Permaculture and Living Sustainably

Full two-week residential course with Steve Jones and Sector39 coming up 13th to 26th May 2012 - limited places, don't miss it!

Permaculture teachers say, "Don't believe a word I say," and that's an excellent starting point.
Permaculture is about helping people to think for themselves not just about the issues you might expect, the climate, energy and food, but about all aspects of their lives. It's certainly not about indoctrinating people in any way, it's education in the true sense of the word, a bringing out rather than the forcing in that most of us went through at school. It's about looking at the simple, basic patterns of natural processes and learning how to follow those patterns in our designs for living sustainably. Sustainable in the sense of living within the means of the Earth to support us and not running through millions of years of stored up sunlight in the form of fossil fuel capital.

Treflach Farm, the host farm for a series of Sector39 Permaculture design courses. A beautiful place to explore the cutting edge of transition, Peak Oil has already happened here...

 

The Permaculture ethics are simple, Earthcare, Peoplecare and Fair Shares. There are also twelve principles which make up a framework for design:

1. Observe and interact
2. Catch and store energy
3. Obtain a yield
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback
5. Use and value renewable resources and services
6. Produce no waste
7. Design from patterns to detail
8. Integrate rather than segregate
9. Use small and slow solutions
10. Use and value diversity
11. Use edges and value the marginal
12. Creatively use and respond to change

Simple enough, and all based on the observation of natural processes happening all around us. To me that's the beauty of Permaculture, that its ideas and principles can be easily be observed and verified by anyone. As people say, "It's just common sense really isn't it?" So it is... things do get a bit more complicated when you get into the detail though... Find out more! go on a Sector39 course with Steve and the team and you'll have an eductaional, fascinating and fun time, "My best ever educational experience," as student Ashley Dobbs put it.

TREFLACH FARM
Having worked with Steve on the Sector39 courses and projects for a year and a half or so, I've now moved on to help put some of this stuff into practice at Treflach, and a fascinating process it is too! Watch the main blog for more about life on the farm and the everyday experience of transition.