Learning a New Permaculture Approach p1

When I was young my parents used to take me outside and taught me to weed, water, and tend our large traditional garden. I followed their directions as best I could. Later when I worked for a landscaping company I learned a lot regarding design, individual plan needs and skills with tools. I followed their directions as best I could. Now as a new husband and father with my new house I looked at our overgrown mess of a back yard with excitement and determination.

As I worked on filling in our ravine, I began buying plants for the front yard. Thankfully I am writing this entry years after the effort so I have forgotten some of the detail but not the pain. Nearly every single plant I bought died. Whether it lasted a week, a month, or a whole season, I can not count one plant that I purchased that still exists. I often made planting decisions based on flower color and physical features. I focused on showy annuals without considering the future and role of perennials. I never tried to naturally amend soil, used mulch sparingly, overused chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. I didn't weed much or interfere if insects and animals attracted. I figured I didn't need a plant in my yard that couldn't survive on its own. After years of watching plants struggle and eventually die I started to reconsider my ability to rehabilitate our yard.

That was until I planted one foxtail (obedient plant) on top of a mound in the back yard that got regular sunshine vs most of the rest which sat in thick shade under tall trees. That plant grew to double its size quickly. The excitement I felt when it came back the next year and continued to spread lead me to take further action. I read more about the needs of the plant, prepped a bed for its future expansion. I separated the plants to help them fill in the gaps, I weeded and began to compost, mulch and water regularly. In three seasons that one plant grew out to cover the entire top of the mound and provide an impressive landscaping effect. Finally, I was proud of the return on investment on time, effort and money. The fire I had to grow things was relit.

Looking back at that time, I was finally stumbling my own way into what I later learned was a permaculture approach to landscape design. Following twelve principles of design as explained by David Holmgren starts with the first basic tenet of Observing and Interacting. Instead of making reactive decisions based on individual plants I needed to first create a plan to take into account all the natural forces that were present in our back yard that affect the potential for life - landscape, the elements, vegetation, wildlife, and influence of people through use of structures and space.

Once I focused my efforts on noting existing natural patterns and established natural growing techniques I had much greater success. The transformation took multiple seasons but each success laid the foundation for further success because I learned to follow the other 11 design principles. Continued in the next post -  Learning a New Permaculture Approach p2.