What is permaculture?

Sunday, January 20, 2019

You may have heard something about permaculture.  The book “Gaia’s Garden” brought this type of gardening to many.  What is it?

Permaculture is creating a synergistic garden; one that is symbiotic and supporting.  It includes enriching the soil, planting for nutrients, planting for shade, planting for food, landscaping for water, planting to attract beneficial insects, planting to repel bad bugs, planting to optimize your harvests.  It is all of this combined.

You need to look at your site to determine what it needs.  You can go big and do it all or start small and work your way into more of a self-sustaining garden.  The ultimate goal is that your garden is layered making the most efficient and productive use of your space and fully self-sustaining.

As you go to plan your garden, place plants based on the amount of care they will need.  Plant those that need daily care or harvesting closest to the house.  For those that need the least care, put furthest out.  Permaculture promotes 6 total zones.  Lay out your garden in these 6 zones and then think through what makes sense to be closest to the house, like herbs and lettuce, you would use daily and those that would be furthest away like nut and fruit trees.

For prepping the soil, start with sheet mulching Put in a new garden bed the easy way-really   You are basically composting in place, building incredible rich soil, alive with microbial and worm activity, which provide all the nourishment plants need to thrive.  The great thing about this technique is that no tilling is required!  Prepare in the fall and by spring, the bed is ready for planting.  Weed free, self fertilizing, till free garden beds

Before I heard about permaculture, I started by doing a soil test, adding the nutrients it indicated, and composting.  I added first herbs, then vegetables amongst my flowers.  Get the most from your space-plant intensively!  I am a big fan of interplanting in the mulched flower beds.   

A good thing to do is to look at how your water drains.  Create small swells/berms to move the water to where you want it to go-like your vegetables.  This will significantly reduce your watering needs.  Mulch also helps keep moisture in the soil while adding organic matter.  Summer garden tips

Add shade to reduce your utility bills and give relief to your plants.  In the spring, all of your vegetables love the sun.  Come summer, many appreciate some shade and cooler temperatures, particularly greens.  Even peppers get sunburned when temps get in the 90’s in full sun all day.  Some relief from afternoon sun is appreciated.  A key cornerstone of permaculture is to plant trees and shrubs that also give you food like nut and fruits.  Fruit for small spaces

The beneficial, pollinating insects love the herbal flowers and the ornamental flowers.  The pollinators insure the vegetable flowers are pollinated to produce their fruits.  If the flowers are not pollinated, they will just fall off.  Growing and using edible flowers  We garden organically and only use organic insecticides in dire times.  Insecticides don’t know the difference between a good bug and a bad bug; it kills them all.  If you can wait, the bad bugs will attract the good bugs that eat them.  Then, you will have balance.  The first year, I bought insects that feed on the bad insects (lady bugs, parasitic wasps, and preying mantis).  It takes them a year or two to get established.  Natural, organic pest strategies and how to make your own bug sprays

You can plant flowers that naturally repel the bad bugs like nasturtium and wild marigold (tagetes minuta).  I put nasturtium in pots and circle the bed with marigolds.   Mosquito repellant plants & natural trap

Planting trees and bushes provide shelter for birds that love to eat insects.  Look for trees and bushes that provide food for the birds, including winter berries.  Birds help to keep the garden in balance.  Don’t forget a water source so they can get a drink.  Make sure the water stays clean or the birds can get sick.

You can also add perennial vegetables, fruits and herbs to bolster the self sustaining garden.  Perennial veggies in the Midwest garden

Also interplanting vegetables and herbs that support others is a win-win.  An example is placing “nitrogen fixers” next to plants that love nitrogen.  You can also place nitrogen lovers in the spot the nitrogen fixers were.  Well known nitrogen fixers are peas and beans.  Clover also does the job and it is edible.  Companion planting

A couple of common plants that bring an assortment of nutrients up from deep in the soil is mustard and dandelions.  If you want a larger leaf dandelion, the French or Italian dandelion is the ticket.  You get great salad greens even in the heat of summer and an auto nutrient fertilizer.  Grow Cultivated Dandelions

There are even plants that are good for breaking up your soil.  These are ones that go deep, like daikon, chicory, dandelion, and mustard.  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

This is just some of the highlights of “permaculture” to give you an idea of what it is about.