A Permaculture Design Course

My aim is to digitise my PDC notes taken from the course with Geoff and Nadia Lawton (Zaytuna farm, June/July 2009), then the information will be far more accessible to more people. I hope to soon start on my own teaching curriculum, this revision is a start.

NOTE:  this post is a constant work under construction and is derived straight from my notes, it is more a bounty of possibilities rather than ‘how to’s’

I hope you enjoy it and learn a lot.

A PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE

Permaculture is based on sciences that are known, it has nothing to do with metaphysics. This does not, however, disable an individual who entwines their lives with metaphysical and mysterious matters from practicing permaculture. A permaculture thrives on diversity in all aspects.

What are the major Problems that give us ‘evidence to act’?

Above are the three major contributors to the degradation of the state of our earth. They are all connected, we cannot soak up our pollution without the forests, but we are cutting them down for the fertile soil that lies beneath them, because other places we have used have already suffered from extreme soil erosion.

Our agriculture industries are unsustainable large monoculture crops that contribute 200 tonnes per hectare a year of soil loss. The 5 major crops that a grown for food and traded on the stock market are Soy, Wheat, Maize, Rice and Potatoes. When these crops are brought locally we receive the same nutrition from 2% of the equivalent area.

What is a Permaculture?

Permaculture –   Permanent Agriculture or, more recently Permanent - Culture

“The conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems that have the diversity and resilienve of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people, providing their food, energy, shelter, and their material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order.”

Bill Mollison – Co originator of the permaculture concept

The above definiation is only one of many ways to describe what permaculture is,  it depends on who you are asking to what answer you receive. However, at the very core of permaculture there are three ethics:

Earth Care - protect, preserve and nurture the earth.

People Care – care for all people, those that are close and those far away. No one should be made to do anything against their will.

Fair Share – share your surplus back into the first and second ethic.

I beleive that permaculture as a principle is one of the most natural

Beginnings

I sat my Permaculture Design Course (PDC) with Geoff  and Nadia Lawton, of The Permaculture Research Institute (PRI), Australia, NSW, in june/july 2009. The experience was nothing short of life changing. Fortunately i had been prepared for this and had cleaned my slate – so to speak – before departing my lovely home town, Adelaide, South Australia.

As of yet, i have done nothing overly significant with the information that i was bestowed, not that it is particularly my aim to do so. I aim to be a PART of something very significant. I aim to be an active part of creating a permaculture for the peoples of the world, where we care for the earth and each other willingly and with love. This can be done simply and perpetually by sharing our surplus.

This blog space was inspired by two people, Angelo the permaculture wizard of Melbourne, his amazing garden in Preston and his impeccable record of it at http://deepgreenpermaculture.wordpress.com/about/ i urge you to pop into his website OR even better contact him and see his beautiful garden, and Jonathon Chan one of the hardest working, passionate, kind, clever people i know of. Thank you.