Permaculture is Permanent Agriculture
It's a term coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David
Holgrem in the 1970's and relying on* "conscious design and
maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the
diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems." If you
practice permaculture you design a property with useful plants
including nut trees, berry shrubs, fruit trees and vines,
herbaceous perennials that yield root crops, etc. You plant some
annuals but not huge fields of such crops that must be replanted
each year, transported many miles (crossing other big crops coming
the other way) and which can't continue without us.
*(From an essay about permaculture that was part of an
ethnobotany class at Kenyon College, Ohio)
Karen Bovio
and her son are embarking on a journey into permaculture planting
at her nursery. They are planting but also investigating which
permanent plants to place, how many, and what to expect from them.
They're asking for advice now at the Forum toward one part of the
project. That topic is serviceberry trees and hardy filberts...
Now you know that forum topic goes much deeper.
And now you know how Steven and Janet developed articles: Begin
with an idea, learn by doing or first hand from do-ers, then put
that in a report that may give the next do-er a leg up.
We hope you'll join the
discussion at the Forum, and stay tuned for our report.
In June,
everyone chows down on serviceberries. (Except perhaps the people
who don't realize how delicious the fruits are!) That's part of the
point of permaculture, that there's more depth to the ecosystem if
it consists of a variety of perennial plants, with more chance that
can go on without big, annual, unending investments of seed, labor
and fuel.