I figured that my first post here should cover some of the basics of Permaculture, since Chelsea and I are planning on setting up our homestead following its principles.  As we’re learning about permaculture, we’ll share the information we find in this series of posts about permaculture basics.  This will give everyone a chance to learn along with us, and provide a location where all of the knowledge we gain will be recorded.

So what is permaculture?

Permaculture was created in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, and is a set of design principles based on relationships and connections found in nature.  The word permaculture was originally defined as meaning “permanent agriculture”, but has more recently been changed to mean “permanent culture” as the principles can be applied to all parts of life.

Permaculture is based off of a Prime Directive and three core ethics.  The Prime Directive of permaculture is “The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children.”  I believe that it is our responsibility to provide at least some of our own food, water, and energy, and not completely rely on someone else to provide it for us.  This is a big reason why permaculture appeals to me and why we want to base our homestead around its cornerstones.

The three core ethics of permaculture are:

• Care of the Earth- Allow for the continuing of all living systems.
• Care of People- The resources produced should be accessible to be used by people.
• Return of Surplus- The excess produced should be returned to the community and/or system to continue these principles.

These are pretty simple guidelines that can be applied to the design of anything, really.  I like the ideas of permaculture design since they will create systems that are sustainable, hardy, and productive.  I feel like setting up our homestead following these principles will give us a long lasting, robust way to provide for our needs.