18/07/2021
When we design the garden for you, we design it around Permaculture Principles - this is an approach to gardening that is more sustainable, less resource intensive, reduces maintenence and considers the ecosystem around your garden.
These 10 principles are explained below:
1️⃣ Observe and interact - In the gardens we design we focus on the connection between things, and by understanding the nature of the elements, and how they benefit each other, we can determine the optimum location for them.
2️⃣ Catch and store energy - Our garden designs create sustainable ecosystems that are reminiscent of nature. In Nature, when energy is cycled, living systems grow. For example, when leaves fall from deciduous trees in autumn, they decompose, providing a nutrient and an energy source to microbes, insects and other plants. As a result, life in this system grows and multiplies. The new plants and insects will eventually reach the end of their lives, and the nutrients will go back into the soil, starting the next cycle of new life.
3️⃣ Obtain a yield - Taking the three core ethics of permaculture into account, we can work with nature to get all the things we need. Obtaining a yield can be as simple as using organic gardening techniques to provide food for our families – but it can also be about obtaining a non-tangible yield: happiness, health… or mental well-being.
4️⃣ Self regulate and accept feedback - The design principle is concerned with efficient energy planning, that is, planning the placement of elements in the design, such as trees and plants, animals, structures and buildings, to make to most efficient use of energy.
5️⃣ Use renewable resources and services - Where possible we aim to use of biological resources to do work or conserve energy, rather than using non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuel resources. Wherever we can use a plant or animal to perform a certain function in our designs, then this is our preferred approach.
6️⃣ Produce no waste - In our Permaculture designs, we seek to capture energy to increase the growth of our living systems, and set in place cycles which will perpetuate life.
7️⃣ Design from patterns to details - Our designs are holistic and consider efficient energy planning, that is, planning the placement of elements in the design, such as trees and plants, animals, structures and buildings, to make to most efficient use of energy.
8️⃣ Intergrate rather than segregate - Plants work well in diverse systems – the same is true of people too. Planting polycultures (guilds of plants which work together) is just one example of how this principle works in the real world.
And as well as applying this in the garden, we can also apply it to communities, groups or organisations. Sustainability is something we achieve together – through collaboration and co-operation – it’s not something we do alone.
9️⃣ Use small and slow solutions - This principle promotes small scale food production systems because they are easier to manage and require less resources. However these systems are also intensive to maximise productivity from these smaller spaces
🔟 Use and value diversity - This principle advocate the concept of polyculture as opposed to monoculture in gardens. Planting a variety of species in the garden helps maintain a natural eco-system where living organisms work synegetically.
1️⃣1️⃣ Use edges and use the marginal - This design principle is concerned with increasing diversity and productivity in our systems by emulating the ecological phenomenon known as the “edge effect”, and the patterns found in Nature.
1️⃣2️⃣ Creatively use and response to change - This is the idea that nothign is ever positive or negative. For example, a ‘wild energy’ that moves through our system, such as a persistent strong wind, might be seen as a disadvantage if we’re growing crops that are damaged by the wind, but we can turn it to our advantage if we build a wind generator to harness the energy and plant our crops in a sheltered location or greenhouse. It may be even possible to use the electricity generated to warm a greenhouse and extend the harvest season of crops in the cooler seasons.
