Permaculture Quickstart

Permaculture? Is it swales? What on earth is a swale?

Swales are a dry-climate, tree-growing system. Permaculture may use swales, but that is a small, small part of permaculture.

Permaculture is often described as “Permanent Agriculture.” However, Permaculture is better described as “Permanent Culture.” That includes:

  1. Earth care
  2. People care
  3. Returning surplus

Permaculture transcends politics, religion, and country. You can throw a prepper, a tree hugger, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a capitalist, and a communist into the same permaculture class and have them all walk away determined to use the knowledge they gained in their individual pursuits. In fact, I’ve seen that happen.

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Before Permaculture at Dove Ranch

Geoff Lawton emphasized in the Permaculture Design Certificate course that I’m taking, that you really want to have as many before shots as possible when applying permaculture to land, so that you can see the progress made over time. So, in keeping with that strong suggestion, I’ve taken a few pictures that are typical of the ranch, now.

Driveway Before Permaculture
This is our modest driveway in 2017 with my Subaru Forester parked in it.
2017 Eroded Flood Plain
This is the majorly eroded flood plain down in the wash. This is pre-permaculture in 2017, looking south along the west property boundary.
2017 Flood Plain
This captures a view of the 2017 snowmelt running off on the north side of the floodplain looking south before I’ve applied any permaculture design to the eroded muddy mess.
2017 Looking East at Fork in the Wash
Using permaculture I intend to introduce dryland trees and erosion control methods to the wash. This is known to create water plumes and often creates natural springs where there were none in the past.

Week One of the PDC

I’ve been through the first week of course work for the Online Permaculture Design Course taught by Geoff Lawton. I found it was a good thing that I’ve been studying permaculture on my own for so long. My previous permaculture studies helped me understand a lot of the more abstract theory that the course starts out with.

Since this is a pretty big investment for myself and my family, financially speaking, I decided to make the most of it and study Bill Mollison’s Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual along with the course. Also, I decided to take it up a notch and also listen to Bill Mollison’s original 1983 permaculture design course on MP3 while driving to and from the day job.

Bill Mollison
Bill Mollison, the father of permaculture.
(Photo by Nicolas Boullosa – http://www.flickr.com/photos/faircompanies/2196171642/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18933888)

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Online Permaculture Design Course

I’ve decided to take the leap and enroll in the PDC 2.0. That’s Geoff Lawton’s current online Permaculture Design Course. The permaculture course starts today, and is exactly what I want to help me plan fixes for the two acres of flood plain that have completely lost all topsoil and vegetation at Dove Ranch.

Geoff Lawton Online
Geoff Lawton is absolutely my hero of the permaculture world. I’m excited to be enrolled in one of his classes.

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