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Rich with examples from his own garden, Nigel’s approach favors biology over technology to reduce the cost of gardening, improve his local soil, and the quality of his fruits and vegetables.

You can find more about Nigel, his book, and work with The Institute of Sustainable Nutrition at tiosn.com.

Download Nigel's Recipe for Vinegar Extractions (With Permission from Chelsea Green Publishing)

Gardening can be incredibly wasteful from all the packaging and plastic, to harmful to our environment through the overuse of chemicals, from nitrogen-heavy fertilizers that runoff into our waterways, to the pesticides and herbicides that, even when narrow spectrum, kill a wide variety of soil life. In our waterways, many of these chemicals that seem to improve our gardens and growth of food, kill fish, and amphibians. I like Nigel’s DIY approach to sustainable fertilization, fertigation, and improvement of life in the soil because it dispenses with those harms while using and reusing items we can find in our local environment. Often from our pantry, garden, or own backyard, while aligning with so many of the principles of permaculture.

We can observe the rise of a disease or pest issue and interact with a creative response via the homemade remedy. We catch and store energy by creating tinctures, extracts, and ferments while they are available and create a form we can keep refrigerated or on a shelf. We obtain a yield by increasing the health, vitality, and nutrition of our plants. Though not written explicitly as a permaculture book, Nigel provides a holistic approach to Zone 1 and Zone 2 plant management.

But, those are just my thoughts. After listening to this interview with Nigel Palmer, what are yours?

Leave a comment in the show notes, or email me: The Permaculture Podcast.

Until the next time, feed yourself, your soil, and your garden from local sources, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.

Related Interviews

Nutrient Dense Foods | Dan Kittredge

Improving Broadscale Agriculture | John Kempf

Resources

The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments

The Institute of Sustainable Nutrition

Korean Natural Farming Resources

JADAM Organic Farming: The Way to Ultra-low-cost Agriculture by Youngsang Cho (Amazon)

JADAM Organic Farming