Permaculture

Permaculture has basic design principles that one works from, in any context. One could call these sustainability guidelines. They are simple, practical and achievable.

1. Work with rather than against Nature
2. Relative location
3. Efficient energy planning
4. Every element must be multifunctional
5. Every function should be served by many elements
6. Use biological resources rather than non-renewables
7. Create energy cycles
8. Create diversity
9. Patterns
10. Increase the use of edge
11. Make use of succession
12. Intensity

1. Work with rather than against Nature

Working with nature means: observe and understand your context, as well as the larger factors which affect you. This is done through mapping, research into local ecologies, weather, investigation and talking to locals! Secondly, aim to enhance the resources you discover by working with the forces you encounter, and turning problems into solutions.

2. Relative location

Place elements in your system where they are most effective (elements are any component in your design: a house, a barn, cattle, gardens, extensive crops etc). By placing the elements where they are most needed, you reduce the amount of work and energy you have to expend. This principle also leads to creating relationships between design elements to enhance productivity and efficiency. A good example is using water from aquaculture ponds to irrigate food production areas.

3. Efficient energy planning

Every element in a Permaculture system should be placed where it functions most efficiently. This is known as Zone, Sector and Slope Planning.

Zone planning

Elements are placed in zones according to how many times you need to use and visit them, as well as the amount of inputs they require. Areas that need visiting every day for harvesting and maintenance (such as annual vegetable gardens, the nursery, chickens, recycling area, etc) must be placed near the house to facilitate easy access so that these systems are well observed and maintained. Places and systems visited less frequently are placed further away from the main centre of activity (orchards, staple food systems, woodlots, animal systems, etc) because these places require less attention and are harvested less frequently. The design is thus divided into Zones radiating outwards from the centre of activity.

• Zone 0 – House or business
• Zone 1 – Intensive vegetable gardens, nursery and small animal systems
• Zone 2 – An orchard or mixed food forest (perennial species); and staple food systems (grains and tubers).
• Zone 3 – This can incorporate large-scale semi-managed systems such as woodlots; large animal fodder systems and aquaculture.
• Zone 4 – Semi managed wild system of mainly indigenous species harvested for medicines, indigenous fruits and firewood.
• Zone 5 – Unmanaged wild systems of indigenous species that act as a refuge for wildlife and is a place we go to observe nature.

Slope planning

Slope planning involves looking at your site in profile, bearing in mind slope angles and elevation. This leads us to place dams, water storage tanks, roads and tracks, drains and flow diversions in the right place, so we might most effectively use slope on our land to our advantage. For example we place dams and water catchment above the house and garden so we may use gravity to create water flow instead of a mechanical pump. Slope planning means also that we use contours to garden on, to minimise erosion and maximise water retention.

Sector planning

Plan your site to make maximum use of energy moving through the site or to deflect those energies. Sector planning deals with “wild energies” that move onto the property from the outside. This means that our designs take into account fire danger; strong or damaging winds; screening of unwanted views; winter and summer sun angles; flood-prone areas etc. This leads to placement of homes, windbreaks, firebreaks, swales and water systems. Sectors also modify zonal placement.

4. Every element must be multifunctional

Every element selected should provide at least 3 functions: for example, windbreaks are pest predator refuges, a source of wild food and contain an herbaceous layer which also provides pest management.

5. Every function should be served by many elements

Pest control, soil fertility, water catchment and irrigation, mulch and food provision, etc … should must be served by more than one element. This means if one element fails in its task to provide a service (pest control chickens get eaten by a dog), then there must be back up by at least three other elements to ensure sustainability (plants, ducks and wild birds control pests). Observe this principle and the basic needs of your cultivated ecology will be met consistently from within the system.

6. Use biological resources rather than non-renewables

Use natural resources to do the work. Plants and animals are used wherever possible to provide nutrients, shelter, and fuel, insect and weed control, nutrient recycling, habitat enhancement, soil building, fire and erosion control, etc.

For example you can use chickens and small animals to work the soil and compost it; plant legumes to enrich the soil; encourage birds and use silky chickens for insect control; plant diverse systems to enhance nutrient reticulation in the soil and to keep disease and pests in balance; use deep rooting plants to loosen the soil instead of ploughing etc.

7. Create energy cycles

Any of the natural forces that enter a site must be put to work. If you have rain, ensure that it is not only caught on the roof for domestic consumption, but is re-used in the house, and enters a home garden as greywater to produce food. Overland flow needs to be captured in swales (contour ditches) so that it can slowly percolate into the soil, and eventually make its way to streams or rivers, rather than just rushing overland to the river. The same attitude is applied to any resources used on site to ensure that nothing is wasted, and no pollution is created.

8. Create diversity

Diversity brings choice and stability. Permaculture is about creating diversity, more so than in nature and it is through diversity that we have stability, choice and sustainability. Diversity not only ensures a wide range of plant species to use, it also means we get away from dependence on one crop for our livelihood (monoculture) into a system whereby a diverse range of plants and animals provide balance and fertility. Diversity means that a family/farm can satisfy many of its nutritional needs with the available fruits, vegetables, proteins, and minerals. Economically this means there is a wider variety of crops and products available at different times of the year, which protects the family/farm from market downturns, and the failure of one crop. But stability only occurs among co-operative species. Do not simply place as many varieties of plant and animal in your system, because they may compete with each other. It is the number of functional connections between these plants and animals that creates stability and fertility.

9. Patterns

When talking about patterns we refer to utilising forms like contour lines, spirals, branching patterns etc that occur in nature. This is not as esoteric as it sounds, but highly practical when correctly used.

Nature exists and grows through patterns. Use natural patterns that allow the parts of the design (animals, worms, birds, insects, soils, sun, water, etc.) to flow and work in beneficial relationships. Contours are an obvious form of patterning that can be effectively used on any scale of agriculture. Obviously these patterns become more simplified when used on a larger scale, but the principle still applies. Use the same patterning principles in your design when shaping beds, watercourses, building structures etc. The use of natural patterns in a garden will enhance the growth and vitality of the system and appear more interesting, original and beautiful.

10. Increase the use of edge

Edge is where two or more environments meet (for example land and water) and where the resources and energy of two or more systems available for us to use. Edge increases the surface interface in your gardens between different systems (pond/wetlands with veggie gardens) and there will be a high-energy movement between them and thus more opportunities in space and time. Also create as much surface interface for plants and animals to use (wavy shaped beds as opposed to straight ones), which will allow a greater amount of species to be placed into a smaller area effectively. Create more edge in your gardens and the energy in the ecology will flow with ease and vitality, ultimately creating a more productive system.

11. Make use of succession

Succession is a concept derived from ecology. It describes the evolution of plant and animal communities over time. Generally, when a site is disturbed, it is colonised by hardy weeds, which are short-lived, but provide a microclimate for other less hardy species to develop in. Left alone, these communities will increase in species diversity and longevity. With the increase in plant diversity, animal and insect communities also increase. Ultimately the system developes into a climax (stable) ecology suited to local conditions. In some areas this may be a forest ecology, in others a fynbos ecology. We utilise this successional phenomenon in Permaculture systems to create permanent agriculture systems. However, we will interfere by enhancing the system through using hardy pioneer shrubs and trees (especially legumes), thereby accelerating the development of a microclimate that will support productive crops.

12. Intensity

A primary consideration in Permaculture is that we need to minimise our impact. This then leads us to design intensive and productive systems that utilise the least space possible. This approach is implemented using 3 dimensional designs. In other words, we use vertical space – walls, trellises, espaliers etc to maximise production. Stacking productive plants into their appropriate niches and using plant guilds are tools that aid intensified design. This also applies to broadscale Permaculture: large animal systems are not necessarily just grazing, but incorporate large leguminous trees for grazing and nitrogen-fixing. Large crop production areas can also look at 3 dimensional design though the use of alley cropping etc.