The word permaculture, coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture as well as permanent culture. Through a series of publications, Mollison, Holmgren and their associates documented an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies.
Permaculture design principles extend from the position that "The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children" (Mollison, 1990). The intent was that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals could design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and systematically destroying the Earth's ecosystems.
While originating as an agro-ecological design theory, permaculture has developed a large international following of individuals who have received training through intensive two week long 'permaculture design courses'. This 'permaculture community' continues to expand on the original teachings of Mollison and his associates, integrating a range of ideas of alternative culture, through a network of training, publications, permaculture gardens, and internet forums. In this way permaculture has become both a design system and a loosely defined philosophy or lifestyle ethic.
The term permanent agriculture was coined by Franklin Hiram King in his classic book from 1911, Farmers of Forty Centuries: Or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan. In this context, permanent agriculture is understood as agriculture that can be sustained indefinitely.
This definition was supported by Australian P. A. Yeomans (Water for Every Farm, 1973) who introduced an observation-based approach to land use in Australia in the 1940s, based partially on his understanding of geology. Yeomans introduced Keyline Design as a way of managing the supply and distribution of water of a site. Holmgren based his EcoVillage design on the keyline principle, (see WikiMapia view)
The work of Howard T. Odum was also an early influence, especially for Holmgren . Odum's work focused on system ecology, in particular the Maximum power principle, which examines the energy of a system and how natural systems tend to maximise the energy embodied in a system. For example, the total calorific value of woodland is very high with its multitude of plants and animals. It is an efficient converter of sunlight into biomass. A wheat field, on the other hand, has much less total energy and often requires a large energy input in terms of fertiliser.
Another early influence was the work of Esther Deans, who pioneered No-Dig Gardening methods.
Other recent influences include the VAC system in Vietnam which is a government supported system to build Vegetable Aquaculture and Animal enClosures that cycle resources.
In the mid 1970s, Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren started to develop ideas that they hoped could be used to create stable agricultural systems. This was a result of their perception of a rapidly growing use of destructive industrial-agricultural methods. They saw that these methods were poisoning the land and water, reducing biodiversity, and removing billions of tons of soil from previously fertile landscapes. A design approach called "permaculture" was their response and was first made public with the publication of Permaculture One in 1978.
The term permaculture initially meant "permanent agriculture" but was quickly expanded to also stand for "permanent culture" as it was seen that social aspects were an integral part of a truly sustainable system. Mollison and Holmgren are widely considered to be the co-originators of the modern permaculture concept.
After the publication of Permaculture One, Mollison and Holmgren further refined and developed their ideas by designing hundreds of permaculture sites and organizing this information into more detailed books. Mollison lectured in over 80 countries and his two-week Design Course was taught to many hundreds of students. By the early 1980s, the concept had moved on from being predominantly about the design of agricultural systems towards being a more fully holistic design process for creating sustainable human habitats.
By the mid 1980s, many of the students had become successful practitioners and had themselves begun teaching the techniques they had learned. In a short period of time permaculture groups, projects, associations, and institutes were established in over one hundred countries. In 1991 a four-part Television documentary by ABC productions called 'The Global Gardener' showed permaculture applied to a range of world-wide situations, bringing the concept to a much broader public. Excerpts are available online through YouTube.
Permaculture has developed from its origins in Australia into an international 'movement'. English permaculture teacher Patrick Whitefield, author of The Earth Care Manual and Permaculture in a Nutshell, suggests that there are now two strands of permaculture: a) Original and b) Design permaculture. Original permaculture attempts to closely replicate nature by developing edible ecosystems which closely resemble their wild counterparts. Design permaculture takes the working connections at use in an ecosystem and uses them as its basis. The end result may not look as "natural" as a forest garden, but still has an underlying design based on ecological principles. Through close observation of natural energies and flow patterns efficient design systems can be developed. This has become known as Natural Systems Design. (Dr. M Millington and A Sampson-Kelly)
Elements of design
Permaculture principles draw heavily on the practical application of ecological theory to analyze the characteristics and potential relationships between design elements. Each element of a design is carefully analyzed in terms of its needs, outputs, and properties. For example a chicken needs water, moderated microclimate, food and other chickens, and produces meat, eggs, feathers and manure and can help break the soil. Design elements are then assembled in relation to one another so that the products of one element feed the needs of adjacent elements. Synergy between design elements is achieved while minimizing waste and the demand for human labour or energy. Exemplary permaculture designs evolve over time, and can become extremely complex mosaics of conventional and inventive cultural systems that produce a high density of food and materials with minimal input. While techniques and cultural systems are freely borrowed from organic agriculture, sustainable forestry, horticulture, agroforestry, and the land management systems of indigenous peoples, permaculture's fundamental contribution to the field of ecological design is the development of a concise set of broadly applicable organizing principles that can be transferred through a brief intensive training.
Modern permaculture is a system design tool. It is a way of
- looking at a whole system or problem;
- observing how the parts relate;
- planning to mend sick systems by applying ideas learnt from long-term sustainable working systems;
- seeing connections between key elements (parts).
In permaculture, practitioners learn from the working systems of nature to plan to fix the damaged landscapes of human agricultural and city systems. This thinking applies to the design of a kitchen tool as easily to the re-design of a farm. Permaculture practicioners apply it to everything deemed necessary to build a sustainable future. Commonly, “Initiatives ... tend to evolve from strategies that focus on efficiency (for example, more accurate and controlled uses of inputs and minimisation of waste) to substitution (for example, from more to less disruptive interventions, such as from biocides to more specific biological controls and other more benign alternatives) to redesign — fundamental changes in the design and management of the operation (Hill & MacRae 1995, Hill et al 1999)." "Permaculture is about helping people make redesign choices: setting new goals and a shift in thinking that affects not only their home but their actions in the workplace, borrowings and investments" (A Sampson-Kelly and Michel Fanton 1991). Examples include the design and employment of complex transport solutions, optimum use of natural resources such as sunlight, and "radical design of information-rich, multi-storey polyculture systems" (Mollison & Slay 1991).
"This progression generally involves a shift in the nature of one’s dependence — from relying primarily on universal, purchased, imported, technology-based interventions to more specific locally available knowledge and skill-based ones. This usually eventually also involves fundamental shifts in world-views, senses of meaning, and associated lifestyles (Hill 1991)." "My experience is that although efficiency and substitution initiatives can make significant contributions to sustainability over the short term, much greater longer-term improvements can only be achieved by redesign strategies; and, furthermore, that steps need to be taken at the outset to ensure that efficiency and substitution strategies can serve as stepping stones and not barriers to redesign...” (Hill 2000)
Permaculture is a broad-based and holistic approach that has many applications to all aspects of life. At the heart of permaculture design and practice is a fundamental set of ‘core values’ or ethics
which remain constant whatever a person's situation, whether they are creating systems for town planning or trade; whether the land they care for is only a windowbox
or an entire forest
. These 'ethics' are often summarised as;
- Earthcare – recognising that the Earth is the source of all life (and is possibly itself a living entity- see Gaia theory) and that we recognise and respect that the Earth is our valuable home and we are a part of the Earth, not apart from it.
- Peoplecare – supporting and helping each other to change to ways of living that are not harming ourselves or the planet, and to develop healthy societies.
- Fairshare (or placing limits on consumption) - ensuring that the Earth's limited resources are utilised in ways that are equitable and wise.
Modern thought about permaculture began with the issue of sustainable food production. It started with the belief that for people to feed themselves sustainably they need to move away from reliance on industrialised agriculture. Where industrial farms use technology powered by fossil fuels (such as gasoline, diesel and natural gas), and each farm specialises in producing high yields of a single crop, permaculture stresses the value of low inputs and diverse crops. The model for this was an abundance of small scale market and home gardens for food production, and a main issue was food miles.
The core of permaculture has always been in supplying a design toolkit for human habitation. This toolkit helps the designer to model a final design based on an observation
of how ecosystems
interact. A simple example of this is how the Sun interacts with a plant by providing it with energy to grow. This plant may then be pollinated
or eaten by deer
. These may disperse seed
to allow other plants to grow into tall trees and provide shelter to these creatures from the wind. The bees may provide food for birds and the trees provide roosting
for them. The tree's leaves fall and rot, providing food for small insects and fungus
. Such a web of intricate connections allows a diverse population of plant life and animals to survive by giving them food and shelter. One of the innovations of permaculture design was to appreciate the efficiency and productivity of natural ecosystems and seek to apply this to the way human needs for food and shelter are met. One of the most notable proponents of this design system has been David Holmgren
, who based much of his permaculture innovation on zone analysis
O'BREDIM design methodology
O'BREDIM is a mnemonic
based on Observation, Boundaries, Resources, Evaluation, Design, Implementation and Maintenance.
- Observation allows you first to see how the site functions within itself, to gain an understanding of its initial relationships. Some people recommend a year-long observation of a site before anything is planted. During this period all factors, such as lay of the land, natural flora and so forth, can be brought into the design. A year allows the site to be observed through all seasons, although it must be realised that, particularly in temperate climates, there can be substantial variations between years.
- Boundaries refer to physical ones as well as to those your neighbours might place on you, for example.
- Resources would include the people involved, funding, as well as what you can grow or produce in the future.
- Evaluation of the first three will then allow you to prepare for the next three. This is a careful phase of taking stock of what you have at hand to work with.
- Design is always a creative and intensive process, and you must stretch your ability to see possible future synergetic relationships.
- Implementation is literally the ground-breaking part of the process when you carefully dig and shape the site.
- Maintenance is then required to keep your site at a healthy optimum, making minor adjustments as necessary. Good design will preclude the need for any major adjustment.
The use of patterns both in nature and reusable patterns from other sites is often key to permaculture design. This echoes the Pattern language of Christopher Alexander used in architecture which has been an inspiration for many permaculture designers. All things, even the wind, the waves and the earth on its axis, moving around the Sun, form patterns. In pattern application, permaculture designers are encouraged to develop:
- Awareness of the patterns that exist in nature (and how these function)
- Application of pattern on sites in order to satisfy specific design needs.
"The application of pattern on a design site involves the designer recognising the shape and potential to fit these patterns or combinations of patterns comfortably onto the landscape" Sampson-Kelly. Branching can be used for the direction of paths, rather than straight paths with square angles. Lobe-like paths of the main path (known as keyhole paths) can be used to minimise waste and compaction of the soil.
Permaculture zones are a way of organizing design elements in a human environment based on the frequency of human use. Frequently manipulated or harvested elements of the design are located close to the house in zones one and two, while less frequently manipulated elements are farther away.
Links and connections
Also key to the permacultural design model is that useful connections are made between components in the final design. The formal analogy for this is a natural mature ecosystem. So, in much the same way as there are useful connections between Sun, plants, insects and soil
there will be useful connections between different plants and their relationship to the landscape
and humans. Another innovation of the permaculture design is to design a landuse or other system that has multiple outputs. In terms of Holmgren's application of H.T. Odum's work, a useful connection is viewed as one that maximises power: that is, maximizes the rate of useful energy transformation. A comparison which illustrates this is between a wheat
field and a forest.
“It is not the number of diverse things in a design that leads to stability, it is the number of beneficial connections between these components” Mollison 1988.
In permaculture and forest gardening, seven layers are identified:
- The canopy
- Low tree layer (dwarf fruit trees)
- Rhizosphere (root crops)
- Soil Surface (cover crops)
- Vertical Layer (climbers, vines)
An eighth layer, Mycosphere (fungi), is often included.
A mature ecosystem such as ancient woodland has a huge number of relationships between its component parts: trees, understory, ground cover, soil, fungi, insects and other animals. Plants grow at different heights. This allows a diverse community of life to grow in a relatively small space. Plants come into leaf and fruit at different times of year. For example, in the UK, wild garlic comes into leaf on the woodland floor in the time before the top canopy re-appears with the spring. A wood suffers very little soil erosion as there are always roots in the soil. It offers a habitat to a wide variety of animal life which the plants rely on for pollination and seed distribution. The productivity of such a forest in terms of how much new growth it produces exceeds the most productive wheat field. It is in this observation of how more productive a wood may be on far less input of fertilizers that the potential productivity of a permaculture design is modelled. The many connections in a wood contribute together to a proliferation of opportunities for amplifier feedbacks to evolve that in turn maximise energy flow through the system.
Here is a photo of a layered warm temperate garden in NSW, Australia (courtesy of PermacualtureVisions). There are several layers: the canopy layer is Inga Edulis (ice cream bean), the middle stratum contains plum and peach, mango, mulberry and nurse plants such as native wattle. There are shrubs such as sage and woody herbs, ground covers such as sweet potato and vines such as passion fruit and kiwi fruit. The tubers consist of onions and taro.
is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture
. It includes crop rotation
, and inter-cropping
. Alley cropping
is a simplification of the layered system which typically uses just two layers, with alternate rows of trees and smaller plants.
Permaculture Guilds are groups of plants, animals and microbacteria which work particularly well together. These can be those observed in nature such as the White Oak
guild which centers on the White Oak tree and includes 10 other plants. Native
communities can be adapted by substitution of plants more suitable for human use.
The Three Sisters of maize, squash and beans
is a well known guild. The British National Vegetation Classification provides a comprehensive list of plant communities in the UK. Guilds can be thought of as an extension of companion planting.
- See also edge effect
Permaculturists maintain that where vastly differing systems meet, there is an intense
area of productivity and useful connections. The greatest example of this is the coast.
Where the land and the sea meet there is a particularly rich area that meets a
disproportionate percentage of human and animal needs. This is evidenced by the
fact that the overwhelming majority of humankind lives within 100 km of the sea. So this
idea is played out in permacultural designs by using spirals in the herb garden or creating
ponds that have wavy undulating shorelines rather than a simple circle or oval.
Edges between woodland and open areas have been claimed to be the most productive.
are often used in permaculture design. As they do not need to be planted every year they require less maintenance and fertilisers
. They are especially important in the outer zones and in layered systems. Ken Fern
of Plants For A Future
has spent many years investigating suitable perennial plants. As has Wes Jackson of The Land Institute.
Many permaculture designs involve animals other than humans. Chickens can be used as a method of weed control and also as a producer of eggs, meat and fertiliser. Some types of agroforestry systems combine trees with grazing animals.
Some projects are critical of the use of animals (see vegan organic gardening). However not all permaculture sites farm the animals. The animals are pets and can be treated as co-habitators and co-workers of the site, eating foods normally unpalatable to people such as slugs, termites, being an integral part of the pest management by eating some pests, supplying fertiliser through their droppings and controlling some weed species.
Annual monoculture (anti-pattern)
such as a wheatfield can be considered a pattern to be avoided in terms of space (height is uniform) and time (crops grow at the same rate until harvesting
). During growth and especially after harvesting the system is prone
to soil erosion
from rain. The field requires a hefty input of fertilizers
for growth and machinery for harvesting. The work is more likely to be repetitive, mechanised and rely on fossil fuels
No pattern should be hard and fast and depending on the design considerations they can be broken. An example of this is broadscale permaculture practiced at Ragmans Lane Farm, which has a component of annual farming. Here the amount of human involvement is a key factor influencing the design.
Applying these values means using fewer non-renewable sources of energy, particularly petroleum based forms of energy. Burning fossil fuels contributes to greenhouse gases and global warming; however, using less energy is more than just combatting global warming. Food production should be a fully renewable system; but using current agricultural systems this is not the case. Industrial agriculture requires large amounts of petroleum, both to run the equipment, and to supply pesticides and fertilizers. Permaculture is in part an attempt to create a renewable system of food production that relies upon minimal amounts of energy.
For example permaculture focuses on maximizing the use of trees (agroforestry) and perennial food crops because they make a more efficient and long term use of energy than traditional seasonal crops. A farmer does not have to exert energy every year replanting them, and this frees up that energy to be used somewhere else.
Traditional pre-industrial agriculture was labor intensive, industrial agriculture is fossil fuel intensive and permaculture is design and information intensive and petrofree. Partially permaculture is an attempt to work smarter, not harder; and when possible the energy used should come from renewable sources such as wind power, passive solar designs or biofuels.
A good example of this kind of efficient design is the chicken greenhouse. By attaching the chicken coop to a greenhouse you can reduce the need to heat the greenhouse by fossil fuels, as the chicken's bodies heat the area. The chickens scratching and pecking can be put to good use to clear new land for crops. Their manure can be used to fertilise the soil. Feathers could be used in compost or as a mulch. In a conventional factory situation all these chicken outputs are seen as a waste problem. So in factories cooled by huge air conditioners, the chicken waste is extracted. All the energy is focused on egg production. Thus it is a further principle of permaculture that "pollution is energy in the wrong place".
Holmgren's 12 design principles
These restatements of the principles of permaculture appear in David Holmgren's Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability
; Also see permacultureprinciples.com ;
- Apply self-regulation and accept feedback - We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
- Catch and store energy - By developing systems that collect resources when they are abundant, we can use them in times of need.
- Creatively use and respond to change - We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.
- Design from patterns to details - By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
- Integrate rather than segregate - By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
- Observe and interact - By taking the time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
- Obtain a yield - Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
- Produce no waste - By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
- Use and value diversity - Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
- Use and value renewable resources and services - Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behaviour and dependence on non-renewable resources.
- Use edges and value the marginal - The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
- Use small and slow solutions - Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
Design for ecologinomic (ecology-economic) ethics
A basic principle is thus to "add value" to existing crops. A permaculture design therefore seeks to provide a wide range of solutions by including its main ethics (see above) as an integral part of the final value-added design. Crucially, it seeks to address problems that include the economic
question of how to either make money from growing crops or exchange crops for labour such as in the LETS
scheme. Each final design therefore should include economic considerations as well as give equal weight to maintaining ecological balance, making sure that the needs of people working on the project are met and that no one is exploited.
Community economics requires a balance between the three aspects that comprise a community: justice, environment and economics, also called the "triple bottom line", or "ecological-economics-ethics" (EEE) or "triple E". A cooperative farmer's market could be an example of this structure. The farmers are the workers and owners. Additionally, all economics are limited by their ecology. No economic system stands apart independently from its eco-system; therefore, all external costs must be considered when discussing economics.
Examples of ecolonomic design
One way of doing this is through designing a system that has "multiple outputs". For example, a wheat
field interspersed with walnuts
will reduce soil erosion, act as a windbreak
and provide a walnut crop as well as a wheat
crop. Managing two crops will be more interesting work. Here the system comes into conflict with conventional agriculture and economics. Interplanting trees in a wheat field reduces the wheat yield and makes the field harder to harvest using machinery, as the operator has to drive around the trees. Most farms specialise in a few crops
at a time and seek to maximise surplus
in order to increase profit. This surplus can only be maintained with a massive injection of fossil fuels.
John Robin has been one the strongest critics of permaculture, criticising it for its potential to spread environmental weeds
. This reflects a divide between native plant advocates and permaculture.
Permaculture in the tropics, as expressed in 'Permaculture: A Designer's Manual', did not produce significant amounts of food or fruit when applied in Northern New South Wales and Queensland, largely since the closed canopy is not conducive to fruit production. The system, whilst very healthy in and of itself, yielded very little produce.
Bill Mollison himself has criticised itinerant teachers of permaculture, who go on to teach after only a short course. At one point, Mollison unsuccessfully tried to trademark the term permaculture to prevent this practice.
Perhaps the strongest criticism of permaculture is found in the Review of Toby Hemenway's book Gaia's Garden, published in the Winter 2001 edition of the Whole Earth Review. In it, Greg Williams critiques the view that woods were more productive than farmland, based on the theory of ecological succession which says that net productivity declines as ecosystems mature. He also criticised the lack of scientifically respectable data and questions whether permaculture is applicable to more than a small number of dedicated people. But Hemenway's response in the same magazine disputes Williams's claim on productivity as focusing on climax rather than on maturing forests, citing data from ecologist Robert Whittaker's book Communities and Ecosystems. Hemenway is also critical of Williams's characterisation of permaculture as simply forest gardening.
In the years since its conception, permaculture has become a successful approach to designing sustainable systems. Its adaptability and emphasis on meeting human needs means that it can be utilized in every climatic and cultural zone. However, at the moment the large proportion of practitioners are only likely to be inspired individuals and there is a distinct lack of broadscale permaculture projects. Nevertheless, permaculture has also been used successfully as a development tool to help meet the needs of indigenous communities
facing degraded standards of living from exposure to free-market economics.
Below are some examples of permaculture sites (see also a wiki-map of permaculture sites ) :
has sixty schools designed using permaculture, with a national team working within the schools' curriculum development unit. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) has produced a report on using permaculture in refugee situations after successful use in camps in Southern Africa
and Republic of Macedonia
. The Biofarming approach
applied in Ethiopia
has very similar features and can be considered permaculture. It is mainly promoted by the non-governmental organisation
BEA, based in Addis Ababa
The development of permaculture co-founder David Holmgren's home plot at Melliodora, Central Victoria
, has been well documented at his website and published in e-book
Designed from permaculture principles, Crystal Waters is a socially and environmentally responsible, economically viable rural subdivision north of Brisbane, Australia. Crystal Waters was designed by Max Lindegger, Robert Tap, Barry Goodman and Geoff Young, and established in 1987. It received the 1996 World Habitat Award (assessed by Dr Wally N’Dow) for its "pioneering work in demonstrating new ways of low impact, sustainable living". Eighty-three freehold residential and two commercial lots occupy 20% of the 259ha (640 acre) property. The remaining 80% is the best land, and is owned in common. It can be licensed for sustainable agriculture, forestry, recreation and habitat projects.
Tikopians practice an intensive permaculture system, similar in principle to forest gardening and the gardens of the New Guinea highlands. Their agricultural practices are strongly and consciously tied to the population density. For example, around 1600 AD, the people agreed to slaughter all pigs
on the island and substitute fishing, because the pigs were taking too much food that could be eaten by people.
The Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture
assisted in disaster relief in
They have also developed Wastewater Gardens
, a small-scale sewage
treatment systems similar to Reedbeds
The Panya Project
, located in Mae Taeng, Chiang Mai, Thailand, is a sustainable living project implementing permaculture principals and hosting workshops in English and Thai. In fall 2006, the project hosted a PDC taught by Geoff Lawton
of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, and subsequently installed over 500 meters of swales and a 2 million liter dam. The Panya Project used permaculture to help regenerate what used to be a monocrop mango plantation, transforming it into what is called a "biodiverse food forest, organic farm and education center". The Panya Project also incorporates what they call "natural building" into their design, e.g., wattle, cob and adobe brick.
Two acres of land at Ayia Skepi Therapeutic Centre in Filani village, a drug rehabilitation centre about 25 km from Nicosia
, are being developed by Emily Markides, Julia Yelton, Charles Yelton and the residents of the detoxification centre.
2009 will see a Permaculture Festival with music, stories, film, accreditations, workshops, discussions and much more
There are a number of example permaculture projects in the UK, including:
- Agroforestry Research Trust, a not-for-profit organisation based in Dartington, Devon that runs a forest garden and publishes the journal Agroforestry News
- Chickenshack Housing co-op, a fully mutual housing co-op established in 1995 using permaculture design principles. Based in rural North Wales, the community has 4 dwellings and 6 residents on a site. Features include a biomass and solar district heating scheme, a half-acre forest garden and various wildlife conservation and habitat creation strategies. The community is very active in regional sustainability projects such as the Machynlleth Transition Towns initiative. It runs occasional courses in permaculture design and regularly receive visits from interested parties.
- Middlewood Trust, a permculture-based farm in North Lancashire running courses in permaculture, crafts, forestry and sustainability
- Plants for a Future, a vegan-organic project based at Lostwithiel in Cornwall that is researching and trialing edible and otherwise useful plant crops for sustainable cultivation. Their online database features over 7,000 such species that can be grown within the UK . A collaborative version of the database is in development by the permaculture.info project.
- Prickly Nut Woods, a ten-acre woodland near Haslemere, Surrey that is managed by Ben Law. He uses a 'whole system' permacultural approach, using a wide variety of woodland products and documenting a complex web of relationships. He built a house almost entirely using products from the woodland, which was featured in Channel 4's Grand Designs TV series .The project has a second, larger property in North Devon, for which it is seeking a new group to take over.
- Ragmans Lane, a 60 acre farm in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire .
- The RISC Roof Garden, on top of a development education centre in Reading city centre and inspired by Robert Hart's permaculture forest garden in Shropshire, is an excellent example of urban permaculture design. . It is used by schools, educators and designers as an educational resource for sustainable development and is a member of the National Gardens Scheme. The garden is composed of dense plantings of over 180 species of edible and medicinal plants and is fed by rainwater and composted waste from the centre.
- Tir Penrhos Isaf, near Dolgellau, developed by Chris and Lyn Dixon since 1986 .
Other projects tend to be more community oriented, particularly in urban areas. These include Naturewise, a north London based group who tend a number of forest gardens and allotments as well as running regular permaculture introductory and design courses ; and Organiclea, a workers cooperative who are involved in developing local food growing and distribution initiatives around the Walthamstow area of east London . The Transition Towns movement initiated in Totnes and Kinsale by Rob Hopkins is underpinned by permaculture design principles in its attempts to visualise sustainable communities beyond peak oil
The UK Permaculture Association publishes an extensive directory of other projects and example sites throughout the country .
United States of America
- In Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Permaculture Institute utilizes a hands on approach to education on topics such as landscape and building design as well as water systems.
- Promoting urban permaculture in Los Angeles is Path to Freedom
- The Edible Plant Project implements and promotes elements of permaculture through a nonprofit nursery and workshops in Gainesville, FL (home of University of Florida).
- The Northeastern Permaculture Network brings together enthusiasts in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
- The Seattle Permaculture Guild is active in that city.
- The Portland Permaculture Guild (PPG) is very active in Portland, Oregon. There are many PC gardens in and around the Portland area. There are many fine teachers in Portland and in Oregon, including teachers OF PC teachers. Also, Toby Hemenway, noted Permaculture author and teacher, lives in the Portland area.
- The Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) is a non-profit educational organization in Bolinas, California.
- Burlington Permaculture is an ad-hoc community group based out of Burlington Vermont. BP unites neighbors to promote urban agriculture and reforestation, enhance neighborhoods, and strengthen the web of community resources as we look beyond sustainability towards a vibrant healthy relationship with our landscape.
Cuba has in the past 18 years transformed its food production using low-input, or organic agriculture
and, to some degree, permaculture. Havana
produces up to 50% of its food requirements within the city limits, all of it is organic and produced by people in their homes, gardens and in municipal spaces.
Project Bona Fide is a 43-acre site on the twin volcano island of Ometepe, Nicaragua. Project Bona Fide has been in development for nearly a decade, and has become an important center for
education and community development. Infrastructural systems contain: natural buildings built with local materials, terraced & medicinal plant gardens, an extensive nursery, seed bank, developing fruit and nut orchards, food forests, native timber forestry, timber bamboo plantings, water-catchment, drip irrigation and ferrocement technologies, renewable energy systems, and composting toilets. Outreach efforts include social programs that provide educational opportunities based in ecological agriculture, community reforestation efforts that are supported by our seed bank and nursery, local seed and plant exchanges, a children’s nutritional kitchen and an upcoming community center.
- Ecocentro at the Instituto de Permacultura e Ecovilas do Cerrado
- the Institute of Permaculture and Ecovillage of the Cerrado
IPCP - Instituto de Permacultura Cerrado-Pantanal (Permaculture Institute of Cerrado-Pantanal), Campo Grande, MS. Specializing in interactive teaching of Permaculture and direct work with Indigenous communities within the Cerrado biome.
- Bell, Graham. The Permaculture Way. 1st edition, Thorsons, (1992), ISBN 0-7225-2568-0, 2nd edition Permanent Publications (UK) (2004), ISBN 1-85623-028-7.
- Bell, Graham. The Permaculture Garden. Permanent Publications (UK) (2004), ISBN 1-85623-027-9.
- Burnett, Graham. Permaculture: A Beginner's Guide. Spiralseed (UK).
- Fern, Ken. Plants For A Future. Permanent Publications (UK) (1997). ISBN 1-85623-011-2. Plants For A Future
- Fukuoka, Masanobu. The One Straw Revolution. Rodale Books (US).
- Holmgren, David. Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Holmgren Design Services (Australia).
- Holmgren, David. "Update 49: Retrofitting the suburbs for sustainability". CSIRO Sustainability Network
- Hart, Robert. Forest Gardening. Green Books (UK) ISBN 1-900322-02-1.
- Hemenway, Toby. Gaia's Garden. Chelsea Green Books (US) (2001). ISBN 1-890132-52-7.
- Jacke, Dave with Eric Toensmeier. Edible Forest Gardens. Volume I: Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate-Climate Permaculture, Volume II: Ecological Design and Practice for Temperate-Climate Permaculture. Edible Forest Gardens (US) 2005
- King, FH (Franklin Hiram) Farmers of Forty Centuries: Or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan (1911).
- Law, Ben. The Woodland House. Permanent Publications (UK) (2005), ISBN 1-85623-031-7.
- Law, Ben. The Woodland Way. Permanent Publications (UK), ISBN 1-85623-009-0.
- Mollison, Bill & David Holmgren Permaculture One. Transworld Publishers (Australia) (1978), ISBN 0-552-98060-9.
- Mollison, Bill. Permaculture: A Designer's Manual. Tagari Press (Australia).
- Mollison, Bill Permaculture Two. Tagari Press (Australia) (1979), ISBN 0-908228-00-7.
- Odum, H.T., Jorgensen, S.E. and Brown, M.T. 'Energy hierarchy and transformity in the universe', in Ecological Modelling, 178, pp. 17-28 (2004).
- Paull, J. "Permanent Agriculture: Precursor to Organic Farming", Journal of Bio-Dynamics Tasmania, no.83, pp. 19-21, 2006. Organic eprints
- Rosemary Morrow, Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture ISBN 0-86417-514-0
- Whitefield, Patrick. Permaculture In A Nutshell. Permanent Publications (UK) (1993), ISBN 1-85623-003-1.
- Whitefield, Patrick. The Earth Care Manual. Permanent Publications (UK) (2004), ISBN 1-85623-021-X.
- Woodrow, Linda. The Permaculture Home Garden. Penguin Books (Australia).
- Yeomans, P.A. Water for Every Farm: A practical irrigation plan for every Australian property, K.G. Murray Publishing Company, Pty, Ltd, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia (1973).
- 15 pamphlets based on the 1981 Permaculture Design Course given by Bill Mollison
- Holmgren Design Services - Contains teaching material about permaculture by David Holgrem
- Introduction to permaculture
- Keyline Design and Permaculture Design Courses Australia Felix Permaculture.
- Luminaia Topics: Permaculture A well-organized list of permaculture websites, online videos, books, and resources.
- Pennsylvania tree fruit production guide; a guide on how to set-up the orchard-part of the permaculture-system in practice
- Permaculture a Beginners Guide - a 'pictorial walkthrough'.
- Permaculture in France.
- Permaculture Primer - Contains information explaining principles, concepts, components and associated movements.
- PermaculturePrinciples.com - Provides an easy to understand explanation of the ethics and principles.
- Permaculture rice farming.
- Permaculture videos - a collection of free online streaming permaculture related videos.
- Permaculture wiki - is a collaborative permaculture body of knowledge built using the Wikimedia engine.
- The 15 [ pamphlets all in 1 pdf-file.]
- The Pacific Edge website includes The Permaculture Papers, a personal memoir of Permaculture in Australia by one-time Permaculture teacher and journalist, Russ Grayson, as well as articles on sustainability.
- The Permaculture Association (Britain) - Includes many resources useful both within the UK and wider international perspective.
- Understanding the role of Permaculture in sustainability- How permaculture is a systems design tool not just a focus on strategy and efficiency.
- Unwelcome Guests 2x1 hr downloadable radio broadcasts explaining permaculture.
- Permaculture Visions lots of free information Sustainability Strategies for the Home, Children and Community. Worldwide Online Courses since 1993, Scholarships
- A video-based introduction.
- PermaTasWiki - Links - Exhaustive reference in Global Permaculture resources/weblinks in Wiki format
- PV Permaculture Portal PDC categories ie. Recycling, Technology and Natural Energy, Biological Pest Control, Water Management, Buildings, Village development etc
- WiserEarth global Permaculture index Global index of Permaculture associated Organizations; Groups; Individuals; & Events through the WiserEarth org non-profit community index of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals
- Barking Frogs Permaculture Online Permaculture Design Course and Clinic
- Chaordic Permaculture Institute Wiki
- Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute, New York, USA
- Klarity PCD & Arts, Home of Maui Permaculture Network, Maui, Hawaii, USA
- Permacultura America Latina - permaculture projects throughout Latin America.
- Permaculture and Climate Change feed - the Cuban permaculture example
- Permaculture and Marxism
- Permaculture Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
- Permaculture Reflections - contains articles on permaculture.
- Phoenix Permaculture Guild, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
- Researching sustainability- the SHIRE