Permaculture Blog

The tears are real, the pain is real, the problem is real. So, I don’t come here playing games with you all. I don’t come to sit and be a part of a caucus where we talk and do nothing. You, you, you, you don’t know my pain. God forbid you go up to another grieving mother and say you know how she feels, that is a lie. Unless you have lost a child. Am I angry? Absolutely. I’m not angry enough to create a riot where I burn things down, but I will create a riot, I will set off so that people will understand that this is real. Movements move. Activists activate. We have got to stop talking and move. So I leave you with this: it is time to wake up, get up, step up, or shut up.

Source: Read the short, devastating speech Sandra Bland’s mother just made to

It is definitely time “to wake up, get up, step up”

A new study shows in some cases restored wetlands can be a source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: Restored Wetlands in California May Be Source Of Greenhouse Gases

Wow who’da thought that sticking a few twigs in the ground and calling it a wetland wouldn’t force it to actually act like an _old growth_ wetland.

I mean it’s certainly reasonable to hand over acres of old-growth redwood forest to a developer, have them clear cut it, stick a few seedlings in the ground in an entirely different area that they don’t happen to want to build on, and expect to have an old-growth redwood forest restored in a year or two.

Geez there is just something wrong with the world when we cannot just make biology do what we would like it to do all the time.

Oh and as just a comment. Compare the picture of the restored wetland above with the pictures of my wetland below ;-)

I have developed three different ecologies that can be added to a converted pool separately from the filter modules.

The plant component can be made up of:
1) Only California natives.
2) A majority of California natives with some edibles.
or 3) All edible plants such as Watercress, taro, Cattail, and others.

Wouldn’t it be cool to grow your own food in your swimming pool.

Bob
www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

I have been adding a few of these plants to some of my pool conversions.

I have also been mind boggled at the biology in my 2 newest conversions. It maybe the time of year but the damselfly larvae population has just exploded! I probably have 100s of larva in 3 square feet of surface. They’re going to hatch out and decimate the mosquitoes that fly in from the neighborhood. No chemical pesticides and neurotoxins to control mosquitoes around these pool conversions :-)

Bob

www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

The long and daring career of Harriet Tubman, explained briefly

Source: You have no idea how hardcore Harriet Tubman really was

Fighting for what is beneficial for the human race is what permaculture is about. Read the story! Harriet Tubman did not take the easy way out. I will not say that she fought for what is right because everybody believes their own version of right, but she fought for justice, and equality, and morality. Also words that are just words. But I fully believe that she fought for what she believed in, and things that benefited Humanity of her time.

I believe it is important for permaculturists to fight for things that benefit all of Humanity. I believe that it’s important to not take the easy way out of simply agreeing with people that want to pollute and destroy the environment, try to kill everything that’s in their way, and believe that ignorance is bliss. Harriet Tubman didn’t know what we know today about molecular biology but that’s absolutely fine with me because it was honest lack of information rather than deliberate ignorance.

You….
Go…
Gurl…

A study finds the world’s most widely used herbicide turning up in a bunch of morning favorites.

Source: What’s for Breakfast? How About Some Monsanto Weed Killer?

Yeah but organic free-range eggs? Wow

Most of the diversity outlined on the new tree has been hiding in plain sight.

Source: Scientists Unveil New ‘Tree of Life’

Humans, plants, gorillas, chimpanzees, dinosaurs, lizards, birds, shrimp, fish, all are in the amoebozoa. :-)

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that there is now enough evidence to definitively say that the Zika virus can cause unusually small heads, brain damage and other neurological problems in infants born to infected mothers

Source: Zika Causes Birth Defects, C.D.C. Officials Confirm

Well there you go. The New York Times and the CDC have proven it. Case closed.

Just a leisurely stroll around the orchard produced….

Bunches of ladybug larvae

Bunches of ladybug pupa

6 little California toad juveniles

I was walking along and noticed something move thought it was a big bug and it was a little toad these guys are not the spadefoot that I am so fond of but they’re still great!

And 6 of them! It is like shaking a haystack and having six needles fall out. There certainly are a lot more of them running (hopping) around. :-)

I repeatedly tell all my clients that a pool conversion is going to take some time.  Pesticides, chlorine, and other chemical toxins are instant gratification, and natural systems are not.

In just a couple of months I can transition a pool from a chemical moonscape to a beautiful green woodland meadow.

There are thousands of different species of algae.

These different species exhibit different colors, different growth habits, different nutrient requirements, different temperature and lighting requirements.

The algae and microorganisms I put in at the start, are the grass and small plants of a woodland meadow.
I will then introduce “rabbits and deer”, “snails and insects”, encourage “Oaks and elderberries” and, turn it into a beautiful old growth forest.

I believe that we seriously need to reevaluate what we think is clean in our environment. Clear, odorless, toxic, chemical carcinogens, or pesticides are not clean. While none of the dozen pond systems that I maintain have remained murky for over a year, I would ask that we all start to think about the truth that green is clean. If the pool is now able to support algal life then it is no longer toxic to you, your pets, and the wildlife.

The little Pacific chorus frogs are no longer “drowning” in the pool above. Native aquatic organisms such as Pacific chorus frogs and slender salamanders do _not_ drown in a swimming pool. They are aquatic! They are poisoned by chlorine. A little Pacific chorus frog can float all day in a natural pond but “drowns” in a swimming pool ? ? ? _It’s the chlorine_

As the pools become green and clean I will turn it into a beautiful old growth forest.  But this does not generally happen until after all modules are installed and running.

I install about a module a month but how frequently is also somewhat up to the client. In _some_ cases when a client pays me for the modules early, I can start the next module before I normally would. This provides all my clients flexibility in their payment schedule.

We will put in plants for all of the modules and we will guarantee both the modules and plants while we are doing the maintenance, period.  I will not install plants in new modules until the plants will benefit the system.  I believe that I am being paid for what I know and what I can do, not for some pieces of wood, metal, and tubing.

Thank you to all the early adapters for converting their backyard into a non-toxic aquatic Wonderland :-)