eat your lawn!

practical permaculture for the home gardener

ben kessler

permaculture

year 0

year 1

year 3

photos by jonathan bates

urban forest garden, holyoak, marural forest garden, bullock bros. farm

Observation-based design of our local environments to meet our basic human needs (nourishing food, potable water, comfortable shelter, and supportive community) in ways that ensure that biodiversity, natural resources, beauty, and communal and personal health, are not only sustained but actively regenerated. By mimicking and participating in the natural processes of the landscape, we can design for abundance, beauty, community, connection, health, productivity, resilience, flexibility, and joy for ourselves and for our grandchildren as well. Beyond sustainability, permaculture works in the spirit of thriving.

meadows

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guiding design principles

1. Everything is connected to everything else

2. Every Function is supported by many Elements

3. Every Element should serve many Functions

4. Independence through Interdependence

Element: Any component part of a system (e.g. a watermelon, a compost bin, an orchard, a roof, a vice-president, a tool-shed, etc.)Function: What the system is designed to do

(e.g. look pretty, catch & store rainwater, provide handicap accessibility, produce cabbages, etc.)

panarchy : all systems affect all others

yields & needs

Need: What an Element requires to perform its Functions

Yield: What an Element produces as a result of its Functions

1. Choose a familiar plant, creature, or architectural component(e.g. a tomato, a woodchuck, a roof, etc.)

2. List everything that element produces (its Yields)

3. List everything that element requires (its Needs)

4. Come up with another set of elements that could use those Yields, and provide for those Needs

5. Connect the dots

guilds & polycultures

A Guild or Polyculture is made up of a close association of species clustered around a central element (usually a plant or an animal). This assembly acts in relation to the element to assist its health, boost yields, or buffer adverse environmental effects.

combine these elements into a functional system

Vegetable Garden (fig. 1)LawnBored Teenagers (fig. 2)PatioEnglish Ivy (fig. 3)GrandmothersCardboard BoxesGrape Vine (fig. 4)Public LibraryPersimmon Trees (fig. 5)SidewalkBanana Peels100 Pickle Barrels (fig. 6)ComfreySummer ThunderstormHemlock TreeFire CircleAnts (fig. 7)RhubarbCountry Music Festival (fig. 8)

fig. 1

fig. 2

fig. 3

fig. 4

fig. 5

fig. 6

fig. 7

fig. 8

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TreesAsian PersimmonJujubeAsian PearChe(Heirloom) AppleMulberryPawpaw

VinesHardy KiwiMaypopMuscadine Grape

fruit for virgina

Bushes(Southern Highbush) BlueberryHoneyberryGojiCurrantGooseberry

ShrubsFigElderberryPomegranateGoumiJuneberryBush Cherry

goji

pawpaw

hardy kiwi

elderberry

mulberry

pomegranate

asian persimmon

honeyberry

maypop

aronia

che

companion plants

Beneficial Insect AttractorsBee BalmQueen Ann's LaceAnise HyssopCilantroUmbels & Composites

Mineral & Nutrient AccumulatorsComfreyChicoryDandelionLegumes

Living MulchesNasturtiumVetchCloverYarrowChamomile

don't plant a tree, plant a garden

albemarle county native plant databasealbemarle.org/NativePlants/list.asp

USDA native plant databaseplants.usda.gov

virginia native plant societyvnps.orgnative plant sale 4/28 at Ivy Creek

wintergreen foundationwintergreenfoundation.org

va native plant resources

Coreopsis tripteris

Oligoneuron rigidum

critter houses

beauty, resilience, flexibility, abundance, community, health, vibrancy, wonder, joy, thriving

envisioning the perfect garden

1. Draw a rough sketch of your house and surrounding land

2. Take a minute to look at this place in your mind's eye. What do you love about living here?

2. What paths (human and otherwise) cross the land?

3. What sort of trees would you like to see every day, and where would you put them?

4. What alterations would you make to your dwelling space? Any new construction projects?

5. Fill in all remaining space with as much food production space as you would like, exciting shrubs, Zen sand gardens, tire swings, whatever- go nuts.

P.A. Yeoman's Scale of Permanence(time to change/time to change back)

1. Climate (Centuries/Millions of Years)2. Land Shape (Decades/Millennia)3. Water Flow & Storage (Years/Millennia)4. Roads (Months/Centuries)5. Trees (Decades/Centuries)6. Buildings (Months/Decades)7. Subdivision of Land (Days/Generations)8. Soil (Minutes/Years)

steal these books

Gaia's Garden Toby HemenwayAttracting Native Pollinators Xerces SocietyBotany in a Day Thomas ElpelEdible Forest Gardens Dave Jacke &Eric TonesmeierOne Straw Revolution Masanobu Fukuoka

eat your lawn, feed your soul

cvillefoodscapes.com

Sarah Frazer, Ben Kessler, Cake Namdol & Lauren Samay