Ecological Gardening

Lesson 1: What is Ecological gardening?

Permaculture

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is a practical concept which can be applied in the city, on the farm, and in the wilderness. Its principles empower people to establish highly productive environments providing for food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs, including economic and social infrastructures.

The concept was developed in the 1970's in Australia by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and first taught as an applied design system by Mollison in 1981. Originally a contraction of "permanent agriculture," Permaculture designs and nurtures agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the stability, diversity, and resilience of natural ecosystems. Carefully observing natural patterns characteristic at a particular site, the permaculture designer gradually discerns optimal methods for integrating water catchment, human shelter, and energy systems with tree crops, edible and useful perennials, self-seeding annuals, domestic and wild animals, and aquaculture.

Permaculture turns constraints into resources, and arranges as many functions as possible in every element of the landscape and as many elements as possible per unit of horizontal and vertical space.

Suggested Reading:

Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway, Chelsea Green Publisihing, 2001

http://permacultureactivist.net/

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