Episode 146 Integrate Rather Than Segregate

To me this is the principle where projects come into play the most. There are tons of little projects where you can build things I call bridges or confinement. There is a typical want to build exclusion in. I have this desire myself. It is hard to fight but we must.

So how do we build or plan a garden where we integrate rather than segregate?

The whole of parts is greater than any individual part. – When we build a garden we DON’T just think of it as a place to grow annual crops. We don’t think of it as a sterile environment where only are plants are. We actually don’t freak out when aphids affect a plant or when a rabbit eats a lettuce plant. If we’ve built it right the system is resistant to these forces. It is resilient.

Many hands make light work. – We understand the potential issues and we plan for them by including various animals, lifeforms, etc into the garden.

Examples – Water sources bring in so much. Little ponds are great.

Housing for animals and shelter for them.

Joel Salatin – Letting the lifeform express its being. Pigs exert their pigness.

We realize behaviors that are inherent in the things we choose to include and even the things we don’t include.

Multiple functions – nothing is good for just one thing. Even if picked for just that one thing we look beyond and see all of the benefits.

Location location location. Relative location increases efficiency. We try to build things and place them where the most benefit exists. We sometimes lose things to atrophy or lose calories when we have to work thoughtlessly.

But also location makes the relationships work. Kind of like maintaining a long distance relationship. You can only keep it up for so long. You have to make a decision to be closer or abandon it.

Sometimes location can be overlooked in favor of flow.

I love having a garden on a slope. Everything runs to it. I’m building a duck run for a few reasons. One is that the ducks will be right next to my strawberries and lettuce which are slug magnets. For another all of the duck poop goes downhill and into the garden (diluted though). I’ve got a drainage ditch that runs right into my orchard and next to my garden. I’m going to integrate hazels next to it to soak up some of the water and prevent erosion. I’ve slowed down the water with berms. I’m going to build a pig pen way uphill of the ditch but direction above it. So the pig runoff which is pure nitrogen will run down the ditch quickly until it hits the berms and slows down where I can use it.

Things you can do to increase integration.