17 JUNE, 2013

I have just completed a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) at the Sydney Permaculture Institute, "Bandusia". It enabled us to get up close and personal with both city gardens and bush properties outside Sydney imbued with the principles of permaculture. Photographer and PDC student Annette Wilson, took a beautiful series of photos documenting the experience and other amazing permaculture concepts devised by students on the course can be found at the group's facebook page.

One of the tasks we were given was to make suggestions on how one of the properties we visited, 'She-Ing' Farm in Fernances, New South Wales, could be adapted to bring it further into line with permaculture design principles.This task allowed me to create my own summary of the permaculture principles, with help from Bill Mollison's book, "Introduction to Permaculture" and an online Permaculture Design Course handbook.

9 PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES
1. RELATIVE LOCATION "The core of permaculture is design. Design is a connection between things. It’s not water, or a chicken, or a tree. It is how the water, the chicken and the tree are connected.” Mollison, B. & Slay, R.M. (2004) Introduction to Permaculture, Sisters Creek, Tasmania, Australia, Tagari, p. 5.
To decide on the location of each element it is necessary to look at the functional interconnection between to be able to establish where they should be placed to achieve a synergy in which they are interrelating in the most beneficial way possible.
Functional Analysis of Elements
We can analyse each element by noting its:inputs or needsoutputs or productsintrinsic characteristics
2. EACH ELEMENT PERFORMS MANY FUNCTIONS
When the functions of each element have been established they should then be placed where they can perform at least three functions, or more if possible.Placing trees that can feed chickens in a chicken run or building a windbreak to deflect wind but not shade the house from winter sun are some examples. Others would include placing gravity fed tanks and dams uphill or placing the vegetable garden between the house and chicken pen so manure from the pen could be used on the garden and weeds and cuttings from the garden could be picked along the way to feed the chickens.
3. EACH IMPORTANT FUNCTION IS SUPPORTED BY MANY ELEMENTS
Each important function of a site should be supported by at least three elements.Functions include slow and sinking water supported by water tanks, swales, gabions, dams and ponds or reusing water in the landscape by constructing a grey water system.
Common functions on a site:
WATER (roof catchment, greywater, aquaculture, dams)
ACCESS (paths, roads, tracks)
ENERGY (electricity, pumping, solar, wind, heating and cooking using firewood)
FOOD PRODUCTION (nuts, seeds, dairy, grains, vegetables, fruit, bee products, flowers)
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY (worms, chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, cows, fish)
FIRE PROTECTION (ponds, roads, stone walls, fire suppressing vegetation)
4.ENERGY EFFICIENT PLANNING
To carry out energy efficient planning it is important to take ZONE PLANNING, SECTOR PLANNING and SLOPE into consideration to maximize time, energy and monetary resources.
ZONES – locating elements based on the intensity of use and management requirements.
Zone 0: home
Zone 1: plants and animals requiring daily care or used often, like herbs, lemon tree, annual salad beds, cherry tomatoes, guinea pigs and worm farm
Zone II: small orchard, larger veggies, small domestic stock like chickens, aquaculture tanks and ponds, terraces, swales and hot compost piles
Zone III: larger orchards, living mulches, goats, bee hives, wind breaks, firebreaks, garden staples like corn, pumpkins and potatoes, plantings for firewood, cold compost piles of branches and trimmings
Zone IV: Large farmstock, dams, forestry plantings for timber and forested areas, windmills, nut trees
Zone V: wilderness, wildlife corridors, reforestation, water-catchment area
SECTORS – Wild energies that pass through a site. They are usually dealt with by blocking, channeling or opening up areas.
Sun Summer (high angle that sets east to west) Winter (low angle that sets east to west)
Wind Summer (hot and dry) Winter (cold and dry)
Noise
View
Flood
Fire
Wildlife
SLOPE – Using the benefits of gravity to channel water and move objects around a site. Choosing plants that require more watering for lower regions of the site for example.
5. USING BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES
Biological resources save energy and do the work of the farm. They need to be well-managed for ultimate productivity.
ANIMAL TRACTORS – Used to clear land, like chickens in the garden or goats on a bramble patch. Large animals like pigs can be use to turn a potato field and cows can be tractored with electric fences and moved daily so ground is not compacted and bushes are not overgrazed.
PEST CONTROL – Potent blends of plants to attract beneficial insects and design bird and bat houses or add small ponds, hollow logs, rocks and stick pile as habitat for small creatures.
FERTILISERS – Use manure from animals and nitrogen-fixing plants as well as dynamic accumulators like comfrey and nettles.
OTHER BIOLOGICAL FACTORS –
Bees (pollinate flowers and gather nectar)
Spiny plants (fencing)
Allopathic plants (suppress weed growth)
Dogs (guard livestock)
6. ENERGY CYCLING
Directing incoming energy from the sun, wind, water and manures to create a cyclical exchange whereby all energy is caught, stored used and recycled for maximum production. Incoming energies can be used to create soil, feed animals, drought proof farms and produce power, for example.
7. ACCELERATING NATURAL PLANT SUCCESSIONS
Creating diversity by:
Using what is already growing: Making the most of potentially invasive species already present that fix nitrogen into the soil.
Plant that will easily survive: incorporating pioneer species like acacias to push succession along.
Raising organic levels artificially: use cover crops of legumes and annual grasses to increase soil succession.
Substituting our own pioneer trees etc.: imitating natural systems by planting nitrogen fixers that are multifunctional like pigeon peas and woolly vetch or by planting comfrey, for example.
8. DIVERSITY (Guilds)
Creating a mixed system with groups of plants growing around a central element, all benefiting each other. Examples include creating an edible landscape of flowering natives, perennials and annuals. A guild builds on this principle by using a specific design to repair and balance soil. Instead of competing, plants are grown together to attract different minerals for the health of the overall ecosystem.
9. EDGE EFFECT
Utilizing the meeting place of two ecosystems where there is often an abundance of activity for higher levels of productivity.Examples include using the edges of water-ways or catchments or edges of forests to capitalize of the biodiversity found in those areas.

SITE EVALUATION:

permaculture design course at ‘Bandusia’

growing in containers

winter rain