Permaculture-A Sustainable Way of Living
In 1995, my television died, and I turned all my viewing time to reading books. And not just any books. I wanted to go back to growing food in my condo garden. After all, if I was going to care for and water a plant, I wanted more than greenery; I wanted food and/or medicine. As a teenager, we had a large garden on a large plot of land. So, I studied many books. One that appealed to me was Carrying Water as a Way of Life: A Homesteader's History by Linda Tatelbaum. While she and her husband had a large plot of land, it introduced permaculture to me. I was hooked as it was scalable and has changed my life in many ways. Most notably, if your garden has a problem, compost tea can heal it! What is permaculture, you may ask. Here is a little introduction for you.
It is a design system developed by Bill Mollison and his student, David Holmgren, in the 1970s to outline a land management and settlement design. Bill was a one-time forester, school teacher, trapper, and field naturalist. While working in a Tasmanian rainforest, he started to look at how nature took care of itself and surmised that if agriculture used the same methods, sustainable communities could be developed to be self-contained and grow an abundance of food to feed the world over. Together, they wrote the book Permaculture One, which started a movement away from traditional agriculture to permanent agriculture, also known as permaculture.
Bill based his new system on Three Ethics:
• Caring for the Earth
• Caring for People
• Reinvesting the surplus that this specific care will create
In his book Essence of Permaculture, Dave further developed it to the 12 Principles of Permaculture:
1. Observe and interact
2. Catch and store energy
3. Obtain a yield
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback
5. Use and value renewable resources and services
6. Produce no waste
7. Design from patterns to details
8. Integrate rather than segregate
9. Use small and slow solutions
10. Use and value diversity
11. Use edges and value the marginal
12. Creatively use and respond to change
In permaculture, much time is spent on the design portion of any new project. It can take up to a full year to see how the earth, the water, the sun, and the air work together before any changes are made. There is a significant focus on how much water comes onto the land naturally and how it can be utilized in dry times. Also, a concerted effort is made to repurpose any waste from the system within the system itself. The goal is to keep anything from leaving the land and going into a landfill.
Permaculture, at its core, is about producing food in well-designed gardens and food forests that rely on compost, compost tea, and mulch instead of commercial fertilizers. If the soil requires additional amendments, permaculturists turn to sustainable compounds such as alfalfa pellets, bone meal, blood meal, lime, kelp meal, rock dust, rock phosphates, and wool pellets that naturally break down into fertilizers. This approach steers away from using peat moss, Perlite, and other ‘organic’ materials that are not sustainable. After the harvest, a portion is preserved for future use and seed harvesting, all part of a closed system of self-sustainability.
Another takeaway from permaculture is its scalability. It can be done on vast landscapes such as the Sahara Desert, the Dead Sea region in Jordan, and the Loess Plateau in China, or it can be done for a food-producing rose bush in a small patio area. The principles can be applied at any level and in any part of the world to uphold ethics. When used in cities and towns, locally grown foods that do not require extra fuel to transport them over long distances are produced. If each home in a neighborhood had different fruit tree guilds, they could feed each other, help end hunger, and maybe form lasting bonds in a gentler, happier world.
If you’d like more info on growing your permaculture garden, contact Mary “Klibs” Dralle.
Until next time, keep those hands soiled.
Mary "Klibs" Dralle is a Certified Permaculture Designer and the head chef at The Dancing Raven Ranch & Retreat Center, where she brings farm-to-table dining straight from clients' gardens. She hosts the popular show, Cookin' with Klibs Presents: The Chemistry of Cooking, blending science with culinary art. Additionally, Mary coordinates and builds events for the Wander-Full Labyrinth Walkers, promoting meditative walking practices. Once a month, she leads Color Me Joyful, a vibrant adult coloring group. She is also a regular contributor to the San Diego Horticulture Newsletter, where she writes bi-monthly on topics in permaculture.
www.dancing-raven-ranch-retreat-center-1.ueniweb.com dancing.raven_rrc@yahoo.com