Introduction to Permaculture Design, Sarah Lawrence College, 2013

1. beyond sustainability
an introduction to permaculture
ben kessler

2. 2
permacultureyear 0
year 1
year 3
photos by jonathan bates
urban forest garden, holyoak, ma rural forest garden, bullock bros. farm
Observation-based design of our local
environments to meet our basic human needs
(nourishing food, potable water, comfortable
shelter, and supportive community) in ways
that ensure that biodiversity, natural resources,
beauty, and communal and personal health are
not only sustained but actively regenerated. By
mimicking and participating in the natural
processes of the landscape, we can design for
abundance, beauty, community, connection,
health, productivity, resilience, flexibility, and
joy for ourselves and for our grandchildren as
well. Beyond sustainability, permaculture
works in the spirit of thriving.

3. 3
ethics & principles

4. 4
guiding design principles
1. Everything is connected to everything else
2. Every Function is supported by many Elements
3. Every Element should serve many Functions
4. Independence through Interdependence
Element: Any component part of a system
(e.g. a watermelon, a compost bin, an orchard, a
roof, a vice-president, a tool-shed, etc.)
Function: What the system is designed to do
(e.g. look pretty, catch & store rainwater, provide
handicap accessibility, produce cabbages, etc.)
panarchy :
all systems
affect all
others

5. yields & needs
Need: What an Element requires
to perform its Functions
Yield: What an Element
produces as a result of its
Functions
1. Choose a familiar plant, creature, or
architectural component
(e.g. a tomato, a woodchuck, a roof, etc.)
2. List everything that element produces (its Yields)
3. List everything that element requires (its Needs)
4. Come up with another set of elements that
could use those Yields, and provide for those
Needs
5. Connect the dots

6. combine these elements into a functional system
Vegetable Garden (fig. 1)
Lawn
Bored Teenagers (fig. 2)
Patio
English Ivy (fig. 3)
Grandmothers
Cardboard Boxes
Grape Vine (fig. 4)
Public Library
Persimmon Trees (fig. 5)
Sidewalk
Banana Peels
100 Pickle Barrels (fig. 6)
Comfrey
Summer Thunderstorm
Hemlock Tree
Fire Circle
Ants (fig. 7)
Rhubarb
Country Music Festival
(fig. 8)
fig. 1
fig. 2
fig. 3
fig. 4
fig. 5
fig. 6
fig. 7
fig. 8
(

7. 7
get outside
Find a place no more than two minutes from
your door. Go there as often as possible. Sit.
Listen. Look. Take notes, but not every time.

8. Trees
Asian Persimmon
Jujube
Asian Pear
Che
(Heirloom) Apple
Mulberry
Pawpaw
Vines
Hardy Kiwi
Maypop
Muscadine Grape
plant a tree garden
Bushes
Blueberry
Honeyberry
Goji
Currant
Gooseberry
Shrubs
Fig
Elderberry
Pomegranate
Goumi
Juneberry
Bush Cherry
goji
pawpaw
hardy kiwi elderberry
mulberry pomegranate
asian persimmon honeyberry maypop aronia che
tree + bush + companion plants

9. companion plants
Beneficial Insect Attractors
Bee Balm
Queen Ann's Lace
Anise Hyssop
Cilantro
Umbels & Composites
Mineral & Nutrient Accumulators
Comfrey
Chicory
Dandelion
Legumes
Living Mulches
Nasturtium
Vetch
Clover
Yarrow
Chamomile

10. guilds & polycultures
A Guild or Polyculture is
made up of a close
association of species
clustered around a central
element (usually a plant or
an animal). This assembly
acts in relation to the
element to assist its health,
boost yields, or buffer
adverse environmental
effects.

11. make a map
Things to map:
Fruit Trees
Deer Trails
Kid Trails
Water Flow
Sunny Areas
Vacant Lots
Coppice Trees
Ideal Gardens

12. 12
party like it's 2099
Peak Oil and Climate Change are big and scary.
You cannot address them alone. Get together
with neighbors and friends, share food, discuss
your hopes and fears, and plan for community
resilience.
Babysitting, Barter, Skill-Shares, Wildcrafting,
Collaborative Gardening, Public Pizza Ovens,
Knitting Circles, Shared Tools & Appliances,
Book Clubs, Storytelling, Block Parties, Home-
Schooling, Barbeques, Soccer Clubs,
Intersection Repair, Potlucks, Neighborhood
Yard Sales, Carpooling, Co-Counseling, Home
Herbalism, Midwifery, Shared Livestock,
Neighborhood Concerts, Street Tree Gleaning
You can choose to rely on people you know,
love, and trust, or be forced to rely upon
people you do not know, who do not love you,
whom you probably should not trust.

13. host a work party
1. Plan a project
2. Call friends and neighbors well
in advance
3. Acquire enough tools
4. Buy a bunch of beer
5. Cook something over a fire
6. Work 'til the dancing starts
7. Repeat seasonally

14. critter houses

15. forest gardening
No plant grows alone in the wild
We are living in uncertain times
Biodiversity = Flexibility & Resilience
Fruit, Firewood, Fresh Veggies, Nuts,
Building & Basketry Material, Medicine,
Storage Crops, Dyes, Fibers, etc.
Multi-species plantings are much more
productive than monocultures
Healthy Ecosystems are Beautiful
We are planting the old-growth forests
of the future, today

16. forest gardens

17. envisioning the perfect garden
1. Draw a rough sketch of your house and
surrounding land
2. Take a minute to look at this place in your
mind's eye. What do you love about living
here?
2. What paths (human and otherwise) cross
the land?
3. What sort of trees would you like to see
every day, and where would you put them?
4. What alterations would you make to your
dwelling space? Any new construction
projects?
5. Fill in all remaining space with as much food
production space as you would like, exciting
shrubs, Zen sand gardens, tire swings,
whatever- go nuts.
P.A. Yeoman's Scale of Permanence
(time to change/time to change back)
1. Climate (Centuries/Millions of
Years)
2. Land Shape (Years/Millennia)
3. Water Flow & Storage
(Months/Millennia)
4. Roads (Months/Centuries)
5. Trees (Hours/Centuries)
6. Buildings (Months/Decades)
7. Subdivision of Land
(Days/Generations)
8. Soil (Minutes/Years)

18. beauty, resilience, flexibility, abundance, community, health, vibrancy, wonder, joy, thriving

19. steal these books
Gaia's Garden – Toby Hemenway
Attracting Native Pollinators – Xerces Society
Botany in a Day – Thomas Elpel
Edible Forest Gardens – Dave Jacke &
Eric Tonesmeier
One Straw Revolution – Masanobu Fukuoka

20. eat your lawn, feed your soul
cvillefoodscapes.com
ben@cvillefoodscapes.com