At the weekend

At the weekend

I was doing something really interesting at the weekend. I was always interested in organic gardening and for that reason I recently joint the gardening group of "Sustainable Devizes". There were lots of talks about Permaculture and I was intrigued. I'm a keen but not very successful gardener and I'm always looking for ways to improve. So I signed up when an introduction day for Permaculture was announced. 

I had a good weekend. Apart from sitting in a lovely garden I learned a lot. I have come to realise that Permaculture is not only about gardening but that there are a lot of principles behind the scheme. It is amazing and very important because it is about our future as individuals, as people and as the whole world. There are 12 principles in Permaculture, a nice round number like in the 12 months or a dozen.

It is important how we see the world and how we react and interact. The 12 principles are:

• Observe and interact
• Catch and store energy
• Obtain a yield
• Produce NO waste
• Design from pattern to detail
• Use and value renewables, resources and services
• Use small and slow solutions
• Integrate rather than segregate
• Use edges and value the marginal
• Apple self regulation and accept feedback
• Creatively use and respond to change

I came to realise that you can apply these principles not only to gardening but to your life as well, or even t almost everything. This was only an introduction and my whole view has changed already. Sure that I want to know more about it and it definitely made me think.

I took away some gardening tips as well. The soil doesn't feed the plant, it is the other way round: The plant feeds the soil and I, as a gardener should feed the soil as well because there are all sorts of tiny things living in it, which are really important.

I attach a little video I found on the Internet which explains a bit more about the principles of Permaculture.