Introduction to Permaculture Story and photos by Andrew Theophilou Permaculture is all the rage these days, but there’s often confusion and debate about what it means in practice. The term essentially refers to a holistic, systems-based design approach that draws inspiration from natural ecosystems and can be applied in a number of contexts. Though commonly associated with gardening and food production, permaculture principles can also play a role in other aspects of life—from building a new home to starting a community project. It can be practised in both urban and rural settings, regardless of the space you have or your economic circumstances. All in all, permaculture can provide individuals and communities with the basis for a more regenerative and sustainable lifestyle, guided by three over-arching ethics: Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Shares. It’s difficult to illustrate what such an all-encompassing paradigm means in practice in one short article, so it’s worth looking at it in a context that many can relate to— the garden. I use the word ‘garden’ here in its broadest sense because permaculture can be applied to any outdoor space where people grow things. This can be a small balcony or a 5-hectare plot of land, a space with a dwelling or without one. In fact, any place where people interact with the natural ecosystem, providing inputs and exploiting outputs in some shape or form. The good news is that whatever you do in them, all gardens and outdoor spaces guarantee ongoing encounters with the greatest permaculture teacher of all: Mother Nature. If we look at them long enough, ecosystems can provide the answer to many of the challenges we face. Observation, therefore, is the first principle of permaculture and one that should be practised right from the start. This helps you understand how the existing elements in your garden already work well together as part of a whole and gives you information about such external influences as climate. Working with nature and conserving as much of what you already have ultimately leads to higher yields with less waste of valuable resources. It’s also about gathering the knowledge necessary to make the right choices for the right location. Observation, in practice, means doing nothing for a while; so it won’t cost you anything but time. It’s particularly important before making more permanent interventions, such as hard landscaping and construction, or planting trees and other perennial plants. These are long-term decisions which should never be driven by a blind desire to see tangible progress. When moving abroad, 52 Portugal Living Magazine
Growing annual plants in the space between young fruit trees provides quick returns from your land. Chickpeas (foreground) also provide ground cover and add nitrogen to the soil.
however, it can be tempting to rush into things without fully weighing the advantages and disadvantages of your choices in the specific context of your new location. The cost of getting things wrong can far outweigh the benefits of cutting corners at the start of your project. Sustainability and regeneration have a lot to do with making scant resources go a lot further while reducing waste. That’s why permaculture provides a framework for gaining the maximum output for the minimum input. One way of achieving this is by choosing individual elements in your design for multiple rather than single outputs. You may just have a small garden you spend time in during the summer for leisure, with barely enough space for a few ornamental plants. The single output would be the flowers you enjoy and, humble dahlia is a plant with possibly, cut for use in the The multiple yields, providing a feast home. But why not choose a for the eyes, edible root tubers, and species that can also provide food for the bees. you with food or benefit pollinators such as bees? Dahlias are just one random example, offering you a prolific display of flowers throughout the summer, with the option to harvest the root tubers at the end of the season (all dahlia tubers are edible but some varieties taste better than others). Dahlias also provide a good food source for bees, meaning a healthier population of pollinators in your garden. The same principle can be applied to construction. The single most important purpose of a roof would be to protect your home from the elements. But it can also be exploited to catch rainwater for the garden, to harvest energy through solar panels, or even a place to grow things and keep beehives. Permaculture is not just about dealing with individual elements in isolation, however, but as integral parts of a
