Permaculture
Robert Hart's forest garden in Shropshire, England
Permaculture is a system of gardening or growing crops, in which the grower seeks to avoid disturbing the soil, usually using perennial plants, and works with nature to integrate food production, landscape, and ecology.
The word permaculture was coined in the 1970s by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It is a contraction of permanent and culrutre. They sought to create stable agricultural systems in response to the prevailing agribusiness methods they saw creating monocultures, destroying biodiversity, and poisoning the land.
Some proponents of permaculture, and the related concept of forest gardening divide the area being cared for into a series of zones or layers. The idea is to work with nature, to promotes synergies, and natural pest control.
There are other concepts of cropping that also come under the umbrella of permaculture:
Polyculture is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture. It includes crop rotation, multi-cropping, and inter-cropping. Alley cropping is a simplification of the layered system which typically uses just two layers, with alternate rows of trees and smaller plants.
Perennial plants are often used in permaculture design. As they do not need to be planted every year they require less maintenance and fertilisers. They are especially important in the outer zones and in layered systems.
Advocates of permaculture say it requires less energy, and therefore reduces the impact of food production on global warming. To some, the idea of working in harmony with nature has given permaculture a spriritual association.
Contemporary examples
In the years since its conception, permaculture has become a successful approach to designing sustainable systems. Its adaptability and emphasis on meeting human needs means that it can be utilized in every climatic and cultural zone. However, at the moment the large proportion of practitioners are only likely to be inspired individuals and there is a distinct lack of broadscale permaculture projects. Nevertheless, permaculture has also been used successfully as a development tool to help meet the needs of indigenuous communities at risk from exploitation by free-market economics.
Permaculture is now well-established across the world and there are some inspiring examples of its use.
Africa
Zimbabwe has sixty schools designed using permaculture, with a national team working within the schools' curriculum development unit. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has produced a report on using permaculture in refugee situations after successful use in camps in Southern Africa and Macedonia.
Oceania
Australia
The development of permaculture co-founder David Holmgren's home plot at Melliodora, Central Victoria, has been well documented at his website and published in e-book format .
Designed from permaculture principles Crystal Waters is a socially and environmentally responsible, economically viable rural subdivision north of Brisbane (Australia), Crystal Waters was designed by Max Lindegger, Robert Tap, Barry Goodman and Geoff Young, and established in 1987. It received the 1996 World Habitat Award (assessed by Dr Wally N’Dow) for its "pioneering work in demonstrating new ways of low impact, sustainable living". 83 freehold residential and 2 commercial lots occupy 20% of the 259ha (640 acre) property. The remaining 80% is the best land, and is owned in common. It can be licensed for sustainable agriculture, forestry, recreation and habitat projects.
Asia
Indonesia
The Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture assisted in disaster relief in Aceh, Indonesia after the 2004 Tsunami. They have also developed Wastewater Gardens a small-scale sewage treatment systems similar to Reedbeds.
Europe
United Kingdom
Robert Hart's forest garden in Shropshire, England
There are a number of example permaculture projects in the UK, these include:
Robert Hart's forest garden located on the Welsh Borders in Shropshire. (the status and future of which, as of December 2005, remains uncertain due to disputes regarding land ownership since Hart's death in 2000).
Ragmans Lane, a 60 acre farm in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
Plants for a Future is a vegan-organic project based at Lostwithiel in Cornwall that is researching and trialing edible and otherwise useful plant crops for sustainable cultivation. Their online database currently features over 7,000 such species that can be grown within the UK. A collaborative version of the database is in development by the permaculture.info project. The project has a second, larger property in North Devon, which it looking for a new group to take over.
Prickly Nut Woods is a ten acre woodland near Haslemere, Surrey that is managed by Ben Law. He is using a 'whole system' permacultural approach, utilizing a wide variety of woodland products and documenting a complex web of relationships. He has built a house almost entirely using products from the woodland, which was featured in Channel 4's Grand Designs TV series.
Agroforestry Research Trust, a not for profit organistaion based in Dartington, Devon that runs a 2 acre forest garden and publishes the journal Agroforestry News
Middlewood Trust, a permculture based farm in North Lancashire running courses in permaculture, crafts, forestry and sustainability.
Other projects tend to be more community oriented, particularly in urban areas. These include Naturewise, a north London based group who tend a number of forest gardens and allotments as well as running regular permaculture introductory and design courses, and Organiclea, a workers co-operative who are involved in developing local food growing and distribution initiatives around the Walthamstow area of east Londony.
The UK Permaculture Association publishes an extensive directory of other projects and example sites throughout the country.
America
North America
Visit the Northeastern Permaculture Wikispace for a comprehensive listing of Events, Permaculture Groups, and Demonstration Sites in the Northeastern US and Canada.
Amazing example of urban permaculture in Los Angeles Path to Freedom Ideally, the Dervaes would reside on a couple of country acres in order to live the organic, self-sufficient eco-friendly and health conscious lifestyle they live. Instead, finding themselves in the middle of an urban landscape, on a simple city block in Pasadena, California, the five member family has transformed the 1/5 acre and city home into a sustainable urban homestead that provides them with enough organic and cancer prevention food that they have turned the excess crops into a lucrative home business.
The family is vegetarian, and the yard blooms with over 350 varieties of edible and useful plants. The 1/10 acre organic garden now grows over 6,000 pounds of organic produce each year. The money from the cottage-industry produce business helps fund purchases of solar panels, energy efficient appliances, and a biodiesel processor. The family makes their own vegetable oil-based bio-diesel fuel to run the family car. They have chickens and ducks, and compost with worms.
The Dervaes family is generous in the time they spend showing others what they are doing, from allowing local school children come take a tour to giving how-to workshops to keeping a blog Path to Freedom Journal. They protect their health, they protect the health of others, and they protect the health of the planet -- in the way they choose to live. All while living in the middle of a city on a small city lot.
Cuba
Cuba has in the past 18 years transformed their food production using bio-dynamic farming and permaculture. Havana produces up to 50% of its food requirements from within the city limits, all of it organic and produced by people in their homes, gardens and in municipal spaces. Read more about how and why the Cubans made this happen at The Power of Community It's very inspiring!
Permaculture Links:
Permaculture.org.uk
Permaculture Association
The Tree.org
Sources: Wikipedia
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