Permaculture Learning

I did a thing this summer.

I don't really think of myself as having a green thumb. I tend to have a very laissez-faire approach to gardening (I think I come by that honestly, but perhaps what I thought of as laissez-faire landscaping growing up was more about aggressive experimentation in seeing what nature will do on its own).

I also have zero knowledge of plants. Like, I could barely identify the trees on our property (thank you Plant ID apps). I have no idea what flowers bloom when or what vegetables are best planted together (thankfully, all knowledge that can easily be looked up on the Internet).

So, imagine my sense of overwhelm when the deal with this house was that Ben would address the inside design/renovation while I would take care of the transformation of the grounds. We have 1.8 acres of nearly cleared grounds ripe for homesteading, and it was up to me to figure out how to use it all.

Enter in the Maine Ecological Design School's Permaculture Design Course (seriously, check out their website and the summer class; I cannot recommend them enough).

I, on the other hand, don't have the ability yet to plant things
to deter the deer, so we went the fencing route.

I had known a little bit about permaculture beforehand. I had read a couple chapters in Gaia's Garden, known about sheet mulching (not that I had ever done it), and knew that a lot of permaculture's about observing the land and where the snow melts last or what wildlife shows up, etc. What I didn't really appreciate until taking this class is that permaculture is essentially a systems approach to landscaping. You can actually apply permaculture principles to organize a wide variety of things, like nonprofits, communities, churches, etc., but it really is about developing resilient systems and figuring out how (and when) to intervene. You don't like the deer munching on your apple trees? Maybe there's a way to plant a hedge to make it more difficult for them to gain access. Something not growing where you want it to? Maybe it's not in the right place (too shady, too wet, too sunny, etc) or maybe in needs nutrients that can be supplied by a nitrogen fixer. 

I also appreciate that permaculture takes seriously that humans are a keystone species - that how we use the land is important too (it's not just for plants and insects and wildlife). You have kids? They need outdoor space to play too so having some lawn for them to kick a soccer ball around is useful. Your energy and capacity are important, so the parts of your system that need more maintenance (like your kitchen garden) go closer to your house vs. the parts of your ecosystem that need less (like your orchard) which can be further away. Goals - like having an edible landscape or growing most of your own food or providing for pollinators or reducing reliance on your well for watering - shape the design of the land. 

We now have a plan for the land (which has already been tweaked) and it's a plan that can guide the next 10-15 years (it won't all be planted or implemented at once - that would be *a lot* of work that we don't have the capacity for). This fall will be about getting our wood shelter up and prepping the ground for our kitchen garden and herb spiral by laying down some sheet mulch (thank you seaweed, leaves, compost, and cardboard!). We have to prep the chicken coop for winter. I'll work on destroying some bittersweet and pruning branches on the edges of our property that prevent us from keeping bittersweet at a minimum. I'll hopefully get to pruning the heck out of our autumn olive shrubs and try to kill the worst of the Japanese barberry. I think that's ambitious enough for a few weekends of work. 

I feel pretty confident in what I've laid out - and pretty confident in being able to work though the process again. It was really wonderful connecting with this community of learning and forming friendships with people from different backgrounds and perspectives. It's the first serious learning I've done outside of anything ministry related, so I feel pretty proud of the fact that I went outside my comfort zone and tried something new (and more than that, I did the drawing by hand which was a huge accomplishment!).   

If any of you are thinking about your land, thinking about preparing for whatever might be ahead, wanting to develop a resilient system on your plot of earth, definitely check out permaculture. I don't think you'll be disappointed in the process of intentionally working through your goals, observing your land, and dreaming about how it all fits together.