great article Joshua Thayer What Exactly is Permaculture? Organic Gardening 2.0 ? Information Press Joshua will be a co-teacher at the 9th Annual Permaculture Design Course in Belize Feb 10-24 Maya Mountain Research Farm http://www.mmrfbz.org/_9th_Annual_Permaculture_Design_Cours…

The organic food movement is sweeping the nation. Farmers markets are springing up in nearly every county nationwide. The slow food movement is bringing people together at their dinner tables to share homegrown produce. Chefs are now demanding to source their food stuffs direct from regional growers. Victory gardens are making a resurgence as people choose to become beacons of healthy food production in the neighborhood.

But what is permaculture? This vague term has been overheard at the farmers market, or perhaps in a sustainable living catalog. But what does it mean? What is the difference between organic farming and permaculture?

First, let us define organic farming. Organic is merely the absence of petrochemicals. Surely an important step in the evolution of healthy food production, organic farming ensures that the food we eat is free from harmful residues. However, it ensures little else. An expanse of organic lettuce grown in a vast monoculture would be considered organic farming. Neat rows of crops, albeit not sprayed with harmful petrochemicals, are quite likely still planted and harvested by large machinery itself fueled by petrochemicals.

In fact, whether organic or conventional, it is now possible to sow, grow and harvest a crop completely by machine. This implies that your hands on washing the produce in your kitchen sink, may be the first human contact the plant has made. Essentially organic farming has sought to replicate machinery-dependent agriculture using natural alternatives. It carries forward the legacy of the commercial agriculture infrastructure.

Soil fertility is paramount to healthy produce devoid of synthetic nutrients. Organic farmers spend great amounts of resources to continue to develop the soils in which their crops grow. However, these amendments are commonly purchased and shipped in. Even in the most fecund soil, pestilence emerges in a mono-cropped field. Pests can only travel so far when crops are interspersed with other crops. Conversely, a single stand of one plant is simply not resilient to pestilence. Therefore, applications of non-toxic sprays are warranted to protect the production harvest. It is clear that organic commercial farming is vastly less harmful than conventional agriculture. But what does organic agriculture do to enhance the local ecology and local culture?

Permaculture is a way of design that links resources, use and harvest into a connected whole. A more complex system design, permaculture is perfectly suited to community-scale production. By taking into account the local microclimate conditions, permaculture asks how many harvests and functions can be simultaneously realized from one plot of land. It challenges us to move on to organic gardening 2.0. To shift the focus of our gardens from machine-centric to plant- and community-centric.

Plant-centric: Why do we plant in straight lines? The answer: the wheel. Straight lines are necessary for mechanized agriculture, as machinery operates by the turning of sets of wheels spinning on axels. Thus, straight line agriculture is inherently machine-centric. It makes sense for vast tracks of commercial crops, but little else. However, such “design” is so entrenched in our psyches that many small-plot organic farms implement straight lines, even though no machinery is involved. How might we redesign our production fields to become more plant-centric?

Take an organic apple orchard, for example, planted in straight lines with nothing but weeds between the rows. Permaculture would ask how we might “stack functions” to increase overall productivity. We could begin by planting the gaps between rows with a second harvest that would tolerate the shade of the apple trees, perhaps Asian greens and peas. Further, we could identify rocky or marginal fringe areas and create there a repository of flowers and native plants. Such areas can foster a biodiversity of beneficial insects that may assist in pollinating the flowers of the main orchard crop and increase productivity. We also may choose to bring in a herd of animals to overwinter under the fallow trees, eating the winter weed sprouts and depositing fertility into the soil to feed the spring growth of the apples. Animal feces is full of enzymes and positive bacteria that can act to bolster the immune system of the crops we grow.

Community-centric: Another question to rethink in our production of crops is where are they headed? We can grow two acres of carrots and sell them to the regional wholesale buyer and then take a portion of the proceeds to buy other produce. Or we could begin to grow a number of crops that do well in our area and barter with neighbors for other crops we no longer need to buy. When we diversify production we create a more resilient system. Pests can only travel so far when crops are interspersed with other crops. Furthermore if our focus is to have homegrown apples for as much of the year as possible, it may be more productive to plant 3 to 4 varieties rather than one, as this spreads out the harvest over two to three months rather than yielding a ton of apples all at once.

Rethinking currency: Perhaps at first you can identify a few crops that you can grow well and will soon no longer have to purchase. For example, citrus does well in the Bay Area, as do berries, culinary herbs and fresh greens. Though certainly not enough to live on, these become home grown foodstuffs you no longer have to spend your currency on. Furthermore, you may be able to barter your lemons and mint for the neighbor’s corn and tomatoes and add to this list of resilience while fostering a culture of interconnectedness. This can begin a community-scale strategy for productivity and interdependence.

Start Now:

Question: Rethink your lawn: Can I earmark a corner of the lawn for growing crops?
Observe: What crops do I see at nearby community gardens and farms doing well in my area?
Organize and document: Organize a Saturday potluck work-party and work with many hands to make light work. Then the following month rotate to another house and do it again.
Start small: Start with a manageable amount of production. I recommend a first year goal of chickens, salad greens, culinary herbs, berries and a fruit tree.
Sow Peas: Follow Henry David Thoureau’s example and plant a patch of peas. Peas and beans add fertility to the soil and are easy to grow. At the end of the season, harvest the bean pods and turn the vegetation into the soil for the following seasons fertility.
Mulch: Straw or shredded wood chips three to four inches deep on the ground will reduce weeds and retain moisture, while slowly decaying as a food source for the plants and soil.
Start now: There is no gift like the present, so begin now. Mistakes made will inform future design.

Joshua Burman Thayer is a Certified Permaculture Designer and the owner of Native Sun Gardens. He offers ongoing garden coaching, as well as group permaculture design course. Join Joshua for the next class in Belize. See ad on pg