What’s the secret? And the fact is that nature is wise, and a person does not need to actively intervene in its processes. After all, we do not teach bees to make honey, but the farmer constantly wants to improve something in the process of plant growth, and this is just not necessary to do.
Many people are absolutely convinced that the richest crops are harvested in the south, twice a year you need to dig up the ground, and at the same time do not forget to water the plants with chemical additives so that they grow and pests do not eat them. In fact, in Siberia, every year they harvest a wonderful harvest of southern fruits – persimmons and apricots, oranges grow well in the Alps, and our country summer residents buy new land plots with money saved on chemicals.
At the same time, in order to get a gorgeous harvest, it is not at all necessary to tirelessly water the plants and pull out every weed that they see. For example, Australia has a rather arid climate, but watermelons and mangoes grow well there.
Before grabbing a hoe, shovel or watering can again, you should think about whether all these usual manipulations bring at least some result.
Permaculture is a system, following which does not mean possessing any specific knowledge or abilities. It also does not require significant investments or huge efforts from a person. At the same time, it allows you to grow a decent harvest, even if only one hundred square meters of land are available. The only requirement is to forget all your past knowledge and experience in agriculture.
Recently, on the Internet, you can see a new term related to the topic of agriculture – permaculture. In fact, the word “permaculture” has been known for a long time, since 1978, and it means permanent (or permanent) agriculture. The term was first used by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren from Australia.
They were followed by the Austrian Sepp Holzer and the Japanese Masanobu Fukuoka, who also followed the principles of permaculture and are currently considered among the first experts in this field.
Farmer Fukuoka has written a book on permaculture called The One Straw Revolution. In it, he revealed the very essence of permaculture – observing nature and interacting with it.
The concept of “permaculture” also contains a special philosophy, which says that we should not fight with nature, but cooperate with it, observe it and use the experience gained in this way.
This trend in agriculture has developed due to the growing distrust of the methods that are now used, i.e. the use of chemicals, pesticides, periodic plowing of the land and much more.
According to the followers of permaculture, man is responsible for the world around him and for his actions in relation to nature. Permaculture has its own main principles:
• A person should take care of the earth,
• A person should take care of a person,
• Certain restrictions must be adhered to.
Permaculture is a worthy alternative to traditional agriculture, allowing for a large and varied harvest. However, it does not prohibit the use of conventional methods of growing plants or new scientific discoveries in the field of agriculture and agriculture.
The undoubted advantage of using permaculture methods is the absence of heavy physical labor and chemical fertilizers to create a closed sustainable ecosystem.
This system is completely built on the principle of organic farming, in which there is no place for growth regulators, feed additives, as well as genetically modified plants.
Here are the basic laws of permaculture:
• All parts of the ecosystem must interact with each other. For example, plants that need nitrogen to function must grow next to plants that store nitrogen.
• All links of the system, be it a plant or an animal, must be multifunctional. Several links can be involved in performing a certain function at once.
• Energy must be used rationally. Renewable energies are encouraged.
• Striving for a variety of varieties and types of crops.
• Effective application should be found for every piece of land.
The role of humans in permaculture
Unfortunately, it has now become clear that humanity has approached the line beyond which there is simply nothing. The atmosphere and water are so polluted, and the earth is so depleted, that it definitely leads to the death of the planet.
At the same time, if you switch to organic farming, you can significantly save resources. If you do not use chemical fertilizers and poisons, then the amount of energy expended will be significantly reduced.
Traditional agriculture uses more energy than it produces. Manual labor in a peasant farm, on the contrary, helps to get more with less resources.
It is very difficult to make a choice in favor of one or another type of farming, because one leads to a waste of natural resources, while the other involves hard physical labor. For this, permaculture is needed, designed to save a person from both the first and the second.
A person in permaculture is assigned the role of a brain center. The main task of a person is to correctly start and organize the entire further process. Man should not hinder nature from fulfilling its function, but only help her. Because nature is wise and does not need to be improved.
For example, let’s take a forest in which there has not yet been a person. Everything is harmonious in it: trees grow in tiers, from high to the lowest, then shrubs, grass and moss follow. If we calculate the costs of processing forest material and a field with sown wheat, it turns out that the forest is much more difficult to process than the field. Indeed, in the field, all plants are of the same height, about 50 cm.
And if we imagine that all the plants in the forest are edible, then, undoubtedly, the harvest from it would be much greater than the harvest from the field.
At the same time, in order for all these plants to grow in the forest, there is no need to spend any additional resources, except for natural ones, in the form of rain, sun, etc.
As for the wheat field, everything is more complicated. The fields must be processed: plow, sow, fertilize, water, destroy pests. And this leads to the expenditure of energy, transport and human resources.
Permaculture is based on the principle of creating a natural system, like a forest that supports itself. The only thing that needs to be replaced is the inedible plants for the edible ones.
The essence of permaculture is to learn to do without additional resources and not to devastate our planet any more. After all, the harmony of the world directly depends on the health of all living beings on earth.