Ecological Gardening

Lesson 2: The Human Place in Nature

Objective: Understanding the human place in Nature.

Plants, insects and animals can work together to create a vibrant garden. It is not only the animals and insects you see but the countless millons which inhabit healthy soil that you want to thrive.

Take Responsibility for Yourself and the Future

I was first attracted to permaculture when I read a piece about permaculture ethics. This statement, in particular, led me to complete my permaculture design certificate program and is still driving my work: "taking responsibility for meeting our own needs and those of future generations." All of us, at least, those of us who live in the North, can begin to take responsibility for ourselves through careful consideration about what we eat and how it reaches our table.

Food is where it all begins and we can learn ways to provide for ourselves, especially if we live, or strive to live in a community, and not as isolated individuals with no responsibility beyond meeting our own needs. We can discover how to care for the soil which provides, in collaboration with the weather, the essential nutrients that enable plants to grow strong and healthy.

When we feed the soil, we feed ourselves and we create the conditions which enable future generations to feed themselves. This is the essence of sustainability, a system which self-regulates as it regenerates.

Care of the soil is how we learn the importance of our connection to the earth and what our role is within the web that is Life. We learn to prevent problems such as erosion. Through skills such as observation we can witness the impact that the sun has and how we can design our gardens to best take advantage of the amount of sun that reaches our property.

When we care for the soil and look to future generations, we begin to think about water and how we can use it wisely and incorporate water saving and water retaining systems within our system. Water is fundamental to the success and longevity of any food production system. We need to know how to design our systems so that they waste no water and that we, through careful design, can full advantage of rainfall and other forms of precipitation. If we take a close look at nature, spend time outside, rather than sitting in front of our television sets, we will learn from Nature, and as we do, we will learn how to take responsibility for ourselves, and for future generations.

What is a niche?

A given animal or plant lives in a particular place, is active at particular times and eats particular things, and these factors define its ecological niche. The environment is divided into millions of ecological niches, each of which represents a potential 'home' for life. Animals and plants will always try and take advantage of new opportunities, and so will always attempt to make a 'home' in an empty niche.

Biodiversity is:

The variety of organisms present, considered from many levels: cultivar, species, genus, family, and on up to include all five kingdoms as well as the diversity of habitats and ecosystems.

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