Here are some of my favourite permaculture definitions and although they are great definitions, they do not adequately define permaculture in its entirety. All are true, meaning no offence to any of these great permaculture teachers and authors (as they are some of the best), but all fall short of this tremendously essential and vast subject’s definition.

I have taught many permaculture design courses to people from all over the world and at the beginning of each course, before they have any permaculture lessons, I asked them what is your definition of permaculture?

Even at the beginning of the course, they come up with equally valid definitions. At the very end of the course I asked them again ‘what is your definition of permaculture?’, and it becomes no easier a task for them to find it in a short sentence or even a paragraph.. Of course, their definition has improved but it still falls short.

Even after designing and teaching for over 10 years, I'm still working on my shortened definition.

So, I cannot hope to adequately define for you what permaculture is in one short blog post but hopefully, you will remain with us and read through many of the blog posts to come, to get a clearer image. If you are interested, why not join us on one of our courses to gain a greater in-depth knowledge of permaculture for yourself.

Permaculture is defined as a design system that is based on three main ethics.

Earthcare

People care

Fair share, which was originally defined as limits to consumption and redistribution of surplus is now commonly evolving to become referred to by some as Care of the Future.

These ethics in and of themselves are not new.

Almost all indigenous cultures that thrived on this planet for countless millennia, had a set of very similar ethics as a guiding force to all of their activities with nature and the environment, from within which they lived and gained all of their resources.

In that way permaculture is not new. It is a return to an ethical basis to our society.

What ethics would you class our current society is based upon?

Greed? This is what many of my students have answered or is more commonly referred to as enterprise or entrepreneurialism in our modern industrialised society.

Can you think of any other ethics that are guiding forces of our current economic, environmental and social paradigm?

Beyond these ethics, there are also a set of principles that permaculture has, that are universally applicable. I will not go into them all here as there are many but I will in future posts and you could research them for yourself in the meantime.

The principles can be utilised to:

1.Understand better how nature works

2.To check that you are working with nature in your design

3.Use as tools to creatively think your way around a problem.

4.Enable you to create more energy-efficient designs where nature does much of the work for itself.

5.Help you create systems that work like ecosystems

And much more.

Here is a simple example of a permaculture application.

A street of housing has areas of flooding whenever there are long periods of rain.

For some members of the street, this results in an overflowing of their cesspits causing blackwater pollution to spill out onto land.

The standard course of action.

The owners call up the water company and report the issue (directly handing over the responsibility of care to an external company). The water company gives them a slight reduction on the drainage cost of their bills, then they come and bleach the hard surfaces to counteract the chances of contamination but in turn, further increasing the pollution to the environment.

Possible permaculture course of action.

All the neighbours gather together to discuss the issue and find a collective response or solution. One person states "Water at some times of the year are of great use to everyone," someone else asks the question, "Why is there so much flooding, there never used to be?" They discuss this and mutually decide, it’s because many people are hard surfacing their landscapes creating more runoff and climate change may cause even longer periods of rainfall.

They all decide that to counteract the flooding issue, they will have water butts on each property to gather as much of the rain as they can for dryer months of the year as irrigation.

Many commit to digging small ponds to allow the remaining water to accumulate in the places that they want the water to be.

This results in many of the landmasses having no more flooding and becoming far more agriculturally abundant. The neighbours that had the issue with the black water overflow no longer have that issue thanks to the efforts of the whole community.

You'll see that the actions taken by these two approaches are very different and the results are significantly different.

One, in the attempt of a quick fix only worsens the problem of pollution and does not look to the cause of the main problem of flooding.

The other takes a more holistic approach, everyone talking about the situation together, looking at it from all angles and perspectives. The fact is that flooding can be seen as a problem but it could also be seen as a solution. An action plan is mutually formed. They commit to all working together to counteract the runoff problem by the addition of water butts. Some in the community see that ponds are a great addition to the garden and create a shelter and habitat for many wild species. As you see this approach turns a problem into a mutual benefit to everyone in the community.

People's water bills are lowered, plants grow happier on chlorine-free water . Frogs, toads, newts, and countless other species all move into the new habitats that are created.

This is the approach of permaculture, we create win-win-win situations where our own lives are improved, the life of our neighbours are improved and the ecosystem around us benefits by our actions.

It creates a community sense of interdependence and mutual responsibility.

When a community is facing a problem and is allowed the time and energy to solve it in their own way, everyone is empowered by the process. This also results in strengthening bonds and a feeling of community care.

Permaculture doesn't believe in self-sufficiency as an individual.

There is no living organism on this planet that is completely sufficient unto itself.

All living organisms live in a community or ecosystem and have mutual interdependence. The more members, the more ecological links, the more ecological links, the more benefits for each individual and the system as a whole.

Permaculture Kernow aims to:

Help individuals build for themselves a livelihood that is both ecologically conscious and economically profitable.

Help them bring their community back into alignment with the planet;

work with individuals and groups to design for themselves ecological solutions and permaculture projects;

to nurture a strong human ecosystem or community.

It starts with the simple step of seeing ourselves as a crucial resource in our community.

Everyone needs a ….. at times.

Fill in the blank with a product or service that you can provide for your local community and you've found your niche and essential functions in our human ecosystem.

It doesn’t stop there, as any plant, animal or insect doesn't just do one thing in an ecosystem, we too are encouraged to diversify our passions and skillset as we all co-create a local ecological economy.

We then share in the abundance of benefits that come when we appreciate, enrich and care for the natural commonwealth of our local bioregion. This includes the soils, the water systems, the fungi, plants, animals and insects that make up our local biodiversity. It also includes our culture, arts and craft, song, dance and storytelling. We finally find our space to express and experience, to listen and to be heard.

This is just some of what permaculture is, be it in a sentence, a paragraph, a book or even a whole library of books, you will still fall short of the full definition of the enormity of this subject. It is work still in the progress, an evolution that only increases the more people get involved in the subject.

So I invite you all to join in this revolutionary evolution and start to build for yourself your own definition of permaculture.

Why not become a member of Permaculture Kernow and become a Permaculture ecolutionary in your local community?