PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES AND GOALS

Principles of Permaculture

Everything is connected to everything else
The integration of water, people, animals, land, plants, technologies, and community leads to productive and beautiful environments
Build harmony, through cooperation with an attitude of Positivism

Long term self-reliance – consider the impact over the next seven generations. (A generation is the average time interval between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring.)
Work with nature rather than against it
Think globally act locally
Plan for small-scale, energy-efficient systems that are intensive rather than extensive
Eat a bio-regional diet and bring food growing to the cities
Hold water and fertility as high on the land as possible
The problem is the solution: turn constraints into resources
Reforest – restore earth fertility
Emphasize native plants
Increase sum of yields through succession, stocking, and stacking*
Invent and re-invent – close the loops
Whatever we take, we must return:

One calorie in/ One calorie out = sustainability

Input = output=energy cycling

The user must pay (ie: recycling, tree tax, seed collecting, composting, energy)
Start small and be prepared to make lots of little mistakes.
The earth, Gaia, is the super client
Permaculture starts at your doorstep and is a way of life.
The work of the Permaculture designer is to maximize useful energy storage in any system on which they are working, be it house, garden, urban property, or rural land.