Holmgren’s Melliodora

Photograph of small farm on river bend

  • 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).

ebook cover Holmgrens’ Melliodora

The Melliodora project is a model of what I would love to do with a place:

  1. get to know it by all kinds of methods (aerial maps, soil and water samples, photographs and sketches)
  2. in detail (each aspect of its landscape, soils, waterways, flora and fauna, its history too)
  3. 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)
  4. live it by personal experience (actually build the structures and work the land, suffer the losses, celebrate the successes)
  5. treat it ethically (how to use the place sustainably, with respect for all its inhabitants, the firther environment)
  6. and wholistically (how to let it enrich our physical as well as our spiritual being, e.g., how to maximize its educational potential) 
  • 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. 

I feel so lucky to have found this project. Its spirit (not its size) matches, challenges and fires my dream, the Homestead Plan.

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