Permaculture is Process as Sustaining Relationships
by Dawn Shiner, MSc

Permaculture is a Design Science that grounds us in life-sustaining patterns, giving us a
deeper, richer perspective for activating worthwhile changes in our daily lives. As ethics,
principles, strategies and techniques, permaculture empowers our daily participation in
sustainable change. 

Since our daily lives are the designing process of our social systems and landscapes, learning our part in the collaborative web of nature is to our best advantage.  Permaculture design is every person's opportunity to recreate paradise and open to an ethical process of conscious observation, assembly and placement. 

This designing for the good of the whole is based on an understanding of the ethics and principles that work with the natural laws and principles of our planet and therefore allow thrivability amidst collaboration and cooperation through synergy and entropy.  (To educate for that understanding, Bill Mollison of Australia created the original model for Permaculture Design Courses.) 

Proceeding on this course of sanity, the permaculture design process gathers information on the characteristics, needs, products, and services of the species, structures, and infrastructure elements on and off a site and then looks for relationships where the needs and services/products can be cycled for nourishment.  

Imagine the parts as elements in a whole system--like the edges where the puzzle pieces interlock. By matching the edges--say, wetland filtration to flow forms--and interactions (gathering--solar water pump to artifical wetland cells providing nourishing particulates from swimming pond--and dispersing--gravity flow thru wetland cells and flow forms to swimming pond), nutrients for one element are nourishing another.  Where there is harmony all parts of systems placed in designed relationship of function and flow meet real needs.

Thus, in nourishing simplicity, permaculture patterns our way back to every-day common sense by designed relationships of functional flow. Best of all, these relationships can be designed for multifunctional edges of enhanced abundance, getting us beyond merely sustaining.

Water provides a fine example of functional flow, demonstrating also the permaculture concept of "source to sink."  When rainwater is caught from non-toxic surfaces, we gain quality soft water. Catching rain water and using it to clean our clothes and bathe our bodies is a superior and effective cleaning choice and still allows the groundwater for wells, streams and rivers to recharge. Working with gravity distribution by placement design, we further reduce energy needs.

By eliminating toxic cleaners and cycling the water from the laundry, bathing area and kitchen sink, we gain energy as an enhanced resource: nutrient-rich greywater.  With simple filters
and redirected plumbing, the same water can be reused twice, thrice, and throughout the
landscape. Greywater for greenhouse beds and/or outside gardens is a nourishing example of pure common sense. Why not use and re-use water throughout the landscape, meet our human needs, and nourish the soil and all the organisms working for us? With a little simple technology, rainwater can even be made safely drinkable.  Steam distillation is one particular process.

The permaculture design principles emphasized above are (1) "Conservation," (2) "Multiple uses for single elements" (also known as "Stacking Functions") and (3) "Multiple elements for single functions" (also known as "Repeating Functions").

Common sense is conservation, always.  Conservation is respect.  Why use something only once if it can also meet other needs and be used over and over?  Why walk to the mailbox and back just for the mail when you can save time by bringing a basket and picking flowers for the table and salad for lunch?  Where's the spot designed to sit and munch while you read your mail?  Know your needs and patterns and design the edge of how they interact/meet into nourishing relationships.  Got it! 

Let's go back to our water examples and conserve some more energy.  For the hot water we desire, we can gravity feed rainwater into a passive solar hot-water heater or wood stove hot-water jacket and conserve even more energy, including the energy we don't have to spend on making as much money as we needed before. (We've already lessened our use of electricity and a pump.) 

Using the wood stove as back-up for the solar heater follows the above principle of "Repeating Functions." "Conservation," "Appropriate Scale."  "Redundancy" and "Resiliency" are also gained through these systems.

When we continue integrating this water system through earth plantings and ponds, we open to abundant opportunities for more food through soil, aquaculture and wetlands. Wetlands are super productive and worth regenerating for food and fodder, as well as serving as the final water cleanse before our recycled water passes beyond the property boundaries. A good system has the water leaving clean, sometimes cleaner than the incoming rain.

Keeping the water flowing with gravity's assistance and functionally meeting multiple needs integrates the permaculture principle of "Stacking Functions" with "Conservation" and leads to the opportunity for "Appropriate Scale," "Reciprocity," and "Redundancy." 

Functionally-connected systems create abundance to "Give Away," thus also meeting the guiding ethic of "Fair Share." 

Permaculture is Process as Sustaining Relationships. Site and human elements integrated by designed proximity allow the outputs of one process to be the nutrient inputs for another on-site process. From simple to complex, we can care for the earth, care for the people and share fairly.

Imagine healthy bodies and gardens of eating and singing in warm rainwater showers.