What Is Permaculture?
The term permaculture was coined in the late 1970’s by Bill Mollison, author of Permaculture Design Manual. Mollison used the term to represent methods of growing and living that have been used world wide for centuries, and which now mostly have been abandoned since the introduction of chemical-based living. Permaculture teaches how design your property to manage rainwater, stack functions so that each element works with the other, how to feed your soil rather than your plants, cut your costs considerably, and so much more. Permaculture is simple, inexpensive compared to modern gardening practices, and provides abundance. Every year there is better soil, better harvest, better habitat, cleaner and more abundant water, cleaner air, more efficient energy usage and so much more for so much less. Mollison says in permaculture, 99% your effort should in design, and 1% the labor, which is opposite of way gardens and homes are set up now are working too hard, your design needs adjustment.
I truly feel that only way to help curb the downslide of environment is show homeowners how to stop using chemicals their yard and home and live organically.
4 Comments
Diane
Hi Shirley! Thank you for reading and commenting. Welcome to the awesome practices of permaculture. Corporations control most of the main food crops in the Western world, and into other countries as well. Farmers must grow GMO corn and soybeans, which are modified to support chemical fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides, because corporations have the monopoly on the silos, trucks and processing plants. When people say that their grandparents ate everything and it was good for them they are being often deliberately ignorant of how our food supply has changed in the last sixty years. What is done to livestock is horrendous. What is done to food crops, where farmers must increase their holdings and yet work other jobs and still be financially in trouble, is insane. A great book to read is Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It will answer some of your questions – and create more – about our food supply. Corn, as you say, has had quite the history. I cannot eat produce out of the grocery store without cringing over the quality, the outrageous price, and the possibility of taking in toxins. The farming practices themselves involve cruelty to the earth and to animals, as well as the farmer workers exposed to the chemicals. The system is broken. We work very hard to grow a lot of our food, and being vegetarian that means a wide variety. However we can’t grow all of the protein that we need so it is back to soybeans. Permaculture fixes all of that, and it can be done (and is being practiced) on large scales. However it doesn’t line the pockets of Bayer, Monsanto, Troybuilt, Kelloggs, and so many more. Every little thing that you do has ramifications, so every small organic purchase, every time you choose not to use chemicals or kill wildlife, every time you repurpose, makes a small contribution to the positive. Thanks again for commenting! Diane
Shirley Jean Haney
Enjoyed this post. I am concerned about GMO corn because I think farmers work hard enough for what they get and I don’t like the idea of corporations profiting from hard work. I didn’t know of the expression permaculture before and now I do so thank you. Did you know that in Europe farmers are legally required to diversify their crops because it’s better for the soil. I find this interesting. It’s probably harder to fix soil once it’s wrecked than to maintain it. Corn is a GMO crap because it’s hard to grow- lots of it ends up as animal feed. So I’m especially concerned about corn. I remember being a child eating corn and with good corn you can very nearly taste the sunlight in it. I feel this sends a nonverbal sensory type of message to children about values without parents having to be tedious about it.
Diane
Hi Hal and Sharon, are you in San Diego, Riverside or Orange County? If you would like to set up a consultation, please email me at: finchfrolicgarden@gmail.com. Thanks!
Diane
Hal A Linebarger
Looking to design and plant trees and plants on 3 1/2 acres. Part of it is on a 30 to 40 degree hillside and portions of the land is on 10, 20 and 25 degree hillside. The property was all avacado trees, but we cut them down and a few have sprouted up from their trunk.
Hal & Sharon Linebarger