INTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE DESIGN

Transcription

1 INTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE DESIGN WHAT IS PERMACULTURE? The word Permaculture was coined in the late 1970 s, but the practice draws on the wisdom of preexisting horticultural practices. More than just permanent agriculture, it is a method for designing the most effective ways for humans to live in harmony with the earth and one another. It uses principles of nature for creating sustainable systems, including communities, businesses, in addition to horticultural systems of useful plants. PERMACULTURE ETHICS Care for the Earth Care for the People Share the surplus (fair share) 1

2 PRINCIPLES Permaculture practitioners use guiding principles which inform the design process. There are many versions of Permaculture principles; here are mine: Synergy: Example: plants growing together that help one another grow better (companion planting; plant guilds described below). Dynamic: Taking into consideration the evolving and changing nature of systems. Stability: Multiple ways to accomplish the same end, such as having catchment water in addition to city water redundant systems. Diversity: Example: having a great variety of plants to harvest food throughout the entire year, to reduce susceptibility to any one kind of plant pest, and to attract more diverse insect visitors to the garden which prey on the plant-eating bugs. Increasing Edge is one way of increasing diversity, since it creates new niches. Feedback: Observing past performance in order to improve future results (unlike our economy..). Efficiency Obtained many ways: locating garden components close to one another; elements serving multiple functions, letting natural processes replace human labor. Etc. Example, growing comfrey next to fruit trees automatically mulches the trees, saving time and labor from having to bring mulch from outside sources. 2 ZONES Zone 1 - Home Garden - Nearest to the house, the location for elements requiring daily visits, e.g., chickens, the kitchen garden, the herb garden, greenhouse and cold frames, propagation area, worm compost bin for kitchen waste, etc. Zone 2 - Orchard. Used for perennial plants that require less frequent maintenance, such as occasional weed control (preferably through natural methods such as spot-mulching) or pruning, including currant bushes and orchards. This would also be a good place for beehives, larger scale compost bins, etc. Zone 3 - Market Production. The area where market crops are grown, both for domestic use and for trade purposes. After establishment, care and maintenance required are fairly minimal provided mulches, etc. are used for watering or weed control.

3 Zone 4 - Foraging Semi-wild. This zone is mainly used for foraging and collecting wild food as well as timber production. An example might be coppice-managed woodland. Zone 5 - Wild area. No human intervention apart from the observation of natural eco -systems and cycles. Here we get our inspiration from Nature, to better understand and apply natural principles. SECTORS Sectors are a way of considering the external energies that move through a system such as prevailing wind direction, site orientation and aspect (north, south, east, west, etc.), winter/summer sun paths, underlying geological make up (bed rock causing clay or sandy soil types, etc.), frost pockets and where the deer move through the land. Recognizing these energies is important for figuring out how to utilize or counter such factors. PATTERNS All elements in the landscape are composed of patterns. Patterns are not random events but are the result of an interaction between materials and processes. Pattern making with a purpose is design. Natural patterns include waves, streamlines, cloud forms, spirals, lobes, branches, scatters, nets and webs, crystals and fractals. Some examples of garden bed patterns in Permaculture are herb spiral gardens and keyhole gardens. 3

4 Herb Spiral An Herb Spiral garden is an efficient use of space, and creates diverse micro-climates for perennial herbs. The slopes on the spiral hill face south, west, east and north to favor the different needs of diverse herbs. ELEMENTS IN A PERMACULTURE DESIGN Keyhole Garden A path in the middle of a round bed can maximize the bed space relative to the path space and still permit all parts of the bed to be reached without walking on it: access by proximity. Keyhole paths may be expanded as fractal patterns in larger garden layouts which are esthetically pleasing, while enabling access to tend the bed plantings. 4

5 Sheet Mulched Garden Bed Sheet-mulching garden beds can be done directly over grass or weeds by using a layer of manure or organic material to encourage worms, followed by a weedbarrier (such as cardboard). The cardboard may be covered with 12 of topsoil, which can be planted with vegetables. Alternatively, holes may be punched in the cardboard and plants placed in the holes with a garden topsoil mix. A top mulch of bark, straw, etc. can be used to hold down the cardboard and make the bed more esthetically pleasing. Sheet mulching may be used for annuals or perennials. Annual Vegetables Permaculture strategies for annual vegetables are similar to good organic gardening practices, with some differences. Rather than planting monocultures, Polyculture benefits plant health and productivity. Herbivore pests have more difficulty locating their desired plants when they are interspersed among diverse plantings. Polyculture planting can provide companion benefits and synergy for higher productivity. Polycultured plants that have different root depth and sun requirements enable them to be grown together without competing with one another. Mixing beneficial flowers in with vegetables provides habitat for valuable insects that prey on herbivore insect pests. Allowing some vegetables to go to flower and seed also provides more diverse habitat for beneficials and enables seeds to be saved at the end of the season. Permanent no till beds are another Permaculture strategy for annual gardens. No-till methods retain the natural soil structure with pores and particles glued by micro-organisms that keep the soil from compacting after tilling. Tilling produces a flush of aerobic (oxygen-fed) activity which releases nutrients immediately, but depletes the soil of organic material and nitrogen afterwards. The carbon combines with oxygen and evaporates in the form of CO2 when oxygen is introduced by tilling. Beneficial microorganisms and mycorrhyzal fungi get established over time when in undisturbed soil, and decayed roots provide aeration and places for earthworms and water to more easily penetrate the soil. Fertility is fed regularly to no-till beds by adding rich mulch to the surface, which decomposes at the soil-mulch interface and is taken into the depths of the soil by earthworms. 5

6 Garden Bed Options Row cropping is a conventional method, that is required for tractor work in commercial scale vegetable farming, but is an inefficient space utilization layout design. Raised beds enhance drainage, soak up the sun s heat better, and are attractive esthetically - in addition to facilitating weeding and mulching because they are separated from the paths. They are ideal for keeping permanent beds from being walked on. Wood sides can be used to contain the soil for raised beds, but need to be untreated wood, which can then rot over time. Cedar lasts longer than fir, but is expensive. Wood beds also necessitate rectangular beds, rather than irregular or curved beds. Wood sides can also harbor slugs and pill bugs. Stone retainer walls are good for adding heat to the beds, look beautiful, and last for- 6

7 ever, but are the most expensive for materials and labor. Natural stone or urbanite (recycled concrete chunks) can be dry-stacked or mortared to create retaining walls. Cast concrete stone is more easily used to create tall retaining walls on a hillside, because of interlocking tabs that provide structural integrity. Sloped Mounds are a good choice for garden beds that are inexpensive to build, soak up the heat well, and can be curved to make any shape desired by the designer, as for example keyhole beds. The soil tends to hold its shape when untilled, and the soil which falls down into the paths can be piled back on the beds periodically. Bed Construction Sheet-mulched beds over lawn or weed fields are much easier to initiate than tilling and weeding to prepare new garden beds, but may take more years before the worms penetrate and loosen the soil underlying the sheet mulched bed. Tilled beds (or double-dug beds, if a person has way too much energy) provide greater productivity sooner than sheet mulched beds, although they require considerably more work. Even if a rota-tiller is used for tilling, the weeds have to be removed by hand or they will soon overtake the planted crops. Hugelkultur Soil may be piled on top of woody debris in a hill culture, which enables rotting material to add organic material and moisture to the bed, in addition to being a use for excess yard waste. Sepp Holzer named and described this method of growing. 7

8 Perennial Plants Perennial plants are desirable in Permaculture design. They do not need to be planted every year, so they require less maintenance and feeding. They are especially important in the outer zones and stacked planting systems, but even in annual garden beds, adding in perennial plants enhance soil fertility. The roots of perennial plants penetrate the soil, and the root surface has high levels of metabolic breakdown activity in the soil. Even weeds can enhance the fertility of garden beds via their active root surfaces. In temperate climates perennial plants tend to be fruits and nuts, but there are some perennial vegetables, including the commonly known artichoke and asparagus. Less common are perennial broccoli, sorrel, perennial arugula, ostrich fern, fuki, cardoon, Egyptian walking onions, sea kale, sun chokes, and spikenard. Agroforestry is another valuable perennial culture system for producing native wildlife habitat, wood and other forest products and improving soil fertility. Pastures are another strategy for taking advantage of the efficiency of perennials to improve soil fertility and provide forage for grazing animals. Animals Many Permaculture designs involve animals. Chickens can be used for weed and pest control and for production of eggs, meat and fertilizer. Bees increase productivity by pollinating, and produce honey. Larger livestock is appropriate on sites with sufficient acreage; particularly ruminants (cows and sheep) are efficient producers of protein (and fiber) by converting perennial pastures into useable products for humans. Animals are an element which can occupy niches in a system to make the system more productive. 8

9 RELATIONSHIP IN PERMACULTURE DESIGN Relationship is a key concept for the placement of circulation systems and areas where activities take place. Putting things in the right place on a site is essential to making useful connections. The effect of not paying attention to relationships is extra effort to meet needs not met within the system and waste of system outputs. Plant relationships with one another are an essential part of design. Polyculture 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, multicropping, and inter-cropping. In the Native American Three Sisters polyculture, the beans supply nitrogen in the soil, the corn provides scaffolding for the beans and the squash creates a living mulch to shade out weeds and retain moisture. Plant Associations 9

10 Guilds Permaculture guilds are plant associations which work well together. In the forest plants grow together that are able to survive and support one another s growth. Guilds can be thought of as an extension of companion planting. 10

11 Stacking The plants soil root and sun needs have to be considered when stacking plants together. Forest Garden Putting together many guilds can create an edible food forest or Forest Garden. 11

12 Rather than randomly clustering guilds on the landscape, an entire Forest Garden can be laid out to create a whole system design such as this sun trap design. Additional Elements Consider these in relationship to the rest of the plant and animal elements previously discussed when putting together a whole system design: Water catchment systems - taking advantage of storing precipitation or runoff by storing it for use during seasons when it is needed. 12

13 Greenhouses - attached to buildings for additional heating and growing plants, or freestanding for growing producing plants and plant starts. People facilities: Gazebos, eating areas, firepit gathering places, etc. Ponds serve multiple purposes: water storage, aquaculture, and adding biodiversity. Compost is essential to continually build fertility in the soil; there are a variety of different compost systems to recycle biological materials. 13

14 DESIGN PROCESS: Permaculture is a design methodology. Using design principles to take into consideration the existing site situation, the user(s) desires, the elements and their relationships is part of the whole systems design process. Permaculture design can be done on the fly - or can be organized inside a person s mind. However it is often worth sketching out the design. This necessitates a plot plan - which if not available, can be created by estimating distances and relationships, by accurate measurements, and/or through the use of aerial photographs (online Google Earth, egs.) RESOURCES: - click on resources for further links to permaculture websites, videos, and written materials BOOKS: Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture 2 nd Edition By Toby Hemenway. Chelsea Green Pub. Co., White River Junction, VT. particularly suited for the Pacific Northwest SITE CONSULTATION: Contact Kitsap Tilth info@kitsaptilth.org to arrange a residential or farm site evaluation and consultation