 Readers of this column may wonder what exactly is permaculture? In the 1970s, Australians Bill Mollinson and David Holmgren observed how soils were devastated by the imposition of a temperate European agriculture on the fragile soils of an ancient Antipodean landscape. Like the dust bowls of Oklahoma in the 1930s, an alien agriculture has the capacity to turn a delicately balanced ecology into desert. Bill and David’s response to what they saw was to design a permanent agriculture with tree crops and other perennials inhabiting all the niches from the canopy to the ground cover and below. The soil is left untilled to establish its own robust micro-ecology. Key to this is that the land must be biodiverse and stable for future generations.
Mirroring nature
From permanent tree crops, permaculture has evolved into a thinking tool for designing low carbon, highly productive systems; gardens, farms, buildings, woodlands, communities, businesses – even towns or countries. The key to permaculture is observing nature and learning what makes natural systems endure, establishing simple yet effective principles, and using them to mirror nature in whatever we choose to design. Permaculture is essentially about creating beneficial relationships and its application is only as limited as our imagination.
The bedrock of permaculture is its three ethics: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares (i.e. sharing surpluses and trading fairly with other people and nations). Then comes a set of principles that help guide permaculturists in creating systems that integrate these ethics.
Valuing the edge
I will not attempt to write about all the principles here but to give you a taster of one of my favourites: this is the principle of valuing the marginal, the ‘edge’. Examples of edge in nature are: when canopy meets clearing in the woodland, inviting in air and sunshine and a profusion of flowers; where sea and river meet land in the fertile interface of estuaries, full of invertebrates, fish and bird life; where the banks of streams meet the water’s edge and fertility is built with deposited mud and sand in flood time, giving life to a riot of plant life; where plains and water meet, flooding and capturing alluvial soils. Edge in nature is all about increasing diversity by the increase of inter-relationship between the elements: earth, air, fire (sun), water. This phenomenon increases the opportunity for life in all of its marvellous fertility of forms.
In human society edge is where we have cultural diversity. It is the place where free thinkers and so-called ‘alternative’ people thrive and new ideas are allowed to develop and ageless wisdom is given its rightful respect. Edge is suppressed in non-democratic states and countries that demand theological allegiance to one religion. Edge abhors monotheism in all forms, be they cultural, religious or economic. Mainstream America with its economic and cultural orthodoxy and China with its religious persecution of the Tibetan people share an intolerance to ‘edge’.
To colonise an edge with fellow pioneers is much easier. Rather than being a marginalised voice, sharing ideas creates community, as supportive and abundant as the lovely ecology of wildflowers we see on the coppice floor of a woodland in springtime.
Nurturing creative thinking
If we humans are allowed to find our collective edge and form supportive networks, we thrive and bloom. So this permaculture principle is all about valuing the marginal – what mainstream ‘monocultural’ thinkers often deem as wacky – because that is where the fertile, creative thinking is nurtured. It is rarely found in the orthodox, materialistic world.
There have been times when I have been criticised as an editor of Permaculture Magazine for encouraging ‘unorthodox’ thinking. Last week I met some colleagues who took the Michael out of me for writing in the Cygnus Review. They teased me, saying that I had become ‘Mystic Maddy’. Yet to me, Cygnus readers are exactly the people I want to speak to. You are a fertile edge and have the courage and imagination to explore ideas beyond the mainstream. You are also increasingly aware of the environmental crisis. Most of all, you are seekers who wish to take practical action. This is what our work is about – linking spiritual values to ecological action.
In order to change the world, we have to ‘colonise’ edges – like birds in estuaries – and not stay in our prescribed comfort zones because this is where new ideas and visions are found. I told my colleagues that though my feet are firmly in the compost heap, my heart and mind is still unfolding and I thrive in the unexpected, the marginal. I want to speak to anybody who will listen about permaculture and ecological and social change.
Progressing sustainability
I know too that the mainstream is taking climate change and peak oil so seriously that they are looking outside the box for solutions. It is no coincidence that today, as I write, the publishing company that I helped found, Permanent Publications, has been awarded The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development Category for ‘continuous achievement’ and ‘unfettered commitment to progressing sustainability’ internationally for nearly two decades. No doubt I will have to learn how to curtsey in the coming months but don’t worry, we will remain edge species, challenging orthodoxy, and valuing and celebrating the inspiration of the marginal.
Much love, Maddy
Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture Magazine – solutions for sustainable living. 01730 82331.
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