Formidable Vegetable - Permaculture A Rhymer's Manual

Permaculture A Rhymer's Manual- Lyrics

Look Around

(Chords: D G D G D G D)

Everything you need

Is right in front of you

When you learn to see

Good things come to you

All you have to do is stop

And take a look around

Before you intervene

Don’t do anything

Come to all your senses

They’ll tell you everything

First you have to learn to stop

And take a look around

(Chorus chords: Em A :|| D G D)

Take a look around

Listen to the sound

Why not take a whiff?

You’ll see much better if

You use more than just your eyes

Take a step outside

If you wanna know

What your soil is like

And what is gonna grow

All you have to do is stop

And take a look around

Take a look around

Get your hands into the ground

Don’t be scared of the dirt

It isn’t gonna hurt

And if you’re braver, try the flavour

Take a handful of that land

And go on, squeeze it in your hand

Then check out the display

If it stays together, it’s clay

But if it falls apart, it’s sand

Woah yeah, take a look, take a look, take a look

Read the landscape like a book

Interact, low impact, get your feedback

When you take a look around

Abundance will abound

The problem is the solution

Just depends on your perception

Try to change yourself before the world

Yeah, take a look around

On the inside and the out

Cos when you observe yourself

You see everything else

Make good use of it now

Energy

(Chords: Em C D Em)

There’s one thing everyone needs

And I am sure that you will all agree that

In the end it comes down to energy

If you’ve got some, put some effort in now

Cos whatever it is won’t be hanging around

Gotta put it in a bottle and store it any way you can

(Chorus chords: Em F#m)

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can with care

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can while it’s there

If the sun is shining down its rays

Then get outside and make some hay

Because you might just only have today to do it

And when there’s more, don’t keep it all yourself

Give some to a friend with room on their shelf

Cos the best way to generate energy is to keep it moving

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can with care

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can while it’s there

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can for later on

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can before it’s gone

(Bridge chords: Em D C B)

Well now I’m young but it won’t be long

Before I grow old and this energy will be gone

So I’d better find a way to pass it on

When you’re coming inside at the end of the season

Preserve all your surplus and save all your seeds

And reserve as much as you can for later on

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can with care

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can while it’s there

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can for later on

Catch and store energy every day

Any way that you can before it’s gone

Yield

(Chords Intro: Cm6 Bb6 G7 :|| x3 Ebm6 Dm6

Verse: Cm6 Bb6 G7 Cm6)

If you work all day from nine to five

And come home feeling half alive

And never see your kids and wife

Then I’ve got news for you

There’s no point doing what you do

Unless it’s somehow good for you

You’ve got to get a result or two

in the form of something real

Now if you’re feeling stressed and not the best

And have trouble finding happiness

Well here’s one thing I will suggest

Obtain yourself a yield

(Chorus chords: Cm6 Cdim Fm Bb6 G7 Cm6)

Obtain yourself a yield

Sustain your energy

Don’t drain yourself

Maintain yourself

Obtain yourself a yield

Now, money’s not the only yield,

You could be making a bigger deal

About what you eat for your next meal

You can’t run on an empty tank

Ignore the stash of cash in your pocket

Just make a salad with homegrown rocket

You just have to go out back and pluck it

No need to go to the bank

You gotta work your days for stuff that pays

In not just money, but in many ways

It’s time you cleared away the haze

And obtained yourself a yield

Obtain yourself a yield

Of something you can eat

You can produce

Some things of use

With your own two hands and feet

Obtain yourself a yield

Right in the here and now

Make sure to earn

Something in return

Here, let me show you how

(Bridge chords: Fm Cm6 G7 Cm6 :|| x6 Ebm6 Dm6)

Now if you’re feeling sleepy

Then go and have a sleep

And if you feel like there’s not enough air

Then breathe in very deep

If you’re thirsty then you oughta

Get yourself a drink of water

And if it’s gonna be cold

And your feeling bold

You could shear yourself a sheep

In any given moment

There’s everything you need

Just look around, it will be found

Then obtain yourself a yield

Obtain yourself a yield

Take only what you need

Life’s pretty fun when you’re getting’ some

But there’s no need for greed

Obtain yourself a yield

And one for others too

Make sure to seal both ends of the deal

Of what’s good for both of you

Yeah, an easy way to do it

Is to give one to your friends

Because the good things you do come back to you

And the yield just never ends

That’s right the good things you do come back to you

And the yield just never ends

The good things you do come back to you

And the yield just never, ever, ever ends

Limits

(Chords: Am7 Am6 F7 E7 :|| x4 F7 E7 Am)

Hi, I’m your planet,

You might know me from such places

As the one you inhabit

I’m the air you breathe

And the land on which standing

The food that you eat

But I’m getting a little bit dark on

Some of the ways you treat me

See I give you

Everything you need

Yet still you want more

You’re falling over yourselves with greed

It is time I remind you

To exercise restraint

Because if there’s one thing you should know it’s infinite, I aint

(Pre-chorus chords: D7 C#7 C7 A7)

You better L.I.M.I.T

What you take from me

Just get to know the deal

With my L.I.M.I.T

You’ve been having a field day on my skin

Cutting it up, burrowing in

But I’m reaching for my skin lotion

To take away the pain

Better start to regulate your lifestyle of excess

Cos I’m picking up my telephone and dialling up the pest control guy

Get your L.I.M.I.T on

Im gonna count to three

Cos I’ve had it up to here

So get your L.I.M.I.T on

Cos I’ve got limits and I’m not afraid to use them

With your bad habits, you do nothing but abuse them

Yeah, I’ve got limits and I’m not afraid to use them

If you keep going, well all your privileges you’ll lose them

Mmm, mm, mm mm, mm, mmm mm

Now, it’s time to check yourself and stop pointing fingers out

Because self-responsibility is what it’s all about

Stop relying on the top, cos it starts here on the ground

Just get back to your gardens people, stop foolin’ around

(Bridge chords: D7 Cdim C A7)

Yeah, get back, get back

I said get back, get back

Just get back, get back

To your garden

I said, get back, get back

C’mon now get back, get back

Just get back, get back

To your garden

Cos I’ve got limits

And I’m not afraid to use them

Harsh consequences

Well I’m about to introduce them

I’ve got limits

And I’m just about to use them

Are you gonna listen now

The future’s yours for the choosing

Yeah, it is yours for the choosing

Mmm, mm, mm mm, mm, mmm mm

Oil

(Chords Intro: Cdim G D7 G

Verse: G D7 G G7 C C7 G D7 G)

We’re running out of oil

It’s going to be hard to live

If we don’t find some alternatives to oil

Because pretty much everything we do uses oil

Let me list some of the things made with oil

There’s computers, light bulbs, toothpaste

Cat food, dog food, our food

Microwaves, umbrellas, blankets, glasses, crayons

Fridges, pharmaceuticals, houses

Trucks and boats and planes and clothes

And roads and phones and shops and farms

And your auntie’s underpants

If we don’t find a solution we won’t have them anymore

Because pretty soon will be no more oil

We don’t need cars, well we didn’t in my day

Maybe now we do

But we could also walk, use bicycles and ride horses

Instead of oil and coal and uranium

Use clean, renewable resources

Like the sun

It has heaps of energy

Beaming down for free

Feeding plants and trees

Make use of these kind of natural forces

And use clean, renewable resources

(Bridge chords: Gm D7 G…)

Why mine gas? Seems silly to me

When you can make your own

From the comfort of your throne with a methane digester

The future of energy is in predominantly biological processes

So be a clean, renewable investor

Use and value clean, renewable, clean, renewable

Clean, renewable services and resources

Once again

Clean, renewable, clean, renewable

Clean, renewable services and resources

It’s time to do away with fossil fuels and just get back to the soil (Cm)

Cos let’s face it, it’s the end of oil

Yes, let’s face it, it’s the end of oil

We might as well face it

It’s the end of oil

(Outro chords: G C G Gm Cm D7 Cdim G D G D G D G)

No Such Thing As Waste

(Chords Intro: Gm D7 D7 Gm D7 Dm

Verse: Gm D7 :||)

When I was a little boy, I liked to catch the rain

While people all around my town watched it flow right down the drain

But cos our little shed in the bush wasn’t on the mains

The only water we had to use was in a tank caught from the rain

(Chorus chords: Gm D7 Cm D7 Gm D7 Gm)

Cos there’s no such thing as waste

Only stuff in the wrong place

No, there’s no such thing as waste

Misusing water’s a disgrace

Moved to the city, rented a house, on my way to buy a bed

Saw one lying on the side of the road so I took that one instead

And I also found a fridge, a couch and a big old plasma screen

In the biggest pile of thrown out stuff that I had ever seen

But there’s no such thing as waste

Only stuff in the wrong place

Yeah, there’s no such thing as waste

That old landfill is a disgrace

Down the track, I found out that diesel cars can run on veggie fat

Bought a truck and hit the road, smelling like fish & chips

I rescued piles of wasted oil from the back of restaurants

I’d be a fool if I bought my fuel when there’s oil nobody wants

Cos there’s no such thing as waste, woah no

Only stuff in the wrong place

I said there’s no such thing as waste

That old idea’s got to be replaced

(Bridge chords: Cm Gm Cm D7)

Now we gotta refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle

Refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle

Now I get my things out of garbage bins and I compost every crumb

I save my seeds and eat my weeds and feed the leftovers to ya mum

Gonna build a house from the rubbish tip, gonna keep this planet clean

Reuse ideas that have been round for years to live within its means

Cos there’s no such thing as waste, woah no

Only stuff in the wrong place, scooba doo beeooden dip

I said there’s no such thing as waste, yay

Only opportunity to be embraced

Patterns

(Chords Intro: C D7 G7 :|| x2 C C7 F Fm Em Am D7 G7

Verse: C D7 G7 :||)

I wake up every morning

Every night I go to bed

Like everybody, I was born and

Like everybody, someday I’ll be dead

Like the sun arising

And the sun going down

It’s all working to a pattern

That keeps the whole thing going round

(Chorus chords: C Am F G7)

Around, around ,around

It’s just the way it happens

Around, around ,around

Always in patterns

Gotta see the bigger picture

Before looking at the small

If you can’t see the forest for the trees

Then you’re not really seeing at all

Before you do anything

Gotta know how it’s done

Work from a pattern to the details

You’ll be halfway there before you’ve even begun

Around, around, around

They’ll tell you what you need to know

From what the weather’s doing, if there’s rain a-brewing

To how to make your garden grow

We can rely on patterns

And you can learn them faster

Train your brain to retain them

Become a pattern master

Like a tessellated tamarillo

Or a spiral full of herbs

Or Fibonacci geometry in broccoli

Or all of these rhyming words

It really blows my mind

The way it’s all designed

Woah no, I’m not religious, but it’s prodigious

All these patterns in this world of mine

They go around, around ,around

In a dynamic relationship

With the answers at your fingertip

Life’s just one big mobius trip

Woah, if you can disprove patterns

Well I’ll eat my hat and

Make my habitat into

A room full of padding

In downtown Ballarat

And just talk in scat

Scoobeedoobeedoobedoobee

Like that

Get Together

(Chords: Am G F)

I see you there, on your own

And I don’t know what you’re doing all alone

There’s not enough time in this life

To be wrapped up in your own thing, just doing your own thing

Yeah, wrapped up in your own thing, thinking bout your own thing

I‘ve got an idea of things to do

But they’d be ten times better if I did them with you

Come over here, we’ll make it happen

With some inspirational collaboration

(Chorus chords: G F)

Let’s get together

All my people in the neighbourhood

Well we’ve lived here so long, what’s going on?

Don’t even know your names, or what you do

But with a little bit of effort, we could make community

Yeah, with a little bit of effort, we could make community

Let’s get together

(Bridge chords: Em Dm Em Dm Em Dm Em Dm E7 Am)

Woah, one and one

Has more than two functions

We need to make the connection

Shed the illusion of separation

Everyone living on this land

We could make light work if we give each other a hand

Don’t matter where you’re from or who you are

Yeah, we need some integration, no more segregation

Let’s get together

Let’s get it together

Let’s get together

Small & Slow

(Chords: A7 D7)

In the future

When there’s no more fossil energy

How we gonna feed the masses

And have enough for you and me?

Life today seems pretty good

Like we came out on top

But I wonder how we’re gonna get down

Just gotta be careful we don’t drop

(Chorus chords: A7 D7 :|| x3 E7 D7 A7)

Take it slow

Make it small and slow

To avoid the confusion

Use small and slow solutions

Yeah

Mmm

In your front yard

You can grow most of your food

In a space the size of your driveway

Doesn’t have to be huge

Plant a seed, watch it grow

It’ll feed ya, just let it go

Don’t want the pain of too much to maintain

So stay inside the right size

And take it slow

Make it small and slow

Who needs the green revolution

When you’ve got small and slow solutions

Yeah

Mmm

When we quit our oil addiction

How we gonna get around

Well I think there’s a small and slow solution, people

In this technology I’ve found

It’s called your feet

And they’re pretty good for getting from A to B

It takes a bit longer

But your legs come out stronger

And there’s lots of nice things to see

When you take it slow

Make it small and slow

Don’t create no pollution

With small and slow solutions

Yeah

Mmm

(Bridge chords: E7 D7 :||)

Bigger isn’t always better

Faster don’t make you stronger

If we keep going the way we’re going

Oh, we won’t be around for much longer

So instead of running towards a brick wall

Why not walk instead and save your head

The bigger it is the harder it falls

So keep it small, keep it small and

Take it slow

Cos the dream of unlimited growth

Is just a popular delusion

So use small and slow solutions

Yeah

Mmm

Many Many

(Chords Intro: Dm Em Dm C G :||

Verse: Dm Em)

If you mix every colour under the sun

In time you’ll find that you just have one.

Better give them all a chance to shine

Cos otherwise you end up with the same thing

It’s a delicate balancing act

And that applies to you and me

Cos the only way we stay intact

Is with a big fat dose of diversity

Our bodies are a billion organisms made into one

There’s no telling where the last one ended

Or where the next tiny little bacterium begun

You see, diversity is your friend and

If your food only had one flavour

If everything that you said was right

It really wouldn’t work to your favour

Variety is the spice of life

(Chorus chords: Dm Em :|| x3 Dm G C :||)

Cos there’s many, many, many, many different kinds

Many, many, many, many different places

Many, many, many, many different times

Many, many, many, many different faces

Many, many, different varieties

Many, many, people in society

There’s many different opinions on the way to do things

Many, many, many, many songs to sing

So if you like everything to look the same

Just open up and try to get past it

Cos it really does make you stronger

When you don’t put all your eggs in one basket

The more functioning connections the better

You never know what it will become

Mix it up but keep it together

Make your differences work as one

Cos there’s many, many, many, many different kinds

Many, many, many, many different places

Many, many, many, many different times

Many, many, many, many different faces

Many, many, different varieties

Many, many, people in society

There’s many different opinions on the way to do things

Many, many, many, many songs to sing

Mix it up, mix it up, mix it up

Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back

Cos there’s many, many different kinds

Many, many, many, many different places

Many, many, many, many different times

Many, many, many, many different faces

Many, many, different varieties

Many, many, people in society

There’s many different opinions on the way to do things

Many, many, many, many songs to sing

The Edge

(Chords Intro: Em Am7 B7 Em :|| x4

Verse/Chorus: Em Am7 B7 Am7 Em B7 Em)

Some people tell me that I’m crazy

Cos I do things that don’t fit in

With the rest of society

Like my love of small spaces

My room ‘aint too large

I just live in a box

Underneath the house

Off the corner of my garage

But the edge is where it’s at

And it’s easy to create

And my mama always said

If you’re not living on the edge

Then you’re taking up too much space

Been looking to settle down

Find some place nice

Where I can get my hand

On some marginal land

And turn it into paradise

The smaller the better

And I don’t care if it’s bad

I guess I’m the kind of fella

Who’ll always be a fringe dweller

Just do the best I can with what I have

Because the edge is where it’s at

And it’s the most productive place

And my mama always said

If you’re not living on the edge

Then you’re taking up too much space

I might wind up in the desert

With whipping wind and sun

Well, I’ll just plant a hedge and I’ll start my edge

And I’ll have sorted two things with one

Oh, but if the rain is a-falling

And washing everything away

I’ll just slow down that water with a convoluted border

And everything gonna be ok

Because the edge is where it’s at

I’m gonna work that interface

Cos my mama always said

If you’re not living on the edge

Then you’re taking up too much space

Yes she did

Make a pledge to acknowledge the edge

Grow some veg and stack it on a ledge

Wherever things come together

You’ll find it getting better

You’ll fall so in love with the edge

You’ll wanna write it a love letter

Just broaden your range at the place of exchange

You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain

Woah, there’s every single colour sitting between white and black

A well-beaten path ain’t always the right track

Because the edge is where it’s at

And we’re on the edge right now

Yeah we’re gonna see some change

See some things get rearranged

Moving on cos there’s no going back

I said the edge is where it’s at

And there’s no more time to waste

Cos my mama always said

If you’re not living on the edge

Then you’re taking up too much space

Yeah my mama always said

If you’re not living on the edge

Then you’re taking up too much space

Change

(Chords: Dm Gm)

One thing’s for certain

And that’s that nothing’s for certain

You never know what’s around the bend

In whatever you’re dealing

Just accept what you’re feeling

There’s no point in believing

It will never end

Cos it’s changing

Constantly changing

In every situation

The only thing that remains the same

Is change

Like a change in the season

Change is there for a reason

Can’t stop ourselves from moving around the sun

There’s no point in complaining

If it’s stormy and raining

Just go and get an umbrella

And play in the rain with someone

Cos it’s changing

Every moment changing

Sometimes there’s nothing you can do

And no matter who you are

You’ve just got to be cool with change

Change is there make the most of it

Might as well use it for your benefit

If your food’s bad, you’d better compost it

When there’s no planes, build a pirate ship

And sail the seas

You can do as you please

Oh, but only if you know you’ve got to improvise your way

Through change

Even if you keep very still

Be guaranteed that nothing else will, no

Don’t sit around wondering what to do

If you don’t make change, it’ll happen to you

We’ve got small change and big change and loose change

Slow change and fast change and a wind change

We’ve got sea change and tree change and climate change

You change and me change and a key change

(Chord: Am)

Change is all the rage, turn the page away from

This strange age of the deranged

Time to engage with rearranging our brains

From insane to sane

Step out of your cage worrying about your wage

Or the Asian stock exchange

Just drain your main vain of the pain

Take to the stage and become an agent of change