There are three total planned to cover this material starting with Soil Structure, then Good Soil, and finishing up the series with Degraded and Rebuilding Soil. Specifically, the following will be covered in this show:

1. What is soil?
2. Soil Texture
3. Soil Tests: Ball and Jar
4. Soil Horizons

This is an updated version of the soil texture diagram. I prefer this one because the color coding makes it easier to read.

Further Reading: Soil Texture: Soils Tutorial from the University of Missouri Soil Texture: From Sand to Clay Soil Properties: Texture An online Power Point Presentation Soil Horizons: Soil Horizon Designations Soil Horizon Layers

She's a great teacher.   Really, if you get a chance to, take a course with her.

This is a 4 part video series with Rico Zook.  Having spent some time with him for my Teacher Training, I want to help support his work around the world.  Having seen a personal slide show of the places he travels, classes he's taught, and project work, he is seriously out on the ground and getting it done. He will also be delivering a presentation at the 2011 Internation Permaculture Convergence in Jordan.  If you are going to be there, stop by, check it out, and tell him Scott Mann says hello.

Part 2 of 4 Part 3 of 4 Part 4 of 4

Depending on where you live finding a Permaculture Design Course to attend can be difficult enough.  Knowing whether or not it is worth your time and money to attend, even more so.  There are so many details that the answer isn't always clear.  This episode is to help you find your way through what is on a website or advertised in a magazine so that you can find a class that is worthwhile by examining these points:

• Ask for the Teacher's name.
• Ask for the Teacher's course history and former instructors.
• What are their projects? I.e. What Permaculture work are they doing?
• How long is the class?
• What material is included in the class curriculum?
• What textbook should they use?
• Buyer beware.
• There are no Permaculture police.

Lastly, if you have any questions at any time, please feel free to contact me via email (The Permaculture Podcast), , or leave a comment on the website (www.thepermaculturepodcast.com).

Punks singing about Permaculture working to build eco-villages and bring about an ecological revolution in Mexico City and helping to spread it around the world.

There is a nice writeup from PBS on this group as well:

Eco-Punks: A Model for Sustainability

Aiden, a 7th grader from New York, won a 2011 Young Naturalist Award for his work on the effect the arrangement of limbs and leaves has on a tree during photosynthesis.  He this by building a solar collector, to act as an analogue for the tree, that was modeled after the pattern that he saw among the limbs.  This pattern conforms to the Fibonnaci number where Fn = (Fn-1) + (Fn -2) so the numbers progress like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, ...  Not only is was this a good observation on his part, but it also lead to a solar system that is more effective at capturing sunlight than a similarly sized linear array. On the order of 20% in the summer and 50% in the winter.

Great job Aiden!

Read the full article and learn more:

https://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/2011/aidan.html

A great monologue about "What is a Native plant?" with Toby Hemenway.   In this case, he raises the questions of "Native to When?" and "What plants are you favoring by your decision?" or, to put it another way "What did you have for breakfast this morning?"  Though only 6 minutes long, it raises some serious questions about our ecological footprint and how to best save native habitats.

If you are interested in a great book that discusses this topic in depth, check out David Theodoropoulos' Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience

I was in Cottage Grove, Oregon, USA to take an Advanced Permaculture Training in Teaching (i.e. Permaculture Teacher Training), with Jude Hobbs, Andrew Millison, and guest instructor Rico Zook.

If you are looking for more information on the instructors, you can find more information on each one, their work, and what they are doing at:

• Jude Hobbs: www.cascadiapermaculture.com
• Andrew Millison: www.beaverstatepermaculture.com
• Rico Zook: www.ricoclime.com

And since I mentioned VNV Nation, you can check out Ronan and Mark at: www.vnvnation.com