Meet Abla, the former school teacher who bought a small piece of property in the desert. After nine months on the property, she met her neighbours Geoff and Nadia, and she took our permaculture design certificate course here at the Greening the Desert project. She then began to transition her own property, which had been mostly rocks and barren soil, into a green desert site as well. Having left the city unhealthy, she has felt renewed with a permaculture lifestyle, caring for plants and … [Read more...]
Celebrating 10-Years at the Greening the Desert Project, Jordan.
The Greening the Desert Project started with the purchase of land about ten years ago, and it expanded slowly until that mounted into exponential growth. Things started at the top, literally, with a large water tank that feeds a shower/toilet block just downhill. The toilets are dry composting, supplying fertilizer for plants on site, and the greywater from the showers and sinks goes to a nearby reed bed. The reed bed, still high in the landscape, is then able to send gravity-fed irrigation to … [Read more...]
Permaculture in the Islamic World: The Dire Need to Get Involved!
A Dead Sea Valley family home with their typical front ‘lawn’ (Photo © Craig Mackintosh) Looking at the state of the Islamic World these days, it seems like Muslims don’t really care much about the environment. Canals which carry Nile water to irrigate farmlands in Egypt are so full of rubbish they frequently get blocked up, stagnate and spread disease. The once-mighty river Jordan has been so diminished in these dark days it is down to a muddy trickle you could probably jump over if you … [Read more...]
Letters from Jordan – IPC10 and the Permaculture Princess
Princess Basma bint Ali of Jordan opens IPC10 Photographs © Craig Mackintosh The opening of the Tenth International Permaculture Conference (IPC10) already saw Permaculture getting the attention it deserves. Over 100 people from around the world were seated to 'break bread' at the conference's opening gala dinner on the evening of Friday September 16. Aside from permaculturists from every continent, the event also drew (by our own 'subversive' design) people of influence from within … [Read more...]
Jordan PDC Course Announcement
Permaculture Research Institute Australia and the newly established Permaculture Research Institute Jordan are please to announce PRI Jordan's first Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course to be taught in the Dead Sea Valley, Jordan October 10 to the 23rd. This is near the site of the legendary Greening the Desert project. Your attendance at this course will help subsidise the education of local Jordanians, and also go towards the sending of a local representative body to the International … [Read more...]
