Its buildings are hidden in Sailly (Yvelines), in the grassy recesses of the French Vexin, barely 70 km from Paris. In the past, the Cure farm supported the priest and the people around him. From now on, it houses a Center for Education in Biodiversity and Permaculture managed by the association La Sève (1).
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In the experimental vegetable garden, there are no very straight rows, but a skilful interlacing of plots delimited by high braided wicker and elderberry borders: fruit trees, currants, vegetables, insects and birds nest there. Further, inside a low low wall in the shape of a circle, planks delimit compartments. In some were transplanted young lettuces, others, enriched with compost, are virgin. It is an ideal tool for making visitors understand the principle of crop rotation.
Further still, an artisanal greenhouse is semi-buried: its roof, rounded, is made of a latticework of reinforcing steel. On the sides, pots of earth on which point radishes. On the ground, two rows of carboys filled with water are used, in summer, to cool the atmosphere and, in winter, to restore the stored heat.
The amazing resilience of natural ecosystems
The six employees of La Sève use this seemingly messy place for their permaculture training. Permaculture? Increasingly used, this term sometimes designates new practices, sometimes a philosophy, sometimes a somewhat esoteric conception of life in society. “I am a scientist! »replies Charles Peyrouty, environmental engineer and director of the association. “Permaculture is not just about practices. Scientific knowledge supports our action”.
→ REPORT. “Thanks to the garden”, the Gospel rooted in the earth
The term “permaculture” was coined by the Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, in their book Permaculture 1published in 1978. “These two agronomists started from an observation: the fields cultivated with conventional agricultural methods required more and more chemicals, machines, technologies for less and less satisfactory results while, despite the climate , fires and pests, the “bush” that covers much of Australia still managed to regenerate”, explains Charles Peyrouty.
→ PORTRAIT. Philippe Sahagian, precursor of permaculture in Guadeloupe
What made these natural ecosystems so resilient? Based on this question, Holmgren formulated 12 basic principles: be inventive; capturing and storing energy; use slow and small-scale solutions; produce no waste, etc. “These principles support the permaculture approach, which is the art of organizing common sense”, continues Charles Peyrouty. With one objective: “to produce while taking care of humanity, of the planet, to create abundance in order to share it. » A “systemic approach” which will be presented to visitors to the Cure farm on June 3, during the Rendez-vous aux jardins.