The Big Idea: Learn how nature works. Then work with nature, instead of against it, to practice sustainable agriculture.
Ch 1: Landscape Design
- Permaculture landscape design is about restoring a partially destroyed natural landscape.
- Keep water on your land as long as possible.
- Terraces are an important part of my permaculture system.
- With the exception of raised beds, there should be no straight lines, corners, or steep slopes.
- Create microclimates where possible, to increase diversity and maximize use of land.
- Livestock plays an important role in my permaculture system.
- When making larger changes, seek professional help to avoid landslides and gully erosion.
- Mechanical diggers might be used when first creating the system.
- Burning biomass is a mistake.
- Loosening subsoil with the excavator helps make the soil productive again.
- Flat land, at low altitude, with lots of sun is the easiest, but permaculture systems can be developed in many unfavorable lands.
- Understand soil conditions, water sources, aspect (directionality), and climate.
- Raised beds are great over heavy soils that are difficult for plants to establish roots in.
- Good healthy soil is critical for earthworms and micro-organisms that benefit plants.
- Indicator plants will tell you what the soil conditions are like.
- Dig deep test trenches in many places to see what the soil layers are.
- Always experiment with new plants to see what might grow.
- Pioneer trees can be planted to quickly protect land from erosion.
- Lay thorny branches to protect germinating seeds from animals and to create a microclimate for growth.
- In dry areas, you must retain as much water as possible.
- Terraces prevent erosion, hold moisture, and increase the amount of usable land.
- Dispersing water for roads by making the middle of the road higher.
- Use pipes or culverts to divert streams and springs underneath roads.
- Ditches are good for collecting water and collecting organic material.
- Develop terraces slowly, over multiple years.
- After excavating terraces, plant immediately and mulch to encourage fast growth.
- Green manure or wildflowers can be planted immediately to improve suboptimal soil on a terrace.
- Cutting grasses in summer and autumn is not necessary.
- Plant fruit bushes and trees on embankments of terraces.
- Humus storage ditches can be built the bottom of a slope and a terrace.
- Raised beds are a staple of Holzer permaculture.
- Holzer permaculture raised beds are 3-4 feet deep into the ground, 4-6 feet wide, filled with hugelkultur material, then soil to 3 feet high, with steep (45+ degree) sides.
- Cover raised beds with mulch to prevent drying out.
- Consider planting bushes on top of raised beds. Vegetables can still be planted under the bush. Bushes can protect vegetables from the sun drying out the soil.
- Inside the hugelkultur, use wood chips for vegetables that require lots of nutrients. Use bulky material for vegetables that don’t require as many nutrients.
- Try to retain as much water as possible on your land.
- Wetlands house snakes and amphibians that help control pests.
- Large areas of water help to stabilize temperature fluctuations.
- A pond for fish will be different than an aquatic garden for plants, or for a pond for swimming.
- Play close attention to topography when building a pond.
- Rain-filled ponds are for plants. Animals require a constant flow of water.
- An excavator is used to dig the pond and tamp the base to seal it.
- Holzer ponds never use a pond liner.
Ch. 2: Alternative Agriculture
- Fossil fuels have enabled large, unsustainable monoculture farms to replace sustainable, diverse farms.
- Healthy plants require healthy soil and healthy micro-organisms.
- Green manure crops help restore soil health.
- Using flail mowers to cut down green manure is a common mistake.
- Gardening problems are usually caused by an imbalance which we should fix, instead of treating the symptoms.
- Many corrections (weeding, chemical fertilizer) that are are possible on a small scale, but not feasible or desirable on a larger scale.
- It’s better to understand and correct the imbalance instead. Eg. mulch with cardboard, plant Jerusalem artichokes.
- Old plant varieties generally make the best crops. Avoid hybrid seeds.
- Store or propagate the seeds of your strongest plants growing in the worst conditions.
- Try to grow plants in polycultures. Eg. cereals with catch crops. Eg. corn with beans or peas.
- Breed only old, domestic breeds of livestock.
- Keep livestock humanely, and in family groups.
- Pigs loosen the soil and till the terraces.
- Direct pigs to loosen desired soil by scattering feed.
- Pigs can clean up fruit orchards, preventing rotting fruit from spreading fungus and mold, without damaging the fruit trees.
- Pigs can also control snails.
- Use a rotating paddock system when keeping pigs.
- Keep wild and domestic cattle in paddocks and let them forage to stay healthy.
- Birds are great for controlling insect population and helping to propagate plants. Provide them with good forage and habitat.
- Free range poultry needs good habitat, protection from predators, and good forage plants.
- Ponds with an island in the middle provide good protection against predators for ducks and geese.
- Earth shelters can be used to house pigs and as storage cellars.
- Cellars can also be built out of stone to last forever.
Ch. 3: Fruit Trees
- Fruit trees provide food for animals and insects.
- Fruit trees provide wood for homes, fuel, and furniture.
- Fruit trees provide shade against the sun and also stabilize soil.
- Plant fruit trees wherever possible.
- Wild fruit trees can pollinate cultivated fruit trees.
- You don’t need to prune, fertilize, or use chemical pesticides. Doing this trains them to depend on human care forever.
- Leave all the branches below the graft intact.
- Do not use a tree guard, hammer in a stake, or use chemical fertilizer.
- Cover the base with mulch and stones.
- Plant green manure around the base.
- Create microclimates around the tree to give it protection.
- Branches sink down under the weight of fruit, allowing sunlight to reach in. Do not prune.
- Pruning also creates wounds and can introduce disease.
- Side shoots and branches also protect the tree from deer from damaging the trunk.
- Plant distraction plants such as fruit bushes and willow trees to protect fruit trees.
Ch. 4: Mushrooms
- Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of mycelium.
- Mushrooms can be cultivated on wood, compost, or straw.
- It’s easiest to grow mushrooms on wood.
- Softwoods gives faster yields, if that’s what you want.
- Use only fresh, healthy wood.
- Inoculation is easier than growing from spores.
- The key to mushroom growing is the right combination of sun, moisture, and substrate.
- Snails will try to eat your mushrooms.
- You can also cultivate wild mushrooms by inoculating in the wild forest areas.
Ch. 5: Gardens
- Try to keep gardens closer to the home.
- Plant vegetables, medicinal, and culinary plants in your garden.
- Natural medicine is being replaced by more effective modern medicine. However, natural medicine is safer and still effective.
- A cold frame can extend the growing season.
- When you weed the garden, place weeds on the ground as cover and mulch.
- In the spring, you can lightly loosen the soil.
- There is no need to dig soil over. It is harmful because it disturbs micro-organisms and worms.
- Watering in the garden should be limited to dry weather. Use lots of mulch to help protect plants from drying out.
- Adding compost is not required, though it is helpful.
- Mulching is important. Mulching is basically surface composting and happens in nature. Spread mulch loosely because mulch needs oxygen for decomposition.
- Natural liquid fertilizer is useful for nutrients and repelling pests.
- Pest problems are an indication of an imbalance.
- Monocultures are an imbalance, so there will be pests.
- Lack of natural predators is an imbalance, so there will be pests.
- Restore natural balance and pests should not be a problem.
- Non-indigenous pests are an exception and should be controlled more aggressively.
- Create good habitat for garden helpers like lizards, birds, worms, and predatory insects.
- Create enough good forage to distract garden critters from your vegetable garden and fruit trees.
- Encourage lots of earthworms by giving them lots of mulch and stones for good living conditions. Consider breeding earthworms in your garden by burying food compost in your garden.
Ch. 6: Projects
- Example project in Scotland.
- Example project in Thailand.