Permaculture Out West

Permaculture is a design science, a design toolkit for human habitation. It seeks to provide a sustainable and secure place for living things on this earth.

Three ethics guide and inform the development of a design.

Care of the Earth - Recognising that Earth is the source of all life, that Earth is our one and only home, and that we are a part of Earth, not apart from it.

Care of the People - Supporting and helping each other to change to ways of living that do not harm ourselves or the planet, and to develop healthy societies.

Fairshare - Ensuring that Earth’s limited resources are used in ways that are equitable and wise.

Permaculture does this by designing human habitats in a holistic way. It draws heavily on the practical application of ecological theory to analyse the characteristics and relationships between design elements.

It is a way of looking at a whole system or problem, observing how the parts relate, and finally, seeing connections between the key parts.

This thinking applies to the design of a farm, to the re-design of a suburban home, to landscaping of a new garden, to building a community. It’s all about re-weaving the web of complex interconnections, which help build a system that is resilient. Permaculture is about building a sustainable future, and having a lighter footprint on the earth.

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