Permaculture — Working Within the Web of Nature By Wendy Crist “The Web of Life” is a common metaphor used to describe the workings of the natural world, where every player or part, and their actions are interconnected and directly effect the entire web. So, we can think about a spider’s web and how every movement – a breeze or the spider’s dance – affects every part of the web and the web as a whole. This consideration puts us in our place as but one of a multitude of elements within the whole living system of Nature, not the sovereign creators of the system. In the words of Chief Seattle: “Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.” Permaculture’s focus is to remind us humans of our place within the whole and proposes we begin mimicking Nature by observing Her seamless and simple, yet elegant, examples.
What is Permaculture? The word permaculture is said to be a morpheme of permanent agriculture or permanent culture. From my Permaculture training at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) comes this definition: “Permaculture is a whole design science that is reflective of natural patterns and promotes mutually beneficial relationships. Rooted in ethics, the concepts and themes in Permaculture help us rediscover how to be a positive contribution to the Earth, ourselves and humanity.” Penny Livingston-Stark of the Regenerative Design Institute in Bolinas, concisely defines it as “…a design science based in the observation of Nature.”
How did I come to Premaculture? In the dead of winter, on a snowy weekend in February 2008, I had a Permaculture peak experience, long before I knew what Permaculture was. I was reading an article by Harvey Ussery in Mother Earth News: Plant an Edible Forest Garden, August/September 2007 issue. In this article Harvey never uttered the term Permaculture, but amongst other topics, he talked about a technique for converting a lawn or overgrown area into an arable garden plot. A “killing mulch” (sheet mulch in permaculture lingo) uses cardboard with layered mulch, leaves, compost and/or manure over it to a depth of at least six inches. This technique does away with back breaking digging while keeping the soil community intact. As the layers compost, usually over a winter, rain and air continue to reach the soil, weeds are mitigated and the soil improved. When spring comes crops can be planted right through the sheet mulch. This discussion of a “killing mulch” elicited a profound “aha moment” for me. My husband, and I, with our dog Cleo, live on a 1.5 acre piece of land that used to be part of, and is surrounded by, a 25-acre parcel of land. At the turn of the 20th century this land became the home of the Dunsmuir Hospital, run for Southern Pacific Railroad by Dr. Cornish. The land was terraced, rock walls and stairways built, wagon roads cut into the hillside, and a lumber mill and cow barn constructed on the hill above where the hospital would be. The hospital grew all the food for patients and staff on the land, including honey, milk, eggs and meat. Timber from the property was milled and used to construct the hospital and outbuildings. The hospital was torn down in 1954, leaving only the living quarters of Dr. Cornish and his family. In 1963, in a very unconventional move, Dr. Cornish swapped his Dunsmuir home for Bob and Ginny Von Hein’s Redwood City suburban home. Bob and Ginny moved to the Dunsmuir land in 1963 with their two youngest daughters and began to sculpt a lifestyle similar to that of Scott and Helen Nearing, authors of The Good Life, (published in the 50’s); they grew most of their own food and made do with what was already on the land – an 80-tree apple orchard consisting of 28 different varieties, along with chestnuts, figs,
persimmons, plums and prunes, cherries and grapes. The land is on a west-southwest facing hillside with an approximate 6 percent slope, a year-round spring, 3000-gallon holding tank and piping that delivers, to this day, irrigation water to the lower five acres where most of the veggies have been grown over the years. When Michael and I bought our place, Bob and Ginny were in their late 70’s and beginning to fall behind in upkeep of the land. A large terraced field, on their property, just adjacent to our house, beckoned me from day one. It had been overgrown with wild sweet peas, blackberries and grasses for decades, but all I could see through dreamy eyes was the possibility of a burgeoning veggie farm. After getting Bob’s permission to use the land, I spent the next several years trying to think of a way to convert the field into arable cropland without breaking my back. When I read about the “killing mulch” the solution was presented like a gift from on High. It wasn’t until I shared this with my friend Beki Filipello, better versed in Permaculture, that the panorama opened before me. Beki and I went to Permaculture camp at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) later that year to get our Permaculture Design Certificates, a life altering experience for me!
Why Permaculture? For me the systemic problems of persistent pollution (air, water and soil), climate change, insupportable infrastructure (political and economic), the failure of agribusiness in particular and the corporate world in general, along with our eroding culture were weighty and overwhelming. At OAEC I encountered folks who were not only aware of and talking about these issues, but also working for real change. They had built an intentional community centered around living sustainably on the land and they were involved in changing policy at the state and national levels on such issues as GMO’s (genetically modified organisms), water conservation, democracy, etc. WOW! Permaculture is one voice amongst a growing multitude of voices making up what is fast becoming an ever-expanding groundswell of changing consciousness. This movement is organic in its very essence, springing from a growing desire to act on the longings of our hearts to find balance, harmony and wholeness. It’s been called “an ethical design system for ecological living; a global grass-roots movement to build a sustainable world culture; an ecological science: the study of Nature and natural systems; a lifestyle integrating ecologically sustainable qualities into our lives and communities; and a solution-oriented environmental movement.” The three main ethics of Permaculture (PC) are Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share. I would add to these, respecting the intrinsic value of all living Beings. Care of the Earth and care of humans are pretty clear. Fair Share speaks to returning or giving away surplus energy: food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fellowship, information and fun. Within these ethics, some of the specific aims of Permaculture practitioner’s are to reforest the earth, conserve fresh water/ restore groundwater, reclaim soil, grow food where the people are, create regenerative culture: healing, justice and education for self-reliance and create long-term sustainability. From the perspective of a small market farmer, I feel Permaculture’s aim is to give the designer tools for orchestrating all the parts (elements) of the land into a mutually supportive, energy efficient, resource regenerative, and labor saving symphony in which, over time, “the designer [can] become(s) the recliner” more of the time. This principle, “the designer becomes the recliner,” is one coined by my teacher, Brock Dolman. This is the essence of what PC offered that was so appealing to me; I just didn’t believe it all had to be such hard work.
Where do we start? This brings us to a discussion of the strands of the web or, in Permaculture jargon, the elements (players and parts) within the web, Continued on page 19
Healing Yourself Heals The Planet
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