Permaculture’s Principles:

Care of the Earth

Care of People

No waste: return all excess to people and/or to the Earth.

Sustainable systems are systems that provide for their own needs and produce excess, feeding adjoining systems.  The yields of any system is limited only by the imagination of the designer. All wealth comes from the Earth and the Earth’s natural resources and systems. (Economic basis of the permaculture philosophy)

We are totally dependent on the Earth and her natural systems: water systems, clean air systems, plant life, animal life.

If the environment is stressed, we are stressed. The stress we feel and experience is a mirror of our disengagement from experiencing a close relationship to nature in an unaltered form.

“Everything gardens” - Permaculture is not just gardening but a way of life. Gardens are systems of functions made of up elements where multiple elements come together to form systems and multi-systems. Every system that supports your life is your garden. - Your home is a garden. Your job is a garden. Every relationship is a garden. How well are your gardens tended?

“Conservation of Energies” - Apply the least change for the greatest effect. (example: sheet-mulching versus tilling).

Everything is a resource: trash & pollution are unused resources.

Respect Nature’s wisdom => When in doubt, DO NOTHING! - meaning do not alter a landscape until you are sure of what you are doing.

“Stacking functions” - Every element serves multiple functions within the system. Every function is supported by many elements.

Conserving water - use berm/swale systems to slow the flow of water, such as rain water, so that it has time to sink into the ground and nourish the landscape instead of just running off. Create the berms & swales along lines of contour using an A-frame level.

“Increase edge” - Edge is the intersection between two mediums of energy expression. Increasing edge increases interaction, activity and energy. Biodiversity increases at edge.

The edge of a garden is the most dynamic zone because so many elements interact, including plant and gardener.  Keyhole beds allow a maximum of edge and easy access for gardeners to reach their plants.

Utilize Nodes - Nodes are places where multiple pathways intersect.  They are extremely dynamic areas, allowing for high efficiency reach and access.

Methodology of Design:

• Observation

  • “Walking Zazen on the landscape” a meditative walk to truly see. – Bill Mollison

    • Disconnect eyes by using peripheral vision to stop focusing, naming and judging. Resist mind-chatter and analysis.

    • Engage unfiltered perceptions and raw sensation.

    • Peripheral vision empowers intuitive senses

    • What is the pattern that the landscape reveals?

  • Ideally, observe your land for 1 year before starting a garden to track seasonal patterns of wind, rainfall and wildlife, as well as to take note of contour in the land closely.

• Mapping

Analysis of Elements on a land site: (ask these questions first)

• What is already existing on the site?

• What am I intending to add to the site?

• What structures am I working with on the site? Buildings? Fences? Wells?

• What “invisible structures” effect the site? (Invisible structures includes zoning codes, available finances and other regulatory laws and terms effecting development.

Permaculture Site Sector Analysis -

What different sectors exist on your land?

Sectors are where transient energies show up and influence the land: wind, water, full/part sun, temperature/micro-climates, animal migration, people, fire, light.

Example: don’t build roads in the “wind sector”. Instead, consider planting tall trees as a natural “wind-break”.

Rule of thumb: observe land for 1 year, mapping sectors, before building gardens.

Zones - The different zones guides our planting schema, with plants for daily use planted closer to the homestead, hands-off plants can be further away.  What you plant in each zone depends much on the neediness of the plant and also the daily use of its produce.

Zone 1 is the kitchen garden. These are for culinary herbs and grab & go produce that ripens quickly like peppers and tomatoes.

Zone 1 rule of thumb: Small is beautiful! Start off with something you can manage with ease. Container gardens are excellent in Zone 1.

Zone 2 is the homestead produce garden. Plants that need frequent observation, yet require more growing space and/or larger yields are desired than what is manageable in a zone 1 kitchen garden.

Zone 3 is a market garden and/or plants that ripen slowly and require less tending such as such as squash & pumpkins or medicinal herbs.

Zone 4 is for fruit or nut orchards, vineyards and edible or medicinal forest gardens.

Zone 5 is a “leave it alone” zone. This is where we observe nature so we are continuously learning about how Nature wants to show up untended in our land. The philosophy of permaculture is about observing Nature and adapting Nature’s patterns to our needs for food, shelter and medicine.

Permaculture uses patterns for inspiration and design.

A pattern is an expression of relationship between things. Patterns in nature represent natural efficiency in energy and use. When we imitate nature’s patterns, we are also designing for efficiency.

Getting started with permaculture design:

With sheet mulching we can start new garden beds without disturbing the delicate, life-giving soil structure because we build on top of the soil, adding layers. We start by adding a layer of newspaper, cardboard or a biodegradable tarp to kill grasses & weeds on the soil’s surface. Then layer compost, dirt, soil amenities like bone-meal & blood-meal and mulch such as pine straw, hay or shredded wood.  Sheet-mulching is a great technique for compacted soils and lawns to be turned into gardens because it saves the labor of digging down through the layers of dense dirt, which can damage fragile mycelium sacred to healthy soil systems.