What is Permaculture – A Primer in Pictures and Patterns – PART 1

Is it a community of doomer hippies? An incomprehensible internet meme for do-gooders who hate lawns and love fermenting things? A clever rebranding scheme for the organic farming movement thought up by wayward corporate marketing gurus? A cult for Gaia-worshipping environmentalists? A secret society for foraging herbalist hedgewitches? WHAT IS PERMACULTURE?  After 6 years, 100 posts, over 100,000 page views, and hundreds of followers, I’ve never written a post answering that question!  Why?  Because there are already so many good treatments of the topic on the nets. Why re-re-reinvent the wheel when the internet’s rolling along just merily without me. … Continue reading What is Permaculture – A Primer in Pictures and Patterns – PART 1

What is Permaculture?

For all of our evolutionary history, feast or famine has mostly been the “luck of the draw.” While one family found themselves well-fed and wealthy in the environment of an oasis, the next had to make due in the desert. One valley was green and fertile while the next was a barrens and we human inhabitants simply accepted our lot. Or we fought to take someone else’s.  The primary insight of Permaculture is that this does not have to be so. We can design our human habitats to meet our needs by emulating and working with nature instead of wasting … Continue reading What is Permaculture?