Award-winning writer Steph explores this nature-based approach to growing, in the first in a series of four fascinating blogs for us:
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a word that is used and recognised across the world. You may have come across it in gardening books, or from TV programmes, or from contact with one of the many permaculture groups across the UK. Perhaps you’ve heard of the three ethics and twelve principles of permaculture, which quite frankly does sound a bit daunting!
In this series for Dalefoot, I’ll be exploring what permaculture is, and how we can use it in our lives in a practical way, that fits in with our budgets and busy lifestyles.
My permaculture story
I first came across permaculture when I was a student in Bristol in the 1980s, visiting the Green Fields at Glastonbury Festival. There I discovered pop up edible gardens created in beautiful designs, a respite from the mud and noise of the rest of the festival. Over the following years, I learned about using companion planting, comfrey for fertility and how to make a herb spiral, from other permaculture gardens at ecologically-themed festivals. I started to use some of these ideas in the edible gardens I was creating at home, and also at show gardens I created at eco festivals and RHS shows.
Reading Permaculture Magazine, and the writing of British permaculturalist Patrick Whitefield, deepened my knowledge of growing using natural, wildlife friendly methods - a journey originally inspired by Geoff Hamilton’s book Organic Gardening.
I have been using permaculture methods for a long time in my home and garden, and have been teaching and writing about permaculture for over fifteen years, including creating a show garden incorporating many permaculture techniques at RHS Hampton Court, which was sponsored by Dalefoot Composts.
Origins of Permaculture
Permaculture is more than gardening and a way of growing food. It is a way of living sustainably, working in harmony with the environment and designing a life working with nature, using fewer of the planet’s resources, and can include businesses, community, schools and education, how we design our homes, and much more.
The term was coined in the 1970s in Australia, from “permanent” and “agriculture”. The techniques and methods however are all drawn from ways of living and growing practiced by indigenous cultures for millennia. It is inspired by looking at how nature works, and adapting it according to your location, climate and circumstances.
How to “do” permaculture
There are as many different ways of “doing permaculture” as there are people, and no one way is the “right one”. Permaculture is sometimes referred to as a philosophy, or a design system, and it can look off-putting, misinterpreted as something with strict rules and complicated ideology. Indeed, like most things there are some who promote methods of permaculture which have a rigid framework, or an insistence that one must have a PDC in order to use permaculture methods.
A Permaculture Design Course, or PDC as it is commonly known, is a course of study with practical elements that leads to a certificated qualification. In the UK these can be accredited by the Permaculture Association. However this is an option, not compulsory. I have been teaching and writing about permaculture for years, and have not completed any kind of formal permaculture training. It is a choice, not an obligation.
The ethics and principles
The ethics and principles are not strict rules but rather guidelines and inspiration, things to think about whether you’re designing an edible garden, exploring a new business idea or a creating a community space. They are practical ways of working with nature and building more resilience into our lives.
I’ll be explaining these and exploring how we can use them in our own projects, to become a more resourceful, self-sufficient and self-reliant, and save money too.
There are three ethics: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share
And twelve principles:
• Observe and interact
• Catch and store energy
• Obtain a yield
• Apply self regulation and accept feedback
• Use and value renewable resources and services
• Produce no waste
• Design from patterns to details
• Integrate rather than segregate
• Use small and slow solutions
• Use and value diversity
• Use edges and value the marginal
• Creatively use and respond to change
These might look a bit daunting, but really it is all practical common sense, and great fun too.
More about herb spirals…
Herb spirals are a way of creating a herb garden using compost, soil and other resources. They look beautiful. At the eco-festivals I was enchanted by the gorgeous designs made using old bottles and so, once I got my allotment, decided to incorporate a herb spiral into my design.
Once I had sourced enough bottles, I created a spiral, filled it with soil and planted my herbs. It looked lovely.
For a few weeks….
I had not considered weeding. The soil at the allotment site was full of bindweed, which had an wonderful time growing over the herbs and up, around and even inside the bottles. It was nigh on impossible to weed, and so that winter I removed all of the bottles, disentangled the herb roots from the invasive bindweed, and replanted them in a row in the ground. Not as fancy to look at, but much easier to weed.
A useful lesson learned. Always check the practicality of an idea for your location!
What has Dalefoot Composts got to do with permaculture?
As we’ll discover in the subsequent articles, Dalefoot’s composts fit well with permaculture ethics and principles.
Dalefoot’s composts are 100% peat free, organically certified, and use ingredients which are sourced from within the UK, including sheep’s wool, bracken and comfrey. The compost is 100% natural and sustainable. The composting process transforms waste products (sheep’s wool is often dumped or burned) and native plants (bracken, comfrey) into a nutrient rich product for sowing, potting and mulching.
Bracken has become a problem in many parts of the UK, spreading across the hills and decreasing biodiversity. Harvesting it in a manageable way helps to create compost whilst increasing biodiversity.
The composts are nutrient rich, requiring no additional feeds and therefore saving resources, and are naturally water retentive, reducing the need to water, helping to conserve natural resources.
Dalefoot are actively involved in supporting peat habitat restoration projects, and are a Living Wage company.
About Stephanie:
Stephanie Hafferty is an award winning garden and food writer, expert no dig gardener, homesteader, edible garden designer and inspirational public speaker. Stephanie is currently creating a no dig homestead on half an acre in West Wales, where she runs gardening and homesteading courses, at the homestead and online.
Her garden was featured on BBC Gardeners’ World in 2022. Her books include: No Dig Organic Home and Garden and The Creative Kitchen: seasonal plant based recipes using ingredients you can grow on an allotment.
Follow her journey on her blog, Instagram and You Tube
Website and blog : www.NoDigHome.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniehafferty/
You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/StephanieHaffertyNoDigHomesteading