Must-reads
- Permaculture Design: A Step-by-step Guide by Aranya
- Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual by Bill Morrison
- Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
- Practical Permaculture: for Home Landscapes, Your Community, and the Whole Earth by Jessi Bloom, Dave Boehnlein
- Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops by Martin Crawford
Permaculture design is a set of guiding ethics and principles that help you form a durable living environment. It is characterised by working with nature, rather than against it. A good design can meet all needs (and even produce abundance) in a cycle that can be sustained.
The core values, or ethics, of permaculture are earth care, people care and fair share. Each prescribes a healthy relationship to that part of the world. Earth care is about considering Earth as a living entity that requires care and nurturing. The soil on which we grow our food is a living system that can become improved or disturbed through our interactions. Forests and rivers are the metaphoric lungs and veins of the Earth. All life forms serve a purpose in this living body and should be respected as such. People care refers to meeting our human needs in a compassionate and simple way. We need companionship and collaboration to facilitate change. Caring for people starts at a personal level and in increasing steps includes family, neighbours and the wider community. Fair share involves setting limits and redistributing surplus. Find a humble level of enough and limit yourself to that level of consumption. Having abundance after your share is taken allows generous sharing with others.
The twelve principles of permaculture are system thinking tools that enable the creation of a balanced and sustainable environment. The principles are guided by the permaculture ethics in their appliance. Most of the principles are based on observation, analysis and a resulting action. You’ll discover that most of the work is likely in the observation and analysis phase and not so much in the action phase. We now state the principles in order.
Observe and interact. All designs start with observation of the terrain. What is already growing there, how does the sun move and the wind blow, what is the quantity of water and quality of soil that is present? Take note of interesting interactions between species during all seasons. Take note how you yourself interact with the system. Which sites do you visit often? What do you give and take in the system?
Catch and store energy. Efficient use of (predominantly sustainable) energy is encouraged. Use renewable sources of energy such as sunlight, wind and water. Employ energy efficient systems including passive solar design for buildings or soil with high humus content for food production. Storage energy in the form of batteries, or water in rain barrels or water management in the landscape.
Obtain a yield. All designs, whether that be a house or a garden, include elements that provide a tangible yield. Food is the obvious type of yield, but other types of yield can include materials such as fibers, or fuels and medicine. Having a yield supports the notion of self-reliance.
Apply self-regulation and accept feedback. We should strive to see clearly the results of our actions and inactions and adjust the system based on our analysis. This principle is linked to the first principle of observation in that this principle forces us to continuously step back into observational mode.
Use and value renewable resources and services. Plenty of resources are found in abundance and are renewable. There is sufficient material available to create compost. There are a variety of renewable energy sources. Some resources or services need to be valued and cared for in order to use them in your system. Examples are human labour or the work animals do on your land.
Produce no waste. Objects can be reused for a different purpose. Reform old items such as clothes to a new purpose such as a bag. A container becomes a plant nursery tray. Redistribute still functioning items that you want to throw away. When you understand the purpose of every element in the system, you can find ways to repurpose your waste.
Design from patterns to details. From seeing patterns you make generalisations, which serve as the backbone to fill in the details later.
Integrate rather than segregate. The right things in the right place will build a supportive relationship. The parts combine to more than the sum.
Use small and slow solutions. It is better to implement change small and slowly, rather than going all-out at once. Going small and slow usually uses only local resources in a sustainable fashion.
Use and value diversity. Diversity reduces risks against a variety of threats. It further increases the pool of advantages you can use within the local environment.
Use edges and value the marginal. The places where two areas come together usually results in the most fruitful ideas. Use solutions from one field to solve problems in another.
Creatively use and respond to change. Carefully observe and only intervene at the right time. Change will come as the system grows. The dynamics of your plants will change, and so will the dynamics of the village.
Zones are a way of dividing land based on proximity and the frequency of human use or the needs of animals and plants. What is used often will be planted nearby, while the least accessed systems are placed further away. The zones are numbered from 0 to 5.
Zone 0. This is the zone of the house. It is the central spot for the inhabitants and a spot to where resources from other zones are brought.
Zone 1. This is the zone closest to the house. In it are elements that require frequent attention such as raised beds, herbs and salad crops, (worm) compost bin for kitchen waste disposal.
Zone 2. This zone includes elements that require less maintenance. Perennial plants such as berry bushes and fruit trees need some weed control and pruning. Chickens and beehives are also placed in this zone.
Zone 3. This zone can be seen as farmland. Large-scale crops can be grown here or livestock can be kept.
Zone 4. This zone is semi-wild. The maintenance is minimal and will eventually result in a forest. This forest can be used for foraging, production of timber, or firewood.
Zone 5. This zone is completely wild and left to its own. Wildlife including bacteria, moulds, insects, but also birds and mammals take refuge here. This zone serves as an observation zone for understanding ecosystems and will provide benefits for the other zones nearby.