permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

Patterning

patterns in nature:  emulated/enhanced/stabilized/reproduced in
permaculture systems

Here's something Milo wrote about patterns and permaculture:
<>
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 13:49:25 EST
From: Milogic <Milogic@aol.com>
To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu
Cc: bd-l@biodynamics.com
Subject: Pattern and difference

To echo Scott  on the permaculture list and Bea on the biodynamics list (to
a
degree): core elements, for me, within the permaculture vision and
Mollison's crazy
wisdom* are what Bateson called 'the patterns which connect" and
differences that
make a difference. (*substitute Steiner and Biodynamics freely)

Polyculturing is patterning in ways that create differences which make
differences--and doing so within manageable microcosms.

Permaculture is dynamics in systems. People outside permaculture like
Theodor
Schwenk and Hans Jenny or Ralph Abraham are working within patterning ideas
and
finding pragmatic links between cosmos and soil particles.

Some of the precursors in people like Rudolph Steiner, Edmund Bordeaux
Szekeley, Wilhelm Reich et al, worked earlier in time and under conditions
no longer
available. In a remarkable way, in terms of human experience on this
planet, we are
totally connected and totally alone together.

New ways of linking, such as this, may be creating the webs of relationship,
community, through which we can abandon reason as we have been taught and
find
actualities in tune with now. I suspect permaculture is one of those
linking ways.


As we try to cope with conditions presenting themselves from soil
imbalances in my
back yard to firestorms in South East Asia, we are dealing with dynamic
systems
overburdened with positive feedback, thereby increasing entropic tendencies
at
exponential rates. Reason, as we have been given to understand it, is
proving
irrational and failing us.


Permaculture offers pattterns, which if explored with open mind, may allow
us to
grok differences needed which, in place, will make key differences in
species
survival for humankind. Permaculture, by encouraging people to take action
in place,
with awareness of universal sentience, provides essential anchors for
turbulent
times.

Crazy wisdom is in short supply. Treasure every bit that falls upon you.

For those inclined to Eastern spiritual practices and thought, permaculture
may be
understood as a grounding of bliss to find grace, one way of ending
suffering
through finding out who we are. For those who follow such paths, it is
clear, at
least to me, that east and west are converging into sets of understandings
more like
parallel and converging paths.

The works which flowed through a Western mind who integrated Eastern
patterns, Lama
Anagarika Govinda, are particularly cogent in adapting and adopting these
sets. And
also, an Eastern Mind who groks Western mind, Tarthang Tulku, continues to
expand
his Time, Space and Knowledge series. A Western scientist who groks well is
Ralph
Abraham (see his Chaos, Gaia, Eros).

Perhaps the better path is simply to meld your being with the soil on which
you walk
(if any is available to you).

Milo Clark
Berkeley CA USA
<>
and from Lee Flier:
-
To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu
     Subject: Re: edge zones
     From: Lee Flier <lflier@mindspring.com>
     Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997

>Would anyone care to expound on the design and usage of
>edge zones  and patterning in the context of permaculture
>systems?

OK, I'll bite.

Yes, the patterning in design and the use of edge zones is very important in
maximizing use of resources on any site.  It's a really underrated and
fascinating
area of study.

"Edge zones" occur naturally at the transition point between any two media.
This
could be between air and water, water and soil, forest and field, valley
and slope,
etc.  The interesting thing is that the edges of anything are always very
dynamic
and productive compared to the interiors.  For example most farmers know
that the
yields at the edges of grain or cornfields are almost double what they are
in the
interiors!  Also if you look at a pond, there is more potential diversity
of species
at the edges of ponds than in the middle.

So, in designing sites we want to maximize the amount of "edge".  In the
case of the
grain fields for example, you can plant trees, (together with herbs, fruit
bearing
shrubs, vining plants, tubers and anything else that will do well under
trees), and
then run 6 foot wide swaths of grain in clearings between the  trees.  This
gives
you a "perpetual edge" and you will get nearly the same yield you would
have had if
you'd planted all grain, PLUS the yield from the trees and other plants.

Likewise with a pond, if you make "fingers" all around instead of a simple
round or
oval shape, you will get much more edge which will yield a lot more in the
same
area.

Nature itself has a tendency to arrange things into certain patterns that
appear
random to us if we aren't conscious of them, but which are often optimized
to create
edge (as with the "finger" shape which is also in an oak leaf, the
"branching"
shapes of rivers, lungs, and tree branches, etc.)  The shape of a mushroom
is also
prevalant; trees, bones, the flowforms of running water, and many other
things take
on this shape.  The patterns, the reasons why the patterns occur, and the
connections between them are endless but the basic ones are fairly simple,
and a lot
of aboriginal "abstract art" is really a map of these natural patterns, a
way to
pass knowledge of them down to the children.  Most westerners see this
artwork and
see it as purely aesthetic, not having a clue that they're looking at the
equivalent
of a school textbook - only a lot easier to memorize!

The idea in learning these natural patterns is that by imitating them in
human
designs (rather than patterning everything after the needs of
machinery, such as in straight lines and squares), we will get more out of
the
system with less work and less use of resources because these are the
patterns
things "want" to fall into without our help.  We in fact are wasting
resources every
time we try to design a system that runs counter to these patterns.

Well that's the basic idea... I'm sure others will have something to say
too!

= Lee =

==================================
Lee A. Flier
lflier@mindspring.com
Atlanta and Ellijay, Georgia, U.S.A.

<><>

Graham Bell says: 'All patterns of occupation or behaviour have edges
and they offer a particularly rich envronment. This is because the edge of
anything is especially rich in species, supporting plants, animals and
activities from both its neighbouring areas, and also the species and
activities which only take place in that special zone.'

-- 
Lawrence F. London
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
http://www.avantgeared.com
https://plus.google.com/+Avantgeared
Skype: lawrence.f.london