Permaculture

"Permaculture: A designer's manual", by Bill Mollison (https://www.tagari-usa.com/permaculture-designers-manual/)

“Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order” (Mollison, 1988, p. ix).

Permaculture design principles (Mollison, 1988, pp. 15-16):

  1. Work with nature rather than against it.
  2. The problem is the solution. (It is only how we see things that makes them advantageous or not.)
  3. Make the least change for the greatest effect.
  4. The yield of a system is theoretically unlimited.
  5. Everything gardens. (Everything makes its own garden, or everything has an effect on its environment.)

In common usage, COACTION implies a force at work; one that restrains, impeded, compels, or even coerces another object. INTERACTION implies reciprocal action: two things acting on each other. This is an important distinction. A final category is INACTION, or an absence of a detectable action.
We cannot at this point guess which state applies, but when we put two species together, there are these possibilities:

  • One acts on the other (co-action or unilateral action);
  • Both act on each other (interaction or mutual action); and
  • Nether act (inaction or neutrality) (p. 62).

    (++) Symbiosis (win-win)
    (--) Synnecrosis (lose-lose)
    (-o) Amensalism (hurts the actor but not the other)
    (o-) Allolimy (leaves the actor unaffected, but hurts the other)
    (+o) Commensalism (actor benefits, other is unaffected)
    (o+) Allotrophy (actor is unaffected, other benefits)
    (+-) Parasitism (actor benefits, other loses)
    (-+) Self-sacrifice (actor loses, other benefits)
    (oo) Neither acts (no benefit or loss) (pp. 62-63)

    • What is perhaps of greatest importance, and cannot be too highly stressed, is the need to develop very compact systems… Starting with a nucleus and expanding outwards is the most successful, morale-building, and easily-achieved way to proceed… To sum up:

    • Design the site thoroughly on paper.
    • Set priorities based on economic reality.
    • Locate and trade for components locally or cheaply.
    • Develop a nucleus completely.
    • Expand on information and area using species proved to be suited to site (p. 65).

    Definition of Permaculture Design: Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all its forms. It seeks to provide a sustainable place for all living things on this earth.
    Functional Design: Every component of a design should function in many ways. Every essential function should be supported by many components.
    Principle of Self-Regulation: The purpose of a functional and self-regulating design is to place elements and components in such a way that each serves the needs, and accepts the products, of other elements. (p. 69).

    Patterning is the way we frame our designs, the template into which we fit the information, entities, and objects assembled from observation, map overlays, the analytic divination of connections, and the selection of specific materials and technologies. It is this patterning that permits our elements to flow and function in beneficial relationships. The pattern is design, and design is the subject of permaculture (p. 70).

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