permaculture

["askpv" <askpv@ozemail.com.au>]

It may be best to discuss Design Principles in context of overall permaculture design philosophy:

The list i submitted was part of a big treatise on the subject : Natural system and design.

Beneath the principles in my ideas structure, flows strategies. (and above principles are the over-riding ethics of care and respect)
Within permaculture strategies are methods/features/opportunites such as local resources (good and bad).

Dan Earle and I spent much time sorting out what were principles and what we strategies. The Design Handbook seems to muddle the two.
Maybe you are right, maybe we need to more strongly emphasis appropriate technology as a principle. (it was listed but maybe it needs defining to show that it
promotes local resources and techniques.

Permaculture is not about absorbing someone elses writing, it is about triggering observation.
For me, there was no sense in reinventing the wheel, i read, i collated, (which is part of my personal working where it counts principle) i shared, (which is part of my share of surplus ethic)
and then i tried lot of things such as sheet mulching, composting, water harvesting, LETS, seed saving,
erosion control, weed management, intergrated pest control, native species regeneration by succession (all these are strategies) 
and most importantly I observed what works for me.

I am pleased to know i will never have all the answers.  this is one field that continues to provide me with intellectual awe.

as for setting principles "in stone" we would not be able to converse on the internet if early man  hadn't bothered to develop some standards - some common tools eg. basic language, if someone following hadn't bothered to concieve writing, if no-one bothered to form schools, to teach us some basic language tools and millions of us hadn't bothered to learn how to plug the things together and link up on the net.

Permaculture is growing up (it is 21!),
it needs a language, a base from which to grow.  it needs strength in its foundations and there has to be an improvement, a future beyond
the designer manual.
I'm not afraid to re-order and update the stones or dare suggest we make some extra ones.  :>

April

-----Original Message-----
From: Judith Hanna [mailto:jehanna@gn.apc.org]
Sent: Friday, 25 August 2000 9:13
To: permaculture
Subject: RE: all theory thread DESIGN PRINCIPLES used in our course
notes.


"askpv" <askpv@ozemail.com.au> forwarded a useful summary of permaculture
design principles. But it lacks one of the fundamentals -- focus on local
resources.

This needs to be clear in the discussion of 'relative location', and of
'minimise energy inputs' (where it is lightly hinted at), and of 'context'.

It is also an important consideration for 'diversity' -- which, as Toby
flagged up a while back, is a more complicated aim than may appear on the
surface.

I've found myself shocked at times by people on this list blithely
discussing introducing plants from here, there and yonder -- some of them
already labelled as invasive weeds -- without discussing appropriateness to
context, effect on existing local ecology, or exploring potential local
plants with the relevant characteristics. Someone even dissed those who
raised such 'context' concerns as 'eco-fascists'.

It seems to me the essence of permaculture as design is *intelligent
application* of the broad principles -- with understanding of the
complexities and interactions underlying the soundbite mnemnonics. Any
principle can be misapplied by following it blindly and to extremes.
Nonetheless, having a handy
checklist of principles to test what you're doing against is better than
operating blind. And the permaculture principles -- albeit not yet set in
'tablets of stone' authorised canon -- are one of the best aids so far to
getting things right.

And people writing their own summaries, the mnemonics that work best for
them, is a way of gaining greater understanding than comes from simply
absorbing what someone else has written.

Judith
Judith Hanna
jehanna@gn.apc.org
15 Jansons Rd, Tottenham, London N15 4JU


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