Permaculture

Permaculture is the intelligent design of human centered systems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is a system of design which aims to achieve small scale, localized economies, which is the essence of sustainability. Sustainable, as defined by the World Commission on Environmental Development, means "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Permaculture is simply the art and science of understanding the flows and patterns in nature, to sustain the world we have created today.

"All living systems are organized around energy flows. Permaculture teaches people to analyze existing energy flows (sun, rain, money, human energy) through such a system (garden, household, business). It then gives guidance on how to position and interconnect all the elements in the system in beneficial relationship to one another and to the energy flows. When correctly designed, such a system will, like a natural ecosystem, become increasingly diverse and self-sustainable." (Katherine Wasser, 1994)

I've found that the easiest way for people to understand Permaculture is to give examples of how it has been applied... here are number of examples that you might be able to use in your own backyard:

Use chicken tractors (mobile chicken pens) to convert a weedy area into a garden. The chickens will clear the area of weeds and pests, loosen the topsoil by scratching, fertilize the soil with manure, and provide you with fresh eggs at the end of the day!

Feed your kitchen scraps to worms. Having a worm bin will convert your food 'waste' into an incredibly valuable resource... worm castings. Also known as Black Gold, worm castings make an ideal fertilizer for your garden and a wonderful addition to compost tea. With a little creativity, your worm bin can double as a bench, or even a coffeetable!

Establish a food forest. Food forests mimic the structure of a natural forest by utilizing vertical space, or layers, which enables the designer to grow more food in a given area. In the beginning, most of the plant species in a food forest will be support species, selected to shelter and fertilize the productive species. Over the period of a few years, the productive fruit and nut trees will emerge and outgrow their nurturing neighbors. This is the same pattern of succession found in a natural system, but can be sped up if the support species are selected and managed appropriately.

Put rainwater to productive use by slowing it, spreading it, and sinking it. Installing a swale (an uncompacted ditch on contour) on the highest reasonable contour on your property will allow winter rains to hydrate the hillside, rather than running off with your precious topsoil. The best place for a food forest is on the berm of a swale, because you can stop irrigating after the first year!

Increase the health and productivity of your plants with companions. The most common example of companion planting is the 3 sisters: Corn, Beans, and Squash. The corn gives the beans something to climb on, the beans add nitrogen to the soil and fertilize the corn and squah, and the squash acts as a living mulch to protect the soil. Every plant has certain plants that help it (companions) and plants that hurt it. Companions can help each other in a lot of different ways... bulbs can suppress grass around fruit trees, flowering plants attract beneficial insects and birds, mulch plants drop their leaves and continuously add organic matter to the soil, nutrient accumulators pull certain minerals up from deep soil and make them accessible to shallow-rooted plants, nitrogen fixing plants have a relationship with bacteria in the soil that convert atmospheric nitrogen into plant usable form, roots of certain plants exude substances that repel pests, etc. The only limit to companion planting is your own creativity... experiment!