Does anybody run their homestead by permaculture design as described by Bill Mollison what is the main difference between permaculture and homesteading? Either way it seems that every thing works together in a cycle. If any body has any ideas on this I would like to hear them.Thanks Roxanne

-- Roxanne (Roxanne143@webtv.net), August 05, 2001

Answers

My understanding is that a homestead can be just about anything, from a small-holding (a more-or-less self-contained small farm or farmlet) like they have in the UK, to a REAL original-style homestead somewhere in country that's still being developed, to a more-or-less standard farm, even with high inputs of fertiliser, chemicals and fuel. Some people even apply it to a "rural residence" out in the forest, without even a garden. Homestead appears to mean what the homesteader means it to mean. I think the big definer is that it's run from a home, by the homesteaders, rather than being some big factory-farm or agri-business.

Permaculture is a descriptor for a way of approaching setting up an agricultural or horticultural (or both) area. Means permanent culture, and David Holmgren and Bill Mollison developed the idea that you set things up so most of it is or becomes low-maintenance permanent plantings. Also designed to be low input - both of money and labour. Now there's no way you can do that if you have a monoculture - sooner or later fire, flood, famine, pestilence or harvest will wipe everything out all at once. A monoculture is almost by definition ephemeral - one season for cereals, ten or twenty or thirty years for a timber plantation, but it's not going to last. You can have areas of monoculture in a permaculture design (say areas of cereals or field peas or beans), but they aren't exclusive, and they rotate. Another feature of permaculture makes use of the fact that in nature you have much greater diversity and productivity along the edges between different ecological regions. For instance, you can have a grassy plain - you'll have its appropriate plants and animals. You have a forest - ditto. But at the boundary between them you'll have plants and animals of both, plus ones that are specific to the boundary, and also just plain generalists. You'll have a range of varying micro-habitats and micro-climates. Permaculture aims to emulate that diversity and productivity.

This diversity also assists in reducing work-load - you don't have any huge all-at-once harvest time. Even with cereal crops, you'll have oats and wheat and rye and barley (as examples) all ripening at different times. Properly planned and designed and implemented, it can even make it possible to become more-or-less self-reliant with less intensive tools - you could actually harvest with a scythe, tie in sheaves, stook them to dry, then gather and thresh; and get enough to feed a family and sell off-farm as well - very eighteenth century.

Same thing with orchards - several different varieties of several different types of fruit. Variety of berry fruit. Variety of melons. Ideally (subject to pests) spread them around a bit, so that they add to the diversity in several places as well. If you get pests or diseases they shouln't get all your fruit; and if you don't you'll have plenty to can or dry or make wine or cider or perry or whatever.

Also obviously means choosing plants appropriate to the situation. I gather you're seeing there that there can be no permancy with overuse of underground water reserves. We're seeing extensive soil salinity problems here. Extensive irrigation isn't consistent with permacultural principles. If you need it, then you're choosing the wrong plants (and probably into monoculture too). Maybe you need to drop back to olives and figs and succulents, or even straight-out desert plants. Permaculture has no objection to intensive culture where it's appropriate - say a greenhouse, a shadehouse, an intensively watered and cultivated area in a sheltered gully.

Design for use too - the things you use all the time should be in a kitchen garden right outside the kitchen door. Other vegetables can be further away. Put some thought into being able to watch for pests attacking your plants, and chasing them away. Basically a lot of thought to reduce labour and optimise (not necessarily maximise) production.

So - a homestead could be established on permaculture lines, but it ain't necessarily so. This from memory - I'm interested but not expert. Go to www.google.com (or in this case, possibly www.webwombat.com.au as well) and search on permaculture for more info.

-- Don Armstrong (from Australia) (darmst@yahoo.com.au), August 06, 2001.

One of the important ideas of permaculture not mentioned in the tome above is the idea that the earth takes care of itself. If you leave a piece of land alone it will heal and maintain itself in a healthy fashion. If you can see that this is so then it makes sense to leave as much of your land,(or in particular the land surrounding any growing space) as natural as possible to keep a healthy balance. Garden intensively on a small portion of your property and room for nature to work her magic. I'm really surprised that you have not received more answers as I have always felt that permaculture and homesteading go naturally together.(o.k., always is a bit strong as I only learned of permaculture in a sustainable agriculture course 5 years ago. And I didn't realize that there was a title for how we chose to live until two years ago when we first got Countryside...) The first thing I learned about permaculture was to avoid type one errors. A type one error would be one that you kick yourself for every day after...like putting the goat's shed in the middle of their large pen so that it is a pain to access it for feeding and cleaning. Or like putting the veggie garden so far away from the house that it is out of your way to go and pick your dinner every day. If you put the veggies between the car and the house you can pick as you walk in...I wish I had done that one! I left the level part of our back yard for the children to play on and my garden receives an excess of neglect (see:six pound zucchinis that take over the world...)that I could avoid if it were on my way to walk through the garden. I see permaculture as sound ecological reasoning and rely on it as such. I hope you choose those aspects that fit your style of homesteading and have a great time...

-- gilly (WAYOUTFARM@skybest.com), August 09, 2001.