What is Permaculture?
Brought to you by PUC Green Sanctuary

Permaculture uses a set of principles and practices to design sustainable human settlements. It grew out of the observations of two men from Australia, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. They saw that many ecosystems are life-giving, abundant and interconnected. They decided that they could build systems as effective as the ones they observed that would include humans.

Mollison and Holmgren began to identify principles that made those systems so rich and sustainable.

The principles for ecological design they developed are:

1. Observe the specific site, people and culture for which you are designing
2. Connect among all parts: relationships among elements creates a healthy, diverse ecosystem
3. Catch and store energy and materials, reinvesting resources builds the capacity to capture more resources
4. Each element performs multiple functions
5. Each function is supported by multiple elements
6. Make the least change for the greatest effect
7. Use small-scale, intensive systems
8. Optimize the intersection of two environments
9. Collaborate with the succession from immaturity to maturity
10. Use biological and renewable resources

Principles based on attitudes:

11. Turn problems into solutions
12. Design for both immediate and long term returns
13. The biggest limit to abundance is limited creativity
14. Mistakes are tools for learning

February 12, 2012 A Dialogue with Dr. Bill Roley at PUC
Expert from Permaculture Institute of Southern California will Share Observations of Pacific Unitarian Church after Service.

So, permaculture principles can be used to design many other things besides a garden, such as a house, even a corporation. We are planning to use permaculture principles and practices in creating the community garden at PUC.

Examples for items above:

1. Build strong connections among plants, soil life, beneficial insects and the gardener
2. Shrub with berries uses energy, birds eat the berries which pass through the bird's digestive tract, then the seed germinates, the leaves gather solar energy
3. A shade tree can also provide nuts, attract pollinators, leaves build the soil harvests rainwater, pulls dust from the air
4. Plant a cluster of shade trees of several varieties - cast shade over a larger area and a longer season
5. An edge, an area between two environments, is the most biodiverse, so make edges longer; e.g., instead of a round pond, create one with wavy edges and lobes
6. Problem - invasion of purple loosestrife, possible poster child of exotic-species eradication enthusiasts, is superb at both tolerating and cleaning polluted water, so let it do its job - when the water is relatively clean, loosestrife dies back
7. Rebuild a marsh - cattails - muskrat overpopulation who ate the cattails - appearance of otters who ate the muskrats

Amazing how social this dialogue with place can be, not a dry discussion of food, waste, water, energy and shelter. Can we go toward nutritious PUC-grown food? Beginning with a Children’s Garden? Dorian, Nancy and I are totally sparked. In September Dr. Roley walked PUC with Dorian. We’ll share more about his observations and questions in the future.

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OUR STORY

Last spring Ray and I attended a state-wide Permaculture Convergence held in a Malibu canyon; we camped by a stream with other campers (and a goat). Keynote speaker Penny Livingston apologized for the visual candy that glued us like taffy. She wove the connections, biodiversity, watershed, wild food, with the imperative, and the joy. On Saturday night by the fire, we were mesmerized with flaming batons and poetry; and rocked to the band and the acoustic guitarist/singer. All volunteers, they entertained us and themselves, a vive from the 60’s. It felt so good, like the joy of our Sunday mornings.

I found Dr. Bill Roley of the Permaculture Institute of Southern California at the Convergence. His courses at universities and colleges link the social and environmental sciences into an integrated pattern. His doctorate is from the UCI. I pleaded, “I wanna convert our yard on permaculture principles. No more landscape plantings and lawn monoculture, but a food forest!” Friends Dorian and Nancy of PUC Green Sanctuary, our environmental covenant group, and Carolyn of Transition South Bay LA joined in the planning. Ray and I seeded Dr. Roley’s design consult work with $800. He observed our property with us many times (traveling from Laguna Beach), tested our soil, took apart our worm bin, studied the drainage, the exposure, and we shared ideas with our meals. He sent educational materials and tentative plans. I found that Bill is profoundly not a landscaper; this permaculture design was a dialogue and an education in food, waste, water, energy and shelter.

The miracle happened in August.
A 15-hour weekend workshop Bill orchestrated at our place. We had $1,200 worth of trees, soil, and stained boards assembled that Bill had sourced. We had done preliminary site clearing. Bill brought three recent graduates of permaculture design, Ty, Shadi, and Teryl, who brought bags of mulch (even coffee grounds) and seeds. The 20-25 intern-attendees were reached through networks over the summer, particularly Carolyn’s Transition newsletter. Their cost for the weekend ‘design and build’ was $75 including meals (with option to attend in parts) and began with Bill’s Friday night lecture, complete with nearly a library of books and subject matter.

On Saturday and Sunday the designers focused on three workstations: the slope edge in front, the lawn area above, and the back yard. The Transition team and Green Sanctuary prepared three meals for all—fun times those meals were.

At Workstation 1, the designers created terraces on the slope to hold and sink rain water with Teryl’s guidance; planted seven fruit and nut trees (avocado, Valencia orange, kumquat, lemon, macadamia nut, clementine and dwarf bananas--my dream of a food-forest. The soil was amended, inoculants prepared, and finally the soil was seeded to enhance soil fertility with fava beans, flax, legumes and clover, comfrey, squash, and much more.

At Ty’s Workstation 2, the lawn above was covered an amazing 10 inches deep in ‘permaculture lasagna’ so the lawn at the base became a layer of mulch. Ty guided us as we shaped the herb spiral along a coil of hose, pounded in cedar fence boards of decreasing height, and then filled the spiral with soil and mulch to create micro climates for the new herb plants. The spiral is accessed from Noel’s flag stone path.

In the backyard Workstation 3, I wanted raised beds bordered with river rock. Shadi and her team shaped the lobe borders in lines of flour, leaving paths to the chicken coop. Cool season vegetables, chard and peas, and perennials artichoke, lemon grass and asparagus were planted to confuse the pests; legume and clover seeds added to cover the soil.

The workshop included presentations on preparation of inoculants, verma composting (worms), micro fowl (chicks) and water management. We learned how to find a contour in a slope. (Result: We reduced our irrigation by 40%.)

The biggest thrill were the people who came: neighbor Jim who invited us to tour his hidden tropical forest a few doors away; John from New Zealand with plants, and Teresa and Brian who took photos, brought plants, love and expertise; Teryl and Chris’ amazing strength; and Kari who later taught the classes for the new Hermosa Community Garden. Articles on our workshop later appeared in the Hermosa Beach Patch, the Beach Reporter and Edible Orange County Quarterly.

Sharing abundance,
Carolyn Waters

P.S. You know you’re a permaculturist when you carry around a bale of pine shavings for the hen house floor in the back seat of your electric car; in the trunk, canvas bags and a Hook-N-Go for the market.