Permaculture is a design system for creating abundance and repairing problems humans have caused in the world. It’s a worldview and a lifestyle. It’s about caring for people, the earth and the future. To put it simply, permaculture works with nature instead of against it. In nature, ecosystems regenerate and are self-maintaining. Permaculture practitioners observe these natural functions and patterns and attempt to recreate them in their own backyards.

In my case—and in most cases, I would imagine—I had been growing organically for years, intuitively and unwittingly using some permaculture methods for decades before I learned of the movement. However, I’d been missing a few key concepts that hampered my garden growing successes. Once I discovered the subtleties of permaculture and its holistic approach, it changed my life. 

I learned to observe my surroundings with a keener eye, with a greater awareness of any waste. Now I feel foolish for having ever bought fertilizer. I select plants that will flourish in my climate and increase my health and my food security. I am committed to leaving my little plot of earth better than I found it—my legacy and a gift to future generations.

Biodiverse plant selections are also curated for beauty, which excites my inner artist. So many colors and textures and fragrances please all the senses. But it’s so much more than just gardening. It’s the way we approach energy, technology and transportation. It is social — creating community, sharing resources, collaborating on efforts. The principals can even be applied to everyday issues such as how we approach finances and relationships or how we solve problems. It is a strategy for global ethics and affects how we interact and trade. 

The History of Permaculture

Bill Mollison developed the permaculture system in 1970s as a design science using practical strategies for permanent sustainable activity. The movement started in Australia and has spread throughout the world. There is no centralized organization governing this system. Students own it. Permaculture practitioners are a passionate group of people. I love to follow #permaculture hashtags on social media to see what others are up to and to find any events in my area.

Permaculture can even mean different things to different people, but the general idea is of perm(anence) and culture (both social culture and the enrichment of soil). Culture in biology means maintaining conditions suitable for growth. It is a design system for abundance in the present and both sustainable and regenerative for the future. Permaculture has developed its own terminology. Here are a few to get you started…

Permaculture Terms and Catch Phrases:

Here are just a few of the words and phrases you’ll hear in permaculture discussions:

• The problem is the solution. (You don’t have a slug problem, you have a duck deficiency.)
• Maximum output for the minimum input. (Input = what you put into the system, such as fertilizer.) For example: Chicken input = feed, insects, water / Chicken output = egg, manure, feathers
• Maximizing hammock time. (Letting nature do the work for you.)
• Closing the loop. (Turning waste into a resource that is reused, so there is no waste in the system.)
• Microclimate = a climatic or atmospheric condition in a relatively small area within canopies of vegetation that differs from surrounding areas. It can be hotter or cooler, sunnier or shadier, moister or dryer than other regions in the vicinity. 

Getting my permaculture design certification (PDC) was a transformative experience. Most of the big players in permaculture are men (Bill Mollison, David Holmgren, Geoff Lawton, Toby Hemenway just to name a few). For that reason, I chose to get my certification through permaculturewomen.com (men are being certified here too). It draws on the wisdom of a lot of amazing women from around the world and I really enjoyed learning from them in their own unique environments. Nothing against the guys, it just made me feel more nurtured and less intimidated by the whole learning process. You don’t need to earn a PDC to begin a permaculture lifestyle and there are many free (or donation-based) programs out there if you just want to apply the principles to your life without becoming a designer. Just find a situation that makes sense to you and begin your journey! 

Permaculture Ethics

These ethics are a tool to help us evaluate our choices and guide us toward the best possible outcome. There are a lot of variations — traditionally Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share, but here is my personal take on it…

• Earth Care
  We need to nurture the earth so it can nurture us. We should not support anything that destroys the natural functions of our planet, which would come with huge consequences. If we can reduce our impact on the environment, all living things can thrive.
  
• People Care (Fair Share)
  We need to collaborate to effect change. We should work together and help each other instead of trying to compete. To live in effective community, we have to work together and nurture each other. If we begin with ourselves, striving towards self-reliance and accepting personal responsibility, we can then focus on others in our community and world—taking only what we need and sharing what we don’t.
  
• Future Care 
  Living sustainably and regeneratively to protect the future of our plant and environment for future generations. Nature is resilient. We can heal and repair what we’ve done. This should be our legacy. 

A permaculture system should be designed to be long-lasting and low-maintenance. They should provide not only their own needs, but that of the people caring for them. They should conserve or store more energy than we use to construct them.

Key Principles in Permaculture

There are many permaculture principles, but these fundamental concepts really sum it up for me:

• Work with nature, not against it.
• Make the least change for the greatest possible effect.
• Each element should perform many functions. 
• Biodiversity and functional connections between design elements creates stability in the system.
• The yield of a system is limited only by the knowledge and creativity of the designer.

Embracing these core ideas will give you the confidence to launch into more complex applications. We should strive to produce no waste, respect all life, and value people and their skills, and involve as many people as possible in our projects.

I’ve found that it’s best to absorb the permaculture principles over time. Sit on your favorite outdoor swing, bench or hammock and ponder them for a while before acting on them. They can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but with time, patience and a lot of experimentation — there will be many successes.

It can become a world-changing lifestyle!

We are more a part of nature than most of us want to admit, and nature is resilient. But we need to partner with it more. We can repair the problems we’ve created in the world. But first, we need to be more mindful of our impact on the earth — and then begin to take regenerative steps.

We can change the world through permaculture…

“The world provides enough to satisfy everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.” 

- Mahatma Gandhi