It's basically about working with Nature...
DESIGN
There's twelve principles which are amazingly helpful in the design and on-going development stages of a project, whether it's a garden or a whole settlement. The more we can set up ways of doing things that mimic natural processes the easier life will be for us and the more we can become part of a regenerating, abundant, happy and healthy Earth.
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| The twelve Permaculture Principles - the tried and tested work of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren |
WORK FROM PATTERNS TO DETAILS
To focus on just one of the principles for now, it might seem obvious to "work from patterns to details" but people tend to jump into projects without thinking about the basic natural nuts and bolts of what's going on around them. It's easy to end up rushing around feeling that you must be accomplishing something just because you're busy when in fact you may just be digging yourself into a deeper and deeper hole. So take plenty of time in the planning stage and before then in observation, thinking, reading and discussion.
SUCCESSION
Most importantly get your head around the pattern of Succession. If you dig over and clear a bit of land, Mother Nature will do her best to turn it back to its natural state, which around here in Perth, Scotland is mostly woodland. If your plan is to grow annual vegetables or cereals there you will find yourself battling against what are called weeds but are simply the natural succession of plants and processes in the return to woodland, nettles, docks, brambles etc etc. A different approach would be to plant up a whole range of trees, shrubs, herbs in a perennial woodland style system, the Forest Gardening approach, (see Tree-conomy), giving you not just food but materials and medicinal plants as well, jumping past the initial stages of Succession to a later state. In practice it will still need looking after, especially in the early days, but that's the idea.
There's a large plot alongside Perth Community Farm which was ploughed up, rotavated, carefully prepared and planted up with potatoes. Then sadly, as the plot is managed with just sporadic help, it wasn't looked after and was completely taken over by weeds in a few weeks. It seemed a complete waste of time, money, energy, fuel...
EVOLUTION
Then if you can start to think about the patterns of how your plot of land has evolved right back from the Big Bang to the present day, you'll get an even better understanding of what's going to make your life there harder or easier...
RHINOS AND BLACKTHORN
Nothing in our world has evolved on its own, everything has evolved to its present state as part of a continuous, global pattern of interactions. Blackthorn has evolved with its hard spikes, and its ability to regenerate by sending out suckers underground, because it has evolved alongside animals like rhinos crashing through it and eating it. Brambles are another beautifully adapted woodland plant. They send out thorny tendrils from woodland edges, colonizing open spaces, helping to repair the damage done by animals passing through and forming nurseries for saplings which are less likely to be browsed.
OXYGEN
The fact that there's a suitable amount of oxygen in the air for us to breath is just part of process spanning billions of years, see Great Oxidation Event, and we've evolved as we are because of a whole succession of events like that. Our biosphere is a constantly changing world, everything interacts with everything else, and always has done.
