permaculture

["Graham Burnett" <gburnett@unisonfree.net>]

Hi Rich, hope all's going well down in Cornwall there...

Just to reply to your points and give another perspective I've been giving 
this thought over the
weekend;


>         Now there was a very nice system on how to lay out your
> garden so the things you use most are closest to you. This is a good system
> and acts as an aid to thinking about how you design a garden.

I think it's recognised now within Permaculture that it's about PERMAnent 
CULTURE not just
PERMAnent agriCULTURE. So Permaculture isn't just about how we do our 
gardens, it's a much wider
philosophy that has applications in every sphere of how we live our lives.

So Zones 1-5 are about how we tend our land; where we put things, how we 
organise things to be of
maximum benefit to each other... Reminds us that we don't plant our cut 'n' 
come saladings or put
our daily topped up worm compost bin in the middle of the uncultivated 
wilderness we might only
visit every now & then. Useful to someone like the pre- permaculture me who 
used to plant lettuces
on my allotment that I only might visit once a week, if the slugs don't get 
them I certainly don't
either 'cos I'd pop round to the green grocers and buy one rather than trail 
down to the plot when
one is needed :-)

So Zones are essentially a thinking and planning tool.

Therefore 'Zone Zero' is useful because it reminds us that our lives and our 
world don't stop at
our backdoor. We might have the most sorted and organic plot outdoors, but 
our house might be
totally unsustainable/toxic or just laid out in a none to ergonomic fashion, 
whatever. Zone 0 just
reminds us to think about this, whether it's getting our energy supplied in 
more sustainable ways,
putting a draught excluder under that door where all the heat disappears, 
turning off the light in
the empty room, using the washing machine a bit less, using 'eco- friendly' 
paints when decorating,
or deciding to use a Straw Bale or Walter Segal design rather than concrete & 
breeze blocks if we
are thinking about building a new property- plus of course where/how we site 
a new property in
order to maximise solar gain, minimise wind chill, etc, etc, etc.

And Zone Zero Zero is simply taking one step further inwards- the material 
world- our house, our
garden, might be totally hunky dory, but what use is that if our life- our 
headspace- is still a
total mess- most of us who are alive in this system probably are pretty 
messed up in some way or
another- any one who says otherwise is in denial 'cos it's simply not 
possible to be otherwise
living in this post-bomb, post millenial, consumerist wasteland. So as a 
design tool, Zone 00 is
just a reminder that we all have work to do in dealing with our OWN distress 
if we want a truly
sustainable culture, just as much as repairing the soil and building the 
planets's bio-mass,
sorting out aquacultures, no-tillage fields, planting up forest gardens, 
whatever...

So from this perspective 'Zone 6' simply becomes a reminder that there is 
perhaps a 'spiritual'
dimension beyond this one, where (maybe) the wild wood of zone 5 gives way to 
the archetypes of
'Goldilocks & The Three Bears' or the 'Big bad Wolf' of 'Little Red Riding 
Hood', which are kind of
both manifestations of collective fears of 'Out There' and the untamed world 
and what lurks in it
('Here Be Dragons') and our own subconscious, buried desires, fears, 
motivations, call them what
you will (Freudian stuff)- so 'Zone 6' actually loops back to 'Zone 00'- a 
closed cycle like all
good permaculture designs should be.

>
> There are now atempts to widen this system to include other
> concepts such as the home/external world. I am not convinced that
> such an extension really acts as an aid to thinking.

Well yes, as I hope i've argued above. The home/external world is just as 
much a part of our
reality as our garden, farm or windowbox! Zones are intended as nothing more 
than an aid to
thinking and for me they work.


t seems a little
> more like trying to simplify the world to fit into a rather rigid system.
> There is a touch of religious thinking trying to explain the whole
> world in terms of the gosple of zones.

No I don't think so, as stated, Zones for me are thinking/design tools, just 
reminders that these
are areas we pay attention to. Zones arn't a 'gospel' any more than having an 
awareness that there
are alternatives to digging my plot (how often have we heard that 
Permaculture is about 'No Dig
Beds' when in fact No Dig is just another technique that is open to us that 
might be appropriate in
some circumstances but not others? How many so called Permaculturists have 
actually grown no food
at all for themselves because they rigidly stuck to a 'gospel' they read in a 
Permaculture book or
heard on a course, even though it patently didn't work in their circumstance 
or situation?). In
fact 'No dig' is an option, not a rule, zonal thinking helps me consider what 
options belong
where...


>
> Such a stratergy is dangerious on a number of counts:
> it creates an arcane language for permaculture praticioners making
> permaculture seem more misterious to outsiders than it really is;
> it adds a bit of a hippy dimension to permaculture -

Not if it's explained well, there's no mystery about what I've tried to 
outline, if there is that's
my shortcomings, probably due to having had a few brews before starting to 
type this- anybody can
dress anything up in arcane language if they want to keep it as 'sacred 
knowledge' and new age
bullshit, not to put to fine a point upon it, and there is a danger I will 
grant you that there are
always those who will seek to monopolise information, wisdom, Knowledge and 
set themselves up as
'gurus', just as there will always be those damaged souls who will seek to 
follow and give validity
(and cash!!!) to such self appointed gurus- all the more reason for 
recognition of a 'Zone 00' if
we are TRULY bothered about 'People Care' and acknowledge that this is a zone 
that needs much work
and tending... so we can take care of each other & watch out for the New Age 
sharks...

 the real strength
> of permaculture is a gradening system adding this additional language
> destracts from the real core of permaculture; it oversimplifies
> the interaction of the garden with the interiour and external worlds;
> it encourages the idea of permaculture as a universal system when
> there are many much better models out there already.

Personally, and increasingly, I DO see permaculture as a universal system- 
what works in my garden
tends to work in my life/workplace/relationships, etc, etc- what better 
models are there than
nature????

>
> So whats so good about the labels Zone 0, 00 and 6 when there
> are perfectly adaquete names out there allready.


To labour the point, the zones are just design tools, concepts... There's 
nothing 'new' in
permaculture at all is there really, it's all about synthesis of the best of 
what is already there,
so zones arn't anything new, or saying, "Hey, this is the way you do things", 
they are just
reminders of what we need to think about to build a truly sustainable 
culture... There's no great
body of 'Permaculture Literature'- what has been written tends to be 
generalist and pointing us at
other stuff... If I was doing some Zone 1 design I might dig out my Robert 
Kourick or Bob Flowerdew
books, neither of whom considers themselves Permaculturists, or doing Zone 
3/4 design maybe
Fukuoka, Wes Jackson or Bonfils stuff on Permanent grain culltivation- if 
doing some work on Zone 0
maybe I'd be looking up Walter Seagal, or local authority leaflets on saving 
energy & lagging my
pipes, and Zone 00 maybe Edward DeBono or Scott Peck, for Zone 6, perhaps I'd 
be reading the Tao Of
Pooh or The Brothers Grimm.....

See you on the great Cyber Allotment, and as popular beat combo CRASS used to 
say, "Watch out for
the mind police, and Have a Nice Day...."


Graham Burnett
35 Rayleigh Avenue
Westcliff On Sea
Essex, UK
SS0 7DS

South East Essex LETS
http://pages.unisonfree.net/gburnett/