Hello from Yunnan Province, China

[bob]

Hi,

I have just become a partner in a cafe / traditional courtyard courtyard in a small Naxi village near Lijiang in Yunnan Province, southern China. Attached to the courtyard is a spare block of land for garden and at the back a inner courtyard with chooks and a few fruit trees. Outside the cafe is a permanent running stream (small canal) which is supplied with water from nearby Snow Mountain. The place would be perfect for a permaculture setup I am sure. Wold love any suggestions or local permaculture contacts.

cheers

Bob Percival

[purplepear]

Wow , Bob. Are they mud bricks that have been used in construction? My favourite book (bar a couple of hunderd others) is Ron Edwards "Mud brick building the Chinese Way" and the setup looks familar with stone foundations and all.
Help with Permaculture will come from within yourself and from locals that know the plants that grow well in the soil and climate. Look to get a yield from all things you do. Capture and soptre energy and water and work hard at being happy - these things are important in any permaculture design.

[Michaelangelica]

Hi Bob
Welcome
Is it easy to get plants and seeds in China?
Are Nurseries and small seed merchants common?
Last month someone asked about Chinese permaculture Groups and i found at least one link. I'll look for that post.
Is this where you are?

What is your climate like?


What a wonderful thing you are doing and what a great sounding spot! Rivers with water in them, what a luxury.

PS
The thread i mentioned:-
http://forums.permaculture.org.au/sh...e+permaculture
let us know how you get on.

[wenshidi]

The photos look a bit like a place I seem to remember in Shuhe. Is that right or are you a bit further from Lijiang?

My advice would be to focus on soil quality and water catchment from the roof first. Perhaps a small chicken tractor to prepare the soil and then collect some fruit tree seeds from the nearby orchards which are really impressive. Try growing from seed using rocket pot technology (www.trentcom.com) rather than buying deformed saplings from local nurseries). Have you thought about setting up a worm farm and then maybe a small aquaculture unit (similar to the homemade set up in Murray Hallam's DVD - http://permaculture.org.au/store/aqu...ray_hallam.htm)
Haoboaqing organic farm down in KM might provide some interesting inspiration for you.
Hope that this helps

Chris

[bob]

Hi purplebear,

Yes they are mudbricks and used very much in the local Naxi architecture. Most outside walls for gardens etc are left exposed but for main outside house walls a thin layering of slurry then a harder layer of stucco are added. I am not quite sure what material they use for this. The final wall is usually painted white. There is usually a bottom stone wall foundation about a metre high before the mudbrick starts (photo attached). When I find a place where they are making them I will send you some photos. Some local houses are also built purely out of local rock which has a very beautiful colour (photo enclosed). I have also enclosed three photos of a local kiln brickworks - using local clay and local workers. These guys work 24/7 for very little pay and live on-site. This is the other side of China.

I am trying to set up a local permaculture group with the help of a NGO called Global Village.
thanx for your inspiration

bob

[bob]

That is a good question! There are nurseries for garden plants and I can get seed packets for some vegetables and flowers that come from Beijing at 3 RMB (A$.50c) but I am guessing that once I make connections with local Naxi farmers (with the help of a translator) these things will become easier. I have enclosed a photo of a local Bai Sha house garden - with lots of spring onions (green onions). I also have some local Lijiang Italian friends who I think can give me basil seeds et al, which are much sought after in local Lijiang restaurants. All will be revealed I hope.

I have enclosed some photos I took yesterday of the fields being flooded with water. You can see the use of companion planting of soybeans (dark green) and wheat Light green).

Yes the map is right. I am just north of Lijiang at the edge of the valley and nearly at the foothills of local Snow Mountain (Yulong Shan). Yunnan has the largest diversity of plant life in China with over 17,000 plant species. Also apparently the biggest diversity of mushrooms anywhere in the world. January average temperatures range from 8°C to 17°C; July averages vary from 21°C to 27°C. Rainfall is mostly in summer between June and August. Yunnan produces great tea, good tobacco and most important of all very tasty coffee, which of course is served proudly at the Country Road Cafe.

[Michaelangelica]

I never wanted to go to China until now.
I hate big cities and that's what I see when i think of China.

Check out the Forum's 'for sale swap give away' section.
For example I have some free seeds on offer but I am sure AusPost would charge a lot more than 50c to get them to you!

. . . .walls a thin layering of slurry then a harder layer of stucco are added. I am not quite sure what material they use for this. The final wall is usually painted white. . . .

When I built in mud brick I was told to use a slurry mixed with cow manure.
I thought this a revolting, primitive, silly idea so tested about a dozen commercial sealers.
In the end I found a cow manure slurry worked best!

If you get some coloured and white clay you can blend it/them to make the outside wall any of a huge range of colours

[bob]

hi wenshidi

Yes, you are right, Bai Shai is only about six kms past Shu He, a little bit further up the valley towards Snow Mountain (Yulong Shan) (photo). Shu He is getting very busy now with lots of noisy bars and many foreigners building their 'mansions', tourism is thriving! Bai Sha is much smaller and quieter during the day and 'dead' at night, which suits me as I am doing a phd in creative writing and need al the quiet I can get.

Thanks for the tips, as for the tractor the land is a bit too small. I have now cleaned the plot of all the rubbish (photo), including plastic toy guns and a huge smoking pipe, in which he locals 'bong' their tobacco. Yunnan tobacco is very good apparently. I found some spring onions still growing. I though now I would lay heaps of local hay (photo) down over the ground as mulch, then plants seedlings amongst the hay. What do you think??

It will be interesting to see how much a large haystack costs! All deals have to be done by my Tibetan cafe business partner Rosey (photo) as just the very presence of a lao wai (old outsider) seems to double the price of anything.

I also have a very great surprise when I found a well at the bottom of the garden (photo). Even though there is a running water canal outside the shape, the well is much closer to the garden and very beautiful - especially after I can clean it out ( will ask old local Naxi men for advice) and plant around it (any suggestions??). Any advice on wells???

As well have four chickens and a rooster (who will be going soon). The chickens are not laying?? I fed them corn (which is abundant to say the least) and fresh water. They have no roosting place yet - just a yard. Again any suggestion for laying?

Worm farm is a great idea I can get coffee grounds from local shops - but do not have containers - can make them out of wood? the last thing I need is more plastic! I read that you cannot use common earthworms, is that right? I have read that they have have huge industrial worm farms in Beijing.

Will get back to writing now. I would appreciate any help for above questions.

I a
have also enclosed photo of our cafe on Sunday, our busiest day yet. Today is Lantern Festival, the night of the full moon on the 15th day after the first lunar month, which was Chinese New Year. I have bough a fresh chicken form the market and my friend from a nearby inn will cook it with song rong, a local mushroom delicacy akin to matsutake. Yum.

all the best and thanks for your help

bob

[eco4560]

How someone with the un-Chinese name of Bob came to be in rural China must be a fascinating tale. You'll have to share it sometime.

Your chooks could either be too young or too old to lay. Alternatively they are laying, but doing it where you can't find the eggs, or something else is finding them first (dogs, lizards, rodents....)

There are instructions on the web for making worm farms out of wheelie rubbish bins, or styrofoam boxes. If you use wood you'd have to find something rot resistant as the constant wet would break it down pretty quickly. And yes you need composting worms, not earth worms.

[bob]

hi purple bear,
well, yesterday I finally made the move to live at the cafe in beautiful up-valley Bai Sha. I find myself the only lao wai (foreigner) in the village! I rode out to the village with new hoe and rake, bought from the local market for 20 yuen each, attached to my bike much to the amusement of the locals. A lao wai farmer! The side garden was raked and the first garden bed hoed, watered and planted with chilli seedlings (photo) that I bought from a small Lijiang market. I watered again and then went for a beautiful dusk walk to edge of Bai Sha. The mist and light rain was coming off nearby Snow Mountain. Then, for your interestt, I made my first mudbrick-making sighting. (photos attached). Soil very loamy and obviously perfect for mudbricks as nothing is added to the soil except a bit of straw. Just dug straight from the back yard. A bit further up the road was a second site. (more photos) A perfect moment occurs as the mist settles, the light rain drifts across and a gentle cool breeze blows the petals off the peach blossoms so that the white flowers fall onto the dark brown mudbricks. Perfect. An old man (he proudly tells me 80 years) (photo) that I smile at in the street then invites me in to his old courtyard Naxi house. Shows me his six cows, his firewood, his homemade wheat bai guo spirit wine. I drink the incredibly strong wine and at the same time sip hot green tea. The rain starts to fall more heavily on Bai Sha and the new plantings. The first rain in a month. Later in the night I stack my bookshelves and lie in bed listening to the tv downstairs, and the the dog scratching upstairs and the rain still falling lightly on the tiled roof. Good weather for making mudbricks.