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forest_gardening [2010-02-01 09:35] – theunkarelseforest_gardening [2010-02-10 12:50] – 145.50.39.12
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 === Forest Gardening === === Forest Gardening ===
  
-====== Intro ======+=== Intro ===
  
 Forest gardens represent a farming technique radically different from Western (mono-)agricultural models and concepts. For many primary people around the world the cultivation and redesigning of patches of forest to create a reliable source of foodstuffs is elemental to their survival. For some Amazonian people (supposed hunter/gatherers) for instance it is calculated that 90% of their diet is produced in their gardens. The fact that many trained observers (like ethnobotanists) can completely miss a forest garden when they are right in front of it indicates that they are not just an accomplished and ecological sound cultural achievement, but that they inhibit a conceptual space beyond our immediate cultural perception.  Forest gardens represent a farming technique radically different from Western (mono-)agricultural models and concepts. For many primary people around the world the cultivation and redesigning of patches of forest to create a reliable source of foodstuffs is elemental to their survival. For some Amazonian people (supposed hunter/gatherers) for instance it is calculated that 90% of their diet is produced in their gardens. The fact that many trained observers (like ethnobotanists) can completely miss a forest garden when they are right in front of it indicates that they are not just an accomplished and ecological sound cultural achievement, but that they inhibit a conceptual space beyond our immediate cultural perception. 
  
-====== A Counter Example from the Amazon ======+=== A Counter Example from the Amazon ===
  
 Mark Plotkin in Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice gives a fascinating review of western agricultural techniques when applied to Amazonian soils from the perspective of Amazonian forest gardeners:  Mark Plotkin in Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice gives a fascinating review of western agricultural techniques when applied to Amazonian soils from the perspective of Amazonian forest gardeners: 
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 “And another thing,” said Kamainja. “You look at the plantation and you know the man doesn't understand the forest. A well-planned garden should look like a hole in the forest opened up when a giant ku-mah-kah tree falls over. Small openings in the forest are filled in by fast growing weedy plants that attract game animals. When you cut down too much forest, the little plants can't seed in from the surrounding jungle and you don;t have any birds or peccaries coming in that you can hunt.”” “And another thing,” said Kamainja. “You look at the plantation and you know the man doesn't understand the forest. A well-planned garden should look like a hole in the forest opened up when a giant ku-mah-kah tree falls over. Small openings in the forest are filled in by fast growing weedy plants that attract game animals. When you cut down too much forest, the little plants can't seed in from the surrounding jungle and you don;t have any birds or peccaries coming in that you can hunt.””
  
-====== Origin of Forest Gardens ======+=== Origin of Forest Gardens ===
  
 From 'The forest-garden farms of Kandy, Sri Lanka' ([[http://books.google.com/books?id=G3QPo7lThXsC]] full view) by Douglas John McConnell: From 'The forest-garden farms of Kandy, Sri Lanka' ([[http://books.google.com/books?id=G3QPo7lThXsC]] full view) by Douglas John McConnell:
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 A garden is never fully abandoned, after three years a garden may be completely overgrown with weeds and thorny bushes, and the people using it may migrate, they will come back often to harvest it. see [[Ecosystem_gardening]] A garden is never fully abandoned, after three years a garden may be completely overgrown with weeds and thorny bushes, and the people using it may migrate, they will come back often to harvest it. see [[Ecosystem_gardening]]
  
-For forest people, gardening is a state of mind, a mode they are never out of. The entire Amazon is now believed to one huge man-made landscape kept intact by contant pruning and weeding as humans move through it. +For forest people, gardening is a state of mind, a mode they are never out of. The entire Amazon is now believed to one huge man-made landscape kept intact by contant pruning and weeding as humans move through it, a practise partially covered by [[nomadic agriculture]]. 
  
-(Theun: I disagree with much of this; in my opinion [[Ecosystem_gardening]] is much less anthropocentric and has nothing to do with growing crops. The tribals we met in India, living in stone-age conditions, had little knowledge about plants beyond their use. Human pressures simply never were high enough to need any management. And lastly being in the rainforest for just a few weeks made me quiet sure that its metabolism is way beyond our capacity to prune and weed it. In fact you can't even keep it from invading your body.)+[[Further Local Discussion about the Anthropocentric Jungle]]
  
 ====== Gary Snyder and the Artistic Imperative  ====== ====== Gary Snyder and the Artistic Imperative  ======
  • forest_gardening.txt
  • Last modified: 2010-10-27 10:49
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