A Small, Productive Fruit Farm In Cambodia
Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Plant Systems, Trees — by Andrew Perlot September 3, 2011
A newly-planted section of bananas, papayas, and citrus on this organic
fruit farm near Siem Reap, Cambodia.
As I’ve wandered around southeast Asia for the last 10 months I’ve kept my eye out for interesting farming techniques among the locals, but have mostly been disappointed.
Whatever ancestral knowledge of organic, integrated agriculture that may have existed seems to have declined or been lost entirely among the general population of Indonesia, Thailand, and Laos in the last few decades as cheap chemical fertilizers and pesticides have become increasingly prevalent.
When I arrived in Cambodia, though, the story was different. The country is decades behind its neighbors in terms of development because of the famous purges of the Kymer Rouge and years of civil war.
Comments (6)Sandot Sukkaew’s Tacomepai Farm (Thailand): A 20-Year-Old Permaculture Project
Building, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Dams, Demonstration Sites, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Irrigation, Land, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Swales, Terraces, Village Development, Water Harvesting — by Andrew Perlot August 11, 2011
Sandot Sukkaew explains the difference between his own organic rice paddies
and the chemically-treated ones in the background.
As the forests were felled, the life-giving water disappeared – Thai farmer Sandot Sukkaew made that critical connection decades ago while laboring in the mud of his father’s rice paddies, and he’s spent the past 20 years trying to remedy the situation.
Comments (4)Building a Raised Bed Keyhole Garden
Land, Material — by Andrew Perlot April 7, 2011
As the cold wind howled outside, I was rattling around the confines of my home, going a little stir crazy. The winter of 2009 had been long and cold in Connecticut. Although the snow had melted by late March, frost still regularly visited overnight and I knew my desire to get out, and plant, wouldn’t be realized for several months. But, even if my lettuce and spinach couldn’t survive outside right now, the idea of being productive and doing something in my garden had taken hold of me.
But what could I do?
A thought had been growing in the back of my mind for several days: build a raised bed garden. It would be simple enough to just toss soil between some wooden slats, but I had something more permanent and aesthetically pleasing in my mind.
Comments (0)
