anna's permaculture page

   “… a design system for creating sustainable human environments. The word itself is a contraction not only of permanent agriculture but also of permanent culture, as cultures cannot survive for long without a sustainable agricultural base and land use ethic. On one level, permaculture deals with plants, animals, buildings, and infrastructures (water, energy, communications). However, permaculture is not about these elements themselves, but rather about the relationships we can create between them by the way we place them in the landscape.” ('Introduction to Permaculture' 1991)

“...taking natural ecosystems as the model for our own human habitats”

“...can be described as: careful thought followed by minimum action, rather than hasty action followed by long-term regrets.” ('The Earth Care Manual' 2004)

There are many different definitions for permaculture.
This naturally reflects the nature of this design system.
Since being formulated in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, it has constantly evolved through being taught and implemented within widely different cultural and climatic contexts.

To my understanding permaculture has emerged from the clash of two paradigms, as illustrated below:

  
    Personally.... I was born in 1974, roughly around the time permaculture first started being formulated.
The clash of paradigms has been the background music to my whole life.
My own first gardening attempts, for example, were interrupted by the intangible silent-death-threat of the Chernobyl explosion.
I remember I had just got excited about seeing fresh green things sprout from brown soil, when I was being told that that very soil could be deadly poison - not to be touched. I sat down and wrote a letter to our Prime Minister (“Dear Mr. Kohl, Enough is enough...”)
My elders told me to give my best to school and further education systems that promised to support me in finding fulfillment in life.
Meanwhile the very foundation stones of my life - living soil, clean air and the creatures sharing this planet with me – were, one by one, being denied the right to exist. What a fundamentally disturbing environment to grow up in. I was given every luxury a comfortable western middle-class existence could provide, while the very things that could provide meaning to that existence were disappearing imperceptibly - nearly before I could miss them.

The unease arising from that cognitive dissonance drives me to examine all I have been told. Occasionally I turn it upside down and squint at it, in case it make more sense that way.

I do not claim that permaculture holds all the answers.
The reason I concern myself with it is this:
Permaculture fundamentally deals with relationships.

When you look at the world from a permaculture perspective, you see things more clearly. Just like when you squeeze your eyes half-shut, your focus changes. You squint, and you become aware of the bigger picture.

You might be staring at a particular problem.
But forget about that for a minute and watch those lines of connection – how they dance. How they lead your eye astray.
Anything you might contemplate is defined as much by its physical characteristics and manifestations as by its relationships to many other things. A thing in itself it meaningless. Context is everything.
That problem is only a problem because it is fixed in place by these lines, right there in front of you. The problem seems immovable.
But play around with those lines of connection (I think they are a cool light yellow in colour) and you realize you can tug at them, change them and swing that old problem around very easily, until it comes to rest, with a comfortable thump, in a different position.
And that means it is not sitting right in front of you anymore!
It's way over there, doing a better job quite happily.
Thus problems turn into solutions.

Maybe you have a problem with a leaky pond.
Maybe you want to grow pumpkins, but have no land of your own.
Maybe you have too many stones in your soil.
Could be that your house is always cold.
Perhaps you have no money, but a story to tell.
There are many different ways to approach these issues. Looking at their connection to the rest of your world draws your attention to options you didn't know you had.

You may have to turn around a few times, like a dog in his basket, but that's all part of finding a comfortable position. There are no easy answers. But that is not because things are mean and hopeless, but because nature is amazingly complex and deeper than we can fathom.

As a culture, we have been focusing on material objects for so long, we have got short-sighted. Becoming used to the wider view will involve a few dizzy spells.

There comes a point when vertigo threatens to overwhelm you. But stay nimble on you feet, even on the edge of a precipice. Do a little dance step and wriggle, and reconsider the situation: As you take up your new position, you become aware of those light yellow threads.
They are everywhere around you. You are connected. Without ever lifting a finger, you are held, securely.
It never could be any other way. We are part of what goes on, for good or for bad.
The more of the connecting threads stretch out to powerfully positive things, the better.

The bigger picture is always subject to the laws of the natural world.
This is why permaculture concerns itself with the basics of making a life in the natural world. Food, Water, Shelter, Community. Satisfying these basic human needs in a way that allows for the continuation of the species is an art we have yet to learn.
 
To quote from 'The Earth Care Manual' by Patrick Whitefield:
“Permaculture takes a wider view, looking at all the inputs to a system, all the outputs flowing from it, both desirable and undesirable, and its relationship to the whole. This is not to say that many practitioners of organics, appropriate technology and so on, don't also take a wide view. The difference is that it's intrinsic to permaculture...

  
2011 Permaculture Courses

Grow Your Own Food	Practical Permaculture
Friday night, Sat + Sun	Friday night, Sat + Sun
€150	€150
How to create and maintain the right conditions for successful food production.	Skills for a sustainable future.