The Most (and Least) Important Tasks for High-Value Gardens (and Farms)

(Draft design sketch for a Habitat for Humanity project.)

Sure, maybe you're willing to put in $30 of cash and work for a single tomato because it's your hobby. But honestly, most people I see start this way end up letting the garden go after a few years because it just isn't worth the time.

From my observations, the people who harvest the most value, satisfaction and, well, produce out of their gardens are those who take gardening seriously. We keep things simple, but we also plan, prioritize and intend to progress over time, becoming better and better growers. Over time, we get better results.

The same is true for those who want to turn their growing into an income through farming. 

One tool we can use to maximize our garden value is the Pareto curve, which shows us 80% of our returns will come from just 20% of our efforts. This is often called the 80/20 principle. Take weeding, for example. The pareto curve implies that 20% of our weeding gives us 80% of our results, yet many gardeners continue weeding to sterile perfection, long past the "point of diminishing returns" where the hours of weeding will have no noticeable results on yields. As it turns out, research on herbicide and pesticide value confirms exactly this!

Over 30-something years spent involved in farming, foraging and gardening, here's my list of the MOST (and Least) Important Tasks for a High-Value Garden or Farm:

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The Least Important Garden Tasks:

1. Weeding. Each hour we spend weeding dilutes the real value of our produce, period. Past a point, it has 0 value, yet we slave away (or make the kids do it!) And still, the perfectly, painfully weed-free garden just takes one vacation, bad cold, or family emergency to turn into a weed-covered mess and total loss! I've seen it 1,000,000 times! Yet, you don't have to weed at all to have a good garden....

2. Tilling and digging the soil. It destroys the soil, wastes time and gas, and breaks your back. And yet it is completely unnecessary, in fact -  We haven't tilled or dug in years. 

3. Strimming. Again, unnecessary. Add gas-powered lawn mowing to this list, too.

4. Fall garden clean-up. No value, actually harms garden health. 

5. Fertilizing. Most conventional and even most organic fertilizers have been shown to be completely unnecessary, and even harm long-term soil health. 

6. Most fancy irrigation - especially drip irrigation. While they DO have a place in a smart design, research from multiple sources have been unable to document any value from the time and investment put into fancy irrigation systems. 

7. Most greenhouses. Again, they may have their place in a well-designed system, but it has been difficult for researches to document any good returns on most greenhouse projects. And they're unnecessary for winter produce!

8. Spraying herbicides and pesticides. Just don't do it, ever. Totally counter-productive to a happy and healthy garden. 

9. Cultivating the soil. Again, unnecessary. Haven't done it for 15 years!

The Most Important Garden Tasks:

There's not much in the world I'm certain of, but this list is one thing. Here are the tasks that have unquestionably given us the biggest yields:

1. Day-dreaming in the garden. Specifically, creative daydreaming about issues of design, project vision, and if you're a farmer, branding. This is probably the single effort that has paid me back with the most value. If you don't have a clear vision about what you really WANT out of your landscape, garden or farm, you're extremely unlikely to get it. It's not enough to think: "I'll start a farm = profit!" You need a clear vision of what kind of farm, what kind of garden - and what kind of life you want those to support! Then you can start assessing whether that vision is realistic and making a plan to get where you want to be. For farms, a study from MSU found that one of the biggest determining factors of profitability was the ability to charge a higher rate at market. And that was all about having a compelling vision and brand. 

2. Design. "Permaculture is protracted thought and design, instead of protracted labor." Almost every grunt-work task on the list above can be designed out of a garden! For example, why spend hours per week weeding when you can design a low-weeding or weed-free garden system that will last for years? Why spend time watering, when you can design gardens that water themselves - without expensive, time-consuming irrigation systems! In Permaculture, we use a variety of tools to maximize the design of our own personalized food systems to ensure truly healthy food and gardens that really provide value. To start that adventure yourself, I recommend our Community Supported Permaculture Program. 

3. Planning. Now, this is a research-based approach to a profitable farm and valuable garden. Research from MSU, Vermont and UCLA have all found that one important factor is associated with profitable farms: planning for success. This means creating goals, keeping records and using that feedback to improve over time. Even if you don't want a profitable farm, that becomes key to a valuable, enjoyable garden. But "diminishing returns" applies here, too. You'll get 80% of that value out of a few simple efforts. 

4. Listening to community members (family members) and customers. This is the single thing that transformed our business from a low-impact money-loser to a high-impact profitable business helping real people achieve their goals. Give the people what they want and need. If you're a home gardener, this goes a long way to getting the fam or friends to help out!

5. Investing in community-building. For farmers this is crucial. But for gardeners this is golden, too. The community of gardeners will be your best source of information, seeds, plant material and people to exchange produce with. Community-building is 80% of the point of having a garden. 

6. Education. I grew up gardening and farming, and have apprenticed on a few permie-inspired farms. But taking a Permaculture Design class and really learning my local ecosystem revolutionaized the value I get out of my relationship to the land. Completely worth it. 

8. Nurturing the Soil. Finally, we've come to an actual physical garden task. Each hour you spend mulching, building biodiversity and fertility in the soil will pay you back for years and years to come in better, healthier produce with less work.

7. Nurturing "Systems" and "Regenerative Assets." In Mollisonian Permaculture, "regenerative assets" are those that produce for us and replicate themselves.  When we invest our time into creating and establishing such powerful assets, they to will pay us back for years and years to come. Nurturing a young forest garden, vegetable guild or perennial vegetable patch will take less time than almost any annual garden, yet that investment will produce food for us for decades! Each year, that annual garden will need to be recreated, but the perennial system will keep on producing with minimal effort. And while the annual garden will forever require new seeds, new investments, new energy to create, the perennial systems will actual "reproduce," giving you plant material you can use to spread them further and further, creating more and more valuable perennial systems. Now that's a smart way to spend your time, and a smart way to garden!

8. Observation. Often, we rush to action at the first sight of disease or pest issues, without taking the time to understand the underlying causes, or how the plants and ecosystems might be able to fend better for themselves. Pests are natural! But so are predators, who will eventually show up to reduce pest pressures for us, if we're patient enough to observe how nature works, rather than stepping in at the first sight of trouble. On a different level, observation can show us where appropriate microclimates are what good plant companions or agonists we have growing, or where we need to direct more (or less) water.

So there you have my list. What do you think? What garden tasks do you find most valuable? 

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. 

Community Supported Forest Gardening Program!!!

If you've ever thought of starting a forest garden or food forest, we've got 2 days left to get the early registration price for our Community Supported Forest Gardening program for 2016. This program gives you everything you need to design, plan and implement your own forest garden project, including plants, design consultation, a complete course and a community of like-minded gardeners to learn with: https://lilliehousekzoo.wordpress.com/the-basic-home-garde…/ 

It also comes with complete access to our entire HUGE collection of perennial edibles, self-sowing vegetables and ideal forest garden plants. I'm especially proud of the course we put together for this program - it's going to be a great time, a great learning experience, and we're going to create some great forest gardens in the process. 

Mike