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The nine key
principles of Permaculture |
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| principle |
practical example |
| location of components | everything is connected to everything else. Plan accordingly. Let the needs of one be filled by the other. If you plant in guilds, you create natural pest control. |
| multiple function | each element has more than one function. Chickens lay eggs, loosen the soil, eat insects, eat food scraps, produce fertilizer |
| multiple elements | each important function is supported by many elements. Fire control through a pond with water, through firebreaks and slow burning windbreak trees. |
| efficient energy planning | place the elements according to how much you use them and how often you have to service them (zone planning). Keep the distance from the kitchen door to the vegetable garden short! Place the elements in such a way, that they make the best use of external energies, e.g. sun, light, wind, rain, bushfire (sector planning). Some plants need hot, dry areas, others the opposite. |
| biological resources | use renewable biological resources wherever possible. Build up biological resources that reproduce. These can be animals from chickens to cows or herbs on your windowsill. |
| energy (re)cycling | use as little energy as possible. Use waste energy in a second cycle, e.g. the dirty water from the duck's tub is excellent for the vegetable garden. In Permaculture you don't only recycle, but you aim to catch, store and reuse everything before its energy use is degraded more and more. |
| natural succession | create a natural succession of the plants and animals that you grow. Don't wait until you harvested all your bananas before you plant new. |
| maximize edges | edges are the areas where two different systems meet. The forest and the meadows, the ocean and the shore, the pond and the vegetable patch. Life flourishes here because the resources of both systems are available.. |
| diversity | Permaculture is always polyculture. Polyculture creates a greater biological stability and protection against pests and sicknesses. Plant different strains of tomatoes, potatoes, beans. |
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food for thought: |
| see solutions instead of problems | do you have too many snails eating your salad, or not enough ducks to eat the snails? |
| work where it counts | only weed where you replant immediately |
| make things pay | make the garden pay for itself by providing food, by producing its own fertilizer |
| and finally | enjoy the satisfaction of doing things right and in tune with the Earth |
