- Holmgren’s place
I’m oggling David Holmgren’s Melliodora, or at least what is avaiable of it for free on the net (the whole e-book seems worth it but is still AUS$35). You can check it out yourself here (go to publications, click on the e-book, then scroll down to the free demo).
The Melliodora project is a model of what I would love to do with a place:
- get to know it by all kinds of methods (aerial maps, soil and water samples, photographs and sketches)
- in detail (each aspect of its landscape, soils, waterways, flora and fauna, its history too)
- approach it pragmatically (how can it best be developed, what plants will grow where best, where can we build structures, where can we harvest energy)
- live it by personal experience (actually build the structures and work the land, suffer the losses, celebrate the successes)
- treat it ethically (how to use the place sustainably, with respect for all its inhabitants, the firther environment)
- and wholistically (how to let it enrich our physical as well as our spiritual being, e.g., how to maximize its educational potential)Â
- A whole dream
Holmgren presents all the elements of the development and maintenance of his own home and demonstration site, Melliodora, as a case-study as scientifically detailed and as personally intense as they come. As a showcase of permaculture, it is a practical and scientific approach to place, food, time and life, based on ethical, educational and spiritual principles.Â
I feel so lucky to have found this project. Its spirit (not its size) matches, challenges and fires my dream, the Homestead Plan.