what is permaculture?

[loligo]

Maybe before I dive into book reviews, I should provide some sort of intro post! The wikipedia entry covers the basics, albeit in an abstract way. The central idea of permaculture is to use our knowledge about the ecology of various natural systems to create agricultural systems that are as diverse, productive, and self-sustaining as possible.

I can't tell you what a kick it was when I first encountered this idea. You mean, I can take all those ecology courses I took as an undergrad, apply them to gardening, and end up with delicious food for little effort? Sign me up! There are other reasons why it was especially appealing to me, too: I live in an area with heavy clay soil, and I live in a shady clearing in the woods. Not an optimal setting for growing your typical tomatoes and zucchini. Permaculture landscapes don't *need* to be modeled on forests, but many of them are, so there was this whole body of research out there that could help me find edible plants that would thrive in my setting.

Permaculture is very much in development: there's still debate about how productive permaculture systems (particularly forest-based systems) can be (per acre, or per energy expended) in temperate climates. So if you had an empty plot of sunny land with rich loamy soil and you were trying to decide how to squeeze as much food out of it as possible, you'd definitely have to do some homework before making your decision. But in many other situations (including typical suburban yards), the permaculture approach has a lot to offer!

So, I'm curious: how much background do others folks here on the comm already have when it comes to permaculture? Maybe you've heard of it a couple times and just subscribed out of curiosity? Maybe you already have a thriving edible landscape, and can tell me what the hell I'm supposed to do with goumi berries? (Yes, I planted goumis, because everyone kept saying that they were one of the best fruiting shrubs for shade... but now what? *g*)

Comments

[sasha_davidovna]

I am pretty new to permaculture specifically, but my parents have gardened organically (or nearly so) my whole life and I've been involved to varying degrees since I was a toddler. For most of my life I've been more interested in the landscaping side of things than vegetable gardening, especially birdscaping and prairie restoration. Recently, I've been trying to catch up on the vegetable gardening aspect and found permaculture a really exciting concept because it combines food production for humans and food production for wildlife in one design, rather than dividing them into (mostly) separate areas like my parents' yard.

My husband and I lucked into an acreage in city limits a couple years ago. I haven't done as much as I'd like with it because we moved in literally about three weeks before we had our first child, but my dream is to build an edible forest garden in the "back 40," and the short term goals for this year are to expand the vegetable garden and orchard with more stuff that will feed both us and the local wildlife.