Sheet Mulching
Sheet mulching is a no-dig technique that mimics the natural soil-building process that operates within a forest system. When combined properly with other permaculture methods and principles, it can be used to generate productive, healthy, low maintenance ecosystems.
One simple example of sheet mulching is to trim the existing grasses and plants in a given area, then to lay materials down, such as newspaper or cardboard, over the area that you wish to mulch onto. It is best to create overlaps with the materials to avoid gaps where ground is still visible, and to stagger the material in sequence so that as each is laid down, the next is positioned to begin on top of the last, thereby creating a slight slope in the overlap as well.
As the materials decompose, light is prevented from reaching the soil and the plants or grasses that are still present as the process is in action, thereby helping to reduce their ability to reassert themselves over the area. At the same time, decomposition occurs from the topmost layers down, transforming the surface into a fertile soil that can be used for new plantings.
Biochar
Biochar is a special type of charcoal that can be used as a soil amendment, is very rich in carbon, and can endure in soil for thousands of years. Biochar, when broken up and added to soil, can increase agricultural productivity, by enhancing the disease resistance of the soil and plants grown within it, and can be used to raise the potential hydrogen (ph) of acidic soils as well.
Many other agricultural benefits also have been experienced with the use of biochar, some of which are thought to be related to its extremely porous structure, which is very effective at retaining both water and water-soluble nutrients. There is a still a lot that is not known about how the mechanisms and properties of biochar exactly function, and among its numerous proven agriculture benefits when combined into soils, it is also currently being investigated as a possible promising approach to carbon sequestration.
Seed Balls and Seed Bombing
Plant Guilds
While some plant guilds are known because they have been first observed existing in nature, still others have been created by permaculture designers along with varying cultures throughout history, who first observed that some plants will thrive when combined with certain support or sister species. One famous example of a plant guild that is usually cited as example within permaculture, is the three sisters, consisting of winter squash, maize, and climbing beans, which are grown close together.
In the three sisters plant guild, the maize acts as a structure for the beans to climb on, eliminating the need for poles or trestles, the beans provide nitrogen to the soil increasing the yield of the other two plants and the prickly hairs of the vine help to deter pests, while the squash creates a ground cover layer that blocks sunlight, helping to prevent weeds and grasses from becoming established. The leaves of the squash also help to create a microclimate near to the ground, helping to retain moisture in the soil.
Plant guilds are essentially groupings of plant species, designed to increase the productivity of one plant or tree species of choice. In order to create new plant guilds, they must be built upon the knowledge of companion planting, whereby each specific species is selected in order to be combined together to fulfill an overall strategy. To learn more about plant guilds or companion planting, visit our main subject page on Companion Planting.
Effective Microorganisms
Effective microorganisms (EM) are mix of cultures of naturally-occurring organisms that can be applied as beneficial inoculants, increasing the diversity of microbials in a soil ecosystem. Consisting mainly of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, photosynthesizing bacteria, actinomycetes and fermenting fungi, the microorganisms are compatible with one another and can coexist harmoniously in a liquid culture. There is much evidence that adding EM inoculations to a soil system can improve the soil quality, enhancing plant growth and increasing crop yields.
Effective microorganisms used in agricultural soil serve to suppress pathogens, speed up the rate of decomposition of organic materials, and increase the availability of organic compounds and mineral nutrients to plants. With the addition of EM to soil, activities of beneficial micro organisms already present are also enhanced, and microbiological diseases associated with soil are reduced.
Natural Fertilizers
Swales and Berms
Swales and berms are are a planned landscape strategy that is often employed in a permaculture design. Swales can be thought of as ditches with closed ends, and are dug to follow the natural contours of the land, while berms are created by piling the dirt from digging the swales onto the downhill sides of the swales themselves. Through the use of swales and berms, water runoff can be slowed and captured by spreading it out horizontally across the downward elevation of the landscape, providing water infiltration into the soil.
Plant crops and herbaceous vegetation that are grown along the swale and on the berms will benefit from this runoff concentration because as more organic matter is built up, the land is able to absorb more moisture. Shrubs and trees can provide shade and mulch for these landforms which helps to decrease evaporation, and vegetation can even be grown within the swales themselves in order to enhance the entire process. Swales also help to reduce erosion and assist with food production all while improving the local ecology.
A-Frames
Keyhole Gardens
A keyhole garden is a circular raised bed that uses a keyhole-shaped indentation on one side, and are ideal for use with intensive planting, a technique whereby plants are placed close together, maximizing their production. These gardens are aesthetically pleasing and are ideal for small spaces, and can be very accommodating various types of plants such as herbs, vegetables, or even flowers.
Alternatively, a keyhole garden can be built up in height with a composting niche situated in its centre that a gardener can add vegetable scraps, manure, greywater, and other materials to. The composting materials are added to provide nutrients for the plants and an upper layer of soil is usually built up against it so that the soil slopes down toward the sides. This type of keyhole garden that incorporates a compost niche is also referred to as a banana circle.
Herb Spirals
The herb spiral is a highly efficient and productive vertical garden design created by Bill Mollison, and was inspired through patterns he had observed in nature. It is constructed by creating a two foot to two metre round or square garden base, and creating a ramping structure of terraces or slopes using stones or bricks to create the landscape of the design, which spirals inward and up into the centre. Herbs of various types are then chosen and placed on the spiral depending upon their growing needs.
An ingenious design, a herb spiral creates a three-dimensional garden which creates multiple benefits and possibilities over than that of an ordinary two-dimensional flat growing space. As water seeps down and through the entire structure of layers, creating drier conditions near the top of the spiral, and moist conditions at the bottom, while at the same time different areas of more shade or more sun exposure are created as well, and nutrients can also be traded throughout the soil by the plants as needed.
Additionally, the stones or bricks that were used to build the herb spiral retain heat that is absorbed during the day, which provides an insulating effect to the garden at night, helping to keep it warm when the temperature drops, and can be major advantage in colder climates.
Natural Pest Control
Dynamic Governence?
Ecovillages
Place Making
Permablitz
Water Harvesting
Slope and Edges
Rocket Stoves
Rocket stoves are an efficient and very hot type of stove, mostly used as portable stoves for cooking, but this type of design can also be used on a larger scale as a fixed stove, or to create rocket mass heating. What differentiates the average woodstove or fireplace from a rocket stove is that combustion in a rocket stove is nearly absolute, and as the air moves through the system, it creates a loud roaring sound, which gives the rocket stove its name.
Small pieces of wood are burned in a combustion chamber that contains an insulated chimney, ensuring almost complete combustion before the flames begin to reach the cooking surface. Unlike a conventional wood-burning stove, which releases compounds such as smoke, soot, and creosote, a rocket stove sucks these into an insulated, and very hot tunnel, where they are combusted, which instead releases more heat energy which drives the rocket process. As the fire builds, the burn tunnel begins to heat up, and the hot air rises up a heat riser, draws air behind it, and flows into a feed tube, across the burning wood.
Natural Building
Capturing Energy
As the physical sciences point out, energy comes in many different forms, and can be transformed from one to another through processes known as energy conversion. Following this idea, one of the 12 principles of permaculture, as they were first set out by by David Holmgren in his 2002 book, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, is: catch and store energy.
Capturing energy with permaculture methods then, can be thought of as one of many facets of strategies and knowledge used in permaculture that is very much rooted in science, and that can be utilized in order to achieve a high level of efficiency within a permaculture design system. As there are indeed many different types, or forms, of energy, the number of ways that energy can be stored or captured with permaculture methods is actually very diverse. While some examples of permaculture techniques to capture and store energy may seem obvious, such as methods to capture sunlight and store it in the growth of plants, or converting it to electricity in a solar panel, many other forms of energy capture and storage can surprise people in the sophistication of their employment.
One simple example of this principle in action is the capturing of ambient heat energy from air along with energy from direct sunlight within stones placed along the rising perimeter of a herb spiral. This stored energy remains in the stones after the sun sets and the air temperature from the day begins to drop, then the heated stones radiate the captured energy into the soil of the herb spiral garden, thereby helping to allow plantings within the garden to stay warm which in turn allows plant species to grow in the garden which might normally be stunted or otherwise prohibited if planted into the ground directly.
A more complex example of energy that can be captured and stored that may presently go beyond the traditional energy forms considered by the physical sciences today, but that can certainly be demonstrated to exist in our every day lives, is that of social, or human motivational, energy. Social energy, or human motivational energy, should probably be considered one of the most important forms of energy that can be stored or captured, as it is integral to carrying out the needed planning, research, and labour of any given project, and many permaculturists do take this into account in one way or another. As energy itself, that according to our present day knowledge can never be created, and can instead only be transformed, understanding how this process actually works is quite complex, and certainly does go outside the specialized scope of the physical sciences alone. In order to understand how food, air, and water, is transformed into human motivational energy, or social energy, when a person is in the presence of other like minded humans in a cooperative setting of shared activity, is a process that involves the understanding of a wide range of separated disciplines in order to scientifically explain. These disciplines span from biology and biochemistry, to psychology and the social sciences, to as well perhaps other streams of knowings that are not yet fully grasped, but regardless, this process can be demonstrated through the simple permaculture practice of the permablitz.
Through a permablitz, for example then, permaculturists create situations that allow for social, or human motivational energy, to arise in those whom are interested and passionate about permaculture and social activities that embody those passions and interests. It is then captured and stored within the plants that are grown, and the modifications to the land that are made, from the activities devised and carried out by the participants during the blitz. It could also be noted that not all people participating in a permablitz may be aware that it is indeed a perfect example of capturing and storing energy, and neither may the permaculturists who organize such activities be aware of this. Therefor it can also serve as another example, in that many of the ideas that have been devised by permaculturists have often been conceived before their true brilliance can fully be analyzed or explained.
Windbreaks
Winds that are fairly constant can slow or prohibit some plants from growing, can cause stresses to livestock, and can contribute to soil loss from wind erosion. Windbreaks can be used to offer protection for areas on the land that could suffer from excessive winds, and are dense, tall rows of of tree or shrub plantings.
Providing livestock and garden areas with protection from excessive winds can be an important consideration in a permaculture land design, as they also can assist in reducing noise and can help reduce heating costs for homes that are situated in areas with consistently strong winds.
