Erssons g plants.jpg

Permaculture is a form of whole systems design based on the sustainability of natural systems, seeking to reproduce that sustainability in our living environment. Permaculture designs differ based on climatic factors, bioregion, organizational goals, personal preferences and other factors. They integrate "land, resources, people and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies – imitating the no waste, closed loop systems seen in diverse natural systems"[1] It can hence be said that permaculture is, at its core, a set of thinking tools, in particular towards awareness of context, threats and opportunities.

The holistic approach of permaculture integrates "agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics and community development".[1]

See Permaculture wiki for an explanation of how Appropedia works for permaculture.

History[edit | edit source]

Perma flower notext.png
Permaculture garden, de Vergoncey, France: [1].

Permaculture was initially conceptualized by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia during the 1970's. Mollison and Holmgren sought to reverse the environmental degradation that seemed to follow closely on the heels of modern development while simultaneously increasing the sustainability of food production systems by promoting localized self-reliance. Though it was developed out of sustainable agriculture, permaculture design is hypothetically applicable to any field of human endeavor. The very term "permaculture" itself was first used to mean "permanent agriculture,"[2] it is now applicable to all realms of design and is now considered to mean "permanent culture".[3] In recent years, social and economic permaculture have been receiving more attention.

In a strict sense, "permaculture" refers to the system developed by Mollison, Holmgren, and their successors. However, some use the term "permaculture" in a broader sense to refer to practices of indigenous and traditional peoples around the world, such as chinampas from Mexico or zai from West Africa. Contemporary innovators are often also included under the permaculture umbrella such as Masanobu Fukuoka and Sepp Holzer.

What permaculture is about[edit | edit source]

The prime directive of permaculture as stated by Mollison is that "the only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children. Make it now."

The three interwoven ethics guiding permaculture are: Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share/Return the Surplus. To borrow a concept from Buddhism, Right Action occurs when all three ethics are actualized by a given action or design decision.

One way to look at permaculture is being counter to the linear perspective much of the developed world operates in. An example would be how consumerism functions; we buy a product, unwrap it and throw away the wrapper, use the product, then throw it away as well, the product then travels to a landfill where it is disposed of. Stuff in, stuff out. In permaculture everything is viewed in more of a circular fashion; there is no waste. If you find yourself discarding something then you have a resource you have not discovered how to utilize. Everything must find balance; you may think you have a beetle problem, but what you really have is a duck shortage...

Ethics[edit | edit source]

These 3 broad ethic principles are part of permaculture thinking.

  • Care for the earth (husband soil, forests and water)
  • Care for people (look after self, kin and community)
  • Fair share (set limits to consumption and reproduction and redistribute surplus).

12 principles of permaculture[edit | edit source]

Following on the 3 ethic principles, a set of guidelines are made:

  1. Observe and interact. Take time to engage with nature, so we can design solutions for our particular situation.
  2. Catch and store energy: Develop systems that collect resources when abundant, & use them in times of need.
  3. Obtain a yield - Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
  4. Apply self-regulation & accept feedback - Discourage inappropriate activity so systems continue to function well.
  5. Use and value renewable resources and services - Make the best use of nature's abundance.
  6. Produce no waste - Valuing and make use of all the resources available to us, so nothing goes to waste.
  7. Design from patterns to details - Step back and observe patterns in nature and society. Details come after.
  8. Integrate rather than segregate - Put the right things in the right place, so relationships and support develop.
  9. Use small, slow solutions - easier to maintain than big systems, better use of local resources, more sustainable.
  10. Use and value diversity - reduces vulnerability to threats and takes advantage of the environment.
  11. Use edges & value the marginal - often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
  12. Have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.

These are principles used and taught by the pioneers of permaculture - they are not universal truths. E.g. re "Use small, slow solutions": in certain contexts, big and fast-acting solutions may be best; however the principle reminds us that great impacts can come in ways that require patience and are not flashy.

A plant's relationships[edit | edit source]

Needs, characteristics, and products and behaviors of an oak tree

Permaculture is relationship-oriented and is based on close observation, critical thinking, and a systems perspective. Individual plant types are not chosen discretely, but relationships between organisms and communities of organisms are to be woven together carefully, considering each plant's relationships to fellow organisms, the overall ecosystem, and the people whose needs it is intended to meet.

Knowledge of such relationships is critical to the practice of Permaculture design, our understanding of ecological processes, our capacity for systems thinking.

Consider for example the role of microorganisms in soil, which have a profound effect on the fertility of the soil and the health of the plant. See Effective Microorganisms.

The goal of permaculture is to satisfy basic human needs without compromising the needs of the Earth.

Permaculture as appropriate technology[edit | edit source]

One popular understanding of permaculture is as a set of tools for applied ecology. However, a more accurate description would be: a decision-making system for determining the best tools to use for a particular situation. For example, a permaculture designer would likely not recommend building a log cabin in an arid desert for a number of reasons. First, there would probably be few if any timber-quality trees near the design site, thus requiring them to be brought in from a considerable distance. Also, lumber buildings would be less capabl creating a comfortable temperature gradient compared to other materials like adobe. At its core, permaculture is about determining the appropriateness of a variety of elements within a given context.

Many perspectives[edit | edit source]

Permaculture means many different things to many different people, and nothing to some. There is no one correct definition, as permaculture is holistic, integrated, and applicable on all levels and in all situations. At its core, permaculture is a philosophy of interdependence and ethical responsibility actualized through a whole-systems design methodology and on-the-ground action. Permaculture is grounded by ethics and guided by ecological principles, traditional cultural values, and applied scientific understanding. Permaculture is being applied at increasing rates and diversity around the world to develop strategic, long-term, practical solutions to the challenges facing humanity and the ecosystems of which we are a part.

Zoning[edit | edit source]

Zoning helps to arrange all elements in a system by the level of care needed and their interrelations.

Zoning means dividing a certain piece of land into several zones, with the family house in the center. All of these have a function to the owner of the land. Although this generally creates a rather artificial vegetation pattern, it creates an environment that has benefits both for the owner of the land, as well as well as for nature (to some degree). A more serious issue of permaculture (namely the use of non-indigenous and sometimes domesticated species of fauna/flora) can be reduced with zoning however. This, by placing domesticated (and generally more efficient) species near the center/home, and using indigenous species in the zones further away from the center.

Permaculture Zones (from Wikipedia) are a way of organizing design elements in a human environment on the basis of the frequency of human use and plant or animal needs. Frequently manipulated or harvested elements of the design are located close to the house in zones 1 and 2. Less frequently used or manipulated elements, and elements that benefit from isolation (such as wild species) are farther away. Zones are about positioning things appropriately. Zones are numbered from 0 to 5.

  • Zone 0
    • The house, or home center. Here permaculture principles would be applied in terms of aiming to reduce energy and water needs, harnessing natural resources such as sunlight, and generally creating a harmonious, sustainable environment in which to live and work. Zone 0 is an informal designation, which is not specifically defined in Mollison's book.
  • Zone 1
    • The zone nearest to the house, the location for those elements in the system that require frequent attention, or that need to be visited often, such as salad crops, herb plants, soft fruit like strawberries or raspberries, greenhouse and cold frames, propagation area, worm compost bin for kitchen waste, etc. Raised beds are often used in zone 1 in urban areas.
  • Zone 2
    • This area is used for siting perennial plants that require less frequent maintenance, such as occasional weed control or pruning, including currant bushes and orchards. This would also be a good place for beehives, larger scale composting bins, and so on.
  • Zone 3
    • The area where maincrops are grown, both for domestic use and for trade purposes. After establishment, care and maintenance required are fairly minimal (provided mulches and similar things are used), such as watering or weed control maybe once a week.
  • Zone 4
    • A semi-wild area. This zone is mainly used for forage and collecting wild food as well as timber production.
  • Zone 5
    • A wild area. There is no human intervention in zone 5 apart from the observation of natural ecosystems and cycles.

See also[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 What is Permaculture - The Permaculture Research Institute
  2. This term was taken from the subtitle of the 1909 book Farmers of Forty Centuries, Or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan by F. H. King.
  3. Gaia's Garden, pg 4 by Toby Hemenway
  4. Organopónico

Discussion[View | Edit]

How to add to the map[edit source]

how do you add to the Permaculture map? Please add a link with instructions on how to do this. --Uriel 18:24, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Help:Maps - but that looks a bit confusing. Maybe there are easier instructions somewhere? --Chriswaterguy 05:51, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Looking at examples that successfully create entries on the map, a good example to follow is:

39.216295, -121.05835, Sierra Permaculture Guild, Sierra Nevada region
http://web.archive.org/web/20210126054915/https://sierrapermaculture.org/

i.e.

LONGITUDE, LATITUDE, TEXT
URL

...where text is whatever text you want to appear on the map, which should be name (& description if the name isn't self-explanatory) and possibly location.

--Chriswaterguy 15:43, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Map usage - too confusing?[edit source]

I count 12 examples of entries in the map which don't list coordinates (LONGITUDE, LATITUDE as above, e.g. "39.216295, -121.05835") and therefore don't actually appear on the map. For example:

Permatopia
www.permatopia.com

and

Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Living (CASL), U Oregon
http://www.uoregon.edu/~casl/

I'm not sure whether the editors thought they were adding map entries or external links.

If we want to use maps like this on Appropedia, we need to make it clearer somehow. But maybe it will help if I clean out the entries which don't have an entry - so here they are (please feel free to reenter them correctly as map entries or external links, if they are appropriate/valuable links):


Permaculture Guild
www.permacultureguild.us

Sierra Institute, HSU,
www.humboldt.edu/~sierra/

Northwest School of Botanical Studies,
www.herbaleducation.net

Humboldt – Del Norte Counties Cooperative Extension Services,
http://cehumboldt.ucdavis.edu/

Environmental Education Council of Marin
www.eecom.net/

Siskiyou Permaculture Resources Group
http://www.sprg.info

Food Not Lawns
www.foodnotlawns.org

Maitreya Ecovillage,
www.maitreyaecovillage.org/

Permatopia
www.permatopia.com

Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Living (CASL), U Oregon
http://www.uoregon.edu/~casl/

Cob Cottage Company,
www.cobcottage.com

Portland Permaculture Institute
www.portlandpermaculture.com

--Chriswaterguy 15:43, 24 June 2010 (UTC)


(don't know how the format on these discussion pages should be); I suggest several different maps for different regions instead of one global map. Technically, the maps can be exported as KML files and joined together. My reason is that permaculture is about reconnecting to the landbase, and that any permaculturalist's primary interest would be in places he could visit easily overland.


What is meant with "husband soil"?[edit source]

I never heard of the term "husband soil".

What is meant with that? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ikem, 29 July 2012

Good question! The term seems to be making a parallel to animal husbandry. So probably something like, "managing soil, including its profile, mineral content and micro- and macrobiotic organisms for human benefit" --Ethan (talk) 20:26, 19 September 2015 (PDT)

broken map[edit source]

The map at the bottom is broken. I found:

"Starting with the 4.0 release this extension incorporates all the functionality from the now obsolete Semantic Maps extension."

-> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Maps

Facilitator (talk) 13:00, 22 August 2017 (PDT)

--- the following is the broken content (moved here until it is fixed) ---

Maps can be used to make us aware of others in our area engaging in similar work and practices. For example, the following map contains sites on the Pacific coast of the USA that are actively demonstrating and applying permaculture and/or allied sites and organizations providing valuable education. This map is not by any means exhaustive, so please add other sites to it as you see fit. Original compilation by Jeffrey M. Adams

Should separate maps be made of other countries and regions, or should this map be used globally?

--- Facilitator (talk)

map discussion[edit source]

Unfortunately a couple of things broke during the last update of our installation of MediaWiki. It looks like map support was one of them. At the moment Appropedia is a volunteer-only operation, and we don't have enough people with the knowledge and time to spare to fix the back-end stuff. More help would be greatly appreciated. Ideally, I'd like to see us use OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps, since that's more in line with our open source approach. More info on how that works

I've been planning to fork the map off into a Permaculture sites article (compare Category:Permaculture sites and Earthship sites). --Ethan (talk) 21:26, 24 August 2017 (PDT)

After researching it a bit, it seems like a quick fix (tho I'm not very experienced in these things). I've informed the other active admins --Ethan (talk) 22:01, 24 August 2017 (PDT)
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.