What is Permaculture - A Primer in Pictures and Patterns - PART 1

Is it a community of doomer hippies? An incomprehensible internet meme for do-gooders who hate lawns and love fermenting things? A clever rebranding scheme for the organic farming movement thought up by wayward corporate marketing gurus? A cult for Gaia-worshipping environmentalists? A secret society for foraging herbalist hedgewitches?

WHAT IS PERMACULTURE? 

After 6 years, 100 posts, over 100,000 page views, and hundreds of followers, I've never written a post answering that question! 

Why? 

Because there are already so many good treatments of the topic on the nets. Why re-re-reinvent the wheel when the internet's rolling along just merily without me. Instead, this is an invitation to explore those fine resources, a visual exploration of the common "patterns" that have come to most define Permaculture.  

And besides, why author yet another definition when Permaculture creators Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, along with their early-adopter colleagues (especially Rosemarry Morrow) defined Permaculture very eloquently, simply, narrowly and precisely from the start:

Permaculture is a system for designing human habitats (including landscapes, homesteads, homes, towns, cities, organizations and ultimately societies) which starts with ethics and principles, and uses "patterns" derived from natural systems, sustainable societies, and research-based practices. And the guiding GOAL of Permaculture is right in its name: to create "permanent" (sustainable, regenerative) "cultures." 

But a great deal of ambiguity and confusion remains. There are many reasons for this. The first is founder Bill Mollison's own penchant for marketing and provocation. While always maintaing a formal definition of Permaculture, he quite often used short, catchy descriptions tailored to the interests of the audience, like:

Permaculture is REVOLUTION disguised as GARDENING.

and 

Permaculture is working with nature, instead of against it. 

But the ambiguity is also somewhat deserved, as Permaculture has probably become a variety of things beyond its original intent. The word has indeed become a trendy marketing term for all things sustainable, hippie, foodie, and new-age. Many projects and products proudly wear the term "Permaculture" whether they have anything to do with Permaculture design, or its key patterns, or not. This is especially true of farms, although Mollison himself said "the last thing any of us should be doing is any kind of farming!" The relationship between farming and Pemraculture is... complicated. 

And Permaculture has also become a community or movement of people interested in all things sustainable, hippie, foodie and new-agey. This often includes conventional farming, natural building, an almost spiritual devotion to "hugelkultures" and rocket stoves, intentional communities, animal husbandry (whether humane or not) and over-alls. 

And of course, Permaculture has become a "world-view" if not an outright religion with a clergy, cosmology, commandments, and unquestionable dogmas. Perhaps this was inevitable, since Permaculture can be a mind-blowing perspective shift for many people - one that often inspires the  the "cult" in Permaculture (a pun that goes back to Mollison himself.)

As you might have guessed, I'm sometimes ambivalent (if not outright concerned) about these other forms of "Permaculture." Yet, I remain convinced that Permalture Design's primary insight is one of paradigm-shifting importance: that we can use nature-inspired DESIGN to solve our problems, both personal and societal, and create more beautiful, just and sustainable lives and societies. 

And because a picture is worth a thousand bon-mots, we'll be visually exploring the patterns that most define Permaculture. 

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Permaculture is DESIGN

Whether a landscape, homestead, garden, farm, business, organization, community, or building, a Permaculture site grows along a planned, on-paper design. It doesn't have to be a fancy computer-generated pro design. These are some of the early design sketches for Lillie House. 

Permaculture follows ETHICS and PRINCIPLES

The ethics and principles have undergone a series of revisions and drafts, yet remain consistent at their core. One version of the ethics is "Earth care, people care, fair share." There are a veriety of write-ups of the two sets of principles, the Mollison principles, and the Holmgren principles. The Holmgren principles include things like "obtain a yield," "use slow, small solutions," and "Observe and interact." This image is from Permacultureprinciples.com  which is the best place to explore and learn about these principles. The site Permacultureprinciples.org has an interpretation of the Mollison principles. 

The Permaculture design system uses a process, which begins with observation.

These are some common observation tools used in a design, as applied to our site at Lillie House, including sun angles, precipitation, microclimate patterns, elevation, heat and cold, etc. This is generally the first step in a design process, and is usually taught and required in a Permaculture Design Certificate Course.  

Permaculture uses observational tools like Zone and Sector Analysis. 

Zone analysis looks at where to place "patterns" and land uses, like gardens, ponds and sheds, by how often you'll need to visit them and how much energy they take to work. Sector analysis looks at "energy flows" that enter and leave the property, like sun, wind, wildlife and traffic, so that we can choose how to deal with them positively. This zone diagram from Toby Hemenway's Gaia's Garden is a classic. 

Permaculture Designs place an emphasis on a "Zone 1" kitchen garden.

This most valuable and most productive garden is situated right outside the door, near to the home, where it can be harvested and looked after every day. It is usually an herb garden, a vegetable garden, a fruit orchard and flower garden all in one. Setting up this most important garden that will have the highest productivity and the highest impact on our health is usually the first task in a Permaculture design. Of course, not all sites include kitchens, let alone homes, so not all sites will have a kitchen garden or a zone 1.

Permaculture analyses relative location and interconnectivity

We attempt to make systems look like connected ecosystems, where the needs of each element are met by other elements in the system. The analysis of the chicken has been the standard example since Mollison. 

Permaculture stacks functions and connects elements to save work, time and resources.

Understanding the chicken, we can put it to work controlling pests, fertilizing our gardens, turning our compost and heating our greenhouse, all while providing good nutrition, natural habitat, and comfortable shelter to our chicks! This is relationship design going back to Mollison's Permaculture Designer's Manual. 

Permaculture designs often resemble indigenous societies, such as the "home garden" pattern found around the world. 

The term "home garden" is closely related, and sometimes a synonym for the terms "forest garden" and "food forest." This brilliant diagram is from the study "Home Gardens in Nepal."

Notice how similar that looks to this sketch of a Balkan Ecology Project (Balkep) site. For me, Balkep is one of the most inspiring cutting-edge, research-based Permaculture projects today! It also closely resembles our design at Lillie House. 

Permaculture heavily relies on "forage systems" 

These are "productive ecologies," largely managed by ecosystem services and the connections between elements in the system. This is the classic visual representation of Permaculture from the Permaculture Design Manual.

Permaculture often makes heavy use of trees and forest gardens 

Unless it's otherwise maintained by humans, if an area gets more than 30 inches of precipitation a year, it will naturally become a forest. So "forest gardens" are the natural "forage farming" systems that would be favored on such sites. Also called food forests, edible forest gardens, home gardens, gardens of complete design, forest farms and agriforest systems. These also include a wide variety of traditional systems like the Japanese Satoyama, the European Straubst, hedgerows, copses, panage lots, etc. You can learn more about some of these through our Pin-board on traditional forest garden systems. Forest gardens are not gardening IN a forest, they're gardening LIKE a forest. You can learn more about forest gardens through our links here. 

Forest gardening is different from conventional orcharding in that it combines tree crops, vegetables, fuel, craftmaterials, building materials, wildlife habitat, and often social uses all together. They use many layers, instead of just one, and use "hetrogenous" textures instead of rows and even spaces. This image by our colleague and friend, brilliant designer PJ Chmiel, is a master class in one image! You can learn more about the basic defining characteristics of forest gardening from the following video 

Permaculture may sometimes use organic gardening, but it is not organic gardening. 

This article from PermacultureVisions.com is one of the best I've seen on the topic. In fact, this little gem is another master class in one image, showing us the patterns that really make Permaculture what it is, and something very distinct from conventional organic gardening or farming. In it, we see a designed human habitat integrating energy efficiency, tree crops, fruits, vegetables, wildlife, animals, water-harvesting systems, zones, diverse plantings with no bare soil... all classic features of Permaculture that we'll explore in more depth in Part 2!

Which side do these pictures of our integrated annual vegetable garden beds with tree crops, wildlife habitat, deep mulches, living ground covers, integrated edible companion plants and perennial vegetables resemble? 

We'll explore the patterns commonly applied in Permaculture gardens in part 2. 

Deer-Proof Permaculture (With Plant Lists!)

While our garden supplies a variety of 300 species of fruit, nuts and vegetables, many of which are choice delicacies rarely found even in expensive health-food stores, the greatest yield we obtain from our Permaculture garden is our interaction with nature. We love watching the fleet of deer, turkeys, a huge variety of birds, groundhogs, squirrels, voles, moles, shrews, deermice, rabbits, toads, snakes, fox, owls, bats, etc. and a micro-managerie of colorful, whirling invertebrates who are all frequent guests in our garden.

"Our garden." 

A uniquely human but certainly in-humane concept. 

Really, there are quite a few individuals, friends, we've come to recognize as co-habiting, co-tending and even co-creating this habitat with us. Who are we to say its "ours?" 

Only us modern "civilized" humans would be so freakishly controlling and neurotic as to attempt to lay claim to a bit of land and only allow select individuals to serve our needs exclusively, strictly omitting all other species from meeting their needs off our "property." 

Why must we battle so with our non-human cousins? 

This struggle only makes us poorer, when we would be much better served by a diverse and healthy ecosystem, filled with willing volunteers from a wide swath of species, all making "our property" richer, more diverse, healthy and abundant. 

We don't need Ecologists to tell us that diverse ecosystems are healthier and more productive, and that they grow more healthy, fertile, and rich over time as they catch each drop of energy and store it in a network of species. We need only walk into a forest and compare it to our drab, needy, sick human landscapes.  

Permaculture is a system of design based on three ethics. The first ethic is "care for the earth." A Permaculture garden aims to be more than a vegetable garden, it's also an orchard, a medicinal garden, a pleasure garden, a recreation space, a garden for crafts and building materials, fuel for heat, and most importantly, a wildlife garden - all rolled into one. Most importantly, it's a way to "care for the earth." 

But Permaculture's second ethic is "care for people," and we want a garden that will obtain a good yield for its human stewards, rewarding and incentivising good earth care. We recognize that there's a place for everything, including deer - and that place probably isn't your Hosta garden. So, this article will look at how we can design a system with a place for wildlife, including the hungry, vegetable-eating kind like deer and rabbits. 

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"Pest" Vision

The standard American garden is a deer and rabbit paradise. 

First, it's typically way out in the backyard somewheres, far from where they're likely to run into those obnoxious, angry two-legged animals who are always yelling and chasing everybody else away. I mean, WE HUMANS hardly ever go out there, and we haven't even marked it as our territory, so obviously we didn't put it out there for us!

Next, it's so neat and tidy, where everything's easy to see and find and all their favorite plants are placed together in a nice neat rows like a buffet. There are no weeds or anything in the way that might confuse them. No spots where predators might be hiding to be warry of. Usually there's a clear line of sight to the house to see if the grumpy humans come out. 

And there's no place else like it! It's a unique, distinctive environment that's set aside from everything else in their habitat - something that's sure to stick in their minds and attract a lot of interest and attention. It's so obviously a special place JUST for good deer and bunny food. 

They're sooooooo happy you made it just for them!

And so long as we do things like that, we should just plain expect deer, rabbits, etc. are going to be spending some Q.T. in our gardens. Really, we're just being silly if we don't. 

 (Wild beastie, Mu, sleeping by my leg while I write.)

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Get Zoned Out

One of Permaculture's most important design concepts is arranging land and uses into "zones" based on how often each space is naturally visited and how much energy each takes to work. Basically, the uses that require the most human energy and attention, should go in the places that we naturally visit most often. 

Duh, right?

For example, the garden plants that require daily attention could be placed right next to the door you use every day when you go to work so that you naturally see those plants without having to make a special, separate trip. Meanwhile, plants that only require weekly or monthly visits can be placed together in locations you naturally visit once a week or once a month. Now, you don't have to waste time or energy on any special trips.  

Brilliant!

This "cares for the earth" because it replaces fossil fuel energy like tilling and chemical interventions like spraying with easy human energy like daily hand-weeding and "spot mulching" (placing a little mulch to smother out emerging weeds.)  And it "cares for people" because it naturally saves us time and energy and makes life easier. 

(Sketch of zones for Lillie House)

But the idea of "zones" is also Permaculture's first line of defense against "pests and weeds," including deer and rabbits. 

Actually, this was the MAIN strategy for dealing with pests and weeds in almost every human culture throughout history right up until the 1920s/30s, when the US government enacted a policy of drastic agricultural reform intended to evict farmers off their family farms to create an army of poor and needy, low-cost labor for urban industrialization. Since then, we've taught governments around the world to commit the same crime against their citizenry. In my opinion, this was probably the cause of the single greatest loss of technology, wisdom and knowledge in human history. But I digress....

Here's how that forgotten common-sense technology used to work:

Zone 1-2: Close to the home, the main outdoor living area. 

Look familiar? This is the classic homestead pattern found world-wide prior to The Great Stupiding of the "green agricultural revolution." 

How about this one: 

First, this area closest to the home, with the most human traffic is naturally suspect to wildlife. It's the riskiest place to visit for a snack. But it's also a place where a quick sprinkle of cayenne pepper or garlic tea can help protect nibbled plants. Since critters are naturally warry of this zone, anyway, extra deterrents go a long way, and a plant that unreliably smells and tastes bad isn't worth the risk. 

(A Zone 1-2 garden guild including sensative plants.)

Finally, if you're going to fence or hedge an area, zone 1 is the easiest place to do it. A small fenced or hedged area is all you need to grow all the crops that really require protection from deer and rabbits, and the hedge can itself be a multi-species, food-producing area.

(Colorful edible hedgerow surroundsd   our zone 1-2 garden)

What goes here? Everything you'd complain about getting eaten by rabbits or deer. Basically, if we're going to be neurotic humans trying to exclude other species, it's going to go better if we keep that strategy to as small a space as possible. 

What additional control measures do you use? Sprays of comfrey or nettle tea with garlic or cayenne pepper added. Powdered cayenne pepper. Not much else should be necessary. 

Zone 3-4: Everything beyond the immediate "home garden" area. Areas that will receive maintenance once per week or less.

(A "wild" natural food forest of deer-friendly species at a church. No "pest-deterrent" being used on this bike-trail through deer country, but it yields a large quantity and variety of fruits all season long. )

Typically, zone 3 refers to crop areas, especially market crops and "calorie" crops intended to provide carbohydrates. Zone 4 refers to managed "semi-wild" areas where crops are grown in forests or areas returning to forests ("agriforest" systems.)

This also includes any "public garden" areas, business, workplace, churches and other public landscapes.

The key is a shift in perspective: in these zones, the wildlife are your greatest asset, your aids and teachers. They are there to help tend your land, fertilize, provide pest and weed control through increasing diversity, and prune your plants for you. 

They'll sure teach you about which plants are truly "wildlife proof!"

They also teach you the vital lost knowledge of what it means to be a member of an ecosystem with a direct natural relationship with nature - deep wisdom that almost all of our human ancestors treasured, but that is extremely rare today. 

You pay for these valuable services by allowing these non-human neighbors to "make a living" off of a small share of "your" crops.

In these zones there is only one tool for dealing with wildlife, to work together to evolve a STABILIZED   ecology that integrates wildlife interactions and productivity - a complete ecosystem, where we are just one point in the web of life. 

(Another wild beastie lurking in its natural habitat.)

To co-create your deer-stable agro-ecology, what you plant is of utmost importance and while I can give you some pointers based on research and my own experience, your best teachers will be your wildlife. Remember, you're co-creating a stable ecology, and their feedback is vital. They'll teach you what kind of system will stabilize with them. 

The other key is high diversity. In any given year, if one crop or plant is harmed by over-predation, others will fill in the gaps. With enough diversity, overtime the system will "pop" in such a way that it will be productive to humans and integrate the positive interactions of wildlife. 

(Garden of Deer-Stable crops in our zone  3 area.)

There are two categories of plants that are most useful for these zones:

Deer/Rabbit TOLERANT Plants? WHA...?

These vigorous plants will get browsed by wildlife with relative frequency, but are almost never killed by them. They quickly recover and can grow and thrive despite ocassional browsing. 

I've often recommended these as deer-resistant plants and had people exclaim "but deer eat that at my place!" 

To which I respond: "did they KILL the plant?" 

"Well... no." 

Remember, the point isn't to completely exclude all other species. We're not trying to win a war against nature, what we want is a truce.

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Here's a SHORT, INCOMPLETE LIST of FANTASIC DEER-TOLERANT FOOD PLANTS for a zone 3-4 Permaculture system or forest garden. These will probably work best in an integrated, decentralized polyculture system like a forest garden, rather than planted in clean, tidy, centralized monoculture deer-buffets of single plants. Most of these are often found on researched lists as "infrequently browsed" or "rarely browsed."  

Chestnut. This gets its very own mention, as the single most important Permaculture plant we can grow in the Great Lakes region, on any property where there's enough room for it. Chestnuts are an expensive, valuable commercial crop. But more importantly, they're our most important sustainable staple carbohydrate crop in cold climates, and our most viable option for growing calories outside of energy-intensive tilled fields of grains. For properties much larger than 3/4 of an acre, I always recommend trying to find a place to plant it. It will require caging as a deterrent as it gets established, but once mature, the tree will be impervious to wildlife assault. The crops will be shared with deer and other wildlife, but there will almost certainly be plenty left over for the humans to take advantage of. 

Perennial Veggies:

Rhubarb

Asparagus (pay extra for larger "crowns" in deer-prone areas to get them established.)

Turkish Rocket

Sweet Rocket

Blood-veined sorrel

French Sorrel (on the edge, sometimes this gets severely set back, but I've never seen it killed.)

Marshmallow

Garlic

Ground Nut (Apios Americana)

Hops

Oregano

Thyme

Smallage

Endive

Jerusalem artichokes

Annual crops for an "extensive," low-maintenance garden

Squash plants (Cover the seeds with Burdock leaves to protect them prior to germination.) I particularly recommend Long Island Cheese and Seminole pumpkins in our climate. 

Zucchini and summer squash

Tomatoes (deer often prune our vines, but wild varieties like Galapagos are worth a try.)

Potatoes (These are perennialized at our site and the deer almost never bother them.) 

Borage

Fruit:

Blackberry

Black raspberry 

Elderberry

Currants

Gooseberries

Strawberries

Aronia Berry

Highbush cranberry

Mulberry

Nuts:

Hazel

Black Walnut (buy varieties selected for easier cracking.)

(Allium unifolium kickin' it with walking onions and Turkish rocket, all holding their own against grasses and "weeds" in a heavily deer and rabbit area in our zone 3.)

Deer-RESISTANT Fruits and Vegetables:

These are the stronger category of plants that I have never once seen browsed, even with our overstock urban deer population. Even if your deer get a little crazy some night and try a nibble or two, they're almost certainly not going to ravage your entire populations of these. Our zone 3-4 garden is overrun with deer, rabbits, groundhogs and so on, but I have never seen these touched:

Veggies:

Egyptian walking onions

Welsh onions

Chives

Garlic Chives

Single-leaf onion

Ramps

Claytonia Virginica

Cammas (great vegetable!)

Lovage

Potatoes (these are perennialized in the sunnier areas of our zone 3/4 garden 

Daylily

Ostrich fern

Milkweed

Stinging nettle

Fruit:

Goumi

Paw paw

Rugosa roses

And finally, here's a list of plants to experiment with. These are still being tested here, but have shown good potential of being deterrent/resistant thus far:

Veggies:

Celery

Wild tomatoes

Ground cherries

Cardoon

Fruit:

Quince

Medlar

And that's just a start. There are more fruits and vegetables that can be grown in such a wildlife-friendly garden. Beyond this, there are a whole great variety of HIGH VALUE deer-stable crops for a for-profit system, if you expand into plant stock and medicinal herbs that can really add value to a Agriforest.

Which brings us to Permaculture's third ethic: "Fair Share." These days, it's frequently also expressed as "re-invest the surplus" or as it was originally stated: observe and respect natural limits. Really, these are all the same. If we can produce a system that values the diversity of plants and wildlife, and mindfully "reinvest" in our non-human partners, then this abundant, self-maintaining system will provide for us better than any corn field ever could. But that requires us to step back, observe limits, and make some room in this world for our non-human cousins. 

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All of the plants mentioned in this post are, conveniently enough, available through our Lillie House Community Supported Permaculture program, where we help you create your own Permaculture design, supply you with plants and teach about Permaculture gardening techniques. If that sounds interesting, you can learn more here: 

https://lilliehousekzoo.wordpress.com/the-basic-home-garden-membership/