Permaculture: the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient.

“Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system.” – Bill Mollison

The term Permaculture was originally coined by David Holmgren a student of Bill Mollison in the 1970’s. The term, originally a combination of the words “permanent agriculture”,  has since been reimagined to mean “permanent culture” in order to encompass more than just agriculture. It becomes apparent in the recent years of Permaculture that this design methodology can apply to a broader spectrum of systems including social structures and business. Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute in Australia often deservingly refers to Permaculture as a design science. We make observations of natural systems and use the conclusions of our observations to assist the natural system in becoming more productive, regenerative, self-sufficient, and useful.

The Twelve Principles of Permaculture

The design of a Permaculture system traditionally takes into account twelve principles set in place by David Holmgren. In many circles, wording has been changed and ideas have been altered. This is not necessarily a bad thing according to Holmgren’s last principle, but for the sake of a solid foundation of what permaculture design is we will stick with the original. 

1. Observe and Interact
2. Catch and Store Energy
3. Obtain a Yield
4. Apply Self-Regulation
5. Use and Value Renewable Resources
6. Produce no Waste
7. Pay Attention to Patterns and Detail
8. Integration over Segregation
9. Implement Small, Slow Solutions
10. Use and Value Diversity
11. Use Edges
12. Creativity and Response to Change

Practicing the principles of permaculture requires ongoing, active design and implementation. Learning from  techniques found on permaculture farms, homesteads and community areas provides a good head start. Catching water with swales and building ponds high up in the landscape allows for the storage of water and distribution through gravity. Placing large masses of earth and stone in a southern exposure captures the suns heat and releases it slowly which enables nearby plants to have a longer growing season. Interplanting different species of those plants diversifies the ecology, therefore discouraging species specific pests. Building structures using natural building techniques from materials sourced on site or nearby saves costs and energy and architecting the structures in a way to maximize efficiency in all aspects.

Permaculture in Practice

Permaculture is a steadily growing practice since its fruition in the 1970’s. Geoff Lawton, a student of Mollison, brought Permaculture to one of the most diminished regions of land in the world, Jordan, and helped spawn the “greening the desert” movement where he created a forest of food in a place that was considered to be completely void of life as a result of overgrazing, poor agricultural practices, lack of water, and salted soil. Check out this video of Geoff Lawton describing how they greened and desalted a piece of land in Jordan

There are several other notable examples of Permaculture in practice. A couple of which include:

Beacon Food Forest

In Seattle Washington a community project is under way called “The Beacon Food Forest.” It is currently the most notable public food park in the continental U.S. that I know of.

Miracle Farm

In Quebec there is an Orchard that converted from a traditional monocrop organic system to Permaculture. They do not spray anything there, including organic products, and have an incredibly high harvest of a variety of fruits with a very very small pest population. As a matter of fact you would have to spend several hours in this orchard in order to spot a fruit worm.

Wheaton Labs

Paul Wheaton is the creator of Permies.com, the largest online community of permaculture students and practitioners. He has an awesome program on his land in Montana where he and students create and experiment with a wide range permaculture ideas, from natural building underground houses to 12 foot high Hugleculture gardens.

So Why Permaculture?