Mollison and Holmgren

Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlement

Authors : Mollison, Bill and Holmgren, David
Date : 01/01/78

Then :

Permaculture Two: Practical Design for Town and Country in Permanent Agriculture

Author : Bill Mollison

Date 1979

Followed by :

Permaculture, A Designers' Manual

Author : Bill Mollison

Date : 1988

then :

Introduction to Permaculture

Authors : Bill Mollison, Reny Mia Slay

Date : 1997

Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability

Author : David Holmgren

Date 2003

Essence of Permaculture

Author : David Holmgren

Date : 2020

There are two words commonly used in English, and people who are one are often seen as being ‘better’ than the other. In the next part these words are used but without the demeaning interpretation of the word ‘amateur’.

Professionals: people skilled and paid to do a job as their main occupation.

Amateurs: people who do an activity for enjoyment, not as a paid job, often highly skilled.

In the Permaculture world, there are both and both are needed.

1. There are those who work as professionals, Permaculture designers and engineers. They work up designs for the client, some propose their services to install the designs as well. These designers, ‘professionals’, charge for their services and pay taxes.

2. Then we have those who study Permaculture design and use their skills to design, install, and maintain their own projects. Some are active, using their skills, in their local communities, and others doing the same for Associations, non-governmental organisations, and suchlike. These Designers, ‘amateurs’, do this as voluntary work.

3. A third category is made up of people who think that Permaculture is a form of gardening. They confuse the design and engineering discipline with a pot-pourri of techniques like mulch, herb-spiral and raised beds.

David Holmgren’s books and principles are best adapted for the general public and are often the ones most promoted by the second category of Designers.

1. Observe and interact

Look at your environment and understand nature before making decisions.

2. Collect and store energy

Use resources when they are available so they can help in the future.

3. Obtain a yield

Make sure your actions produce visible and useful results.

4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback

Learn from mistakes and adjust your approach.

5. Use and value renewable resources

Choose living and sustainable materials.

6. Produce no waste

Turn waste into something useful.

7. Design from patterns to details

Use natural patterns to guide the structure of systems.

8. Integrate rather than segregate

Create beneficial relationships between different elements.

9. Use small and slow solutions

Start small and use simple, effective methods.

10. Value diversity

Diversity increases strength and resilience.

11. Use edges and value the marginal

Transition zones often have the most resources.

12. Creatively use and respond to change

Turn challenges into opportunities.

Bill Mollison’s books and principles are best adapted for professionals as they are quite technical, especially his opus major ‘A Designers Manaul’. This isn’t fixed, and ‘amateurs’ often use these principles too.

The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our existence and that of our children.

Cooperation, not competition, is the basis of future survival and existing life systems.

1. Care of the Earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and increase

2. Care of People: Provision for people to access resources necessary to their existence

3. Setting Limits to Population and Consumption: By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to support the above principles. nb. this has been rewritten virtually everywhere as ‘Fairshares’.

• Reduce waste and pollution

• Replace lost minerals

• Conduct careful energy accounting

• Assess long-term biosocial impacts and mitigate negative effects

In chaos lies unparalleled opportunity for imposing creative order

Whatever we take, we must return. Nature demands a return for every gift received.

Every object must responsibly provide for its replacement. Society must replace equal or greater resources than those used.

• Oppose further disturbance of remaining natural forests

• Rehabilitate degraded systems to a stable state

• Establish plant systems for human use on minimal land

• Create refuges for rare or threatened species

All energy entering an organism, population, or ecosystem is either stored or leaves. Energy can be transferred but not created or destroyed. No energy conversion system is completely efficient.

The total energy of the universe is constant, and the total entropy is increasing.

1. Nothing in nature grows forever; decay and rebirth are constant

2. Life depends on global cycles of essential elements

3. Extinction risk is highest at very high or low population densities

4. Survival depends on key environmental factors

5. Human impact outpaces our foresight

6. Living organisms have intrinsic worth beyond utility

• Systems should be long-lasting and low-maintenance

• Solar-powered systems should meet their own needs and those of their creators

• Energy used to build systems must be offset by energy stored or conserved during their lifetime

1. Work with nature, not against it

2. The problem is the solution; everything is a resource

3. Make the least change for the greatest effect

4. System yield is limited only by information and imagination

5. Everything gardens—everything affects its environment

A beneficial authority returns function and responsibility to life and people. Successful design creates self-managed systems.

1. Increase with modest use

2. Unaffected by use

3. Degrade if unused

4. Reduced by use

5. Pollute or destroy other resources if used

Ban the use of resources that permanently reduce yields of sustainable resources (e.g., pollutants, poisons, radioactives, highways)

Systems can only accept resource inputs that they can use productively. Oversupply causes disorder and pollution.

System yield is the surplus energy produced, stored, conserved, reused, or converted beyond the system’s own needs.

Living organisms are the only effective systems for capturing resources and producing yield.

Yield depends on the comprehension and ability of designers and managers.

• Use early, mid, and late-season varieties

• Plant the same variety in different ripening conditions

• Select long-yielding varieties

• Increase system diversity

• Use self-storing species

• Apply preservation techniques

• Trade regionally or use varied altitudes/latitudes

Every cyclic event increases yield opportunities. Nutrient cycling supports species and time niches.

• Space (territory)

• Time (cycles of opportunity)

• Space-time (schedules)

Order and harmony generate usable energy. Disorder consumes energy wastefully.

Neatness and uniformity often indicate energy-maintained disorder.

Stress prevents or forces function. Harmony allows natural and chosen functions with essential needs supplied.

Stability arises from beneficial connections between diverse components, not from diversity alone.

Information becomes a resource only when obtained and acted upon.

Both Mollison and Holmgren go on to present design principles. These principles specifically guide how the designer acts upon the environment: how they position elements within the system, connect them, shape them, and assign them functions.

• These design principles can be grouped into several categories: principles of placement and connection, which include principles of form.

• principles of function, which include principles of resilience and redundancy

These categories are arbitrary and serve only to highlight the structure of the design. Most principles can be classified into multiple groups, as they are also interdependent and interconnected.

These principles govern how different elements of a design are placed in space and time, and in relation to one another. They also offer guidance on the links that can connect these elements. In this way, they often overlap with principles of resilience and function. They answer the simple question: “Where do we put things?” while also addressing “Why?”

This principle is fundamental and concerns both placement and connection. If elements are not connected and related, they cannot form a system. Just like clock parts that are not fitted and assembled do not form a clock, but a pile. A pile is a form of organization, but it serves no function. The parts do not form a stable structure and have no relationship beyond proximity—a form of placement that lacks a deeper connection.

Connecting and interrelating the elements of a design is a fundamental principle of permaculture. It does not aim to pile up scattered elements but to create a structured whole in which each part is supported by the system and serves one or more functions.

This interconnection is a fundamental feature of natural systems. By imitating it, we can create human ecosystems worthy of the name.

The amount of work and visits required decreases with distance from living areas

This design principle is closely tied to the principle of efficiency, specifically in terms of movement and transportation. It appears in everyday practices, such as keeping frequently used tools within easy reach, but it can also be applied on a larger scale to guide the placement of production zones relative to areas of consumption and habitation.

The goal is to position elements within the system in a way that minimizes the number and length of trips residents need to make for work, maintenance, or harvesting.

Two key criteria must be considered:

– how often (daily, weekly, etc.) we need to access a particular element

– how often that element requires our attention (for maintenance, monitoring, etc.)

In general, the zoning method establishes the priority order for tasks: implementing a permaculture design begins with the home and zone 1, then progresses step by step through zones 2 to 5.

Zoning is simply a guide to help us design our systems effectively. Its most important aspect is the principle of efficiency, which states: “The amount of work required decreases with distance from living areas.”

Indicator Method: One way to monitor what might be happening in more distant zones is to maintain small cultivated areas in zone 1 with the same plants grown on a larger scale in zone 3. These plants will show similar stages of development and responses to climate factors, serving as indicators that provide useful information while reducing the need for travel.

Pathway Method: Another approach is to design one of our regularly used access or walking paths so that it passes through all the different zones.

Applying the zoning method in urban settings helps us decide how to arrange our crops based on the location of our plots. A building can serve as zone 1, while a community garden located farther away can be treated as zone 2.

This is a principle that deals with both placement and function. A guild is a positive association of multiple elements around a central core. Each element contributes beneficially to the system through regulation, protection, stimulation, and other effects. The idea can be summed up as placing supportive neighbors side by side rather than ones that compete or harm each other.

This approach helps create systems where cooperation among components is fundamental. Its implementation is simple: place animals, plants, or other systems around a central element to meet its needs and make use of its outputs. When this principle is applied broadly, it creates a mosaic of harmonious interconnections.

This principle of function and resilience stems from the principle of efficiency. It aims to avoid the risks of specialization, which requires many elements to fulfill all necessary roles and creates high dependency on each one. Ensuring that each element serves multiple functions reduces the need for specialized components and the effort required to cover missing roles.

At the same time, it supports the resilience principle, which states that every essential function in a system should be backed by multiple elements. It can also be seen as an attitude principle, reminding the permaculture designer to be a good generalist—understanding the whole picture before becoming a specialist in any detail.

Choosing and placing an element requires careful attention. Ideally, each element should increase overall productivity and reduce material and labor needs.

This principle guides the designer to ask specific questions:

– Will this element fulfill an important need or function? Can it serve others as well?

– Is there another element or system that could offer more benefits while still fulfilling the primary function?

– Can this element be integrated harmoniously into the system?

– Is there a location where it would provide greater benefits?

– How can I integrate and connect it with other elements to reduce labor, meet its needs, and make use of its outputs?

This principle reflects a common-sense concern: ensuring that everything essential to our lives—or to a system—is provided through multiple means. It protects systems by introducing redundancy for key elements, meaning the duplication of components that fulfill vital functions or supply essential resources.

If a system relies on a single specialized element to perform a critical function, it becomes vulnerable. If that element fails or is temporarily unavailable, the system may lose its ability to function properly—or even collapse. This creates extreme dependence on individual specialists and the resources they require, making the system fragile.

By increasing the number of elements responsible for essential functions, the workload on each is reduced, the system’s dependence on any one element decreases, and in emergencies, alternative sources are available to rely on.: Every important function must be supported by multiple elements

This principle reflects a common-sense concern: ensuring that everything essential to our lives—or to a system—is provided through multiple means. It protects systems by introducing redundancy for key elements, meaning the duplication of components that fulfill vital functions or supply essential resources.

If a system relies on a single specialized element to perform a critical function, it becomes vulnerable. If that element fails or is temporarily unavailable, the system may lose its ability to function properly—or even collapse. This creates extreme dependence on individual specialists and the resources they require, making the system fragile.

By increasing the number of elements responsible for essential functions, the workload on each is reduced, the system’s dependence on any one element decreases, and in emergencies, alternative sources are available to rely on.

Designers often work with new sites and projects. They frequently be re-designing and existing farm, project, neighbourhood, village, etc.

If we take an existing farm as an example, it will be producing and creating an income. A Designer won’t try and switch the whole system from it’s old organisation to it’s new one. They will find areas that are underused and the design will start here. Once installed it will be productive and income-generating. The Design will then incrementally progress to change the whole system.

Techniques, whether for food production, building, energy production, and use, are not Permaculture. In any given design, techniques and methods will be selected according to the local contexts and assembled using the Permaculture design principles. The final design will, of course, be adapted to the requirements of the client/project.

It is worth noting that the design principles are ‘universal’. They stay the same regardless of the context, be it urban, rural, temperate, arid, etc. The techniques and methods, on the other hand, are highly context-specific. A form of architecture may be adapted to cool-temperate areas, but not to a tropical area. A raised growing bed may be a good method for one soil/climate but not another.

Permaculture designers use simple rules and principles to create complex system. As these systems mature they become more complex and resilient. The word complex, in it’s correct usage, is the opposite of complicated. ‘Nature is simple and complex, human societies are difficult and complicated’.

A final point is that a Designer takes into consideration the various contexts of a site, neighbourhood, farm, etc. They also analyse the wider environment, socio-economic and historical contexts in which the project is to be found. The Designer will find ways to integrate the farm, project, whatever harmoniously into these contexts.