Permaculture in the garden
The best tips for planning
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Here you can find out what permaculture is all about and what you can learn from it for your garden.
What is permaculture?
Permaculture is an agricultural method for a closed circulatory system, in which different plants complement each other (i.e. mixed culture instead of monoculture), and in which long-term and sustainable planning is carried out. In contrast to industrial agriculture, the focus is not on financial profit.
The founders Bill Mollison and David Holmgren coined the term permaculture and the concept behind it back in the 1970s. The term is a composition of permanent for continuous and agriculture for Agriculture, whereby permanent is understood primarily in the sense of sustainable. However, there is more to the concept than the aforementioned biodiversity: Ethical principles such as mindfulness in dealing with the earth and people and the preservation of natural resources also belong to permaculture. She also tries to integrate seven different areas – in addition to land ownership and community, also, for example, finance and economy – in order to create a sustainable culture.
Permaculture in the garden: 12 principles
David Holmgren has compiled twelve principles to serve as thinking tools when designing:
- Observe and act: Know the soil and the (naturally growing) plants in the garden, but also wind and sun exposure.
- Collect and store the energy: Use renewable energy sources.
- Generate a yield .
- Apply self-regulation and learn from the results: Design in such a way that the garden regulates itself as much as possible and you only have a small amount of maintenance to do.
- Use renewable resources and services.
- Don’t produce waste: Reuse things, repair instead of throwing away and also use the principle of upcycling.
- Create patterns first, then details: Know your system and keep an eye on the big picture so that changes in the system, i.e. the details as a whole, do not throw it off balance.
- Integrate instead of delimiting: Try to arrange the elements in the garden so that they can serve each other.
- Rely on small slow solutions: It’s not about earning as much as possible as quickly as possible.
- Use and appreciate diversity.
- Use edge zones: In smaller gardens in particular, every spot should be used, including the edges.
- Respond creatively to change.
You can find the twelve principles in detail below permacultureprinciples.com.
How do I create permaculture in my own garden?
Permaculture does not specify what a garden should look like, it should rather be a design tool. The following tips will help you:
- Choose plants appropriate to the regional climate or the ground conditions (we remember: observe and act!).
- consider Features of your property.
- Think about it, how much time you invest and also how much yield you can use at all.
- Plans biodiversity (fruits, vegetables, herbs, trees, etc.).
- choose perennial plants.
- shape small intensively used areasbut also large areas with little labor input.
- Think about the possible crop rotation (Cultivation of different varieties within one season in the bed).
- Plan which central elements in your garden (raised beds, rainwater barrel, animals such as ducks or chickens, etc.).
The 5 zones in permaculture
Once the rough planning is complete, the five zones will help you to divide up your property. They are divided according to work intensity. For example, zone 1 should be near your home, which could be the patio in this case.
- Zone 1: Intensive care, e.g. B. Herb garden
- zone 2: Less intensive maintenance, e.g. B. greenhouse or vegetable garden
- zone 3: Occasional care, e.g. B. fruit trees
- zone 4: minimal maintenance, pasture land
- zone 5: Natural zone, wilderness and relaxation room
Ideally, all zones are present in permaculture in the garden, but depending on the size of the property, this is of course not possible everywhere. Tip: try to keep the distances short one way or another, this will help you in the long term with management.
Are you a passionate gardener or do you need some tips for your balcony or garden? On our garden design topic page you will find many useful instructions and tips on how to plant zucchini, for example, or how best to cut currants. Information on self-sufficiency is available here.