Permaculture is an ideal that leads to partnering with your property. It is a specific analysis of the environment in your neighbourhood and on your land. Similarly, homestead husbandry is a life-long journey of change and growth. There is a constant need for experimentation and design stability to reduce burnout.
"Permaculture is a direction not a destination" - Ross Mars in The Basics of Permaculture Design.
The image of the perfect garden is a parable that everything good comes from constant maintenance. If you can’t maintain your physical health, you’ll contract disease. If you can’t maintain mental health, you’ll contract disease. If you can’t maintain spiritual health, you’ll contract disease. You have to take care of yourself to thrive just as you have to take care of your plants for them to thrive and produce major harvests. Taking care of yourself and your plants is an achievable environmentally conscious act that you can do on your own.
"Helping yourself and others to build gardens in your own backyard, in an effort to drastically reduce the need to buy produce from someone else, is one of the most environmentally responsible things you can do to help reduce our consumption of resources and to heal the planet." - Ross Mars in The Basics of Permaculture Design
If you cease to maintain a garden, it will eventually grow wild and invasive plants can take over. It is then so fitting that the Garden of Eden is the starting place of creation. The most perfect place to live. A symbiotic interaction between people and nature that needs conscious maintenance for the flourishing of all parties.
Permaculturenews.org explains the fundamental nature of permanent agriculture:
“Permaculture (the word, coined by Bill Mollison, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture and permanent culture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people — providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order.”
At Hawkeye Hill we have studied many methods of land use including permaculture, organic gardening, regenerative agriculture, or biodynamics as they are all facets of a holistic design strategy. Choose one that encompasses natural earth principles, not just for garden construction, but a human settlement that is in #biomimicry with nature. Biologydictionary.net explains biomimicry with nature to minimize waste and maximize productivity:
“When solving a design problem, we can look to nature to find inspiration. We can find natural designs for making things water-efficient, aerodynamic, energy-efficient, self-healing, and more…These practices serve to boost the efficiency and productivity of the land without harming the soil or depleting it of nutrients.”
These practices include, (but are not limited to):
A framework to conserve energy for both the farmer and the earth
A plan that includes restoration of degraded landscapes and forests
A connection in harmony with all living things
We are only limited by our imaginations. In other words, our #thoughts limit us or inspire us. Perhaps it is our imagination that limits us or inspires us. You choose. You are in control of your thoughts.
Here are some things you want to think about for your homestead and how to be good stewards of the land in a time when that is mostly left to someone else, somewhere else in the world:
Help reduce erosion and strengthen the forests and hills
Design better water management and runoff control
Especially Waterlogged in spring, fall, winter
Water storage to water plants without municipal water
Reduce toxins that flow down the hill into the river
Create a micro environment to enable macro growth
Use an organic soil-based approach
Plant new trees and cut out unhealthy pests and invasive plants (as best as can be maintained) to sustain the future of oxygen in this area and all the benefits the forest coverage provides
Perennials!
Edibles!
Provide a quality product made with light from the sun (Son)
Teach our child(ren) all the skills that would otherwise be lost
Research organic essential oil benefits
Manage allergies with local honey, herbs and produce
Support local and keep money in communities
Especially since Big Ag & Big Food want to monopolize and monocrop)
What have I missed? Do you have other ideals to share with us?
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