Permaculturing Futures : Observe . Integrate . Apply

by Delvin Solkinson

moon at twilight,
a cluster of petals
falling from the cherry tree

- shiki

Here we are in a passage through the present moment. Things are changing rapidly and the toxic biproducts of an increasingly technological society are effectively spoiling our delicate terran ecology. Yet a global media stream is publicizing much of what is happening, granting people from all over the planet with an awareness about what is going on in our world. This new awareness is inspiring conscious approaches to human developments in a more than human world. The importance of organic farming, green technology, sustainability education and low impact design are a few of the key narratives emerging at this time. Promoting a holistic approach to integrating these observations into sustainable applications is Permaculture. Light Science is a gateway into this new paradigm toolset for the collective visioning of a healing ecology.

Permaculture is an eco-conscious approach to the planning, design and implimentation of human communities through sustainable development with a focus on energy conservation, reducing our ecological footprint, long term planning, experiential education, and organic agriculture. Modeling from nature, permaculture promotes an earth care ethic based on caring for Gaia and its inhabitants, building healthy human communities and culture in harmony with the surrounding ecology, and generating an abundant surplus of resources to share with those in need of support. Often permaculture uses the garden as a focus point for exploring its principles, using the concept of permaculture gardening as a metaphor for creating a relationship with any project, system or being.

Here we will be exploring three key permaculture principles can help to illustrate this dynamic union of approaches to creating and maintaining conscious relationships. I will use the garden as a template, but remember to think of the garden as a metaphor for any place or process. The first principle is polyfunctionality, a dedication to seeing how conscious design can allow single elements to play a variety of roles and functions to support the successful survival of the system. In the permaculture garden trees are examples of this principle. Trees provide food and habitat for animals, they also aerate and feed the soil and all creatures within it. By preventing evaporation and providing shade they create ecological niches for plants and animals that require these specific conditions. Trees also harvest sunlight and rain, converting it to forms through which other creatures can access it more readily. In addition trees process carbon dioxide and pump oxygen into the atmosphere, helping to heal some of the damage done by our carbon emissions. Humans use wood from trees for a variety of fuels, building materials and food stuffs. When designing the garden, what plants will go in it, where the plants will be placed and what supporting structures will be needed, permaculture encourages us to search for elements that play many functions, building dynamic foundations for the creation of a stable and abundant ecology. Our approach to working and energy expenditure can also become polyfunctional through polytasking. By planning our work schedules so that we can get the most done in the smallest time and with the lowest harmful impact on the world around we can permaculture our approach to garden building, planting, weeding, harvesting, and seed collecting.

Art : "Deep Ecology" by Daniel Mirante : www.lila.info

The second principle is stacking, or space sharing, and represents a verticalization of our design perspectives. In a small garden on an urban balcony apartment in a nice deep garden box can be planted root vegetables like potato, edible ground covers like creeping thyme, broccoli and other herbacious plants just above the ground cover, raspberries and different shrub or small tree level plants as well as hops vines growing up a wall trellis. On the trellis one can hang a variety of pots also containing varieties of food and medicine plants. Similarly you can stagger plantings in time by planting with succession, so that as annual vegetables are harvested there is already a new crop of annuals planted which will be harvested in a subsequent season, ensuring a year round variety of edible foods. By stacking in space as well as time, you can be very effective with your space and energy, conserving resources, habitat and energy output and maximizing the potential of what little garden space you might have.

Next we will investigate the creation of guilds, collections of elements that work together symbiotically to create a sustainable whole system. In the garden this is illustrated by incorporating plants that provide food and medicine, that feed the soil, that create habitat for other local plants and animals, attract beneficial insects and repel pests along with feeding the soil, preventing evaporation and blocking invasive weeds from encroaching. Working with polyfunctional plants and elements in a way that conserves energy, saves space and generates abundant surplus, permaculture guild gardening illustrates a way of creating whole systems that can play metafunctions which none of the individual elements could play on their own. In nature this is exactly what makes up plant communities as well as whole ecologies that form the symbient circles upon which the natural balance is based. Healthy guilds can provide all the elements needed by cycling energy and drawing needed resources from soil, sunlight and rain for the successful survival of all its garden citizens.

Art  by Daniel Mirante : www.lila.info

Permaculture encourages mapping as an integrated way to observe the real consequences and potentials of your actions on the world around you. Using the kind of whole system awareness that maps provide by their very nature, you can create a series of designs that can allow you to evolve the way you relate to your world. Incorporating long term design and planning in your life, work, home, education and personal relationships it is possible to effect a staggering amount of positive change in your world.

Where do we go from here? Permaculture begins at your doorstep. Think about yourself and your close relationships. How can you apply permaculture principles like polyfunctionality, stacking and guild creation to helping make your immediate relationships more effective, successful and abundant? Next you could look at your home and the area immediately around it. Are there any ways in which you could make your home and gardens less wasteful and more productive? Can you use permaculture to enhance your gardens ability to provide for a huge variety of your wants and needs with the minimum energy and resources needed for upkeep and maintenance by you and your family. Can you see how your relationships, business, time management, consumption patterns and accumulated waste can be refined into a more sustainable system by using permaculture principles?

the present is the future
support sustainable projects : get educated : share skills : make maps

Resources

Permaculture Designer Manual - Bill Mollison
Gaia's Garden - Toby Hemenway
Earth Users Guide and Teachers Notes - Rosemary Morrow

http://www.permacultureguild.net/
http://www.tagari.com/
http://www.linnaeafarm.org/