Permie principles at the weekend getaway

Last weekend we hosted our second weekend getaway up here at the Trust.  There were heaps of opportunities to share our knowledge of permaculture principles, so here are my top three picks for the weekend:

1                    Every Element Has Many Functions – in helping facilitate the groups in their weekend getaway activities, I discussed the value of green manure crops in the commercial garden.  We were talking about vetch, cow pea and the broad beans, all of which serve as nitrogen fixers, can be harvested to feed the chickens or the pigs.  Broad beans can either be grown as a green manure crop (knock it back at 10% of its flowering stage), or as a food crop. Each crop has a multi-functional value that can be discussed in reference to the abovementioned principle.

2                    Catch & Store Energy – this Holmgren principle was a good one to use when talking about the design principles of the Zen House.  Its passive solar design lends itself as an excellent example of this principle.  Also explaining how we harvest our rain water and solar energy from the building amplifies what value can be gained from some very clever design.

3                    Use Small & Slow Solutions – is an excellent principle to utilise when showing off our worm farms.  David Holmgren says of this principle, “Systems should be designed to perform functions at the smallest scale that is practical and energy-efficient for that function”.  The worms are such a good example of a small scale system that is highly practical and energy efficient.  We feed them once a week, provide them with shelter and moisture and they produce high value resource in the form of castings and worm juice, whilst multiplying in numbers.