Permaculture Techniques Create Sustainable Gardens

Permaculture is a term coined in the mid 1970s to describe a landscape designed to provide sustainable environments suitable for providing humans with food, fiber, energy and habitat.

Permaculture “gardens” mimic patterns of growth and inter-relationship found in nature, and include (indeed, anticipate) human presence in this natural world. These deliberate landscapes provide food, fiber, energy and the benefits of a restored and protected natural system. In these designs plants and animals are integrated into an evolving system of perennial or self-perpetuating species.

Permaculturists strive to create “ecologically sound, economically prosperous human communities” guided by a set of ethical principles:

1. Care for the Earth
2. Care for People
3. Share the Surplus

From these ethical principles a set of design principles emerge and are used to guide the design of sustainable systems. Many of the design principles draw inspiration from our present day understanding of how natural ecosystems work, while others come from long-term societies and notions of sustainability.

As the practice of permaculture evolves, adaptive practitioners describe its fundamental aspects in various ways. David Holmgren, a pioneer in development of the concept, lists these 12 Principles:

1. Observe and Interact
2. Catch and Store Energy
3. Obtain a Yield
4. Apply Self-regulation and Accept Feedback
5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
6. Produce No Waste
7. Design from Patterns to Details
8. Integrate Rather than Segregate
9. Use Small and Slow Solutions
10. Use and Value Diversity
11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal
12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change

In designing and implementing a permaculture landscape, we seek to follow these guidelines as they show us how to help our yard’s ecosystem thrive and increase in diversity, health, abundance and beauty. By doing so we create a living ecosystem within this small local landscape that eventually and over time will itself perform much of the typical ‘landscaping work’ for the gardener (fertilizing, weeding, pest control) while providing useful harvests of food, plant and animal habitat, and vital aesthetic comfort.

Research Resources

Ecological Gardens

Permaculture Resource Guide (pdf): A must-read piece for anyone interested in permaculture landscaping and gardening, written by our friends at Ecological Gardens.

Holmgren, David Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability Holmgren Design Services. Hepburn, Australia; 2002.

Hemenway, Toby Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture Chelsea Green Publishing Company. White River Junction, Vermont; 2000.

Mollison, Bill Permaculture: A Designers Manual Tagari Press. Australia.

http://www.pathtofreedom.com An urban homesteading project in Pasadena, California. A family of 5 are steadily working towards turning their ordinary city lot into a permaculture garden providing them with food all year round and in the process have created a wonderful website.

http://www.permaculturecollaborative.us The website for the Minnesota Permaculture Collaborative and the Permaculture Research Institute: Cold Climate.