In article ,
"0tterbot" wrote:

it IS! (the previous residents ["permie me, la la la"] , that is, not
necessarily permaculture as a whole). for e.g. they wrote in their farm
report how they located the chooks in the orchard (excellent, no problem
there) but didn't explain why they put the run in a far-off corner equally
distant from two taps but close to neither. (nor why they planted
raspberries & an apple tree IN there with the chickens where the chooks
destroy them, etc). or why they planted all the trees so close (i know some
people are into close planting & that's fine cos i am too, but a hazlenut &
a fig literally a metre apart? i think not!!) i could go on & on. everything
from paths to fences to trees and everything in between has been put in
places i cannot fathom. there's a row of jonquils 100m long in a straight
line. we have had to cut down so many trees in the yard (due to being
located either dangerously, ridiculously, or unable to grow) that it's
disturbing to us. they installed leaky hose in the orchard at great expense
but for nothing, as relatively little (it appears) survived the 2.5-odd
years between them & us when the place was a weekender (& hence mostly
neglected) even though the drought here was not so bad & there's no real
reason things should have died like that had they been well-placed
originally. i would note that the raspberries in teh chook run survived
(until i got more chooks, that is) yet their blueberries etc put in at
(again) great expense & with a great deal of "planning" (cough) didn't. many
fruit trees just didn't. for all the work they did (which was apparently
considerable - soil testing & surveys over the entire property, etc etc)
they haven't left anything anyone would want - it didn't last. only the
misplaced infrastructure has!!

OK, I'd say not permies, just idiots. I would guess they had never kept
chooks before and didn't know they needed care at least once a day (eggs,
food, water) -- this is usually mentioned specifically in the pc books I have
read. Therefore, you want the chooks close, but not too close, to the house
(and water tap and feed bins).

Close planting of (productive) trees is the cardinal sign of the novice. Note
that in some cases people plant wattles and similar as "nursemaids" (dappled
shade for slower-growing productive trees, and if these were left to grow
instead of being removed once the saplings were bigger, you'd end up with a
jungle. The years of neglect might account for part of what you are seeing.
Could the fig or hazel be self-sown, for example?

The 100m of jonquils might have been an earlier planting -- it certainly
doesn't sound like something a permie would do. What was the history of the
property? Was there a house on it 100 years ago?

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue