There are two major taproots from which permaculture emerged. In 1979, an Australian ecology teacher and one of his graduate students coined and open copyrighted the term permaculture by combining the words “permanent” and “agriculture.” If you do an Internet search for either Bill Mollison or David Holmgren, you’ll find a vast body of information on the missions of both of these men.
This was the birth of what we now talk about as sustainable living. They observed how nature supports and renews itself and compared these balanced processes with the modern agricultural systems that have developed into our current food production system. Their conclusion was that the methodologies being used in our monoculture farming systems would end up failing us if we did not alter our food production model.
As this column progresses, I will bring you examples of the problems they saw in our systems and how to redesign them to serve our long-term needs. This is the first taproot from which permaculture emerged and is explained in Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture: A Designers Manual,” and David Holmgren’s “Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.”
Later, a second, broader definition of permaculture began to be articulated as “permanent culture.”
As Holmgren, Mollison and hundreds of their students taught courses, they were drawn deeper where it became evident that for societies to design permanent agricultural systems other aspects of living sustainably also were important to an integrated, holistic way of living. Productive and permanent agriculture could not be achieved without factoring in productive and foundational components that support our society and culture.
Permaculture practitioners began to see that long-term, sustainable food production was dependent on the use of sustainable technology and tools, how we build, land and nature stewardship, land tenure and community governance, finance and economics, health and spiritual well-being, as well as education and creative artistic involvements.
My column will focus primarily on the horticultural aspects of permaculture — the factors central to creating sustainable, regenerative production systems on the land. However, I may occasionally course into other aspects of permaculture.
You may have noticed the piles of mulch, raised garden beds and glorious greens in our Plant City Commons Community Garden, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. Individual family garden beds and shared community beds are available for you to join us in learning permaculture gardening and creating an abundant permaculture-based community garden.
Bob Abbenzeller is a resident of Plant City, a certified permaculture designer and a volunteer at the community garden.
Plant City Commons Community Garden
ADDRESS: 302 Carey St., Plant City
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/groups/PlantCityCommons