Indicator Plants
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Designed Visions Permaculture Design Course Handouts July 2011 Contents ii Contents An Introduction to Permaculture A Beginners Guide to Permaculture 1 Mind Maps of Permaculture 3 Ethics and Philosophies 4 An Introduction to Systems 5 Problems and Spirals of Erosion 7 Permaculture and Sustainability 9 Some definitions of permaculture (pick your favourite): 10 Pattern Understanding and Applications 11 Nature’s Food Webs 13 Keeping an Observation Diary 14 Nine ways of observing 15 Phenological diary 16 Personal phenological diary 17 Where You At? 18 Approaches to Design Themes in Design 1 Principles of Ecology 2 Principles of Natural Sustainable Systems 3 Guiding Principles of Permaculture Design 5 The Golden Rules of Edible Landscaping 7 Methods and Approaches to Design 8 Needs and Yields Analysis 9 The Permaculture chicken 9 A Permaculture cup of tea 9 Energy cycling for a house and garden system 10 Limiting factors 11 McHarg’s exclusion method 12 Spiral of intervention 12 Microclimate 13 Energy Efficient Planning 15 Elevation profile 16 Zones and sectors - a case study 17 More design tools 19 Web of connections 19 Random assembly 19 Fukuoka’s four principles of natural farming 20 Yeoman’s Keyline scale of permanence 20 SWOC / PNI ~ comparing best options 20 David Holmgren’s Principles 21 Climate and Landform Designing in non-native environments 1 Soil The Basics 1 Estimating Soil Texture 3 Soil Texture Triangle 3 Identifying Texture by Feel 4 Identifying Soil Texture by Measurement (Jar Test) 4 Soil Texture by Feel Flowcharts 5 Designed Visions ~ permaculture design course handouts www.designedvisions.com Contents iii Biological Monitoring 7 Transect mapping 7 Biological and Soil Monitoring Chart 8 Indicator Plants 9 Soil Conservation and Improvement 13 Nutrient Management for Plant Growth 18 Mulching 19 Liquid Manure 22 Compost Making 23 Dynamic (Mineral) Accumulators 25 Fertile Relationships 27 Green Manures 30 Worm Composting 31 Jean Pain Method 33 Nutrient availability by pH 34 Water Water facts 1 Water in the Landscape 3 Water Management 4 Water Use at Home 6 Rainwater Harvesting 7 Water, Toilets and Solutions 8 Humanure dry composting toilets 9 Using Biological processes to filter and clean polluted water 11 Determining Freshwater Quality Using the Ladder of Organisms 12 Pond Design for Wildlife 13 Wetland Eco-system Treatment (WET) Systems 15 Trees Ten Reasons why Trees are Important 1 The Metabolism of the tree 2 Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees 3 Agroforestry 7 Choice of Species Organiser 8 Orchards and Fruit Trees 9 Top Working 10 Forest Gardening 11 Robert Hart’s seven layers 11 Robert Hart’s garden plan 13 Robert Hart’s garden layering 14 Planting Fruit Trees 15 Multipurpose Windbreak Design 19 Willows 22 Cultivated Ecology Horticulture techniques 1 Kitchen Gardening 2 Polyculture Vegetable Gardens 3 15 food rules for ecological public health 5 Chemicals in Agriculture - A Comparison 6 Integrated Pest Management (IPM) 7 Seed Saving 12 Designed Visions ~ permaculture design course handouts www.designedvisions.com Contents iv Community Supported Agriculture 15 Natural Farming 17 The Land Institute 18 Holistic Management 21 Keyline Planning 23 Energy, Buildings and Structures Energy and Permaculture 1 Four possible future scenarios 7 Ecological Footprinting 8 How to Save Energy in the Home 9 Cool climate house design 10 Appropriate Energy Technology 11 Appropriate Technology In Development 13 Invisible Structures Bioregionalism 1 Transition Culture 3 Real Wealth and Wiser Money 5 Support local producers and retailers 6 People Care Permaculture in personal and societal change 1 Meetings techniques 5 Groupwork 7 Listening Skills 8 Vision support groups (aka action learning guilds) 9 Parallel (six hat) thinking 10 Facilitation and Conflict Resolution 11 Working with multiple clients or community groups 15 Accelerated Learning The Guiding Principles of Accelerated Learning 1 Accelerated learning mindmaps 2 Competence cycle 4 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs 4 Multiple Intelligences 5 Learning Styles 7 Mind mapping 9 Permaculture for Children 11 Example children’s garden 14 Design Process Overview Design Activity ~ Hints on the Process 1 SADIMET design process 3 Simple Surveying Tools 4 Permaculture Designers Checklist 5 Drawing Plans 8 What Next? The Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design 1 Gaia University 4 Resources Recommended reading 1 Recommended viewing 2 Websites Designed Visions ~ permaculture design course handouts www.designedvisions.com Chapter 1~ Introduction to permaculture Page 1 An Introduction to Permaculture A Beginners Guide to Permaculture Designed Visions ~ permaculture design course handouts www.designedvisions.com Chapter 1 ~ Introduction to permaculture Page 2 Designed Visions ~ permaculture design course handouts www.designedvisions.com Chapter 1~ Introduction to permaculture Page 3 Mind Maps of Permaculture Designed Visions ~ permaculture design course handouts www.designedvisions.com Chapter 1 ~ Introduction to permaculture Page 4 Ethics and Philosophies Why ethics? Ethics provide us with guidance & inspiration; they give direction to our path and underlie our objectives, regardless of occupation. If we state our ethics, we can make connections with other people with similar views. Care of the Earth Includes all living and non-living things (such as animals, plants, air, water, land). Make provi- sion for all life systems to continue and multiply. It emphasises the intrinsic value of all things, (not just those that are useful to us, that we can exploit or sell or that we can understand) - all life is connected. Law of necessitous use - leave an otherwise natural system alone unless we have to enter it; if we do, then: Law of conservative use - use the least possible amount of land to meet our needs - (setting voluntary limits to consumption) - reduce waste and hence pollution - do environmental impact analysis of our actions & design to buffer against adverse effects - do energy accounting of our actions & replace at least as much as is used. Care of People Ensure that all people have access to those resources necessary to their existence. This infers a need for a self-determined, equitable and sustainable society. Society needs to be ecologically sound and economically viable to protect and promote peoples’ health - for the world to be socially just and humane we need clean air, clean water, food and shelter. This original definition of people care has now been expanded to also include satisfying employment, meaningful human contact - self-reliance, interdependence and community responsibility. Fair Shares – Choose Limits to Consumption & Give Away Surplus Frugal and equitable use of resources. The reinvestment of surpluses to further the above aims - this includes money, land, labour, information, etc. Needs not wants. At the same time, we must remember permaculture is also about creating an abun- dance of resources for us all to enjoy, so it doesn’t always mean having less. Take Responsibility (the prime directive of permaculture) Take responsibility for our own existence and for that of our children - attitude shift: change is not something external to ourselves - not “Someone else ought to do it”, but “I’m responsible”. Take responsibility for change. Instead of being an observer, powerless outside the current system, gain self-reliance through achievable practical solutions - direct action. Thoughtful action after protracted observation. Co-Operation, Not Competition Is the very basis of existing natural systems and of future survival. Create harmony not competition - build self-managing systems - things not forced into a function but doing what they would do naturally - harmony is the integration of chosen natural functions to the supply of essential needs. Permaculture is about interconnections. Source: adapted by Aranya from an original by Patsy Garrard and George Sobol. Image by Chris Dixon Designed Visions ~ permaculture design course handouts www.designedvisions.com Chapter 1~ Introduction to permaculture Page 5 An Introduction to Systems A basic understanding of the way systems behave is important to good design. There is a whole inter-disciplinary theory called Systems Theory dedicated to this, which studies the way complex systems behave in nature, society and science. It’s an important piece of the permaculture puzzle and Howard T. Odum, a proponent of Systems Ecology clearly influenced David Holmgren’s early thinking. So when we put specific things (elements) together (into systems), how do they behave (function)? Well to consider this, let’s choose an example close to home; our own digestive system (systems are often named after their primary function). Now, while we’ve all at one time or another been aware of how it feels when it struggles with our food choices, some of us are more familiar than others with the finer details of its functioning. So what elements make up our digestive system? Well, it depends upon whom you ask. Have a look in a several different medical textbooks or do an image search on the Internet and you’ll see a variety of answers. Some diagrams show only our abdominal organs, while others include the mouth etc. too. This discrepancy comes from the fact that while the human body as a whole has a clearly defined edge1, the sub-systems (of which this is one) do not. I chose the diagram shown here as it includes the tongue, though I would also have added teeth and the nose, because our sense of smell is an important component of taste. This sense in turn