21 Facts About Permaculture

1.

Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems.

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2.

Permaculture originally came from "permanent agriculture", but was later adjusted to mean "permanent culture", incorporating social aspects.

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3.

Permaculture has many branches including ecological design, ecological engineering, regenerative design, environmental design, and construction.

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4.

Permaculture uses creative design processes based on whole-systems thinking, considering all materials and energies in flow that affect or are affected by proposed changes.

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5.

Permaculture proposed the planting of tree fruits and nuts as human and animal food crops that could stabilize watersheds and restore soil health.

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6.

Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system.

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7.

Permaculture found ready audiences in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Britain, and Europe, and from 1985 reached the Indian subcontinent and southern Africa.

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8.

Permaculture seeks to minimize waste, human labor, and energy input and maximize benefits through synergy.

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9.

Permaculture design is founded in replicating or imitating natural patterns found in ecosystems because these solutions have emerged through evolution over thousands of years and have proven to be effective.

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10.

Permaculture'set mulching is a gardening technique that attempts to mimic natural forest processes.

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11.

Permaculture'set mulching mimics the leaf cover that is found on forest floors.

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12.

Permaculture'set mulch serves as a "nutrient bank, " storing nutrients contained in organic matter and slowly making these nutrients available to plants as the organic matter slowly and naturally breaks down.

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13.

Permaculture'set mulching can be used to reduce or eliminate non-desired plants by starving them of light and can surpass herbicide or other methods of control.

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14.

Permaculture has grown fruiting trees at altitudes far above their normal altitude, temperature, and snow load ranges.

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15.

Permaculture learned that this is the difference between natural-form trees and previously-pruned fruit trees.

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16.

Permaculture concluded that trees should be raised entirely without pruning, allowing them to form healthy and efficient natural branch patterns.

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17.

Permaculture interpreted this as no unnecessary pruning, nature farming or "do-nothing" farming, of fruit trees, distinct from non-intervention or literal no-pruning.

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18.

Permaculture derives its origin from agriculture, although the same principles, especially its foundational ethics, can be applied to mariculture, particularly seaweed farming.

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19.

In 2000, Mollison's U S -based Permaculture Institute sought a service mark for the word permaculture when used in educational services such as conducting classes, seminars, or workshops.

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20.

Permaculture has been criticised as being poorly defined and unscientific.

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21.

Permaculture proponents respond that this is true only when comparing data between woodland forest and climax vegetation, but not when comparing farmland vegetation against a woodland forest.

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