Japanpolyculture.com is a place to share our progress and what we learn.
We are a husband and wife team living in the mountains of southern Nara Prefecture, Japan with our elementary school aged daughter.
We do a lot of things and have many interests, and polyculture seems to be at the heart of it all. Polyculture is a recurring theme in our lives. You could say we are a polycultural family. Amy grew up in Vermont in the US, and Akira grew up in Niigata Prefecture in Japan.
Our extreme polyculture satisfies our novelty seeking drive. Everyday we see something new! a new sprout, a new bug, a new mushroom. Join us in celebrating the biodiversity in our gardens and see something new almost everyday on our instagram. (button at the bottom)
Our philosophy so far
Stay away from synthetic fertilizers and chemical interventions like herbicide or pesticide.
Less till, if we disturb the soil, there is another reason: harvesting tubers, digging out invasives, earthworks.
Keep the ground covered.
If it's not hurting anything leave it be.
If we messed it up, surely we can fix it, maybe even better than it was before.
We want to leave an abundant, regenerating landscape to our daughter and future peoples.