Permaculture design - a short introduction. The American writer Henry Thoreau grew tired of urban life in the mid-1800s and chose instead to live in woodland. He wrote in his journal: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived".
Over a century later, an Australian called Bill Mollison had a similar experience while working in the wildscape of Tasmania. He combined his observations of the natural world into an earth science in which he described self-sustaining systems. His period of living deliberately led him to believe that permanence, in the sense of enduring or everlasting, is a key element of sustainability, and so he named his earth science Permaculture. That name has come to have two meanings: permanent agriculture or permanent culture.
The first expresses the will for a transformation in the way that we produce our food. ThePermacultureGuild.com | Permaculture Education, Collaboration and Co-operation. Gearing Up for a Bunch of Gardens | Big Sky Permaculture. Food prices have hit their highest ever point this year, and we'll be seeing more and more local food production happening. In Calgary, that's already underway, as more and more people are ripping out their lawns and replacing them with productive landscapes! In this post, I want to let everyone know that there will be a lot of Permablitzes happening this year, but there is also a hard limit on the number of Blitzes that can happen in a season, and they're already booking up. So if you want a Permablitz this year, now's the time to get in touch!
I've decided to highlight some of the permaculture gardens we designed and installed last season. All these projects were installed through a Permablitz, a day where the community comes out and installs a permaculture garden in a day for someone who in turn volunteered their time toward at least two other people's Permablitz projects. Design and install the garden yourself according to permaculture principles. On to the rest of the post... body. Open Source Permaculture – help to build the most comprehensive free resource for Permaculture education. Talk, Uncategorized — By Irena Efremovska on 04/09/2012 17:37 Sophia Novack, the force behind Permaculture Media Blog and Permaculture Directory ‘What does your backyard look like right now?’ – asks Sophia Novack, a documentary film student passionate about creating a more sustainable world.
It has the potential to become a thriving edible garden, but only if you’ve got the right resources. If you had expert support at your fingertips, and free resources to teach you how to grow a sustainable backyard garden, why wouldn’t you? That’s what the Open Source Permaculture Project is all about. With Open Source Permaculture, you could have just the support you need to make that garden a reality. Permaculture is a school of design rooted in ecological ethics and principles. Photo by Southernpixel AlbyOpen Source Permaculture intends to become the most comprehensive multimedia resource of free, quality materials for Permaculture education.
Why the Open Source Permaculture Project? PS. Permaculture for Humanity. Tagari Publications - Publishers for the Permaculture Institute, Tasmania. Articles from Permaculture Activist. Permaculture Research Institute of Australia » Fruit Flies in a Bottle. Copyright 2010 by Ernest Partridge. Published here with permission of the author. Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings. – William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Place a few fruit flies in a bottle with a layer of honey at the bottom, and they will quickly multiply to an enormous number, and then, just as quickly, die off to the very last, poisoned by their wastes. Fruit flies and yeast in a bottle are embarked upon suicidal endeavors. Human beings, we are told, are different. Human beings have these capacities. None of the antagonists in the First World War wanted the war. Finally, consider Easter Island. In his book, Collapse, Jared Diamond poses these questions in words that strike ominously close to home: I have often asked myself, “what did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?
Sound familiar? Thus it is fair to ask, how acute is our foresight today? OUR Ecovillage flickr photos of natural building, permacutlure, organic gardening | O.U.R. Ecovillage. What is Permaculture? [Source: Wikipedia] Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies. Permaculture is sustainable land use design. This is based on ecological and biological principles, often using patterns that occur in nature to maximise effect and minimise work. Permaculture aims to create stable, productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its inhabitants. The ecological processes of plants, animals, their nutrient cycles, climatic factors and weather cycles are all part of the picture. Inhabitants’ needs are provided for using proven technologies for food, energy, shelter and infrastructure. Elements in a system are viewed in relationship to other elements, where the outputs of one element become the inputs of another.
The word permaculture is described by Mollison as a portmanteau of permanent agriculture, and permanent culture. History Mollison and Holmgren. Permaculture Principles - thinking tools for an era of change. Permies: a big crowd of permaculture goofballs. An adventure in Permaculture | Satori Garden Design. An illustration on permaculture (from Chico Permaculture Guild) Anyone who knows me, knows I love to learn new things. I am the perennial student studying not only perennials but arboriculture, irrigation design and now I’m adding Permaculture. I’ve been dipping my toe in this subject for some time and now I’ve finally dived into an intensive certification course at the LA Arboretum.
Permaculture is essentially the use of sustainable design principles in the creation of human habitats. The design process takes it’s cues from the natural world were systems are self-sustaining and abundant. This illustration shows elements of Permaculture: food production, water reclamation and diversion, harnessing of the sun’s energy and the thoughtful placement of crops based on micro climates. There’s actually a lot going on under the soil too! I think what I’m most excited about is the amazing sense of community in this movement.