The Fukuoka Farming website

*The Fukuoka Farming Website* *The Synergistic Agriculture of Emilia Hazelip*
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Where Fukuoka focused most of his attention on orchards and the rice/barley crop rotation, Emilia Hazelip focused on creating and maintaining market gardens of vegetables and herbs. Born in Spain, Emilia immigrated to California and began gardening seriously in the late '60s. Much of her early work drew on Ruth Stout's deep mulch method.

"Following the reading of Ruth Stout's books Gardening Without Work and How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back, I began covering beds with a variety of materials. Since then I have made raised beds in all my gardens, although the difference in volume came only from the soil taken off the path and put on the bed... no double-digging at all. The foundation of my research is the work of Masanobu Fukuoka, whose book The One Straw Revolution changed my life in 1977 when it was published in English. In Fukuoka's natural agriculture no machines are used, nor greenhouses, nor all those things we normally have to do when working in a difficult climate. To me what seemed most important was to be able to obtain crops without 'exploiting' the soil, even if a compromise is made regarding machines."

Emilia drew on many sources as she continued to develop gardens. The work of permaculturist Marc Bonfils with self-fertile cereal production, and the microbiological research of Alan Smith and Elaine Ingham are frequently mentioned. Emilia read widely, applied what she read in her gardens, and through patient observation and experiment was able to develop a deep understanding of how to produce abundant food in difficult climates while maintaining the "wild" nature of the soil and the many creatures that live there.

Perhaps more than anyone else, Emilia was able to master and communicate the techniques needed to apply Fukuoka's method in raising vegetables and herbs in temperate and Mediterranean climates. This section is dedicated to preserving, and perhaps building upon, that knowledge.

We have only just begun to assemble and post her published work here. We will continue to do so as quickly as possible, and will include excerpts and summaries of the information she shared through private and public emails. We are also hoping to post oral histories of people who knew and studied with her.

The best place to start learning about what Emilia learned and taught is to begin with her "mantra", a short document explaining the biological processes at work in growing plants.

"The Fundamental Reality that Underlies Fukuoka's Principles"

After that you can read through the growing collection of her published works beginning with:

"The Synergistic Garden"
Written mostly by Emilia and originally published Permaculture Magazine.
"De Synergetische Tuin"

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