The following was taken from The Permaculture Research Institute’s website.
“Permaculture (the word, coined by Bill Mollison, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture and permanent culture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people — providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order.
Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all its forms.
The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless action; of looking at systems in all their functions, rather than asking only one yield of them; and allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions.”
The Twelve Permaculture Principles
1: Observe and Interact
2: Catch and Store Energy
3: Obtain a Yield
4: Apply self-regulation and accept feedback
5: Use and value renewable resources and services
6: Produce no waste
7: Design from patterns to details
8: Integrate rather than segregate
9: Use small and slow solutions
10: Use and value diversity
11: use edges and value the marginal
12: Creatively use and respond to change
Examples of Permaculture in Action
Companion Planting: When you plant Horseradish at the base of a cherry tree, the horseradish chokes out weeds and keeps grass (which exudes chemicals that suppress tree growth) away from the tree roots, causing the tree to be more productive. Horseradish seems to keep birds away from the cherries, leaving more cherries, (and horseradish for that matter,) for us to eat.
Natural pool- In a natural swimming pool, fish are introduced to provide nitrogen for the plants, while plants (such as reeds, cattails, water lilies or other native plant) are introduced to filter waste from the water and feed the fish. A natural swimming pool can be filled using gray-water, filtered through aggregates, from a nearby home.