Is permaculture just old wine in a new bottle?
If you look at its components, it seems to be all about growing food, raised beds, companion planting, composting and soil building. Put them together, and it promises to save water, solve our food security fears and bring non-gardeners into the fold with new energy and ideas.
Which sounds a lot like simply growing veggies in your back -- or front -- yard.
When Bill Mollison coined the phrase permaculture in 1978, however, he intended the word to mean "permanent culture." (Not simply "permanent agriculture" as is often claimed.)
Which means his theory goes much further -- essentially, Mollison says it's a way of growing food plants that takes its inspiration from complex forest systems.
In that way, permaculture includes food gardening, but is not exclusively about gardening. It includes landscapes and terrain, but is not really about landscaping. It is bigger than both these fields and so much more.
Arriving In Calgary
"My wife Michelle and I came across permaculture several years ago when travelling around the world in search of sustainability solutions." says Rob Avis, owner of Verge Permaculture in Calgary ( vergepermaculture.ca)via an e-mail.
"We found that permaculture above all offered a simple formula and a practical and sensible approach to creating sustainable human habitat. Look to nature. Work with nature rather than against it. Take responsibility for our own actions. Build our house and garden so that they shelter and feed us. Simple. Empowering. Positive. We were hooked.
"I now believe that growing food is one of the most radical things we can do as global citizens. To quote my friend and mentor Geoff Lawton: 'All the world's problems can be solved in the garden.' "
Avis helped found the Calgary Permaculture Community Group last fall to host activities, information sessions and Permaculture Energy transfer days (PETs).
Ami Dehne is a member of the Calgary group. "Just off the top of my head I can think of 10 people who are implementing permaculture into their own backyards and we've actually gone out and helped them do it," she says.
"It's called an energy transfer, so we all get together and we help implement permaculture into someone's backyard. We are trying to raise food, but we are trying to be a part of that system as well."
In The Garden
Two years ago, Avis and his wife Michelle -- both mechanical engineers by training -- set up a permaculture garden in the Forest Heights yard of Michelle's mom, Annette St. Cyr.
"Productivity of our front yard is really quite amazing," says St. Cyr, who had piles of manure and cardboard placed over her old lawn during the permaculture conversion. "There is a large interest in the community to what is going on."
With permaculture, gardeners build soil and model their gardens after Mollison's original food forest idea. Urban and rural spaces mimic how a forest would grow with continual additions from the trees above and a supported healthy population of soil below.
If you look at its components, it seems to be all about growing food, raised beds, companion planting, composting and soil building. Put them together, and it promises to save water, solve our food security fears and bring non-gardeners into the fold with new energy and ideas.
Which sounds a lot like simply growing veggies in your back -- or front -- yard.
When Bill Mollison coined the phrase permaculture in 1978, however, he intended the word to mean "permanent culture." (Not simply "permanent agriculture" as is often claimed.)
Which means his theory goes much further -- essentially, Mollison says it's a way of growing food plants that takes its inspiration from complex forest systems.
In that way, permaculture includes food gardening, but is not exclusively about gardening. It includes landscapes and terrain, but is not really about landscaping. It is bigger than both these fields and so much more.
Arriving In Calgary
"My wife Michelle and I came across permaculture several years ago when travelling around the world in search of sustainability solutions." says Rob Avis, owner of Verge Permaculture in Calgary ( vergepermaculture.ca)via an e-mail.
"We found that permaculture above all offered a simple formula and a practical and sensible approach to creating sustainable human habitat. Look to nature. Work with nature rather than against it. Take responsibility for our own actions. Build our house and garden so that they shelter and feed us. Simple. Empowering. Positive. We were hooked.
"I now believe that growing food is one of the most radical things we can do as global citizens. To quote my friend and mentor Geoff Lawton: 'All the world's problems can be solved in the garden.' "
Avis helped found the Calgary Permaculture Community Group last fall to host activities, information sessions and Permaculture Energy transfer days (PETs).
Ami Dehne is a member of the Calgary group. "Just off the top of my head I can think of 10 people who are implementing permaculture into their own backyards and we've actually gone out and helped them do it," she says.
"It's called an energy transfer, so we all get together and we help implement permaculture into someone's backyard. We are trying to raise food, but we are trying to be a part of that system as well."
In The Garden
Two years ago, Avis and his wife Michelle -- both mechanical engineers by training -- set up a permaculture garden in the Forest Heights yard of Michelle's mom, Annette St. Cyr.
"Productivity of our front yard is really quite amazing," says St. Cyr, who had piles of manure and cardboard placed over her old lawn during the permaculture conversion. "There is a large interest in the community to what is going on."
With permaculture, gardeners build soil and model their gardens after Mollison's original food forest idea. Urban and rural spaces mimic how a forest would grow with continual additions from the trees above and a supported healthy population of soil below.
"We used permaculture principles in our garden design to create a system that would feed us with minimal external input, improve soil, increase diversity -- all organically," says Avis.
"Our garden and food forest yields local, healthy and organic food for our family with zero food miles, no pollution or detriment to the environment. Also, surplus veggies are handed out to our neighbours, creating and fostering community on our block," he says.
In some ways, the permaculture method resembles supercharged companion planting.
"Last year, we were gardening in mounds where the idea of synchronicity between plants really became evident. To my surprise, in the permaculture world, the peas, the carrots, the tomatoes -- everything ended up on one mound so that the food chain was being supported," says St. Cyr.
How To Get Started
Permaculture starts with individuals, and many of them -- including the Avises and Dehne -- had not gardened before. When Dehne's mom tells me she doesn't grow vegetables because it's too much work, Dehne jumps in, saying, "Work is a failure in design, so if you have to do too much work, then you haven't done enough designing."
Avis adds, "Ultimately, the philosophy behind permaculture is thoughtful observation and intensive design rather than thoughtless action. It just makes sense."
So permaculture is at least partially "thoughtful" gardening with a design. By changing a few things -- such as how they move water through the property and adding food plants where ornamentals once were -- every gardener could become a permaculturist. Or not. I would raise a glass of wine to either scenario.
Gardeners and farmers can see the Avis/St. Cyr transformation on the Verge web page or learn more by participating in a Permaculture course in Edmonton, Nelson, B.C., Denman Island, B.C., or overseas. More local information is available from:
- permaculturecalgary.org;
- bigskypermaculture.ca;
- vergepermaculture.ca.
"Our garden and food forest yields local, healthy and organic food for our family with zero food miles, no pollution or detriment to the environment. Also, surplus veggies are handed out to our neighbours, creating and fostering community on our block," he says.
In some ways, the permaculture method resembles supercharged companion planting.
"Last year, we were gardening in mounds where the idea of synchronicity between plants really became evident. To my surprise, in the permaculture world, the peas, the carrots, the tomatoes -- everything ended up on one mound so that the food chain was being supported," says St. Cyr.
How To Get Started
Permaculture starts with individuals, and many of them -- including the Avises and Dehne -- had not gardened before. When Dehne's mom tells me she doesn't grow vegetables because it's too much work, Dehne jumps in, saying, "Work is a failure in design, so if you have to do too much work, then you haven't done enough designing."
Avis adds, "Ultimately, the philosophy behind permaculture is thoughtful observation and intensive design rather than thoughtless action. It just makes sense."
So permaculture is at least partially "thoughtful" gardening with a design. By changing a few things -- such as how they move water through the property and adding food plants where ornamentals once were -- every gardener could become a permaculturist. Or not. I would raise a glass of wine to either scenario.
Gardeners and farmers can see the Avis/St. Cyr transformation on the Verge web page or learn more by participating in a Permaculture course in Edmonton, Nelson, B.C., Denman Island, B.C., or overseas. More local information is available from:
- permaculturecalgary.org;
- bigskypermaculture.ca;
- vergepermaculture.ca.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Garden+design+easy/2997494/story.html
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