Permaculture

Permaculture is a systems approach to designing land and farming. This is also a way of living, looking at your whole environment and seeing how one change affects all the life forms around it. The first thing you learn are the ethics, care of the land, care of the people, and creating a fair share for all with surplus. These ethics made me see how essential I am to creating a better world. Some environmentalists see humans as a scar on the planet, sucking away resource. They believe that humans must leave land alone in order for it to heal and become "natural" again. I disagree with this. I see people as our best biological resource because we can so greatly negatively affect our environment we can also greatly heal our environment with just a few ideology changes and management practices.

Permaculture is the art of beneficial relationships I see this as helpful in putting two plants that work well together in a garden bed as well as putting groups of humans together to care for those plants and healthy communication systems to promote a happy environment for all life forms in that area. Permaculture is a way of thinking as much as a farming technique. It encourages you to see the world as animate and working together dynamically for the greater good.

This mind set is very much in contrast to our current western mechanistic society. My friends and family were mostly raised with this mechanistic thinking, I watch them as they struggle to know where they belong, travel far and wide looking for home and moving to places just because they got a job there. This kind of displacement makes people sad and depressed, the last thing on their mind is what the native bushes are in the area they live, they are consumed with popular media and longing for a true sense of belonging. The more I use animate thinking the more happy and alive I feel, I ally myself with all living creatures and know my place in the world. I want to teach the art of animate thinking to others starting with my friends and family, re-educating them to the ways of the land that our ancestors taught us.

The first thing you learn in permaculture is the art of observation. The more you observe an environment the better you can get to know it. Before you think about implementing any new design you must sit with the land and see what it needs and what it already has. What are its surplus's? What is it lacking? How has the land been compensating for that lack? What is the best way to make a simple change for the greatest effect? By observing you learn the answers to all these questions. In social permaculture I noticed a trend, being raised female in this society I find because of sexism I have trouble stating what I think. My way of trying to remedy that situation is by charging in and saying exactly what I want to un-censored, this technique works well in making me believe in myself more and to be heard but does not always work in thinking about changing a system. I found taking an observational approach teaches me about the situation before I go into it. Then, using my thinking, I choose weather I need to charge in or give space for others to be heard too.

I have used the technique of observation in doing my weekly nature awareness exercises at my secret spot. By doing this I can see so much more of what is happening in my neighborhood, I know what bird habitat we already have as well as how the trees are handling the rapid spread of English ivy. As I watch the birds and wild things I feel more connected to place and I know better ways of working with the nature around me. We have gophers in our yard, instead of exterminating them we plant more squash and cabbage then we will need to share the abundance with the creatures that call our back yard home.


Through using my animate thinking, observation and beneficial relationships skills I am learning how to be a permaculturist. The key thing I learned at The Earth Activist Training was permaculture design. At the end of the course I got my 72-hour beginner certification, which allows me to work as an apprentice to a permaculturist and work on most permaculture farms. It also gives me the chance to create a permaculture design business in the future. I look forward to applying these techniques as I collectively run a small farm this summer.