What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a design system that tries to mimic nature to create societies that are sustainable. Permaculture is often thought of as a gardening technique, but actually extends into all areas of life including town planning. Whenever you think about how you can improve efficiency by changing a process and minimizing inputs, you're thinking in a permaculture way.
Permaculturalists have many simple tools that they use to aid the thinking and design process.
Big Green Gathering
Learn about permaculture at the UK's green festival
The Big Green Gathering, running in the UK from 29th July to 2nd August has lots of good, green fun going on - and there's a special permaculture area brimming full of stalls, information stands, music, workshops, people care - there's even a seed swap, so don't forget to take your spare seeds!
Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability
Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability
Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 12/09/2009)
"In this challenging work, leading permaculture expert David Holmgren questions whether mainstream concepts of sustainability dodge the critical issue of global energy peak, and asks if there are ways to live within nature's limits whilst providing a secure future for our children and justice for everyone."
Permaculture Basics on the AKG
Learn all about the basics of permaculture - the mindset and some of the gardening tools (layers, zones, forest gardens, herb spirals and sheet mulch gardens) when you listen to episode 74 of the Alternative Kitchen Garden show. The Alternative Kitchen Garden show
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byPermaculture artichokes
Growing your own without spending a cent!
This is about 3/4 of my Jerusalem artichoke harvest.It may not be the world's largest harvest, but I'm proud of it because a) we always end up eating the artichokes and b) it didn't cost me a penny.
I first planted Jerusalem artichokes back in 2006. The artichokes themselves came from my weekly veg box. I potted them up into home-made compost, in large pots that had been liberated from a building site that was having some landscaping done (the pots would have been thrown away otherwise).
In 2007 I dug up and ate my harvest, and replanted 4 of my tubers into fresh home-made compost in the same tubs - and that's where this year's harvest has come from.
If that's not an example of applied permaculture principles, then I don't know what is.
I'm so proud of my Jerusalem artichokes that they were the subject of the first ever episode of The Alternative Kitchen Garden.
Using paper in the garden
Reduce your inputs by recycling your waste
Permaculture is all about cutting down on resource use and making the best use of the resources you have. That means reusing and recycling as much of your waste as possible.Even if you try and reduce your paper usage, most households still collect a lot of paper that needs to be reused or recycled. Check out this article on using waste paper in the garden for some ideas.
Forest gardens
A forest garden tries to mimic a natural, productive ecosystem by layering plants in specific niches. The end result is a low maintenance garden filled with useful plants that provide a year-round harvest.Read more about edible forest gardens in this article from The Telegraph.
Permaculture zones
The idea behind Permaculture zones is to make sure that everything is in the right place. Permaculturalists believe that towns and cities should be designed so that people can live and work in their local community - without having to travel long distances and waste fuel.In the garden, using permaculture zones in the design ensures that high maintenance plants are closest to the house and receive the most attention, whilst plants that can look after themselves for days at a time can be further away.
Read more about permaculture zones in gardens.
Layers
In a natural forest, plants fill every able niche to maximize production.In permaculture thinking, plants are assigned to layers and arranged so that they mimic a natural forest system and the maximum possible yield for the space.
Find out what the 7 layers of a forest garden are.
Herb spirals
A practical application of permaculture principles
Many people's first encounters with permaculture in a gardening context is an herb spiral.An herb spiral uses permaculture principles to design an herb garden that makes the best possible use of local conditions and microclimates to give each herb its ideal growing conditions.
Learn more about herb spirals.
The Edible Container Garden
Fresh Food from Tiny Spaces
The Edible Container Garden: Fresh Food from Tiny Spaces
Amazon Price: (as of 12/09/2009)
"You do not need a garden to grow delicious and decorative vegetables, fruit, herbs and edible flowers. A balcony will do, or a rooftop, windowsill, houseboat, or small backyard. All you require is some basic know-how. From design to harvest, this book provides everything you need to maximise your outdoor space and transform it into a colourful edible paradise."
Sheet mulch gardens
An easy way to make a new garden bed
Permaculture gardeners use sheet mulching to reclaim weedy ground and make new garden beds. It's a low effort project - there's no digging or weeding involved. It doesn't disturb the soil, and adds plenty of organic matter to keep the soil healthy and feed plants.Find out how easy it is to create a sheet mulch garden.
Comfrey
The permaculture plant
Comfrey is often referred to as 'the permaculture plant' because it has so many uses and therefore earns its place in a permaculture garden.Comfrey is edible, although most people find it unpalatable and it should not be consumed in large amounts. It can be used as animal fodder.
The real use of comfrey is to build fertility in the garden. Comfrey sends down deep roots and brings up minerals from the subsoil. Its leaves can be used as a compost activator, a nutritious mulch, or to make a liquid feed that's high in potash.
Learn more about comfrey in episode 7 of The Alternative Kitchen Garden, and read about growing your own fertilizer. Or check out the Comfrey lens!
The RISC rooftop forest garden
curated content from Flickr
Perennial Fruits and Vegetables
Permaculture places great emphasis on the use of perennial plants - because they give very good yields from minimal inputs of fertilizer, maintenance and effort.There are some very well-known perennial fruits and vegetables (including globe artichokes, rhubarb and tree crops like apples), but there are many more - there's a perennial crop to suit any area of the garden.
Read more about perennial fruits and vegetables that you could grow in your garden.
Permaculture websites
- Permaculture Magazine - solutions for sustainable living
- Permaculture Magazine, solutions for sustainable living. Articles, news, reviews, solutions, courses, classified ads etc. Helping to promote ecovillages, reduce carbon footprints, find solutions to peak oil, climate change and global warming. Links to the Green Shopping catalogue. Owned by Permanent
- Permaculture Activist
- Permaculture Activist, directory, permaculture design, permaculture design course, intentional community,ecovillage,agroforestry,aquaculture,natural building,seed sources,nurseries,alternative energy
- Spiralseed
- Spiralseed is a small independent publishing venture founded by Graham Burnett in 2001, for the purpose of sharing information as well as
produci - The Roof Garden
- Reading's unique permaculture roof garden. Using recycled materials, compost and a cornucopia of edible and medicinal trees, shrubs, herbs, flowers and climbing plants.
Display your love of permaculture
Permaculturalists unite! Leave a comment :o)
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- JoDeeVale JoDeeVale Jul 9, 2009 @ 8:35 pm
- Excellent lens! I have been a Permaculture fan for 15 years, so so! Lovely to see you here!
I have featured you on my new lens: http://www.squidoo.com/grey_water
Happy gardening and many blessings!
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- WritingforYourWealth WritingforYourWealth Mar 10, 2009 @ 2:00 am
- I like the traffic median guerrilla garden. :)
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- burntchestnut burntchestnut Mar 6, 2009 @ 5:44 am
- Interesting information and great links to other sites. I'm going to bookmark this lens to read again.
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- Graceonline Graceonline Jan 25, 2009 @ 9:32 pm
- Grateful to have stumbled across this excellent lens, which I will Stumble after leaving this comment. Good information, and I wish I didn't have to jump off the computer just now so I could listen to your episodes and read your blog. Lensrolling & favoriting, etc.
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- Snakesmum Snakesmum Nov 23, 2008 @ 9:07 pm
- Great lens, with some very useful information. Will be linking to this one when I get my lens on chickens finished. :-)
Jean
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by EmmaCooper
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