#4 – Permaculture Aka. Permanent Agriculture February 15,

Air

Water

Earth

Design and Philosophy  Personal responsibility for the earth  Working with nature and each other to benefit all  Responsibility for the existence of everything on earth  Cooperating with nature instead of trying to be self- serving

Ethics  Care of the Earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply.  Care of People: Provision for people to access those resources necessary to their existence.  Setting Limits to Population and Consumption: By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above principles.

What Does Permaculture Mean to Everyone?  Imagination  Ingenuity  Technology  Sustainability  Healing  Growing  Happiness/Health

Principles of Permaculture ① Observe. Use observation of the site and elements, including rain, sun, flora and fauna. Work with nature to create a thoughtful design to do less work and work specifically for that location, client and cultures. ② Connect. Create a design using ways things connect with one another as in nature. These connections can create a healthy elements, a diverse ecosystem. ③ Catch and Store Energy and Materials. Reinvesting in resources builds the capacity more resources ④ Each element performs multiple functions. Choose and design each element to perform as many functions as possible. ⑤ Each element is supported by multiple other elements. Use multiple methods to achieve important functions.

Principles of Permaculture (cont.) ⑥ Make the least change for the greatest effect. Understand the system you are working with well enough to find its leverage points and intervene there, where the least work accomplished makes the most change. ⑦ Use small scale, intensive systems. Start at your doorstep with the smallest systems that will do the job and build on your successes. ⑧ Optimize edge. The edge – the intersection between two environments is the most diverse place in a system and where energy and materials accumulate or are translated. Keyhole gardening, getting the most edge. This can be increased or decreased as necessary. ⑨ Collaborate with succession. Living systems usually advance from immaturity to maturity. If we accept this instead of fighting it, we save on work and energy. Note more mature ecosystems have more diversity. ⑩ Use biological and renewable resources (usually living beings and their products) reproduce and build up over time, that stored energy assists in better yields and interact with other elements. Favor these over non-renewable resources.

DESIGNS  Law of Return  Composting, observation, cover crops, trees, multiple uses for one element.  Work with Nature Instead of Against it.  In a natural succession, grasses slowly give way to shrubs, which eventually gives way to trees. We can actively assist in this natural succession. “If we throw nature out the window, she comes back with a pitchfork.” Masanobu Fukuoka

Law of Return

DESIGNS (cont.)  Working With Nature Rather Than Against It. Example, we spray pesticides for insect control, we end up killing both pest and predator. The following year we are inundated with pests due to no natural predator control.  The Problem Is The Solution. Example, there is a cold wind that blows through your home, yard, area, etc. Use that wind to create electricity, use the cold breeze to create a cold storage room, grow trees and shrubs to block the wind and stabilize the soil to avoid erosion.

DESIGNS (cont.)  Make The Least Change For The Greatest Possible Impact. Example, create a dam where you get the most water with the least amount of earth moved.  The Yield of a System is Theoretically Unlimited.  The only limit on the number of uses of a resource possible within a system is in the limit of the information and the imagination of the designer. Everything Gardens. Example, all animals eat, defecate and die, this cycle creates new life. Another way to look at it, is how mice burrow and create great soil environments for roots by providing air.

DESIGNS (cont.)

Community Building  Build community and local relationships.  Get to know your neighbors and local community resources to get the information you need.  Begin seeing the bigger picture by doing the little things, i.e., sharing with your community or volunteering and spending time to get to know your communities needs and use observation skills to help improve.

Options – Readily Available  Passive heating with either your water or using the sun to do the heating before hitting your hot water heater so when you are heating in your hot water heaters, you’re not heating the water from 50 degrees to 160 but instead install a system where you have a tank using the passive water heating to only heat from 78 degrees to 120.  Use grey water from showers and laundry. Create a drip system by retaining the water and using it sparingly.

Options Readily Available  Solar  Passive heating  Biofuel  Grey water usage  Compost all food scraps  Keep chickens  Worm farming  Black Solder Fly Farming  Education

Why should we do this? We are aware that we have limit resources.  Air  Water  Peat Moss depletion  For Health  Food Security  Longevity  Better for Environment  ROI  Trees  Arable Land

Resources Already Available  Nothing can be better than to use something someone is throwing away and reusing it in a way it does not hurt the earth but build a living wall garden.  Aquaponic systems where you use 95% less water in a re-circulating systems.  No need for weeding  Easier to harvest and convenient  Also grow protein if you use edible fish.

Speakers  Liz Kim – Genesis Clock Farm |Sustainable Living Education and Urban Aquaponics  Carl Schleg – Bio Fuels / Sustainable Enthusiast