Permaculture - A Beginner's Guide

Many people think of permaculture as being a set of vaguely mystical 'gardening techniques', or maybe that they need to 'buy some land' before getting started. In fact, permaculture is more of a holistic philosophy, and its practice is open to anyone, whatever their situation or state of their bank balance (or lack of!).

The concept of 'permaculture' originated in the 1970s as a way of finding ecologically sensible alternatives to the industrialised farming practices that are wreaking havoc on a planetary scale. It has since evolved into a design system that brings sustainability - or a better word might be 'Earthrightness' - to all fields of human activity, from food production, energy management and dealing with 'waste' to housing, transport, 'green economics', health and community building.

At the heart of the permaculture concept is a core set of values or ethics:

• Earthcare - recognising that our Earth, Gaia, is the source of all life and respecting her accordingly
• Peoplecare - supporting and helping each other to change to ways of living that are not harming ourselves or the planet, and realising that we are a part of the Earth, not apart from it
• Fairshares - ensuring that the Earth's limited resources are utilised in ways that are equitable and wise - there's enough for all our needs but not for all our greed.

Permaculture principles are a set of guidelines derived from the study of both the natural world and pre-industrial sustainable societies. These can be clearly demonstrated when applied to our kitchens, gardens, allotments, orchards and cities:

Working with nature - for example, using mulches rather than digging will encourage worms to cultivate the soil, and planting flowers like poached egg plants or making a pond will attract pest controlling ladybirds and frogs.

Creating diversity - grow as wide a variety of fruits, nuts and vegetables as possible (a polyculture), not just one thing as tends to be the dominant habit of modern monocultural farming systems.

Using biological resources to increase fertility - plant a comfrey patch and use green manures as well as producing plant based compost to develop the natural health of the soil.

Closing cycles - compost your kitchen waste, don't put it in landfill pits. Or, better still, install a compost toilet to stop your own 'waste' from being flushed out to sea.

Permaculture principles are also about how we look at things, for example:

See solutions instead of problems - those nettles aren't weeds, they are a resource. You can eat them in soup, make them into rope, dyes and fertiliser plus they are medicinal and attract butterflies.

Yield is limited only by imagination - permaculture designers are like the best cooks and gardeners, constantly trying out fresh ideas, learning new techniques, finding new niches to utilise and gathering knowledge. By comprehending and copying natural systems, we can develop techniques in order to multiply such opportunities.

Most of all, permaculture design is about making beneficial links and connections, about developing the careful observation skills that teach us how to put things in the right place, and how to increase 'edge', that space where more than one ecosystem or set of ideas combine synergistically to maximise yields and creativity. We all need to begin ‘gardening our world back to life', so join the permaculture plot today and create your own embarrassment of abundance!

Graham Burnett

photos and illustrations (c) Graham Burnett 2009

Graham is a permaculture teacher, designer and author and illustrator of 'Permaculture, a Beginner's Guide', available from Spiralseed www.spiralseed.co.uk

The Permaculture Association (Britain) - BCM Permaculture Association, London, WC1N 3XX www.permaculture.org.uk

Copies of Graham's book ‘Permaculture, a Beginner's Guide' are available now at £4.95 plus £2 UK postage and packing. If you are outside of the UK, please contact us for a postage price.