follow another principle that Norm shared with us:
In every situation there are things we can do to make things more sustainable. There is always something we can do.

Sustainable Building, day 1

2009-01-16T20:38:00.000+08:00

Wow, what a busy day! Packed full with interesting sites and useful information. But don't feel overwhelmed, guys, as the guru would say: it is principles that count most, and not so much information, which you can get from quite a few sources.

First stop was Evelyn's and Johan's construction site in Selat. It was quite exciting to see a house being built and to talk about different options, possibilities, choices and from many different points of view: the point of view of the permaculturist, of the land developer, of the clients, of the local workers and builders, of the other westerners who have built houses and businesses on the island.

Again, there were principles and issues emerged from the actuality of the construction:

The house we are building should be energy-efficient and, ideally, self-sufficient energy-wise.

Orientation and shape matters. A good shape is a rectangle, positioned so that the narrow sides face east and west, which will make it cooler in a hot climate like the Balinese.

Try to reduce the energy-intensive materials, like concrete, and try to use more natural, eco-friendly resources, preferably found around the area you are building, like timber trees from local farms.

My favourite for today was: think what home means to you, freedom, security, privacy, protection, and try to keep this in mind while you are building it. Something like a mission statement for your house. Actually Evelyn and Johan wrote down their mission statement for their house, cool!

Our next stop was Victor's grass roof-top house . This was an impressive construction of two concrete buildings with rooftops covered with grass. Victor explained how grass is good for the environment, because it produces a lot of oxygen, filters water and acts as a great insulator which keeps the house really cool, but I will not go into any more details because I risk to get dismissed from the workshop by the guru. (For those who don't speak Indonesian, 'guru' means 'teacher' in Indonesian, not only 'spiritual teacher', although Norman can be pretty 'cosmic' at times..)

Victor has built a water storage system of great capacity and he shared with us how he has clearly seen the water supply deteriorating in the area due to human activity and climate change.

Next stop was the 'Windows to the world' school in Buanasari. A small school for local and western kids, aiming to bring together children from the two 'worlds', and give them diverse education in language, art and sports.

A nice little school with four classrooms a playground and a garden, which will serve as the ground for our first exercise as budding permaculture designers: think about how this place could be redesigned or improved in order to become more interesting to the children from a permaculture perspective. Let's see what we'll come up with...

Last stop was Satya's house and land in Buanasari. Satya has an ongoing project to build a small number of villas which will share a garden, swimming pool and spa centre. There we saw a real example of what termites can do to a structure, a nice lumbung Satya has built in the property. Norman looked for possible paths that the termites use to get into the house from the soil; remember, the most efficient pest control is environmental management and not pesticides' use.

This was a really long and full day, but Norman had not quite finished with us yet. He took out the trunk of his car a pile of new interesting books for us. I only managed to borrow a couple, which I added to the books list. The rest will come in the next two days, when I manage to get hold of them, yummy!

Oh yes, we had new students today, Annette and Gina (I hope I got the names right :/), who came together with their builders and workers. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! And a warm welcome to Linda, Lynda and Glen, who are joining electronically, for the time being!

Permaculture inspirational video 'Greening Jordan'

2009-01-15T20:49:00.000+08:00

Hi there ,
What a wonderful idea. I'm looking forward to meeting you all next week.
In the meantime I wanted to add this link to the permaculture inspired U Tube video on greening Jordan, here's the link www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk

See you soon
Linda

Norm saying thank you to Elena, our Greek Goddess :)

2009-01-15T12:08:00.000+08:00

Wow!!!
Elena, you rule!!!
A really great job, I'm truly impressed, thank you.
How do we keep you in the 'team'? Even though you'll be travelling again sometime, I wonder if we can keep you in the loop via the wonderful world of the 'web?
It's skills like yours that help keep things moving and God knows, if we're going to save Bali (and the World as we know it) we need to do just that...
To everyone else, Elena has set us all a great example of 'just doing it'. She did something!
Let's all try to do something, it doesn't matter if it's something small... (although as I've said to you before... 'when it comes to protecting the environment, small is beautiful but bigger is better') ...as long as we're doing something good in the real world, our time and our work is meaningful. Everyone has a sphere of influence, as a minimum, let's do good things within that sphere.
I'm very much looking forward to our next trainings.
See you on the 16th at Evelyn's mountain hideaway :)
Norm

Books you want to read

2009-01-14T19:20:00.001+08:00

Here is a list of books that have been mentioned during the course. I am sure that during this pause between classes and with such a rainy weather, all the students are reading and studying with enthusiasm!

Permaculture Manual, by Bill Mollison, Tagari Publications
The ecology of Java and Bali, Periplus Editions
Collapse, by Jared Diamond, Penguin
Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond, W. W. Norton & Company
Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, HarperCollins Publishers
Prescencing, ??
Earth User's Guide to Permaculture, by Rosemary Morrow, Kangaroo Press
The Permaculture Home Garden, by Linda Woodrow, Viking
Plant Resources of South-East Asia: Essential-oil Plants, Bamboos, Edible Fruits, Vegetables and Nuts, Prosea Indonesia 1999
The Seed Savers' Handbook, by Michel and Jude Fanton, A Seed Savers Book
Plant Science, Growth, Development and Utilization of Cultivated Plants, Regents, Prentice Hall
The Australian Vegetable Garden 'What's new is old', by Clive Blazey, New Holland
Environmental Geology, by Carla W. Montgomery, Wm.C.Brown Publishers
A collection of zen and pre-zen writings, compiled by Paul Reps, Penguin Books
The man who planted trees, by Jean Giono, Peter Owen Publishers

Water Management, day 3

2009-01-10T21:31:00.000+08:00

We visited the beach near Burkhard's house all the way up to Yuli's family ricefields, to observe the beach erosion due to human activities.

Apart from the obvious human interventions, like the building of walls to protect parts of the beach in front of individual properties, one possible reason for the beach erosion is the destruction of the existing coral reef and one possible long-term solution for the prevention of the erosion would be to create artificial habitats for corals and, subsequently, fish. This idea was warmly welcomed by the students and Satya coined a term for the concrete pyramids that Norman suggested to throw in the water: Toblerones! Guess who will be asked to sponsor this project.

Back to Warung Bambu, our most preferred classroom, partly thanks to Beate's and Nyoman's warm hospitality. Norman presented us with some design ideas for Kalisada: a proposal of road design, a herb spiral for the Silvia's restaurant garden, a complex-edge pond and a palm polyculture.
A mini library started to form from Norman's books photocopied for the students. I was left hungry looking at all these wonderful books, which I cannot carry in my backpack, for the time being ;)

Water Management, day 2

2009-01-09T21:28:00.000+08:00

We went to Kalisada to see the building of a waste water garden as it is happening!

A few problems delay the costruction: we need better quality pipes and glue than the ones found in the area and there cannot be any compromise in the quality of these materials.

The students of this course proved to be remarkable. Beate and Burkhard suggested an improvement in Norman's invention of the anti-sludge septic tank. Budding permaculturists in action! Norman didn't know if he should be proud of his students or if he should start wondering about his invention.

We also talked about water storage, water tanks and fish ponds, ways to make fishponds waterproof, shapes, water quality, etc., etc. Another full, inspiring, exciting day!

Water Management, day 1

2009-01-08T21:25:00.000+08:00

This day our classroom was Beate's and Nyoman's restaurant, Warung Bambu Pemaron. We watched videos with Bill Mollison saying in a warm, bass voice that "Permaculture really starts with an ethic, earth care and care of the whole systems of earth and species. So we actually devise model systems; much of the design is drawn from nature. The end result that we aim for is to produce a system that is ecologically sound and economically profitable. It can get as sophisticated or as simple as you like..."
If you start to understand the meaning of these words you also start to wonder why modern agriculture keeps developing towards monoculture, genetically modified crops, using biocides and chemical fertilisers. It just doesn't make sense...

Apart from the philosphical contemplating we had more specific topics to discuss, the water management issues in Kalisada and in Warung Bambu. Norman gave us another interesting fact, that nutrients (vitamins and minerals) are the number-one pollutant in water. We discussed about the river that goes through Silvia's land, drainage systems and common mistakes in drainage design, water flow forms.

We then learned the design principles but also the nuts and bolts of a waste water management system.
We worked on the concrete example of Beate's and Nyoman's house and restaurant. It was fascinating to actually be able to apply the principles and rules to a real-life case.

From these exercises more principles came out:
Make the least change for the greatest possible effect.

And I like this one very much, although I am not exactly sure how to use it: Be opportunistic!

Basic Principles, General Land Management and Organic Farming - Day 3

2009-01-06T21:18:00.000+08:00

First stop was Satya's land in Yeh Anakan. A hill-side where Satya plans to build a number of villas. Again today we had a very pretty classroom and the cows around us were very interested in our little gathering, at least in the beginning.
Once more we established the first and foremost need of any project, which is to stabilize the land. Since this was a sloping area, a good strategy would be to make swales to collect the rain water and plant trees to keep the soil from washing away and start generating the precious shade for the houses and other elements of the property. Another important permaculture principle emerged from the discussion: the cheapest and most effective way to store water in IN THE LAND. Norman keeps repeating it tirelessly: spend more time in planning and design than most people do.

Our list of local plants grew more and we had a chance to see young and old neem trees and their fruit, one of what Norman calls the miracle plants.

In the afternoon we went to see Kalisada, a piece of land shared among a number of the students of this course, namely Silvia, Brigitta and Satya. Silvia is the driving force of a project of an ecovillage creation in the property. This coastal piece of land has distinctive differences from the hilly area that we visited in the morning. For example, here there is a need to break the salty winds coming from the sea, and the water management strategies will be totally different since the land is pretty much flat and the water table is quite shallow. We saw the vetiver grass that Silvia has planted along the river bank running through her land with the aim, what else, to stabilize the land. We were all excited to finally see another of Norman's miracle plants, vetiver grass, which has an amazing root system, perfect for bioengineering, rather than boring, and often not effective, plain engineering. (We don't like engineers very much in this group although we have a few among us...)

Basic Principles, General Land Management and Organic Farming - Day 2

2009-01-05T21:11:00.001+08:00

We headed to Bebetin and Villa Manuk, Beate's and Nyoman's property, a two-apartment villa with a beautiful garden and magnificent view to the mountains and the ricefields. Although there is a big lawn area on the garden, Norman continued talking to Beate and still considers her as his friend. Beate's idea to have a swimming pool in the garden wouldn't have helped very much but, since there is an apparently clear stream of water passing through the property, there is a possibility to make a natural pool without chloride, so we avoided the diplomatic incident.

The task that day was to do a design for the garden based on the permaculture principles of garden design.

Analysis: listing the characteristics of the components that comprise the site (e.g. listing of the plants we can grow on the land)
Observation of the site (orientation, soil, wind, during heavy rain,...)
Deduction from Nature (find out how the place would be in its natural state)
Selection of Options based on Decisions
Data Overlay
Random Assembly (like the 'cosmic' stuff, as Norman calls it)
Flow (of movement) diagrams (e.g. flow of movement in the kitchen while people are cooking)
Zone and Sector Analysis
Incremental Design

Basic Principles, General Land Management and Organic Farming - Day 1

2009-01-05T12:45:00.000+08:00

Course Tutor: Norman van't Hoff
Organization, Catering: Silvia, Beate
Students: Beate, Brigitta, Burgel, Burkhard, Elena, Evelyn, Satya, Silvia, Tanja, Yuli, together with Balinese builders, gardeners and workers of the students who have property and ongoing projects on the island

Our first classroom was Tanja's and Gede's farm, Pegasus organic farm, in Kayu Putih Melaka. I don't have photos from this first morning session on the beautiful deck of Tanja's and Gede's house because I was shy to take them. Norman had been caught up in traffic, he arrived late and somewhat stressed. Nevertheless, he handed us out some notebooks and pens, he took out his white Mac and started shooting.

A new world was revealed in front of our eyes, although he assured us that we already know much more than we think we do. What permaculture tries to bring is new ways of thinking, based on a set of ethics and principles.

The Ethical Basis for Permaculture

Care of the Earth

Care of People

Setting Limits to Population and Consumption

The 3 Questions we could ask ourselves considering any kind of action or project

Is it Socially sustainable?

Is it Economically sustainable?

Is it Environmentally sustainable?

But what is sustainability?

Sustainability is the ability of current generations to fill all their needs and wants without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same.

And who is behind all these ideas?

Bill Mollison developed permaculture in Australia in the '70s. In his Permaculture manual, you can find the definition:

Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems, which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order.

By the end of the morning our heads were already buzzing with new terms, ideas, principles, guidelines, and perspectives, boosted by Norman's optimistic, yet pragmatic views and his charisma of conveying his enthusiasm to his students. We were asked to start making a list of plants we know or come across in Bali.

It was time for our first hands-on project: setting-up a compost heap in the farm. Norman explained the basics and we took over with Silvia supervising while he went to talk with the Balinese attendants (in Indonesian or in Balinese? Norman, in which language do you speak with the locals?). I think we did pretty well, although we came up with what Norman said it was an example of a not-so-perfect compost heap.

From this first day, there are some phrases that still echo like mantras in my head:

The problem is the solution!

Stabilize the land!