Permaculture

Bill Mollison and David Holmgren began using the word permaculture in 1978, which referred to permanent agriculture. Since that time the meaning has expanded to include permanent culture to connect our social systems, which are essential to a sustainable system as expressed in the natural farming philosophy of Masanobu Fukuoka.

Permaculture, when used to create a permanent agricultural system, is an integrated, self-sustaining system of perennial agriculture that involves a large diversity of plant and animal species. A permaculture is a self-contained ecosystem that is designed to minimize maintenance and maximize product yield.

A permaculture system is consciously designed to harmonize with nature and not against it. The design system mimics that of a natural forest. A natural forest creates its own diverse ecosystem that is self-sustained and does not need to be maintained by man.

How then do we use this model to create our own permaculture in our living environments? In permaculture the majority of energy is given to the initial design of the system instead of the maintenance of it. By asking, “What does this land have to give? What are the existing patterns and rhythms of this land? ” and observing the various external factors – water, soil, topography, climate, buildings, microclimates, we can design our systems to support plants and animal species by placing them in the areas where they will flourish and enhance the ecosystem.

The designer looks for ways to mimic a natural forest by implementing the permaculture ethics and principles of design to build a system that incorporates many components that interact with each other, thus creating relationships to make it a living, viable, organic system that brings harmony, ease, health and well being to its in habitants and replenishes the earth.