Permaculture and Organic Farming at Camp

Currently, there is an expanding movement in our country to bring the farm back home by starting gardens in our own backyards. This idea is called Permaculture, which is a type of agriculture system or human settlement, in which you take all of the natural systems in a given location and base that system or settlement off of the relationships seen in the surrounding ecology. This is currently most well known in agricultural systems. In farming, for example, by keeping water on site, using the fallen organic materials from trees or even grass clippings, you can create an organic garden that will produce healthy food which can save you money and help motivate you to get outside and learn about the environment.

You may be wondering to yourself why things like Permaculture or sustainability are gaining popularity these days. Simply put, it is because many people realize the damage that has been done to the environment over the past few decades and they want to protect the environment for themselves and for future generations. While things like riding your bike, recycling, using wind or solar energy as power sources, driving electric cars and installing rain barrels are a great way to do this on a large scale; Permaculture does this on a smaller, more personal scale. There are some people that are able to produce almost all of their own food without chemicals or pesticides (a process also known as organic farming) right in their own yard. In fact, they grow so much that sometimes they even have leftovers that they sell in order to make extra money! By doing this type of small scale organic farming, there are less toxins being spread around, and in turn we are able to take better care of the soil so that we do not exhaust it of nutrients on large tracts of land. By practicing organic farming we even cut down on the use of fossil fuel from transporting food.

While we have been talking about this more in a residential or even community level, this is a perfect project for a camp to implement. Although a camp may not be able to produce all of their own food, it can definitely grow enough to support a majority of its meals.

At a summer camp I worked at last summer, we were able to experiment with this a little bit. Although it was not designed around the idea of Permaculture, we planted an organic vegetable garden for use with our daily salad bar. We included campers in all aspects of growing the food, from planting, watering, weeding and harvesting. They were all very excited to actually eat food that they helped grow.

We had planted our crops a little a late and unfortunately most of them were not ready in time for some of the later summer sessions, so remember timing is crucial. We also did not take advantage of certain techniques to harvest water or keep weeds away. Luckily, gardening and farming are both a learning experience where mistakes can be helpful in the perfecting development of your own garden or the one at your camp.

Another idea to consider is the types of crops to plant. While we stuck to various types of peppers, tomatoes, corn, potatoes and onions, your camp can even venture into fruits and nuts as well. Trying things like this not only can expand the variety but it can also teach campers about more than just vegetables and how fruit and nut shrubs and trees can be used for a variety of uses other than just food.

While much of the information out there on Permaculture or Urban Farming are geared toward urban or residential projects, most all of the techniques are adaptable to practically any setting that you may find yourself or your camp. For more information on this topic, check out these websites: http://www.permacultureproject.com/; http://www.permacultureprinciples.com/; and http://www.permaculture.org/

Blog post written by Andrew Schneider