Permaculture<\/b> is a system of agricultural<\/a> and social design principles centered around simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems<\/a>. The term permaculture<\/i> (as a systematic method) was first coined by Australians David Holmgren<\/a>, then a graduate student, and his professor, Bill Mollison<\/a>, in 1978. The word permaculture<\/i> originally referred to “permanent agriculture”, but was expanded to stand also for “permanent culture”, as it was seen that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system as inspired by Masanobu Fukuokas<\/a>\u00a0natural farming<\/a> philosophy.<\/p>\n When you use a pineapple, the leafy top can be cut off and if\u00a0 planted in<\/p>\n the ground, it will grow into\u00a0 a\u00a0 new pineapple\u00a0 plant. Some\u00a0 of our<\/p>\n pineapple plants are third generation.<\/p>\n This was an earlier system for growing herbs and small vegetables eg.<\/p>\n tomatoes in beds of compost 300 mm deep. The\u00a0 planted beds were 2.00<\/p>\n metres long by 1.00 metre wide. Each bed was\u00a0 lined with heavy duty black<\/p>\n plastic which was\u00a0 slit here\u00a0 and there\u00a0 at about 50 mm above the bottom.<\/p>\n This meant the beds would never be waterlogged. The rich black\u00a0 compost<\/p>\n holds many times it weight in water. The beds only need to be\u00a0 watered<\/p>\n about once every three weeks\u00a0 or so. This system of New Earth Garden<\/p>\n plots was a successful way of growing things as we were on tank water<\/p>\n and not town water. All shower\u00a0 water, wash-up water and washing water drained<\/p>\n \u00a0 down to large underground sullage tank. This could be\u00a0 pumped out once a week<\/p>\n on the New Earth Garden plots\u00a0 and the garden. As Harriet didn’t want<\/p>\n to bend down to ground level, we have replaced the beds with<\/p>\n raised garden beds which just been constructed, filled with soil then<\/p>\n compost. These are especially relevant seeing that we\u00a0 now have abundant<\/p>\n bore water from September 2015.\u00a0 See the photos below.<\/p>\n Greek basil as a 1.00 metre high … we use\u00a0 the lovely tasting leaves in<\/p>\n salads which we constantly have in summer.<\/p>\n Tomato plants growing a\u00a0 New Earth Garden plot.<\/p>\n Paw paws grow abundantly as young plants in the compost from the black<\/p>\n seeds. They then can be readily transplanted into the garden. They grow<\/p>\n quickly bearing much fruit. I always remember how it was when we went<\/p>\n on one our overseas trips to China in October in\u00a0 2011. The\u00a0 paw paws<\/p>\n were in fruit and\u00a0 were\u00a0 growing yellow on the tree. We had a bucket of<\/p>\n paw paw fruit to eat in week.\u00a0 Some of them were going black\u00a0 which we<\/p>\n had to throw out.<\/p>\n A Cauliflower\u00a0 at full\u00a0 growth in one of the\u00a0 New Earth Garden plots.<\/p>\n 03.11.15: Raised garden beds which just been constructed, filled with soil then<\/p>\n compost. They have just been planted and watered. There are lettuce,<\/p>\n tomatoes, rhubarb etc. and herbs of many kinds\u00a0 …. a work in progress with<\/p>\n paving being added for paths and a big bed being built behind these front beds.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_0025\"](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_0025.jpg\")
<\/a>A pineapple plant.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"My](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/My-Documents-003.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"My](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/My-Documents-004.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"My](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/My-Documents-010.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"My](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/My-Documents-028.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"My](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/My-Documents.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"018\"](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/018.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"021\"](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/021.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"006\"](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/0062.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"019\"](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/019.jpg\")
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![\"005\"](\"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/005.jpg\")
<\/a>… A big bed has just built in November 2015. It has to be filled<\/p>\n