Part 1

The Basics of Permaculture

12 lessons · about 351 minutes of reading, plus the fieldwork.

  1. 01What Permaculture IsPermaculture is a 1970s synthesis, not an invention. Where the word came from, who wrote the manual, and the debt the movement rarely pays.25 min
  2. 02The Three EthicsEarth care, people care, fair share. Fair share is the ethic with teeth, demanding a cap a household can name rather than a slogan it can repeat.25 min
  3. 03The Design PrinciplesThe twelve design principles, one by one, each with a worked farm example, and each traced back to a writer who said it first.30 min
  4. 04Observation and Site AnalysisHow to read slope, sun, wind, water, soil, plants, and human marks before you design, with a survey checklist you carry outdoors.28 min
  5. 05Climate and MicroclimateClimate labels lie at farm scale. Read growing degree days, frost dates, and microclimate, and know the honest limits of pushing a crop past its zone.28 min
  6. 06Water in the LandscapeWater is the first design element. Swales, ponds, keyline, roof catchment, greywater, the storage maths, and the ancient systems that modelled it all.30 min
  7. 07SoilTexture, structure, biology, minerals and pH, and how fertility gets built on a farm with nothing coming in from the store.30 min
  8. 08Plants, Polyculture and GuildsPolyculture and guild design, nitrogen fixing, succession and stacking, and an honest account of which diversity claims the evidence supports.30 min
  9. 09Animals in the SystemLivestock at household scale, manure and grazing, the poultry numbers, and the honest feed arithmetic that decides whether an animal pays.30 min
  10. 10Zones, Sectors and the Design ProcessThe design process end to end, zones and sectors explained as questions about visits and energy, and a worked layout for one small slope.35 min
  11. 11Structures and Appropriate TechnologyMaterials, salvage, thermal performance and siting, and appropriate technology tested as a constraint on what a household can maintain.30 min
  12. 12What Yield Actually MeansYield per acre, yield per hour and yield to the household, the difference between yield and extraction, and the labour that stacking hides.30 min