Online

Permaculture
DESIGN COURSE 2.0

CHAPTER

INTRODUCTION
 Welcome to the
Permaculture Design
Certificate Course
This course will equip you with the knowledge to become a permaculture designer, able to implement a
specific design science to create abundance in anything from a backyard to a small farm to a broad-acre
landscape. You will learn how to use modern tools and technology, as well as traditional methodologies,

ETHICAL
to construct a truly sustainable world today.

As a permaculture designer, you will not need to be an expert builder, machine operator, or even garden-
er, but you will understand where all these people and their crafts intertwine on a permaculture property.
Throughout the course, you will pick up general skills in and knowledge about these areas that will help

DESIGN
you reach your primary goal: great design.

The Big, Broad Definition of Permaculture Permaculture is an ethical design

science that mimics nature to
Permaculture is a multidisciplinary practice supply all our human needs whilst
that integrates land, resources, people and the
benefiting the environment
environment into mutually beneficial, no-waste,
- GEOFF LAWTON
closed-loop systems like we see in nature. Per-
maculture applies holistic solutions, pertinent in
both rural and urban settings, to contemporary
problems. It focuses on a huge variety of topics, The Two-Paragraph History of Permaculture
including agriculture, forestry, water harvesting,
renewable energy, eco-building methods, waste The term permaculture was coined in the early

SCIENCE
management, animal systems, economics, 1970s by Bill Mollison, then a lecturer at Hobart
technology, and community development. University, and his student David Holmgren.
After reading the report The Limits to Growth
Permaculture is conscious design in which di- they came to the fundamental insight that
verse, stable and resilient ecosystems are assim- resources could not be endlessly mined without
ilated to provide food, energy, shelter, and other return; it introduced the concept that a culture
needs in a sustainable way. Designs are abusive had to be designed for permanence. Mollison
CHAPTER 01 / INTRODUCTION

neither to the planet nor to the humans relying is quoted as saying, “…no one had any long-term
on it. The philosophy is one of working in unison ideas and it was obvious to me what had to be
with nature, not against it, as most current done…That was to build an army of permacul-
systems do. Permaculture design takes careful ture field workers to go out and teach the ideas
measure to build regenerative environments of sustainable food production.” In 1978, he and
with cumulative functions for the betterment Holmgren fully described permaculture in the
of all—plants, animals, people, soil, waterways, book Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture
and the entirety of an ecosystem—rather than for Human Settlement.
singular yields for people.
The first permaculture course was in 1979 on
In this way, permaculture has far-reaching Tagari Farm in Northern NSW, Australia. Later, in
benefits. This course supplies the training and 1988, Mollison published the first edition of Per-
skills needed to obtain them in potentially all maculture: A Designers’ Manual, from which the
human endeavors. However, as a measure of modern-day PDC (Permaculture Design Certif-
affecting much-needed change quickly, per- icate) course is derived, and it is now taught to
maculture first concentrates on areas already thousands—individuals, NGOs, government de-
settled, converting practices destroying the partments, and even university students—all over
planet, such as poorly placed large-scale agri- world each year. The curriculum for this course,
culture systems, into designs that will repair it. too, is based on the Designers’ Manual, cover-
This transformation happens at home, within ing the book’s fourteen chapters with fourteen
our local communities, and throughout the video modules of numerous individual lectures
now intimately connected world population. embodying each subchapter.

GEOFF LAWTON PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE 2.0

GEOFF LAWTON PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE 2.0 3
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 What Exactly Is
Sustainability?
Sustainability is a million-dollar word these days,
one that gets tossed around a little too freely in
adverts and political campaigns. In actuality, a
sustainable system produces as much energy
as it consumes so that there is enough to retain
and replace that system over the lifetime of its
components. In other words, sustainability is
when enough is created to recreate what has
created it. The system cycles.

For permaculturalists, sustainability is the min-

imum goal. We aim for our designs to provide
for our needs but also create a surplus that will
increase diversity and fertility within our systems.
By collaborating with nature and renewable
resources, like the sun and the rain, we can de-
sign systems that thrive in such a way that they
can feed us, shelter us, and comfort us, all while
not just regenerating but actually improving
upon themselves.

Permaculture is interdisciplinary, whole-systems

thinking. The mindset embraces the complexity
of ecosystemic interactions so that all needs of
all functioning components—plants, animals,
people, atmosphere, waterways, soil—are met
CHAPTER 01 / INTRODUCTION

and hopefully healthily exceeded. To achieve

this, designers mimic natural patterns, not just
for designing gardens and food forests but also
energy systems, ecological buildings, “waste”
cycles, community structures, and local econo-

Environmental Problems on the Grand Scale

mies. These components are all interlocked.

Human actions on the planet Soil degradation is the biggest Permaculture addresses these
have created a multitude of problem nowadays. Present problems by fostering new,
environmental woes, including agricultural methods encour- and working with existing,
acidification of oceans, deple- age erosion, destroy soil life, ecosystems through intelligent
tion of the ozone layer, and deplete fertility, and disrupt design. The methodology con-
tremendous loss of biodiversity. the ancient ecological systems tends that it is as important to
Our age is one that has been the planet depends on. Soil is continually rebuild the soil as it
geared towards convenience. exploited to grow crops faster is to grow massive amounts of
Unfortunately, “convenience” and bigger without replen- crops. This is accomplished via
has helped to develop and ishing the nutrients taken creating regenerative, bio-di-
increase highly destructive, to do so. Over a short time, verse landscapes in which
industrial-level agricultural this leaves acres upon acres plants, animals and humans
practices across the globe. of barren land and creates a interact beneficially with one
complete reliance on chem- another for the betterment of
ical and/or imported resources. us all.

GEOFF LAWTON PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE 2.0

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 Permaculture in Practice: regenerated, the water cycle rejuvenated, ero-

THE THREE
Landscape and Society sion reduced, and production reinstated on 40
percent of the landscape. This also happened
Permaculture design changes social land- in Jordan with the Greening the Desert Project.
scapes, defining where local, regional, and With systems back in productive states, the

ETHICS OF
biospheric resources come from. We learn from benefits—water cycles, food production, wildlife
the past and traditions that work (or worked) habitation—steadily multiply.
closely with nature, but we remain focused on
the present integration and future stability of However, design applications must extend from
what we are doing. We assimilate good lessons rural expanse into dense urban gardens, where

PERMACULTURE
and ethically sound solutions into our practice each square meter is much more productive
then make that knowledge accessible to and than in the countryside and much nearer to the
applicable for all. large populations who need it. Urban systems
reduce food miles, energy consumption, and
To enable positive local and global growth, we waste creation. In cities and suburbs, efforts can
At the heart of permaculture design, informing all decisions, is an adherence to three simple can turn to the ethics of permaculture for a be concentrated, and local, urban areas can be-
ethics, which collectively help to guide our behavior towards cooperative, productive systems solid foundation on how to benefit the environ- gin to produce a large percentage of their own
that benefit people and the planet. ment while holistically providing for the well- food. This would allow for the huge amounts of
being of humans on the planet. We have the land used in industrial agriculture to once again
capacity and the technology to learn from tradi- become nature so that it can fulfill its critical
tions and techniques around the world, and we roles in global, atmospheric functions.
can apply appropriate, climatically analogous
practices, even plants, into our local systems In this way, permaculture seeks to end what is
for improved production and energy efficiency. now recognized as a very destructive way of life
We have the tools, we have access to unlimited and follow through with new groundwork for
information and ideas, and through them, we sustainable, efficient, healthy communities and
can act locally while connecting globally. environments.
CARE OF THE EARTH CARE OF THE PEOPLE RETURN OF THE SURPLUS
On a macro-level, permaculture design has
Insures that our designs con- Promotes self-reliance as well Results from successful designs been applied to degraded, broad-acre systems
sider all living and non-living as community responsibility in which abundance is such
that have broken down catastrophically. For
things in the environment. to look out for one another, that it is shared with fellow hu-
The aim is to enhance and avoiding structures of exploita- mans or returned to the earth, example, in the Loess Plateau of China, 35,000
preserve rather the deplete or tion or abandonment. such as in composts or animal square kilometers of land were completely
CHAPTER 01 / INTRODUCTION

degrade. feed.

To appropriately apply these

ethics, we must begin to
understand the web of life. Sys-
temic cycles, flows, and interac-
tions occur within natural and,
ultimately, designed systems.
Closed-loop systems sustain
themselves, provide for peo-
ple, and disregard our current
corporate configurations, which
have not been looking out for
people or the planet.

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 Glossary
Biosphere:
The place on the earth’s surface where life is, and the total sum of
those living organisms. Together with the hydrosphere, atmosphere,
and geosphere, the biosphere helps to form the ecosphere, which
includes all the biological and physical components of earth.

Closed-loop System:
A system, in this context, in which both the needs and wastes of the
different elements are accounted for and provided. For a simple
example, gardens grow food, food scraps make compost, and com-
post fertilizes the garden. The people who care for the garden eat, all
waste is used, and the garden’s fertility needs are met.

Earth Care:
The care of earth and all the systems in it. This is one of permacul-
ture’s three ethics, and it is the basis upon how we interact with the
environment, always seeking to improve it rather than deplete it, to
keep its systems healthy as opposed to thinking only of the short-
term bottom line.

People Care:
The care both of ourselves, as well as our families and community.
This is one of permaculture’s three ethics and is a based first, around
taking responsibility for ourselves in order to achieve a healthier,
cleaner lifestyle and second, to work with others to help them reach
a better way of living fruitfully and in tune with the planet.

Return of Surplus:
The using of surpluses from productive systems to aid in the care of
the earth and people. This is considered the third ethic of permac-
ulture, and it focuses both limiting our consumption (and hoarding)
and using surpluses as positive returns for the earth—building soil,
cycling waste, renewable energy—and other people.

Sustainability:
A state in which a system produces more energy than it consumes. A
CHAPTER 01 / INTRODUCTION

sustainable system requires constant improvement without constant

inputs from elsewhere. Sustainable systems are usually closed-loop
arrangements in which the relationships of the various elements
enhance the system on the whole.

GEOFF LAWTON PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE 2.0