Bill Mollison (“the father of the permaculture movement”) and his student David Holmgren were the first to coin the term “permaculture” from the concept of “permanent agriculture.” The type of agriculture they proposed was unlike its conventional counterpart in that it worked with nature and not against it.
Permaculture comes from two Latin words: permanens, which means enduring, and cultura, which means practices that support human occupations, practices that help us grow. As the years went by, permaculture began to take on a more all-encompassing meaning beyond the scope of agriculture.
Since the word was coined in the 1970s, awareness of and interest in permaculture have resulted in a greener planet, more food abundance, and a sustainable way of living.
Permaculture has been used to reforest the over-grazed and desertified Loess Plateau in China and “Green the Deserts” of Jordan.1 Many permaculture applications have been for large-scale agricultural landscapes, but in recent years, it has been used to grow food on a smaller scale for individuals and families.
Perhaps you’re a gardener looking to use permaculture for your backyard garden or hoping to glean insights from permaculture practitioners to incorporate them into your home cultivation practices. If this is you, you’re the person we had in mind when writing this book.
Meant for You and Me
Permaculture is not some lofty ideal reserved for an elite few who will use it to change a few large patches of land. Permaculture was meant for all of us to use to provide what Mollison called “persistent systems for human existence.”
One such student, Geoff Lawton, redefined permaculture not merely as revolutionary but as evolutionary in that it’s a type of design methodology that builds upon itself and grows the more one observes and understands nature and applies its principles.
Permaculture’s original intention was to be practical, not theoretical. Indeed, my husband, Dave, and I belong to a large group of permaculture design certificate holders, in the tens of thousands at this point, if not hundreds of thousands. If only a few of us put what we have learned into practice, what a waste of education that would be!
Not all PDCs are created equal. However, in general, PDCs give you a unique ecological design perspective through the framework Bill Mollison taught.
What Is Permaculture?
But first, what is permaculture?
Mollison’s official definition in his 1997 book, Introduction to Permaculture, reads,
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.
Sustainability
When Mollison and Holmgren asked, “If most of nature is dominated by perennial plants and trees, why is our agriculture dominated by annual crops?” their intention was not to limit the use of permaculture but to extend it. Every person who took Mollison’s 72-hour Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course was eligible to teach permaculture to others. That was how he intended to cause “peaceful sedition” through decentralized education. He saw this effect accelerated with television and, toward the end of his life, through his students’ online work.
Lawton (the student Mollison chose to carry on his legacy) more explicitly highlights permaculture’s design and holistic features in his definition: “Permaculture is a design system for ecological and sustainable living, integrating plants, animals, people, buildings, and communities.”
There’s nothing wrong with having several definitions as long as the core principles, the ethics, and the applications of permaculture are clear. The features you value about permaculture will inevitably become a part of your own definition.
A video from NetWorks Productions (vimeo. com/140885117#t=877s) relates how the Texas Department of Agriculture once asked Mollison to consult on sustainability. He then asked the officials their definition of sustainability. They couldn’t answer him. Mollison explained that, for him, a sustainable system was any system that, in its lifetime, had an output far exceeding the system’s input.
The Tale ofTwo Houses
Permaculture is not just about gardening. It’s about the relationships that help societies thrive. Its principles (some of which are mentioned below) can be applied to music, business, finance, education, community management, homes, gardens, and many other things.
Permaculture Cycle
From Lawton’s definition, permaculture can be viewed as a circle, a design system for ecological and sustainable living, integrating plants, animals, buildings, people, and communities.
Different from Regenerative Agriculture
Permaculture and regenerative agriculture are often used interchangeably. It’s common to hear both terms when discussing soil fertility, restoration, biodiversity, and no-till methods of growing food. This isn’t surprising, given the fact that both of them have myriad definitions. As researchers concluded in a University of Colorado Boulder study:
Whether and how regenerative agriculture is defined has consequences for how this form of food production is perceived. ... Given the diverse range of ways in which the term “regenerative agriculture” has been defined and described, we suggest that users of the term define it carefully for any given use and context.2
These terms differ in definition. Some regenerative agriculturalists do not think the processes that result in soil fertility are as important as the fact that there is fertility in the end.
Dr. Jake Mowrer, associate professor and extension specialist at the Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, echoed the conclusions of the study above on the Joe Gardener podcast:
The recommended practices for regenerative agriculture boil down to “do no harm,” but many of the instructions are quite vague such as “improve the land,” “revitalize the soil,” and “be dynamic and holistic.” However, other recommendations are clearer: Reduce tillage, use cover crops, practice crop rotation, and apply compost. 3
From these comments, we can conclude that permaculture and regenerative agriculture intersect
along the lines of agricultural methods and processes, but permaculture differs in that it …
1.Is a closed-loop/ cyclical system (as the originators saw it). Regenerative agriculture is not necessarily so.
2.Goes beyond the scope of agriculture and applies to different disciplines.
3.Is an ethics-based design science.
A Cycle or a Spiral
Even though permaculture is often thought of as a closed-loop or cyclical system, it’s much better represented as a spiral system because its aim—by design and observation—is to improve a system with each passing season or year.
You improve your garden process, you produce more yield, you create more compost, and, in turn, you build more soil. Your system gets better and better over time. This is due in part to one of the core principles of permaculture: Being able to observe and act upon that observation.
But before we talk about principles, another thing to note about what makes permaculture different from organic gardening or regenerative agriculture is that it’s based on three ethics. It is, after all, an ethical design science.
Permaculture Ethics
Ethics are universally agreed-upon norms of the right thing to do. In permaculture, these ethics are:
1.Earth Care
2.People Care
3.Fair Share
CarePeople Care Fair Share
Earth Care
Whatever methods we use to pursue a yield, whether that yield is agricultural or not, we should consider the preservation and stewardship of the earth. In
permaculture, if we take water from an aquifer, we need to replenish the water. We can create ponds and more water-catchment systems on our agricultural lands to provide water for growing food. In the end, caring for the earth will, in turn, take care of the second ethic, which is to take care of people.
People Care
We never exploit farm workers. People are never just a means to a product. Because of permaculture, farm workers live richer lives. Human relationships, just like the relationships between elements in a garden, are at the heart of permaculture. This ethic is where the community comes in and plays a huge role in living out the fullness of
permaculture. In essence, not only do we pay farmworkers a fair wage, but we also give them a fair share of what they grow.
Fair Share
The third ethic is the sharing of abundance. In an ideal system, laborers would have first dibs on crops because they would own the farm, and they would distribute the harvest equitably to those in need.
Permaculture Principles
The final aspect that distinguishes permaculture from organic gardening or regenerative agriculture is that it has evolved, and continues to evolve, with certain principles. Permaculturists practice these
Start with Sprouts chapter two
Start with Sprouts
Sprouting Reference Guide the handy
Welcome to the heart of permaculture gardening: Design.
One thing that sets permaculture apart from landscaping is that a permaculture designer (which is what you’ll be after this chapter) focuses on observation. Do not skip this step.
Robert Goodhart, a longtime garden designer, was tasked with designing the gardens of a new university. He shared he would come in the morning for work, the president’s wife would hand him coffee, and he would walk around campus until it was time to go home—spending his entire workday on observation. That was how crucial observation was for him.
“From the time I accepted the position of director of grounds and university landscape adviser at Christopher Newport University, I would start and end my days walking the campus to observe the gardens, plants, and their relationship to the school’s architecture and nature. Leonardo da Vinci has inspired me for nearly as long as I can remember. Almost 2,500 years ago, he wrote, “The eye embraces the beauty of the whole world and is the window of the human body.” This speaks to the importance of the power of observation in both understanding the natural world and inspiring man’s ability to design things of beauty using the palette nature offers us. Everything I do in gardening and landscape design depends upon my ability to observe, and from my observations to analyze and create.”
The goal of this chapter is to introduce you to the “10 Steps Most Organic Gardeners Forget.” And the first of the 10 steps is observation.
Observation
The first year in your soon-to-be permaculture garden should involve a lot of observation. This doesn’t mean you can’t plant right away; it simply means you should expect imperfection in your design during the first year. This isn’t a bad thing. Trust the process. If you follow the steps outlined in the coming days, you’ll be reaping the fruits of your labor for years to come!
While learning these 10 steps, we’ll ask you to observe your property for 10 minutes a day for 10 days. On the last day, we’ll see what we can design in 10 minutes.
Stay Committed
Take a pen, paper, and camera and walk around your house daily for 10 minutes. This isn’t as simple as it sounds. Permaculture author and teacher Amy Stross says 15 minutes is all it takes to grow your food. And seven of those 15 minutes should be spent
observing. We will start with 10 minutes for 10 days, and then you can go down to seven minutes of observation each day for the rest of your life. How about that? By doing this, we are making observation a habit. You’ll soon find you can’t live without conducting a tour of your property. At least, that’s my hope.
Take Notes
Write down what you see during and after your 10-minute walk. I encourage you to journal daily. Don’t write a lot; just a few brief notes will suffice. Feel free to take your notes outside of the prompts listed under Day 4. The more aware you are of where you are, the more informed your design decisions will be.
Choose Optimal Times
For instance, if you’re in the height of summer, observe your garden early in the day when temperatures are milder. If it’s the middle of winter, go out at noon. Don’t be afraid of the elements; dress warmly or use an umbrella. Some of the best observations are made when it’s raining because that’s the best time to see where the water flows through your property.
Involve the Family
You won’t be growing a garden in isolation. Observing and walking around in nature are experiences worth sharing with the rest of your family. Children of all ages naturally want to be outdoors if their parents and grandparents are with them. There’s a lot to experience outdoors: kick a ball, observe the clouds, pray or meditate. Breathe deeply during your observation time to enhance sensory awareness, and you’ll find the time becomes a naturally soothing experience.
Use a Timer
Honor your time in the garden. Keeping to just 10 minutes consistently will allow you to transition back indoors without resentment for having “wasted” time, especially if this experience is new to you. On the other hand, if you love the outdoors, you’ll soon find yourself spending more than 10 minutes. Resist that urge, or plan an hour of outdoor time each day without neglecting your other responsibilities. I suggest sticking to a plan so it fits with the rest of your life.
What We Are Observing & Why
In the next 10 days, we’ll explore various aspects of your home, such as patterns, a permaculture concept called “zones of use,” climate, topography, water and wind, existing vegetation, weeds, wildlife, access, and aesthetics. These steps are based on Australian inventor Percival Alfred (P.A.) Yeomans’ “Scales of Permanence.”
