WHY I'M NOT A COMPLETE PERMACULTURE CONVERT
Permaculture.
A lot of people hear this word and either don't know what it is, think it's some hippie/millennial word for cake, or have a vague 'I saw it once in a google search' idea of it.
And the thing is, permaculture is actually a philosophy, not just a gardening style.
Which is why a lot of people get confused (me, for instance!) when they look it up for gardening and instead find a million links to websites that give vague, philosophical musings on what it is or talk about 'cycles' and 'sustainable homes'. The poor gardener is left thinking 'how the hell is all of that going to help me grow food in a raised bed?
I was going to throw in the towel with all the vagueness myself. I grew up with a father who was philosophy major and who had us living in a tipi on top of a lonely mountain answering me and my sibling's questions with questions. Because really, what IS a question?
Yeah.
Because of this, I have a very low threshold for 'ologies' that can't explain themselves clearly or answer questions with questions instead of actually answering.
But finally, finally, some nice person took it upon themselves to explain that permaculture WAS A PHILOSOPHY THAT PEOPLE INTEGRATE WITH GARDENING/EARTH STEWARDSHIP/WAY OF LIFE.
My god.
The skies cleared and like a child whose tasted chocolate for the first time, I saw the light!
So today we're going to talk about why I'm not completely head-over-heels in love with permaculture.
Now, don't get me wrong. I LOVE permaculture in general. I intend to implement a lot of it into my gardening because honestly, it just makes common sense by and large.
Permaculture as a philosophy/way of life is about living in the earth and leave behind as little impact as possible--with the goal being of a 0 footprint impact. So that often ties into the types of homes you live in (ones that decompose or don't create emissions), what clothes you wear (are you making your own cloth? No? Well you should, apparently), and how you run electricity (and should you even have it?).
Permaculture as applied to gardening is easier to understand but sometimes harder find concrete answers from.
Is it organic gardening? Yes.
Is it raised beds? .....kiiiiinda?
Permaculture gardening is easy to do. It's you, mimicking nature. That means by and large, you mix plants around instead of keeping them in rows (because you're not a farm), like 'fruit guilds'. Take an apple tree. near it (very near) you'd plant elderberry or currant, or blueberry bushes. Under that you'd plant herbs that are good for the apple tree and bushes. It's all a tiny ecosystem of food that helps each other and you. Kind of like companion planting on steroids.
And you don't need to own acres of land to do it. For instance I'm currently creating a mini permaculture fruit guild in a pot! See my apple tree? I have strawberries to provide ground cover (and they don't have deep/big roots so it won't interfere with the tree's), chives around the trunk to keep away apple scab, and oregano for ground cover. All of that is also edible for food. So we all win. Permaculture.
But I have one issue with it that makes me go 'eeehhh....'.
And that is the practice that they want you to create/make a food garden whereby the produce would naturally grow there.
That's.....great if you live in Hawaii or South America. But I don't. I live in southern California. I live in an urban area that's 8 miles from the beach and was actually plains and a chaparral desert before it became a suburb. You know what grows here naturally? Yucca, cactus, and oak trees. Oh. And tall grass. That's my food source.
So while a food forest is a wonderful idea, if all you're allowed to grow is things that are naturally from your area (so that you mimic the environment you're in) then man are a lot of us screwed. I believe in combining things--I'm not just a permaculture gardener (hell, I found out a lot of what I was doing was mostly permaculture living anyway), I'm a multi-gardener. I think there's always new ways to garden and experiment and try. There's a million different terrains and so why not a million different (and good) ways to go about growing things?
Permaculture is a wonderful step in the right direction. But if I'm only allowed to grow what grows around me I'd starve to death. Or worse, I'd go to the store to buy the produce that I can't grow on my land because it doesn't mimic chaparral desert, like blueberries. That means I'd spew carbon into the air to get to a store running on non-solar energy (therefore polluting) to buy a berry that was grown then packaged in plastic then driven (more polluting) to a market.
So forgive me if I think that I should be allowed to grow perennial foods and fruit and nut trees that aren't native to my land so that I'm not polluting the earth (even more) with driving all over the place for all of my food. I'm trying to lessen emissions and control what I eat.
Nothing is perfect, not even permaculture. So while I'll continue trying to live the permaculture life (recycling/reusing, composting so that no plant/food gets wasted etc), I also am happy to adapt and to not feel bad about living in a rental home I can do very little change.
Do what you can with what you can. If you can't grow a food forest in your backyard because it's tiny or, you know, a BALCONY, don't beat yourself up. It's okay!
A lot of people hear this word and either don't know what it is, think it's some hippie/millennial word for cake, or have a vague 'I saw it once in a google search' idea of it.
And the thing is, permaculture is actually a philosophy, not just a gardening style.
Which is why a lot of people get confused (me, for instance!) when they look it up for gardening and instead find a million links to websites that give vague, philosophical musings on what it is or talk about 'cycles' and 'sustainable homes'. The poor gardener is left thinking 'how the hell is all of that going to help me grow food in a raised bed?
I was going to throw in the towel with all the vagueness myself. I grew up with a father who was philosophy major and who had us living in a tipi on top of a lonely mountain answering me and my sibling's questions with questions. Because really, what IS a question?
Yeah.
Because of this, I have a very low threshold for 'ologies' that can't explain themselves clearly or answer questions with questions instead of actually answering.
But finally, finally, some nice person took it upon themselves to explain that permaculture WAS A PHILOSOPHY THAT PEOPLE INTEGRATE WITH GARDENING/EARTH STEWARDSHIP/WAY OF LIFE.
My god.
The skies cleared and like a child whose tasted chocolate for the first time, I saw the light!
Now, don't get me wrong. I LOVE permaculture in general. I intend to implement a lot of it into my gardening because honestly, it just makes common sense by and large.
Permaculture as a philosophy/way of life is about living in the earth and leave behind as little impact as possible--with the goal being of a 0 footprint impact. So that often ties into the types of homes you live in (ones that decompose or don't create emissions), what clothes you wear (are you making your own cloth? No? Well you should, apparently), and how you run electricity (and should you even have it?).
Permaculture as applied to gardening is easier to understand but sometimes harder find concrete answers from.
Is it organic gardening? Yes.
Is it raised beds? .....kiiiiinda?
Is it needing to have 3 acres of land? Not at all!
Permaculture gardening is easy to do. It's you, mimicking nature. That means by and large, you mix plants around instead of keeping them in rows (because you're not a farm), like 'fruit guilds'. Take an apple tree. near it (very near) you'd plant elderberry or currant, or blueberry bushes. Under that you'd plant herbs that are good for the apple tree and bushes. It's all a tiny ecosystem of food that helps each other and you. Kind of like companion planting on steroids.
And you don't need to own acres of land to do it. For instance I'm currently creating a mini permaculture fruit guild in a pot! See my apple tree? I have strawberries to provide ground cover (and they don't have deep/big roots so it won't interfere with the tree's), chives around the trunk to keep away apple scab, and oregano for ground cover. All of that is also edible for food. So we all win. Permaculture.
Now, the thing is, that's great. Yay permaculture. Yay permaculture gardening!
But I have one issue with it that makes me go 'eeehhh....'.
And that is the practice that they want you to create/make a food garden whereby the produce would naturally grow there.
That's.....great if you live in Hawaii or South America. But I don't. I live in southern California. I live in an urban area that's 8 miles from the beach and was actually plains and a chaparral desert before it became a suburb. You know what grows here naturally? Yucca, cactus, and oak trees. Oh. And tall grass. That's my food source.
So while a food forest is a wonderful idea, if all you're allowed to grow is things that are naturally from your area (so that you mimic the environment you're in) then man are a lot of us screwed. I believe in combining things--I'm not just a permaculture gardener (hell, I found out a lot of what I was doing was mostly permaculture living anyway), I'm a multi-gardener. I think there's always new ways to garden and experiment and try. There's a million different terrains and so why not a million different (and good) ways to go about growing things?
 |
| My flowers are a bio-diverse mishmash to attract caterpillars and bees. Mini permaculture! |
So forgive me if I think that I should be allowed to grow perennial foods and fruit and nut trees that aren't native to my land so that I'm not polluting the earth (even more) with driving all over the place for all of my food. I'm trying to lessen emissions and control what I eat.
Nothing is perfect, not even permaculture. So while I'll continue trying to live the permaculture life (recycling/reusing, composting so that no plant/food gets wasted etc), I also am happy to adapt and to not feel bad about living in a rental home I can do very little change.
Do what you can with what you can. If you can't grow a food forest in your backyard because it's tiny or, you know, a BALCONY, don't beat yourself up. It's okay!
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