Maddy Harland, editor of Permaculture magazine, introduces the three ethics behind permaculture design and explains why permaculture is more than a gardening technique: it’s a practical tool for designing self-sustaining ecological systems
Permaculture is primarily a thinking tool for designing low carbon, highly productive systems. Permaculture isn’t just about growing food, it is a means of understanding nature’s patterns and self-sustaining systems; and of applying those insights.
Permaculture design is based on observing what makes natural systems endure, establishing simple yet effective principles, and using them to mirror nature in whatever we choose to design: gardens, farms, buildings, woodlands, communities, businesses – even towns and cities. Permaculture is essentially about creating beneficial relationships between individual elements and making sure energy is captured rather than lost in a system.
The three ethics
Before we learn the principles and how to apply them however, there is permaculture bedrock to consider: its three ethics. They are not exclusive to permaculture and were derived by looking at the commonalities of many worldviews and beliefs.
Earth Care
The care for all living and non-living things is based on the idea that we wish to not only conserve but enhance our biological resources for future generations. Permaculture embraces a deep and comprehensive understanding of Earth Care and practically applies it to as many aspects of our lives as possible.
People Care
Embedded in permaculture is the concept of Permanent Culture. People Care asks that our basic needs for food, shelter, education, employment and healthy social relationships are met.
Fair Shares or Sharing Resources
The last ethic synthesises the first two. It acknowledges that we only have one earth and we have to share it with all living things and future generations. There is no point in designing a sustainable family unit, community or nation whilst others languish without clean water, clean air, food, shelter, meaningful employment and social contact. Since the industrialized North uses the resources of at least three earths, and much of the global South exists in poverty, Fair Shares is an acknowledgement of that imbalance and a call to limit consumption in the global north.
The principles
Permaculture principles provide a set of guidelines that can be used in designing sustainable systems. They have been derived from the thoughtful observation of nature, and from earlier work by ecologists, landscape designers and environmental scientists. They can be used in any climate and on any scale.
David Holmgren, the co-originator of permaculture, redefined permaculture principles in his seminal book, Permaculture – Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. This is my explanation of the majority of his principles, in relation to gardens, farms, business, society and culture.
Observe and interact
This element of stillness and observation forms the key to permaculture design. In a world of ‘fast’ everything, having the capacity to observe the seasons, watch the changing microclimates on a patch of land, understand how the patterns of wind, weather and slope affect the frost pockets and plant growth enables us to make wise decisions about how we design or eco-renovate our houses and plan our gardens and farms.
Catch and store energy
We want to capture energy in a design so that we minimize the importing of resources from the outside. In a garden this is about avoiding planting tender seedlings in frost pockets in spring or maximizing solar gain by sitting a greenhouse/conservatory on the south side of a building so that we can both extend the season and heat a house with passive solar gain. We are attempting to capture water, sunlight, heat, soil, biomass and fertility whenever we can in order to become more resilient.
Obtain a yield
Food can account for as much as one third of our ecological footprint so it makes sense to grow as much as we can. A permaculture garden is therefore by default an edible landscape with good floral companions to attract beneficial insects, and a building is a potential heat store and a structure for solar panels. But the concept of ‘yields’ is not merely about renewable energy or veggies; a yield can be about social capital; positive behaviour change, building community and reducing carbon.
Use and value renewable resources and services
This applies to energy but also to ecological building, coppicing, soil conservation, and the planting of perennial food crops, as well as annuals with seed saving.
Produce no waste
We dump valuable resources because we do not have cyclical reuse/manufacturing policies or adequate recycling systems.
Design from patterns to details
When my husband, Tim, and I designed our house and garden, we spent a year observing the seasons, the climatic variations, the weather, soil, slope and our own activities on the site. We began by looking at the bigger picture and didn’t make a ‘shopping list’ of individual items or projects and try to mesh them together.
Integrate rather than segregate
We have a cultural tendency to separate veggie gardens from flower gardens and use hard edges to design our spaces. Companion gardeners will know however that the more integrated the orchard is with the wildflower meadow, or the vegetables are with flowers frequented by beneficial insects, the less pests will prevail. The same is true for people. Cultural diversity – a ‘melting pot’ – yields a robust and fertile culture, whereas a rigid monoculture of politics and religion can bring sterility, and social and political repression.
Use small and slow solutions
Our society currently depends on vast inputs of fossil fuels, whilst our biosphere is over-loaded by their outputs. The more accessible and fixable our technology and chains of supply are, the more robust the system. This principle speaks of hand tools, of appropriate technology that can easily be fixed and of relocalisation.
Use and value diversity
Biodiversity creates healthy ecosystems. Diversity in terms of crops, energy sources, and employment, make for greater sustainability. Valuing diversity amongst people creates a more peaceful, equitable society.
Use edges and value the marginal
Examples of ‘edge’ in nature are: where canopy meets clearing in the woodland, inviting in air and sunshine and a profusion of flowers; where sea and river meet land in the fertile interface of estuaries, full of invertebrates, fish and bird life; where the banks of streams meet the water’s edge and fertility is built with deposited mud and sand in flood time, giving life to a riot of plant life; where plains and water meet, flooding and capturing alluvial soils… Edge in nature is all about increasing diversity by the increase of inter-relationship between the elements: earth, air, fire (sun), and water. This phenomenon increases the opportunity for life in all of its marvelous fertility of forms.
In human society, edge is where we have cultural diversity. It is the place where free thinkers and so-called ‘alternative’ people thrive, where new ideas are allowed to develop and wisdom is given its rightful respect. Edge is suppressed in non-democratic states and in countries that demand exclusive theological allegiance to one religion.
Creatively use and respond to change
In nature, there is a process of succession. Bare soil is colonized by weeds that are in turn superseded by brambles. Then pioneers follow; like silver birch, alder and gorse which stabilize the soil in temperate climes. The latter two fix nitrogen to create an environment that can host slow growing temperate climate species like oak, beech and yew. But nature is dynamic and succession can be interrupted by browsing animals, storms that fell trees and create clearings or a changing climate that is less hospitable for certain climax giants like oak and beech. The challenge of a permaculture designer is to understand how all these factors interact with each other in a landscape or on a particular plot of land and design accordingly.
The principle is deeper than this, however. It invites us to imagine a future world without cheap oil and a world that radically reduces its carbon load in the atmosphere. By doing this, we take the first steps towards creating it. We stand on a foundation of permaculture ethics – Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares – and are empowered by a set of principles that can inform our planning and actions.
Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture magazine – inspiration for sustainable living. She has also been publishing many leading permaculture books since 1993. For more information see permaculture.co.uk
Permaculture design is based on observing what makes natural systems endure, establishing simple yet effective principles, and using them to mirror nature in whatever we choose to design: gardens, farms, buildings, woodlands, communities, businesses – even towns and cities. Permaculture is essentially about creating beneficial relationships between individual elements and making sure energy is captured rather than lost in a system.
The three ethics
Before we learn the principles and how to apply them however, there is permaculture bedrock to consider: its three ethics. They are not exclusive to permaculture and were derived by looking at the commonalities of many worldviews and beliefs.
Earth Care
The care for all living and non-living things is based on the idea that we wish to not only conserve but enhance our biological resources for future generations. Permaculture embraces a deep and comprehensive understanding of Earth Care and practically applies it to as many aspects of our lives as possible.
People Care
Embedded in permaculture is the concept of Permanent Culture. People Care asks that our basic needs for food, shelter, education, employment and healthy social relationships are met.
Fair Shares or Sharing Resources
The last ethic synthesises the first two. It acknowledges that we only have one earth and we have to share it with all living things and future generations. There is no point in designing a sustainable family unit, community or nation whilst others languish without clean water, clean air, food, shelter, meaningful employment and social contact. Since the industrialized North uses the resources of at least three earths, and much of the global South exists in poverty, Fair Shares is an acknowledgement of that imbalance and a call to limit consumption in the global north.
The principles
Permaculture principles provide a set of guidelines that can be used in designing sustainable systems. They have been derived from the thoughtful observation of nature, and from earlier work by ecologists, landscape designers and environmental scientists. They can be used in any climate and on any scale.
David Holmgren, the co-originator of permaculture, redefined permaculture principles in his seminal book, Permaculture – Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. This is my explanation of the majority of his principles, in relation to gardens, farms, business, society and culture.
Observe and interact
This element of stillness and observation forms the key to permaculture design. In a world of ‘fast’ everything, having the capacity to observe the seasons, watch the changing microclimates on a patch of land, understand how the patterns of wind, weather and slope affect the frost pockets and plant growth enables us to make wise decisions about how we design or eco-renovate our houses and plan our gardens and farms.
Catch and store energy
We want to capture energy in a design so that we minimize the importing of resources from the outside. In a garden this is about avoiding planting tender seedlings in frost pockets in spring or maximizing solar gain by sitting a greenhouse/conservatory on the south side of a building so that we can both extend the season and heat a house with passive solar gain. We are attempting to capture water, sunlight, heat, soil, biomass and fertility whenever we can in order to become more resilient.
Obtain a yield
Food can account for as much as one third of our ecological footprint so it makes sense to grow as much as we can. A permaculture garden is therefore by default an edible landscape with good floral companions to attract beneficial insects, and a building is a potential heat store and a structure for solar panels. But the concept of ‘yields’ is not merely about renewable energy or veggies; a yield can be about social capital; positive behaviour change, building community and reducing carbon.
Use and value renewable resources and services
This applies to energy but also to ecological building, coppicing, soil conservation, and the planting of perennial food crops, as well as annuals with seed saving.
Produce no waste
We dump valuable resources because we do not have cyclical reuse/manufacturing policies or adequate recycling systems.
Design from patterns to details
When my husband, Tim, and I designed our house and garden, we spent a year observing the seasons, the climatic variations, the weather, soil, slope and our own activities on the site. We began by looking at the bigger picture and didn’t make a ‘shopping list’ of individual items or projects and try to mesh them together.
Integrate rather than segregate
We have a cultural tendency to separate veggie gardens from flower gardens and use hard edges to design our spaces. Companion gardeners will know however that the more integrated the orchard is with the wildflower meadow, or the vegetables are with flowers frequented by beneficial insects, the less pests will prevail. The same is true for people. Cultural diversity – a ‘melting pot’ – yields a robust and fertile culture, whereas a rigid monoculture of politics and religion can bring sterility, and social and political repression.
Use small and slow solutions
Our society currently depends on vast inputs of fossil fuels, whilst our biosphere is over-loaded by their outputs. The more accessible and fixable our technology and chains of supply are, the more robust the system. This principle speaks of hand tools, of appropriate technology that can easily be fixed and of relocalisation.
Use and value diversity
Biodiversity creates healthy ecosystems. Diversity in terms of crops, energy sources, and employment, make for greater sustainability. Valuing diversity amongst people creates a more peaceful, equitable society.
Use edges and value the marginal
Examples of ‘edge’ in nature are: where canopy meets clearing in the woodland, inviting in air and sunshine and a profusion of flowers; where sea and river meet land in the fertile interface of estuaries, full of invertebrates, fish and bird life; where the banks of streams meet the water’s edge and fertility is built with deposited mud and sand in flood time, giving life to a riot of plant life; where plains and water meet, flooding and capturing alluvial soils… Edge in nature is all about increasing diversity by the increase of inter-relationship between the elements: earth, air, fire (sun), and water. This phenomenon increases the opportunity for life in all of its marvelous fertility of forms.
In human society, edge is where we have cultural diversity. It is the place where free thinkers and so-called ‘alternative’ people thrive, where new ideas are allowed to develop and wisdom is given its rightful respect. Edge is suppressed in non-democratic states and in countries that demand exclusive theological allegiance to one religion.
Creatively use and respond to change
In nature, there is a process of succession. Bare soil is colonized by weeds that are in turn superseded by brambles. Then pioneers follow; like silver birch, alder and gorse which stabilize the soil in temperate climes. The latter two fix nitrogen to create an environment that can host slow growing temperate climate species like oak, beech and yew. But nature is dynamic and succession can be interrupted by browsing animals, storms that fell trees and create clearings or a changing climate that is less hospitable for certain climax giants like oak and beech. The challenge of a permaculture designer is to understand how all these factors interact with each other in a landscape or on a particular plot of land and design accordingly.
The principle is deeper than this, however. It invites us to imagine a future world without cheap oil and a world that radically reduces its carbon load in the atmosphere. By doing this, we take the first steps towards creating it. We stand on a foundation of permaculture ethics – Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares – and are empowered by a set of principles that can inform our planning and actions.
Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture magazine – inspiration for sustainable living. She has also been publishing many leading permaculture books since 1993. For more information see permaculture.co.uk
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