Perrine & Charles HERVÉ-GRUYER

MANUEL DES JARDINIERS-MARAÎCHERSP E R M A C U L T U R E   -   É C O C U L T U R E   -   M I C R O F E R M E S

ACTES SUD | FERME DU BEC HELLOUIN

THE FOUNDING WORK OF ECOCULTURE

ECOCULTURE: A RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGES OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

How are we to feed the generations of tomorrow? The world’s population is increa-sing and our resources in arable land, soft water and natural fertilizers have dimi-nished alarmingly. Oil will inevitably rarify and become more expensive. Climate change is intensifying and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. According to some studies, the number of climate refugees could reach 2 billion people by the year 2100. It is clear that our current fossil fuel-dependent, green-house-gas emitting agricultural model not only destroys land and the biodiversity but will also be incapable of feeding generations to come.

The Ferme du Bec Hellouin farm has been experimenting with new forms of agri-culture that are radically different to current models, based on the imitation of natural ecosystems. This ecoculture is life-enhancing rather than annihilating. The farm seeks to create a complex agro-ecosystem, with a high diversity of terrains and plant and animal species in order to encourage the best performance from their different ecosystems. Ecoculture is highly adapted for food-production and raising animals. Small surfaces undergo intense cultivation essentially by hand. Its methods draw on age-old farming techniques of the South and North as well as on the latest contemporary scientific discoveries. The approach fosters farmers’ autonomy and the food security of local communities. Microfarms can be created with low capital investment and are not dependent on sophisticated technologies. They are hence highly adapted to the needs of billions of farmers around the globe with limited land resources and without machinery. It is worth remembering that 80% of farms around the world cover less than 2 hectares.

Format 24 × 32 cm3 hardback volumes -

304, 448 and 296 pages, Boxset

3 million characters100 chapters

1271 photos437 illustrations

205 tables and info sections116 mind maps and

diagrams6 years of work

79 eurosPublication date, May 2019

Editorial DirectorAnne-Sylvie Bameule

as.bameule@actes-sud.frTel: 00 33 (0)4 90 49 56 85

Foreign RightsIsabelle Alliel

i.alliel@actes-sud.frTel: 00 33 (0)4 90 49 56 69

EventsMuriel Fischer

m.fischer@actes-sud.frTel: 00 33 (0)7 62 71 30 47

PRESS RELEASE | 3

AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH VALIDATED BY SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Scientific studies carried out at our farm by the INRA, AgroParisTech, the University of Gembloux (Belgium) and other organizations have validated the exceptional and sustainable productivity of the farm. In 2015, 1,000 square meters of farm land at the Bec Hellouin yielded products with a market value of €55,000 (the average in production in France is €30,000 per hectare).

This exceptional productivity has been accompanied by a remarkable improvement in the quality of the soil, the organic carbon contents of which have increased up to 10% per year on some plots. The impact of biodiversity has also been very positive: the farm is home to more birds, including rare species, insects and earthworms than neighboring farms.

A microfarm designed in such a way can thus produce an abundance of quality food for human consumption while also forming a valuable source of carbon and an oasis of biodiversity.

SWARMING THE WORLD

The “miniaturization” of agricultural scales advocated by the Bec Hellouin method means that microfarms can be created anywhere, even in urban environments, encouraging job creation and more resilient soils.

Bec Hellouin’s research has already inspired farmers around the globe as well as politicians, heads of regional authorities, agricultural teaching and national edu-cation ministries.

Our previous work Permaculture – guérir la Terre, nourrir les hommes, (“Permaculture, healing the land to feed people”) has become a bestseller in France, and has already been translated into eight languages, including English, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, and Greek.

4 | VIVRE AVEC LA TERRE THE FOUNDING WORK OF ECOCULTURE

A MANUAL FOR AMATEURS AND PROFESSIONALS ALIKE

The fruit of six years work, Vivre avec la Terre (“Living with the Earth”) is an ex-ceptional literary and scientific project which gives readers the resources needed to commit to an organically-inspired approach. By learning to understand how natural environments work, readers will discover a number of simple and effec-tive applications enabling them to create their own high-performance, ecological garden, allotment or farm. The manual recounts Bec Hellouin’s unique experience but also offers a whole host of recent information about nature and food-growing provided by the permanent scientific and technical monitoring of the farm in the last 15 years. It offers readers a simple and structured synthesis of our most recent data, as well as relatively inaccessible data only available in international science reviews.

The manual is targeted at everyone who wants to “live with the Earth”: the 19 million French people with their own garden, but also agriculture professionals, researchers and everybody who dreams of starting their own microfarm. In France in 2017, 80% of creation projects for organic food-producing farm professed to follow the permacultural microfarm model developed at Bec Hellouin.

Vivre avec la Terre has a wider-reaching scope than simple technological and scien-tific knowledge: it features inspirational quotations from a wide variety of sources, expressing a quest for harmony and a poetic tribute to the beauty of the world.

THE ECOLOGICAL EXAMPLE

We are eager to reduce the carbon footprint of this unusual manual: paper and its manufacturing processes are today readily sustainable. So for each book purchased, we undertake to plant a tree.

PRESS RELEASE | 5

VOLUME I

PERMACULTURE, ECOCULTURE: NATURE INSPIRES USINTRODUCTION : LIVING WITH THE EARTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

I. FEEDING PEOPLE, HEALING THE EARTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

1. FROM AGRICULTURE TO ECOCULTURE

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2. THE FOUNDING PRINCIPLES OF

ECOCULTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

3. ECOCULTURE: A NEW PARADIGM . . . . . . . 43

4. HUNTER, GATHERER, FARMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

5. LE BEC HELLOUIN: A BIOLOGICAL FARM

.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

6. LE BEC HELLOUIN: RESEARCH

PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

II. AT THE SCHOOL OF NATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

7. THE MURMUR OF LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

8. THE SUN, WIND AND RAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

9. THE SOIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

10. FROM ECOSYSTEM TO

AGRO-ECOSYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

11. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

12. BIODIVERSITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 13

13. PLANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 17

III. DRAW ME A FARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

14. INTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE 131

15. THE CONCEPTS OF PERMACULTURAL

DESIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

16. THE PERMACULTURAL DESIGN SPIRIT

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

17. THE DESIGN PROCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

18. BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD . . . . . 189

19. LE BEC HELLOUIN FARM DESIGNS . . . 195

IV. A NATURAL APPROACH TO THE SOIL AND FERTILITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

20. SOIL AND FARMERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

21. THE ORGANIC STRATEGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

22. MULCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

23. COMPOSTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

24. GREEN FERTILIZERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

25. FERTILIZERS AND SOIL ENRICHMENT

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257

26. USEFUL MICRO-ORGANISMS, BOKASHI

AND BIOCHAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

27. MICROFARM AND FERTILITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

28. MICROFARMS, CARBON, CLIMATE . . 279

NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

ANNEXES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

VOLUME II

FOOD PRODUCING CULTURES AND FOREST GARDENSV. METHODS OF CULTURE . . . . . . 313

29. PERMACULTURE SWALES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

30. RAISED MOUNDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

31. FLAT SWALES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

32. OTHER TYPES OF PERMACULTURE

SWALES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

33. INTRODUCTION TO FOOD PRODUCING

CULTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

34. STARTING CULTURES: SEEDS OR

TRANSPLANTS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

35. PREPARING THE SOIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .357

36. NO-TILL SOWING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

37. PLANTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

38. TRANSPLANTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .377

39. WATERING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

40. WEEDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

41. HARVESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

VI. DENSIFICATION AND ASSOCIATING CULTURES . . . . . . . . 41 1

42. DENSIFYING CULTURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

43. ASSOCIATING CULTURES: PRINCIPLES

AND LOCATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

44. ASSOCIATING CULTURES:

35 EXAMPLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

VII. CULTIVATION THROUGHOUT THE YEAR . . . . . . 495

45. VEGETABLES FOR ALL SEASONS . . . 497

46. SHELTERED CULTIVATION: SIMPLE

STRUCTURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

47. SHELTERED CULTIVATION:

GREENHOUSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

48. WARM LAYERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

49. ORGANIZING PRODUCTION WITHIN

THE GARDEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .527

50. CONSERVABLE FRUITS AND

VEGETABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

VIII. VEGETABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

51. THE MAIN VEGETABLES CULTURES . 547

IX. SPECIFIC CULTURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593

52. PERENNIAL VEGETABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

53. MINI-VEGETABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601

54. SALADS ALL-YEAR ROUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

55. SALAD LEAVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

56. YOUNG SHOOTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615

57. ASIAN VEGETABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621

58. EDIBLE FLOWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627

59. AROMATIC PLANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

60. MEDICINAL PLANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

61. WILD EDIBLE PLANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

62. MUSHROOMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645

X. TREES, BUSHES, FOREST-GARDENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

63. TOWARDS A TREE CIVILIZATION . . . . 655

64. AGROFORESTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663

65. HEDGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669

66. ORCHARDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

67. ORCHARDS FOR FRUIT PRODUCTION

.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679

68. SMALL FRUITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

69. FOREST-GARDENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689

70. DESIGNING A FOREST GARDEN . . . . . . . 701

71. WORKING FOREST-GARDENS . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 13

NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

ANNEXES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .723

VOLUME III

CREATING A MICROFARMXI. MULTIPLYING VEGETABLES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761

72. THE REPRODUCTION OF PLANTS . . . 763

73. PRODUCING SEEDS FOR KITCHEN

GARDENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .767

74. PLANT REPRODUCTION: CUTTINGS,

GRAFTS, DIVISIONS, LAYERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779

XII. GARDEN HEALTH AND BIODIVERSITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

75. HEALTH AND GARDEN VITALITY . . . . . 789

76. WELCOMING BIODIVERSITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799

XIII. ANIMALS AND ANIMAL TRACTION . . . . . . . . . . 81 1

77. ANIMALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813

78. ANIMAL TRACTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

XIV. HAY AND CEREALS . . . . . . . . . . 837

79. HAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839

80. OIL-FREE CEREALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 845

XV. TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859

81. TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861

82. MAINTAINING AND SHARPENING

TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879

XVI. CREATING A MICROFARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887

83. BECOMING A FARMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889

84. IN SEARCH OF A FARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 895

85. URBAN AND SUBURBAN FARMING . . 901

86. THE POSSIBILITIES FOR MICROFARMS

.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907

87. THE FARM AND ITS ENVIRONMENT

.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 1

88. THE “HUMAN DRIVING FORCE” OF THE

FARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915

89. TRANSFORMED PRODUCTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923

90. SELLING PRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 929

91. MICROFARM ECONOMY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 939

92. BUILDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943

93. MICROFARMS, AND MICROFARM

ECOSYSTEMS, MUTUAL AGRARIAN

SYSTEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951

94. ORGANIZING IN-FARM TRAINING . . . 955

95. KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 963

96. MODELIZING MICROFARMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 967

97. ADVISE FOR FUTURE GARDEN-

FARMERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981

98. DEVELOPING ECOCULTURE

EVERYWHERE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985

99. TAKING CARE OF THE GARDENER . 993

100. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GARDEN IN

THE WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001

NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1004

ANNEXES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1007

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1026

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1035

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Since we started work on his manual, we have seen the world undergo deep transformation. Climatic change is accelerating and becoming more evident with each year that passes; we ourselves at the farm have noted its effects. Humankind however is not taking the ecologically urgent measures required. The imminent cataclysm offers a unique opportunity to build a better world in new unprecedented ways. Transition can be a choice not a sufferance; it can be desirable and festive. Instead of waiting until it is too late, let us reconnect to the infinitely varied and generous wonder of nature and adopt simple, sustainable lifestyles. We may not have as many gadgets but we will be rich in everything that makes life calm and beautiful.