What Is Permaculture?
Permaculture can be seen as a fundamental change to the way we do everyday things. It is not an industry itself, it is rather a set of principles that can be applied to what we do in our daily lives. There are 12 principles of permaculture. And regardless of what you do for a career or as a hobby, they can be applied directly or indirectly. To list a few of our favorites, '(1) Observe and Interact', '(8) Integrate Rather Than Segregate', and '(9) Use Small and Slow Solutions'. Defined as 'Permanent-Culture', Permaculture aims to create or redesign relationships between humans, living creatures, and nature to be permanently sustainable. How can these principles relate to your life?
Why Permaculture?
It seems that Permaculture Principles can be used now more than ever. To make a case for using Permaculture today, one could argue that many industries of our country could use a regenerative redesign with mutually beneficial relationships between humans and nature in mind. For example, our transportation system within urban areas has evolved to employ cars as the master of the road. The other end of that spectrum is public transportation. Not only busses, but other means of transportation that can efficiently and carefully bring people to where they need to go within a developed area. While re-thinking how we move and improve our towns, we can influence more interaction, less segregation, and create renewable resources that can regenerate ecosystems as well as our economies.
When Is a Good Time For Permaculture?
Anytime is a good time for Permaculture, especially now. Permaculture is not a new invention of thought. It is a collection of information taught to us by our ancestors, nature, and our current interactions. Permaculture voyagers Bill Mollison and David Holmgren grandfathered Permaculture into our lives, but it is the study of how things were and perhaps will become that tells us when we need to practice Permaculture. Redesigning for a better future reflects on how we learned from what worked in the past and how nature interacts with our decisions.
Where Is Permaculture?
Permaculture can be most seen through the patterns and functions in nature. Two buzz words that can describe permaculture well are 'patterns' and 'functions'. By simply walking through a trail or through an open space, one can observe and interact with the patterns and functions around them. One pattern in nature that can be seen everyday are leaf and flower patterns. Gardeners who practice permaculture notice those particular vascular patterns within a leaf, an alternate leaf such as an American Elm, and apply that leaf pattern into the design of their garden layout. By using this garden design, the grow space within the garden is maximized while accessibility to all areas is promoted.
