Permaculture

The seven layers of the forest garden

Topic in Gardening courses. By John Eagles.

Permaculture is an ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor. It teaches us how build natural homes, grow our own food, restore diminished landscapes and ecosystems, catch rainwater, build communities and much more.

The word 'permaculture' is composed from the Latin words 'permanens' (persistent) and 'cultura' (household). The concept was developed in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren at the University of Tasmania.

Permaculture was developed to find solutions for the many problems caused by industrial monoculture farming. In Australia, desertification, soil erosion, pollution of groundwater by fertilizer use, overuse of pesticides and crop diseases in monoculture are widespread problems.

Permaculture focuses on natural ecosystems and small-scale food production. Permaculture is to be distinguished from organic farming because it makes more use of perennial plants and less of crop rotation and annual tillage. While organic farming is more commercially oriented, permaculture aims at small-scale subsistence farming. Subsistence farming is a form of farming in which nearly all of the crops or livestock raised are used to maintain the farmer and the farmer’s family, leaving little, if any, surplus for sale or trade.

The 12 permaculture design principles

Permaculturists generally keep a set of 12 design principles. More information about these design principles can be found here.

1. Observe and interact: By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
2. Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.
3. Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
5. Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.
6. Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
7. Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
8. Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
9. Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
10. Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
11. Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
12. Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.

See also

• Gardening courses
• Knowledge base:Gardening

External links

• Permaculture Research Topics
• Permaculture "Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that are modeled on the relationships found in natural ecologies." - Wikipedia
• Permaculture Power Blog

Videos

• Research topics: Permaculture - playlist

Comments

You need to be logged into your Facebook account to post comments