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.