 It is now time to look at one of the founding concepts of the SHIRE: permaculture. First called permanent culture, permaculture is an agricultural design phenomenon developed by Bill Morrison and David Holmgren during the 1970’s to reduce and reverse the destructive effects of industrial agriculture. This revolutionary design concept creates permanent ecosystems that copy their natural counterparts, while simultaneously feeding the people that care for them.
The crux of permaculture, the ‘perma,’ if you will, utilizes integrated ecological systems that work off of and with each other to solve a variety of problems associated with conventional agricultural, i.e. pests. By using a holistic ecosystem approach, no single pest species can devastate the crops, as there is always a counterbalance in effect that will feed on and make use of that pest. One of the signature garden beds used in permaculture design is the Herb Spiral, which is basically two types of garden wrapped so that they are parallel with each other and planted into the shape of spiral or swirl. This takes advantage of the edge effect, or, in other words, the large quantity of biodiversity caused by the meeting and overlapping of two ecosystems. Look at the edge of a road, of instance. In this area between the road and the forest, many plant species that can’t normally find a niche in the forest take hold, providing a habitat to many animals that would not otherwise be there. This is due to the fact that, at the edge of a forest, there is more light, and thus more nutrients and water. Creating a garden in a spiral shape maximizes this edge effect, which in turn maximizes growth potential, and, at the same time, minimizes agricultural loss due to various pests. Within an ecosystem, each element feeds, and in turn is fed, by another element, thus forming an ecological system. When studying ecosystems, permaculture designers don’t see problems, they see solutions. For example, if there is a slug and snail problem, the permaculture designer does not see an overpopulation of snails and slugs, but rather an underpopulation of ducks and chickens, which keep these ‘pests’ balanced, ecologically. In order to restore this balance, the permaculture designer will then increase those missing or lacking populations. Once designed and properly implemented, a permaculture garden needs little input or tweaking from its human caretakers. As Bill Mollison once said, you need large plants in the garden so you can lie down in the paths and not be seen from the house. Let the garden do the work while you relax!
Last update: January 25, 2008
08:06 am
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