Everyday Permaculture

In addition to my apprenticeship, I am also researching for my thesis, engaging in family time, and working part-time. My off-farm time allows me to digest my permaculture experiences. It also has me constantly searching for connections between my many worlds.

As someone without an agricultural or botanical background, I long for an inner or 'natural' understanding of the land and permaculture. It's been interesting to use metaphor, from my other lives, to make permaculture familiar. I understand through what is 'natural' to me. In this exploration, I find that the comparisons are dangerously easy. They almost make themselves--maybe I understand permaculture after all...

You don't have to be a farmer or a permaculturist to use, or at least consider the principles and ethics in daily life.  In Bill Mollison's Introduction to Permaculture, he almost immediately lists the Permaculture ethics and suggests how to implement those ethics. I've chosen one with which to relate1:

"Think about the long-term consequences of your actions. Plan for sustainability"

On the farm we think of chemical use and crop choice. In my learning approach, it is the immediate treatment of those around you. "Don't burn bridges", if you will. Mistreat the land, it fails to feed; mistreat a friend and lose the warm and fuzzies of friendship.

David Holmgren's design principles in Permaculture Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability provides a few more possible life comparisons2 :

Observe and Interact

In permaculture, we watch systems and see where they go and how they grow before committing to any one method of interaction. Live in an apartment? You may observe how the sun hits the wall in choosing decor or how the counter slopes before drying dishes upon it. Outside the apartment, among a new group of people, you observe the group's behavior and choose actions and reactions based on those observations, whether for self-preservation, blending, or career purposes. If you want to keep a [certain] job, you observe the dress code and wear a pinstripe 3-piece suit, like your co-workers, instead of a 2-piece polka dot swimming suit.

Use Small and Slow Solutions

On the farm we plant onions amidst more vulnerable vegetables, using the onions' aroma to confuse passing pests before hastily prescribing chemical warfare. Where there are weeds, we start small. Again, we do not jump to chemical means. And even before pulling the weeds' roots, we simply chop and drop. Chopping and Dropping leaves the soil undisturbed . The fallen leaves trap moisture, curb future weeds, and offer nutrients to the soil. So, Chop & Drop! 

I'm just having a little trouble with Chop and Drop's metaphor....

References
1. Mollison, B., and D. Holmgren. 1978. Permaculture one. Morebank, NSW Australia: Transworld Publications.
2. Holmgren, D. 2002. Permaculture: principles & pathways beyond sustainability: Chelsea Green Pub Co.

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.