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to capture and use the orces o nature to benefit rom every component in our landscape, rather than con-tinuously attempting to mitigate the environmental damages resulting rom poor (or no) design.The benefits o design are not limited to the landscape. Properly designed roos and homes pro-tect and sustain their inhabitants. Sometimes the first step in practicing good design is recognizing bad design. For example, an inverted gable roo—resembling a butterfly taking flight—unnels rain, cold winds, and intense sunlight directly into the building it should protect. Similarly, the ront door o a traditionally designed home aces the road, regardless o whether the road lies to the east, west, north, or south. But i the house lies on a north-south axis, it inevitably overheats throughout the summer and remains dark and cold all winter. Instead, it makes sense to orient a house to ace the winter sun, so that sunlight can enter and heat the house in winter and the roo will block intense summer rays. By observing one simple rule, “unc-tion comes first,” we end the utile attempt to swim upstream and instead float downriver, navigating any obstacles with agility and ease. I you are interested in spending less time main-taining your landscape and more time enjoying it, then this book is or you. I you are concerned about decreasing your dependence on outside resources, then this book is or you. I you are curious about how to inexpensively extend your growing season, then this book is or you. The process o achieving all three Imagine engaging the ree orces o nature to benefit you and your environment. Water, wind, sunlight, convection, gravity, and decomposition—all o these energy sources can serve your needs. By making the right choices when we interact with nature, we create sustenance in our landscapes with little effort or work on our part. I we choose to let rainwater flow aimlessly rom our roofops and gutters, it will erode centuries o soil rom under our eet. Or we can choose to harness the potential o rainwater. When we harvest rainwater in a careully planned way, we can use it to heat and cool greenhouses and homes, to spread ertility through the landscape, to grow fish, to flush toilets, to clean chicken coops, and to irrigate plants and mushroom logs. Water has the power to destroy lie or support lie. The difference is in the design.Likewise, sunlight can simply bounce off the land-scape in winter, its energy wasted as we burn ossil uels to heat our homes and greenhouses. However, through design we can capture sunlight and use it to provide ree heat in winter and move heat through buildings. The powers o nature can be wasted or used to our benefit through intelligent design. Design can transorm waste into a resource. Wood chips and ood waste burden our urban and suburban waste collection systems. But through careul design we can combine the waste into active compost piles to capture heat or homes and greenhouses, while pro-ducing a high-quality source o ertility to eed the soil o arms and gardens. We have the opportunity
Introduction
Putting Nature to Work
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decreasing our energy consumption using passive solar techniques and greywater systems. Another lie-changing permaculture project occurred at the Ashevillage Institute in the tem-perate climate o Ashville, North Carolina. At this location I directed the design and built the land-scape, developing systems to harvest rainwater into ponds rom steep slopes on urban property. This was my first experience integrating ponds with greenhouses. Combined with raising chickens, this system became a sustainable example o ood production in an urban area with difficult terrain.Finally, the culmination o my experience has taken place at the Clemson University Student Organic Farm (SOF) and my current residence in the oothills o the Blue Ridge Mountains. These locations lie at the cooler northern edge o a humid subtropical climate that extends west to the middle o Texas and north along the coast to New Jersey. Working with students at the Clemson arm, I’ve created permaculture patterns—governing every-thing rom raising transplants and field design to reshwater prawn production and composting. These patterns have simplified the operation o our 125-share subscription arm while reducing our reliance on outside resources. At my 2-acre home-stead, in less time than it takes to mow, I’m building a you-pick ruit arm using permaculture patterns. The only labor my landscape requires is harvesting, and the only outside input I buy is a small amount o chicken eed. By careully employing gravity, rainwater harvesting ponds, and poultry systems, I maximize the power o nature to do the work or me.
A Unifying Principle
Creating new and innovative permaculture patterns is my passion. Permaculture patterns are replicable models easily repeated in diverse design settings. What exactly is permaculture? Permaculture is a o these goals is simple—put nature to work through intelligent design. That’s the basis o bio-integration.
In the Beginning
I remember the moment I first realized a plant could save me money and hours o backbreaking labor. Someone had planted comrey under grapevines at my home. Surprisingly, the vines closest to the comrey plants grew aster and produced more ruit. The comrey had prevented the growth o weeds and may have also ertilized the vines by pulling nutri-ents up rom deeper in the soil. A helpul neighbor, Rain Tenaqiya, author o
West Coast Food Forestry
, later inormed me that planting comrey under ruit trees is a common practice in permaculture.Immediately intrigued, I began experimenting with permaculture patterns at our arm in the Santa Cruz mountains o Caliornia. My wie Stephanie and I had recently been blessed by the birth o our daughter Sage. With little time and resources, I ound that permaculture offered me a way to spend time with our growing amily and run a nursery and edible flower operation. I integrated our nurs-ery operation under our ruit trees to capture water and nutrients, and I reduced inputs by cover crop-ping and employing no-till arming techniques. As a result, I saved an enormous amount o time, money, and energy.Afer seven years in this Mediterranean-like climate, we moved to the East Coast—a new canvas or practicing permaculture. I taught Master Gar-dener classes as an Extension agent or Clemson University, and in my off time I established the Urban Permaculture Institute o the Southeast. In the mild subtropical coastal climate, I turned ½ acre o poor sandy soil into a ertile ecosystem. Located in the heart o town, the institute’s no-maintenance, low-input system supplemented our diets through aquaculture, chickens, bees, and ood orestry while
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More about Permaculture
The term “permaculture” is a contraction o the words “permanent and agriculture” or “perma-nent and culture.” Permaculture encompasses ethics, principles, and techniques rooted in eco-logical designs, as well as the practices o ancient cultures and modern innovators. Permaculture ounder Bill Mollison believes people can create systems that unction as effortlessly as natural ecosystems, providing ood, energy, shelter, and other needs in a sustainable way. Permaculture ethics call or care o the earth, care o people, and setting limits on population and consumption.¹ Many permaculture teachers also ocus on a set o principles or truths to define the oundation o permaculture. Though sometimes differing in details, all the principles and truths aspire to the final goal o harmony. Here are the principles o the ounders o permaculture.
Bill Mollison’s Principles
1. Work with nature, rather than against the natural elements, orces, pressures, processes, agencies, and evolutions, so that we assist rather than impede natural development. 2. The problem is the solution; everything works both ways. It is only how we see things that makes them advantageous or not. A corollary o this principle is that everything is a positive resource; it is just up to us to work out how we may use it as such. 3. Make the least change or the greatest possible effect. 4. The yield o a system is theoretically unlimited. The only limit on the number o uses o a resource possible within a system is in the limit o the inormation and the imagination o the designer. 5. Everything gardens, or has an effect on its environment.
David Holmgren’s Principles²
1. Observe and interact. 2. Catch and store energy. 3. Obtain a yield. 4. Apply sel-regulation, and accept eedback. 5. Use and value renewable resources and services. 6. Produce no waste. 7. Design rom patterns to details. 8. Integrate rather than segregate. 9. Use small and slow solutions. 10. Use and value diversity. 11. Use edges, and value the marginal. 12. Creatively use and respond to change.
uses twelve guiding principles, which he described in his book
Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability
. Ben Falk, a designer living in Vermont, created seventy-two guiding principles in his 2013 book,
The Resilient Farm and Homestead
. design system based on ethics and principles cre-ated by Australian naturalist Bill Mollison and his inormal student David Holmgren. Bill Mollison presented five guiding principles in his book
Per-maculture: A Designers’ Manual
. David Holmgren