June 16, 2006
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Jody Waters, left, and Sean Gordon stand in their garden. Melissa Schweisguth | For the Tidings |
Permaculture talk and tour planned
By Melissa Schweisguth
Tidings Correspondent
In February, Jody Waters’ backyard was covered with grass. Just four months later, the area has been transformed into a mandala-shaped food garden with fruit trees, vines and bushes embracing it.
Waters, an assistant professor at Southern Oregon University, and Sean Gordon, friend and garden designer, did this without chemicals or expensive materials by using permaculture techniques.
Permaculture is short for “permanent agriculture” or “permanent culture.” Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the Australians who developed the concept, believed humans would realize great benefits with less effort by recreating the self-sustaining ecological and social systems in forests, meadows and other natural areas.
Mollison and Holmgren defined three ethics at the heart of permaculture: Care for the earth, care for the people and sharing surplus. In practice, permaculture involves careful observation, thoughtful location, turning waste into resources, using locally available natural materials and building biodiversity.
Waters and Gordon applied these principles by checking out her property’s slope and sun access, locating plants according to these factors, composting garden waste and using discarded pallets to build a compost bin.
Ways of living
Permaculture extends to building — think straw bale homes and rainwater catchment — and ways of living as well as agriculture. Nigel Kirby, a gardener and designer who works on Willow Wind, the Peace House garden and his own home, said, “I try to use its principles as much as possible, not just in the garden but in other areas of my life. If this is about living in alignment with nature and I’m a part of nature, then why would I want to live any other way?”
According to pond designer-builder Tom Ward, the Rogue Valley has the nation’s oldest permaculture club, the Siskiyou Permaculture Resources Group, or SPRG. Ward, who studied with permaculture expert Mollison, lives at Wolf Gulch Farm in the Applegate. He has helped build the movement regionally and nationally with his writing and teaching.
Permaculture guides his work in forest stewardship, projects at the Wilderness Charter School and Willow Wind, and independent consultation.
Andy Fisher, a student of Ward’s, has oriented his landscape design practice toward permaculture, and also teaches and works with local schools. He sees gardening as a “spiritual practice” and his projects have included medicinal, culinary and butterfly gardens.
“A self-supporting circle”
Lisa and Jay Almarode own a 5-acre farm just outside Ashland. They have incorporated permaculture elements such as a strawbale house, rain water catchment, chickens, goats, sheep and fruit trees. By combining these carefully, the Almarodes have turned potential problems into resources.
Lisa Almarode says, “The essence of permaculture first struck me when I was getting chickens, and putting in fruit trees. I was worried about having too much fruit at once. But the chickens eat the excess, and their manure fertilizes the trees, in a self-supporting circle. The way nature designed it.”
Zack Williams got hooked on permaculture at the Wilderness Charter School, and has gone on to a two-year program at the Regenerative Design Institute in California. Its influence is clear in his landscaping work and at his parents’ Ashland home, which now features an orchard with 30 trees Williams grafted this spring.
His plans for the future include expanding the orchard and installing a pond, establishing a local educational institute and forming a regional business cooperative. As he explains it, Williams is driven by “love of the natural world, and deep desire to help humanity lift itself above violence, destruction and fear.”
He believes using permaculture in planning “is a smart move, in light of energy decline and climate change.”
“Finding things for free”
Permaculture may sound esoteric or complicated, but advocates say it’s essentially simple. Nigel Kirby says, “My gardens don’t cost much money. I am good at using what I have and finding things for free, often what others throw out. I bring home bags of leaves left by the side of the road and I’m always finding free bales of straw or hay.”
He adds, “My garden is a place where I can play and experiment at the same time.”
Rogue Valley residents will have an opportunity to learn more about permaculture through a talk and tour coordinated by the North Mountain Park Nature Center. On June 22 at 7 p.m., Toby Hemenway, noted writer, teacher and designer from Portland, will speak about home-scale permaculture design at the Community Center on Winburn Way.
On June 24 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., North Mountain Park’s annual “Naturescaping” garden tour will focus on five home-scale permaculture gardens, including Nigel Kirby’s. Tickets are $5 for the talk, $10 for the tour or $12 for both. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 488-6606.