What Is Permaculture?
At its heart, Permaculture is a systematic way of thinking
Derived from principles learned by close observation of nature and land-based indigenous systems, the design science strives to reduce labor and capital investments while increasing yields, allowing us to use less of the earth to provide for our needs.
Permaculture is a holistic approach to thinking about how to live your life.
Initially it shows you how to design your home and surrounding land to provide for your family’s food and shelter, but that is only a beginning. As you deepen your understanding of Permaculture thinking, and your understanding of nature, you can extend the design process to absolutely anything: urban design, design of school systems, public spaces, even the design of dinner.
If you learn to use nature instead of fighting it…
You will find things that once presented difficulties now become solutions. Where once you might've thought you needed poisons to control pests, now you find that with careful, thoughtful design those pests are kept in check by their normal predators. Much of the time it may seem that waste and toxins are a fact of life that we just have to put up with, but with proper design, those wastes become resources rather than built-up toxins. Many of these potential overloads are blessings in disguise when handled appropriately.
The Permaculture design system is applicable at any scale
It applies to food production, but also to home design, healthcare, or industry. It is not just a collection of techniques, but a way of thinking that teaches you how to choose from the many possible techniques to find the ideal approach to each unique situation.
SPI’s approach to Permaculture
What really sets us apart from others teaching the introductory Permaculture Design Course is the emphasis we place on the Human Sector. To paraphrase seasoned Permaculturist Dave Jacke, “90% of the Permaculture designs that fail, fail due to poor design in the human sector.” By understanding all the physical and technical aspects of a site, but failing to consider the human parts of the design, chances are the project will fail, no matter how beautiful and elegant it is. To prevent this scenario, we spend a lot of time dissecting the human energies at play on a site, and understanding how to accommodate, adjust, or manage them in our designs.