Applied Permaculture Principles

Permaculture is a creative design response to a world where the availability of energy and resources is diminishing. It brings together the different ideas, skills and ways of life that need to be rediscovered and developed to enable us to move from being dependent consumers to becoming responsibly productive citizens. [1]

In thinking about what is enough, we must look at the needs and desires that drive material gain, and also at the capacity of the Earth and people to satisfy them, using an ecological perspective called "systems thinking", which proposes a holistic view as opposed to the reductionist one of modern science. [2]

The idea behind the principles of Permaculture is that their general conception can be derived from the study of the natural world and pre-industrial sustainable societies; 

Permaculture principles are conceptual tools that allow us to find what is appropriate and practical for the individual situation in question. They come from the observation of the natural world and will be universally applicable to fluidize the post-industrial development of the sustainable approach to land and resources.

I will use the list of 12 principles described by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the two fathers of Permaculture: accompanied by a very direct and tangible symbolic phrase, I will try to give a brief personal interpretation and an example of how they were applied during my ESC in Greece at the Nea Guinea Project, rooting them in everyday reality.

1. Observe and interact - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Good design depends on a free and harmonious relationship with Nature and people in which careful observation and thoughtful interaction provide the inspiration and models of the design itself.

When preparing the winter garden bed, sowing the carrot row we were ready for anything: in case of non-germination, the beet or coriander seedlings were ready to fill the gaps. "The problem is the solution!"

2. Capture and store energy - Make hay while the sun shines

Long-term acquisition and storage of existing energy, or savings and investments to build natural and human capital.

We plant trees that will ensure community resilience for decades and above all, we educate parents and children!

3. Obtain an yield - You can't work on an empty stomach

It is about satisfying survival needs and recreating the conditions of true natural abundance. A man yield functions as a reward that encourages, maintains and replicates the system that generated it.

Here I mention the magnificent green beans and sweet potatoes, topped with Satureja montana savory!

4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback - The sins of fathers are inflicted on children up to the seventh generation [3]

Feedback is a retroactive effect of a message or action on those who promoted them: the response to a stimulus must be accepted as it is. The more they are, the richer we are!

If Oxalis acetosella (a common "weed") proliferates excessively in the seedbed, it means that we have a lack of mulch; if we hadn't had this signal, it would have caused many other problems!

5. Use and value renewable resources and services - Let nature take its course

Make conscious and efficient use of resources that are renewed and replaced by natural processes in reasonable periods.

The photovoltaic panels on the roof are the most striking example, but preferring perennial crops over annual ones also means respecting the natural balance.

6. Produce no waste - "There’s no such thing as waste, it's just stuff in the wrong place"

Waste is a concept invented by man: Nature does not know what it means. It is a product that is not used by any other component of the system.

Our Thursday afternoon trips to the town market transform discarded waste destined for landfill into fragrant compost. Remember: reject, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle.

7. Draw from the pattern to the details - You can't see the forest from the tree

The closer we get, the less we are able to understand the bigger picture. The pattern is the repeated or regular shape in which something happens or is done: in Nature, complex systems tend to evolve from simple ones that work.

During the lockdown, there were no participations planned at the field. However, the neighbors who saw us ride our bikes with muddy pants and crates full of vegetables were happy to come and give us a visit: we created the conditions for interest to show!

8. Integrate rather than separate - Many hands make work light

The connections between things are as important as the things themselves: interdependence is the basis of the magnificent complexity of Life. [4]

The purpose of good design is to place the elements in such a way that each performs many functions and to support each function with many elements - compost is a crossroads of magnificent relationships!

9. Use small and slow solutions - Those who go slow go healthy and go far

Systems should be designed to perform functions on the smallest scale that are energy efficient: self-sufficiency and locality are fundamental aspects necessary for human health and ecosystems.

Twelve years ago there were only a couple of seed beds in Nea Makri; now, thanks to the progressive monitoring of what worked or not, the whole land is an evolving ecosystem. Small is beautiful and slow is healthy!

10. Use and value diversity - Don't put all your eggs in one basket

The richness and variety of a system determine its resilience, that is the ability of the whole to absorb a disturbance and to reorganize itself, during the change in progress, in order to substantially maintain the same function and identity.

Among the olive trees, the acacias will grow to form the canopy, the pears and pomegranates will enjoy the company, gooseberries and raspberries will remain prostrate, the thyme will crawl and the wild garlic will form underground bulbs!

11. Use edges and value the marginal - Don't think you are on the right path just because it is a well-trodden path

The essence of the Scarpetta: seeing interfaces as the richest places in which the qualities of the two clashing elements enhance each other, and the marginal as a unique and high-quality contribution to a function or system.

The boundary wire mesh of the terrain is a concert of colors, thorns and berries: a living fence full of functions.

12. Use and respond creatively to change - Vision is not seeing things as they are but how they will be

It is the fulcrum of the self-realization process we find ourselves in: observing reality as it is, accepting it, feeling the inner creativity and “being the change you want to see in the world”.

My experience in Greece is over, but my journey is more sincere than ever!

[1] David Holmgren, "Permaculture: principles and pathways beyond sustainability"

[2] Fritjof Capra, "The system view of life"

[3] Lakota tribe culture (American natives)

[4] Thich Nath Hanh, "Being peace"