Permaculture

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is at the root of the Transition movement and aims to enable us to find ways to live in a world with less energy and resources.  It is an approach to designing sustainable environments with the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems, while meeting the needs of the people who use them.  The foundation of permaculture is observation of nature; understanding natural ecosystems and the principles on which they work, and applying these to our own lives.

Ethics

Permaculture has an ethical basis, and these ethics are usually referred to as:

Earth care: This is the fundamental motivation for permaculture. Recognising the interconnectedness of all life, leaving as much land to nature as we can, allowing ecosystems to continue and regenerate.

People care: For a system to be sustainable it has to meet the needs of the people as well as the earth.  As well as enabling access to resources it must be inclusive, build community and value diversity.

Fair Share: Limits to population and consumption, so resources can be shared for earth care and people care. This is about taking personal responsibility.

Principles

Early permaculture was often a direct copying of natural ecosystems, as in a forest garden, but we can also observe the principles underlying natural ecosystems and apply them to our own activities.  For example, the diverse web of beneficial relationships in a natural ecosystem is part of what makes it so stable and resilient, if we can mimic this web in our communities or allotments then they will be more efficient, productive and sustainable.

From observing natural ecosystems, a set of broad design principles have been developed.  There are several versions of these, none are more right than the others: people use those they feel most comfortable with, or mix and match according to the situation. The most commonly used principles are David Holmgrem’s:

• Observe & interact
• Catch & store energy
• Obtain a yield
• Apply self-regulation & accept feedback
• Use & value renewable resources
• Produce no waste
• Design from patterns to details
• Integrate rather than segregate
• Use small & slow solutions
• Use & value diversity
• Use edges & value the marginal
• Creatively use & respond to change

For more explanation of the principles see the Permaculture Association website, link below.

Permaculture in Your Garden

Anyone anywhere can use permaculture, to design anything from a window-sill to a farm or a whole community.  Permaculture is often about working with what is there, making use of the resources you already have and making the minimum change for the maximum effect (more food for less work!)

A permaculture garden might look very similar to any other garden; there is no classic permaculture garden, but it could have some of these things: no-dig beds, perennial vegetables, systems to use rain water and grey water, plants to attract beneficial insects and accumulate minerals from the soil, an area left completely to nature…  No one thing makes a permaculture garden, it is the way the elements are placed to maximise the beneficial relationships between them.

Permaculture places a great deal of emphasis on observation, and this is always the place to start. So observe both the local environment (the vegetation, the wildlife, microclimates, effect of the seasons) and how your garden is working (what vegetables are growing well, are you forgetting to water the containers further from your house?)  Here are some things you might try in your garden:

• Map all the inputs and outputs from your home and garden; can you turn any of the waste products into inputs? e.g. using newspapers for mulch, using bath water to water the garden, using heat from the greenhouse to warm the house.
• Think about how you have things placed in your garden: things which need a lot of attention do best right by your garden path or kitchen door.
• Think about the problems you have and how nature would solve them, or even turn them into solutions; slugs will benefit frogs, nettles make good green manure, ground cover reduces weeds, deep roots relieve compacted soil.
• Think about how elements of your garden could serve more than one purpose; the ducks eat the slugs (but also the frogs!), the shed collects water.
• Research things like no-dig beds, and perennial veg and give them a try.
• Is there an area, even a tiny corner, you could leave completely to nature? Just leaving a rotting log in a corner would benefit many insects.

What Next?

While simple at heart, permaculture is a broad subject with many incarnations. A good place to start to learn more is the Permaculture Association website

There are two-day introductory courses all over the country, these are listed on the website above.  For the really keen there are also intensive two week full design courses, though not many in Scotland.  For a one day permaculture gardening course try LILI (Low Impact Living Initiative) who do courses at Gorgie farm in Edinburgh:

There are also a few online forums where you can go for advice:

Permaculture UK (particularly good for technical advice)

Sottish Permaculture (a relatively new forum, good for networking)