Environmentalism comes in many different flavors; organic gardening, composting, reuse technologies, and vegetarianism are just a few of the many, many different ways to live a gentler life on the planet. Permaculture, a school of thought that emphasizes using the natural processes of the earth in order to live symbiotically with nature, is one of those lifestyles that is rapidly gaining attention in the media.
In essence, permaculture focuses on the principles of environmental and ecological design, striving to integrate all aspects of the environment into a circular whole. This means connecting all parts of the natural ecological cycle – water, plants, landscape, and waste – in a symbiotic and synergistic relationship that sustains itself with little intervention or energy expense.
The above explanation sounds complicated, but the illustration is quite easy to grasp. Let’s say you have a backyard that has bad erosion from rain runoff, and the water pools in a low area, becomes stagnant and a prime breeding ground for mosquitoes. Rather than use expensive, heavy machinery that guzzles gas to reshape and level your yard, you would work with the existing landscape to channel the water and prevent further erosion using plants and trees. The standing water edges could be planted with greenery that would attract mosquito-eating wildlife. You would also include plants and trees that provided food for yourself and indigenous wildlife.
This is an oversimplified example, but the principles are the same. Permaculture strives to mimic the order of nature so little human interference is necessary. “Permaculture is a more symbiotic relationship with nature so that I can be even lazier,” is the way Paul Wheaton, the “Duke of Permaculture,” describes it. Wheaton just recently completed a rocket stove Kickstarter campaign for developing a dvd set expounding the virtues of the super-efficient woodstove technology. Wheaton began his journey in permaculture back in 2001 when he sought different methods to maintain and improve his land in Montana. In the process, he founded the Permies.com and Richsoil.com websites that are devoted to permaculture and sustainable living practices. Permies.com is now the largest permaculture website on the internet, and has forums on every imaginable environmental topic.
If permaculture sounds like something you’d like to explore, surf the Permies.com website, and read “Gaia’s Garden” by Toby Hemenway. Hemenway provides great basic information about small-scale permaculture practices that anyone can implement, even in an urban setting. It may just whet your appetite to try a more natural approach to the land you live on.
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