Design principles.

 

When a permaculturist creates a design they ask themselves questions based on the following principles:

 

1. Have we observed the space and interacted with it?

See the space, are there walls, many weeds, a slope?

Listen, what sounds can we hear? Birds? Cars? Insects?

Smell, does the soil smell sweet? Is there a strange smell coming from the ground?

Feel, is the earth dusty and dry? Is the air wet, or humid?

Taste, some people might taste the soil, but you might like to leave that to the experts!

 

2. Are we able to catch and store energy?

For example are we capturing the rain that falls from the sky,

or the sunlight to power our electricity needs?

 

3. Will we obtain a yield?

This means will we get something out of all the work we are doing?

Will we grow carrots, leeks, fruits?

Will we be more productive, make more things?

 

4. Are we applying self-regulation and accepting feedback?

For example once a forest is established it self-regulates, it creates its own mulch in the form of falling leaves, seeds fall from trees and sprout, trees fall down and make space for sunlight to filter down to the lower levels of the forest to allow sapplings to grow.

 

Feedback isn't just what people say. It is about how the project is working. If it is not working well, say all your tomatoes are dying, that is feedback. Why are they dying? Is the soil too moist? Are there too many pests eating the tomatoes?

 

5. Relative location

We put the passionfruit over the chook shed to shade the chooks in summer; the chooks eat fallen fruit, as do humans. Chooks fertiise the vine. Weed compost is inside the chook yard so they will eat all the weed seeds, and we don’t have to let it take up space in other compost systems.

 

6. Does each element perform many functions?

Hugelkultur Bed slows the flow of water, uses the excess wood on the site, which is currently taking up space, and provides a greater amount of land to plant trees on.

 

7. Are we using biological resources?

Black soldier flies lay eggs in biopod, those turn into larvae and naturally crawl out of food (via our non-patented larvae ladder) into a harvesting chamber. They are harvested directly by the people who care for the chooks, and given to the chooks.

 

8. Are we making the most of energy cycling?

We take energy from the sun into our PV system. That runs the pump which pumps the water into the grow beds and tank for the fish. The fish eat fish food, convert that to nitrites via their poo, that’s converted via bacteria into nitrates which the plants then use to grow. Plants also use energy from the sun.

 

9. Do we use small-scale intensive systems?

The chook palace is a good example of this. We have fertilisers in that space (chooks) as well as a small fruit forest, biopod to make food for the chooks (extremely high protein black solder fly larvae), we get eggs from the chooks and fruit from the trees. It’s a small scale system so we need not truck in excess fertiliser, fruit, eggs, food for chooks, shade etc. It’s all supplied within the system.

 

10. Do we accelerate succession and evolution?

In the native area to the west we hope to grow groundcover like commelina to ensure the plants there don’t dry out and to eventually outcompete the grass that grows there. Different canopies within that space, groundcovers, bushy or border plants like plectranthus, lomandra and dianella are bush foods and will establish a border. Larger plants like acacias provide nitrogen to plants around them when they die back and rot into the ground, and also plentiful seeds which can be used as food and to grow other acacias. 

 

11. Do we value diversity?

We’re establishing a diverse composting system filled with different composters. This is important because not all composting systems are suitable for all foods. The biopod for example, can take foods other systems can’t handle. It’s a closed system so rats can’t get in and black soldier flies consume rice, meat, chicken, fish, most things and they do it very quickly. They can eat up to 10 kilograms of food every day. Tumblers can work very quickly if they’re turned regularly but get dry very quickly so they must be filled with more moist materials. Aerobins are closed systems, again need moist materials, but not so moist as to make them anerobic. Open bays are good if you turn them often but if you don’t you mustn’t put too much food stuff in them as they will attract rats.

 

12. Do we value what's on the edge?

Asylum seekers often exist on the edge of society. In our gardens we value all people, their skills, their knowledge and their traditions.

 

Hugelkulture beds have long edges that follow contours. Therefore you can grow a lot of foods on them, using both sides of the beds and tops of them too. These long edges can help slow the flow of water coming down a hill and help dissipate it throughout the landscape, instead of it flowing like a raging river gaining speed on the way down. These long edges when entirely planted out will also form a more formidable barrier against weeds like kykuku, which currently takes over all edges.

 

13. Do we adjust our attitudinal principles when need be?

We look at the water flowing down the hill and change that to a solution. Harvest it at the top of the hill and use gravity to feed it down to beds or a pond. Rather than seeing the wood pile as a problem we use it on the hill to slow down water, add nutrients and structure to the soil and new beds to grow more trees and groundcover.