Every Problem is a Solution


One aspect I love in permaculture is the idea that in every problem there is a solution or a benefit. For example, grasshoppers or snails eating your vegetables can be free food for your chooks; chickens’ scratching habits, which are destructive when misplaced, can be used to clear a grass or weed patch for a vegie bed.

These past few weeks, I have been puzzling over how much enrichment my vegetable beds need and wondering how I would get the soil fed without spending a lot of money or making endless trips to roadside stalls for horse manure (great option but on a large scale, can be expensive and time consuming!) I had also been shaking my head at the state of our pond and our dam. They are completely overgrown and clogged with water plants and the water is smelly and dirty.



Then I had a lightbulb moment. My two problems are each others’ solutions! The pond and dam waters are dirty because the water is too rich, from duck manure, mud and silt accumulating and not enough plant growth to take up the excess nutrients. The plants can’t grow because they are overcrowded. My garden needs nutrients and mulch! Fantastic! 

So the last couple of days, I have been tugging out knots of reeds and scooping out duckweed from the surface of the dam and hauling them to my garden as mulch and soil food. It will free up space for more plant growth in the water, the water will gradually clear and become cleaner, and I will have more mulch for when I need it. 

Yes, it’s an energy-intensive solution, but as I need some core-strength building exercise after my last pregnancy, I’m calling it another solution!

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