Permaculture: Sustainable Living

How often have you seen the word permaculture, been intrigued by it, then researched it only to say to yourself “Huh?” ….. Me too, me too!

I have been slowly incorporating permaculture principles into my life for about 4 years now. I think when we first come across the idea it can seem like a daunting set of rules, and therefore many people can't seem to wrap their heads around it or even picture how they could apply them. Focusing on 1 idea or principle at a time can make it easier to accomplish the main goals and work towards the idea of sustainability.

Permaculture can be as simple or as complicated as we make it. On the most basic level even just growing a garden is classified as permaculture living. On a larger scale, permaculture principles have the power to change societies.

In this brief introduction my goal is to explain the basics of permaculture in an easy-to-understand way.

The Basics - What is Permaculture?

I consider permaculture to be a design system that helps us to live a more functional, meaningful, and regenerative life. It allows for the human-nature connection to be rediscovered and reciprocated.

In the 70’s the concept of Permaculture (Permanent Agriculture) emerged from the minds of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Tasmania, Australia. It was seen as a response to the environmental and agricultural crises of the time. Today it has expanded beyond agriculture and aims to also address social and economic issues including sustainability, resource management, and reciprocity.

Permaculture is a design system for sustainable land use and sustainable living - David Holmgren

A sustainable system is any system that in its lifetime can produce more energy than it takes to establish and maintain it - Bill Mollison

Core Ethics of Permaculture

At the very foundation of permaculture, there are three ethics for sustainable design:

• Earth Care - care for our Earth, our home, and the actions we take daily to sustain ourselves and our ecosystems.
• People Care - mutual aid, community, how we show respect for our land & ancestors, reciprocity, co-creating a more just world and breaking old patterns.
• Fair Share - passing on surplus, less is more, sharing seeds, knowledge or skills for others to thrive, using your voice for good.

12 Permaculture Principles

These are the tools that aim to help you ponder, design, and create a more sustainable life. One that works in harmony with nature, encouraging diversity, resilience and providing practical solutions for improved holistic well-being.

1. Observe & Interact - learning from nature and other humans
2. Catch & Store Energy - renewable energy, growing food
3. Obtain a Yield - holistic gardening, stored power and heat
4. Self Regulation & Feedback - record everything, analyze 
5. Use Renewables - sun, wind, water power, catch rainwater
6. Produce No Waste - move towards minimizing waste, vote with your dollar
7. Design Patterns & Detail - think holistically, look at the big picture
8. Integrate don't Segregate - grow diverse systems, polyculture, collaboration 
9. Slow Solutions - start small, replace things only as they break
10. Value Diversity - garden, home or social, the more the merrier
11. Use Edges - make use of what you’ve got, think outside the box
12. Get Creative with Change - it’s inevitable, design for change

Permaculture in practice

Ok, so now what?…. It's no secret that we have inherited a world where the current societal model is incredibly unsustainable. As someone who grew up in the ’90s, I can remember it being drilled into us about green peace movements and recycling programs… turn off your lights, drive less, reduce plastics and you too can save the earth slogans. Those concepts were nice sure, but they didn't and don't solve many of the problems that we are currently facing. Big industry fed us the message that we as individual humans were the problem, never accepting their own responsiblilty for the hundreds of years of industrialization, greed, profit over people and environmental crisis after crisis.

Permaculture gives us real time solutions to real time problems. Big and small. It gives us solutions we can see in action on all levels and ecosystems. It might seem like it's too far out of reach or too complicated to implement in our daily lives but if broken down into bite size pieces it is achievable. Whether you homestead, live in an apartment or live in the suburbs the design tools permaculture provides can help us live like it truly matters. It can and will positively impact our lives and the environment while simultaneously reducing reliance on the system.

Where to start today

The first step is to start thinking about permaculture living and how it could fit into your life. Pick any of the following to get the ball rolling, this list is not extensive, just a few ideas to get you moving in the right direction.

• Observe your surrounding, journal about what you see throughout the seasons
• Think about why, where and how you could benefit from this mindset
• Apply the 12 Principles to your life or simply start with 1
• Plant something, anything, obtain a harvest
• Consider how you can reduce, conserve and focus on sustainable practices
• Research the land you live on. This website is helpful - Native Land
• Consider where you could give back or pay it forward in your life

This introduction was just a brief overview of the ethics and principles of permaculture living. I will be spending more time over the coming months sharing specific things I have done on my homestead that fall in line with permaculture values and ways you can apply them to your current living situation.

“the only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children” - Bill Mollison

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~K