As we near the end of this intensive two weeks, I am beginning to integrate the sense of having truly found my calling. I am a permie. That’s what avid permaculturists call themselves. And whilst still a student who has so much to learn, I feel as if I’ve finally found a ‘religion’ that I can believe in with commandments that I can strive to live by. Stive here is the operative word, for I sense that like all pilgrims on the path of spiritual awakening, I will make mistakes and I will stray from the path but I will not lose track of the final destination.
Permie’s might be likened to earth-friendly ‘jedi warriors’ on a crusade to restore the Garden of Eaten by going beyond the dark side [embodied in our warlike 'dominator' culture, human greed,reckless consumption and selfish corporatism represented by entities like 'No Man Satan/So Not Man and The Big Pharm].
The word ‘religion’ comes from the Latin re [back] and ligare [tie or connect]. Through time the quest of humanity has been reconnect themselves to what some call spirit or god
My sense of God is not as the awesome figure in white robes sporting a long white beard watching over me from the sky like a threatening cloud, which was how I thought of him as a child, but as the force and spirit of all life that one of my mentors described as ‘That which is greater than self, of which we are a part and not apart from’.
“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.“ Obi Wan Kanobe Star Wars
It seems to me that, until we can connect to this universe on which we live and truly return to and embrace mother Earth, recognizing that we are an intrinsic part of and not apart from and above the system of life, we are up humanure creek without a bamboo paddle.
Most religions offer dogmatic rules that make no sense to me. The permaculture ethics and design principles, on the other hand, offer a set of guidelines that go beyond designing a way of living and offer hope for some kind of survival.
It makes sense to grow plants and trees that work symbiotically and reduce our long term labor demands.
It makes sense to use our poop as a fertilizer instead of flushing it into our drinking water system.
It makes sense to design our space for functionality and purpose.
It makes sense to plant for the future as well as for our immediate needs
It makes sense to make our own ’cheap as chips’ natural miracle-grow rather than putting profit into the pocket of pharmaceutical giants
It makes sense to catch and store sunlight and divert water into natural irrigation systems and ponds for fish and other aquatic life to flourish in.
It makes sense to mulch the land with cardboard, manure and straw as opposed to breaking our back or bank [with a tractor] to dig huge planting trenches that destroy the soil.
It makes sense to value diversity and work together as a system rather than as separate entities.
It makes sense to make the least change for the greatest result and it makes complete sense to put our efforts into local, easily obtainable, natural organic food production that can sustain us whether we live in a city or rurally.
Last night one of my fellow participants said that now she truly knew the meaning of the saying that until you find something you are willing to die for you have not found your calling. It was a goose bumpy moment.
The ‘commandments’ of permaculture are the ‘design principles’ and instead of ten there are twenty[although some have reduced it to twelve or ten]. These principles are rather like the pillars of a great temple, each playing a role in supporting the whole structure.
These principles are foundated on four ethical considerations.
Care of the Earth
As designers, our first ‘client’ has to be Earth. In considering our plan, we must always ask ourselves ‘how will this benefit Earth? And if it doesn’t, regardless of whether we think it’s great for humans, we must discard it. This is pretty heavy duty. If you drive a car, you are not earth friendly. If you use air conditioning, you are not earth friendly’. If you use pesticides or buy food that travels halfway across the world to reach your dinner plate, you are not earth friendly.
In fact there are very few of us on this planet who truly are ‘earth friendly’. Just because we buy organic or drive a Prius and recycle our plastic and tin cans, or pay back a few dollars in carbon footprint penance we mustn’t kid ourselves that our life style is OK. It isn’t. We humans have made a lot of mistakes and we are on the brink of disaster. If we don’t stop now, re-ssess how we live our lives, and make HUGE changes, there won’t be an Earth for us to inhabit.
This is not a judgement call. I write this as a fellow sinner knowing that whilst forgiveness is always available, it is our duty as ‘reformed sinners’ to start walking a more righteous path.
That’s a kind of turn around for us humans who have spent so many eons believing that we are more important than anything and that the earth is there as an endless well of chocolate for us to gorge on. [Although, if you've tasted the bitter chocolate pecan bars that Koinonia produce you might be tempted into the sin of gluttony]
Care of Humans
Our second most important client, as designers, is humanity. That doesn’t mean that we’re more important than animals or plants. We aren’t. But we are more intelligent and with that intelligence we have a responsibility. If we live with holistic integrity, then animals and plants get to do their thing to the best of their abilities and everyone is happy.
Give Away the Surplus
How many pairs of shoes or items of jewellery or bath towels do you really need? As someone who has gone from being fairly comfortable to on the edge of poor I have learned to value functionality over style and frivolity.
When we stop being greedy and selfish, recognize that our needs are far less than we’ve been hypnotized into believing, limit what we consume and how many of us are on this earth, we will have enough left over to give to others. That’s a pretty tall order for the consumer culture we’ve been cunningly trained into by those who wish to pump up our false economy.
The last permie ‘article of faith’ requests that we respect the intrinsic value of all beings.
There really is nothing natural on this earth that is not part of the grand design. Snakes, spiders, wasps and even soldier flies all have a role to play if we’ll only recognize what it is and utilize it as it was meant to be.
Here are a few of the design principles… see if they make sense to YOU…
Observe and Interact
The foundation of this is about being ‘present’ or ‘in the now’. When our five senses are on full receiver mode we take in much more information about what’s going on that when we’re ‘in our heads’. And like that we can react more quickly and more effectively.
Design for Reduncancy
Don’t put your eggs in one basket. If you’re using monoculture and a blight pops up, the whole crop will be gone and your stomach will be rumbling. Multiple streams of income and a variety of planting, maturing at different times, ensure that if one fails, there is something else to put pennies in your pocket and fill your stomach
Use Appropriate Technologies
We have to be realistic. If we have a lot of earth moving to do in order to set up a long term ecological system, it’s OK to use gas-powered machinery. We just need to be mindful of not becoming over reliant and consider this as a short term solution that can eventually be replaced by more earth-friendly ways.
Stack and Pack
Instead of laying out your garden in rows, use the vertical as well as the horizontal. Squash and cucumbers don’t have to grow along the ground.. they’re often quite happy trailing themselves up a strong corn stem or a tree trunk. Look at the unders and overs. Tomatoes can grow happily strung from the eaves of a roof and herbs or grapes can flourish on a rooftop turf.
Obtain a Yield
Don’t just plant stuff to look good, make sure that it can sustain yourself and your family and strive to go beyond that so that you can help others less fortunate than yourselves and have stuff to trade. As they saying goes ‘you can’t work on an empty stomach’.
Produce no Waste
Re-use everything. Cardboard becomes a mulch base, old bottles can build retaining walls, plastic bottles can catch water, your poop and urine are mega effective zero cost natural fertilizers, and food scraps feed chickens and pigs.
Use Energy Efficient Planning
When designing your permaculture lifespace, it makes sense to put your herb and kitchen garden NEXT to the kitchen. You get easy access and they get greater care from being close to you. Divide your area into zones, the closest one being the ones you access on a daily basis and the furthest ones being wild land like an area of forest that needs minimal human interaction and then only for healing.
Design from Patterns to Details
Start with the big picture and then fill in the details. You’d be surpized at how we zone in on something we want like a ‘herb garden’ or a particular tree and become so obsessively and narrowly focused that we end up trying to manipulate everything else to fit that. If it doesn’t fit into the whole pattern, it won’t work no matter how much we want it to.
Start Small and Learn from Change
Make lots of small mistakes that become learning milestones, rather than big ones that turn into disaster tombstones. Big mistakes will linger on in living death, longafter we are gone.
And there are more and that’s what ‘google’ is for….
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