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Permaculture Basics: For Master Gardeners

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OSU Master Gardener Training 2018

PERMACULTURE BASICS
FOR MASTER
GARDENERS
Michelle Sager
OSU Extension Service, Wasco County
Learning Objectives

1. Understanding of foundations of Permaculture

2. Examples of Permaculture design techniques for backyard gardens

a. Including some controversial ideas in Permaculture

3. Familiarity with at least one Permaculture design principle

4. Practice at designing / applying principles

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What is Permaculture?

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What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is most often
used for creating efficient
and productive landscapes
that sustain themselves
into the future by
regenerating biodiversity
and lost fertility.

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Permaculture Ethics
Care for the Earth

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Philosophy + Design

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What is an Ecosystem?

A system, or a group of
interconnected elements,
formed by the interaction of a
community of organisms with
their environment

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Philosophy + Design

Applied Ecology Edible Restoration

Permaculture

Regenerative Design Cultivated Ecosystems


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“Permaculture Design is not the rain, the roof, or
the garden. Permaculture Design is the connections
between these things. Permaculture brings
cohesion where there was once isolation.”
-Bill Mollison

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Inputs and Outputs Activity

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“You don’t have a snail problem…
you have a duck deficiency!”
- Bill Mollison

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The problem is the solution!

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Design Principles
• Make connections.

• Catch and store energy and


materials.

• Stack functions.

• Make the least change for the


greatest effect.

• Use small-scale, intensive systems.


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Design Examples

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Design Aims:
• Grow as much food as possible
• Provide food and habitat for beneficial critter friends
• Waste is put back into the system
• Build soil and store water
• Go with the flow (the problem is the solution!)

• Soil, sun, water, plants, wildlife…

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Food Forests
• Vertical stacking of trees
and plants

• Creates microclimates

• High biodiversity

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Hedgerows / Living Fences
• Defines boundaries / edges
• Water stored in biomass
• Edible possibilities (Fedge!)
• Noise reduction
• Windbreak
• Soil Stabilization
• Wildlife Corridor
• Attract beneficial insects

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Guilds
Group of plants chosen to help each other:
• attract beneficial insects
• deter wildlife
• fertilize
• mulch
• produce nectar to attract pollinators
• repel pests
• suppress grass

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Dynamic Accumulators
Fact or Fiction?
What we do know:
• Phytoaccumulation does happen

What we don’t know:


• If the plant will make those minerals
available to the soil and if they do,
how long will it take?

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Cherry

Garlic
Chives
Comfrey

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Three Sisters
North American Traditional

• Corn
• Beans
• Squash

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Hugelkultur

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Fact or fiction?

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Bioswales
• Farm-scale

• Sunken

• Flat bottom – on contour

• Designed to:
capture and slow water

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Urban Bioswales
• Sunken

• Flat bottom – on contour

• Designed to:
• capture and slow water
• filter urban pollutants

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Impervious
Surfaces
• Do not allow rainwater to
infiltrate or soak into soil

• Concrete, roofs, driveways,


sidewalks, roads, etc.

• Severe compaction from


heavy equipment or foot
traffic

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Rain Gardens
• Sunken, flat-bottomed garden
bed

• Collects and treats stormwater


runoff from rooftops, driveways,
sidewalks, parking lots, and
streets

• mimic natural forest, meadow, or


prairie conditions

• Filters out urban pollutants


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African Keyhole Design

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Herb Spiral
• Many microclimates

• Hot on south side, cool on north side

• Drier at the top, moist at the bottom

• Vertical design

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Observation

The HEART of Permaculture design!

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Observation
• What kind of soil do I have? Is it all the same?
• Where in my yard gets the most sun? The least?
• Where does water flow in my yard? Where does it puddle?
• Which direction does the wind come from?
• Which plant species are growing naturally here?
• Which wildlife friends visit my yard?

…through the day and through the seasons


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Site Analysis + Design Aims

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Design Aims:
• Grow as much food as possible

• Provide food and habitat for


beneficial critter friends

• Waste is put back into the system

• Go with the flow (the problem is


the solution)

• Soil, sun, water, plants, wildlife…


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