Create permaculture – garden and balcony

Perma comes from permanent, and permanent comes from permanere, Latin for to continue. This is exactly what permaculture should last forever, it aims to cultivate the garden and balcony in natural cycles, biologically and sustainably and permanently functioning.

Permaculture takes as its model the longest-lasting system that we humans know: the natural ecosystem, which has continued in relation to the entire earth since the Big Bang, i.e. for around 13.82 billion years (or longer, but we don’t know that yet I agree).

The newly marketed idea of ​​organic horticulture

The “father of permaculture” is the Australian biologist Bill Mollison, born in 1928, who originally focused on the development of agriculturally productive ecosystems in the USA. With his ideas, Bill Mollison has rediscovered the cycles of organic farming, which has long been known in Europe, for himself, his continent and the USA.

Bill Mollison founded the Permaculture Institute (www.permaculture.org) in Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA) in 1978, a state-recognized, non-profit educational organization that offers fee-based courses on permaculture. In addition, Bill Mollison has published the “Bible of Permaculture”, which is also available in German for 128, – €. He and his students have created the permaculture design that he has devised to create a comprehensive philosophy and ethics building for all aspects of management developed from natural areas.

Nowadays, money is also being earned elsewhere with the “Instructions for Permaculture”; permaculture has long since become a welcome business for many providers worldwide. In Germany, a permaculture academy offers part-time training to become a permaculture designer. The basic course costs 1500 € and includes a training information workshop as an introductory event, 3 three-day advanced courses, 2 design tutorials, the correspondence course for self-organization and participation and an academy weekend. The main course costs 1500 € or 2040 € (depending on how quickly you attend all events) and includes 2 x 2 design tutorials, a one-week permaculture design workshop and two academy weekends. Prices for accommodation and meals are charged separately, and in order to receive the “Permaculture Designer” diploma, you need an accreditation that costs another € 100. However, you cannot simply pay a few thousand euros and complete the training; the prerequisite is participation in a “certificate course” of 72 hours, which costs another 1,000 euros. This training is part of the training system that has now been established by permaculture marketers worldwide, but the qualification is not officially recognized in Germany (as of 3.2014).

All terms related to permaculture and permaculture are trademarked by Bill Mollison and his followers, the individual application laws can therefore only be found in the corresponding courses or read in Bill Mollison’s book.

However, this is about the gardens and balconies of our continent / country, so it is certainly not a bad idea for gardeners and balcony gardeners to follow the much older traditions of their own country in organic horticulture. You can find out more about the beginnings of organic horticulture in Germany below:

The idea of ​​permanent culture is ancient

The idea of ​​cultivating a sustainable lifestyle in agriculture and horticulture as a realistic alternative to externally determined consumption is certainly tempting, and that is why there were first efforts in Germany in the 1920s to carry out agriculture according to ecological principles. Even then, the so-called life reform movement was a reaction to increasing industrialization and urbanization and the resulting social problems.

The life reform movement strived for the greatest possible departure from the unnatural urban living conditions, a return to a natural way of life, self-sufficiency through fruit trees and horticulture was brought back to the fore. Agriculture should produce high-quality food, dispensing with industrial aids and cultivating the soil in the sense of a biologically oriented agricultural science.

These ideas were developed in Germany in the 20s and 30s of the last century into an entire farming system, “natural farming”. Scientists (Raoul Heinrich Francé, “Das Edaphon. Investigations on the ecology of soil-dwelling microorganisms” from 1913, more popular science than “Das Leben im Ackerboden” published in 1922) and farmers (Ewald Könemann, “Biologische Bodenkultur und Düngewirtschaft”, 1931-1937, 3 volumes ) submitted basic documents, numerous farmers actively participated in the research, there was a magazine (“Bebauet die Erde”, 1925 ff.) on the organic farming system.

As a result, two main currents of organic agriculture developed, the “biodynamic economy” with anthroposophical principles, which has been continuously developed since then using the latest scientific findings. Demeter works according to these principles. The second mainstream is “organic-biological farming”, which is also constantly being developed through new scientific findings, most of the organic farming associations feel that they belong here.

At that time, the reform movements also wanted more people to settle in the countryside again, an idea that has since been overtaken by the development of society. Today gardeners and balcony gardeners are concerned with realizing the ideas of sustainable cultivation on the smaller areas available, even in the middle of the city.

The principles of organic horticulture

If you want to manage your garden and balcony a little more sustainably and naturally, you need neither a German nor an Australian / American specialized organic school. The principles are easy to understand and quite logical, basically it is simply about “allowing more nature” in the garden and on the balcony:

• In ecological plant production there are no monocultures; in nature, plant communities arise for good reason, within which the different plants exert a variety of effects on one another.
• That is why the design and preservation of diversity is a central concern in organic horticulture. Diversity in several ways:
• When striving for biodiversity, the focus is on uniting as many different species of plants and animals as possible in one cultivation area.
• By introducing different varieties and species, genetic diversity is also achieved, an important prerequisite for maintaining the health of systems.
• The settlement of wild plants and the animal species that follow them brings ecological diversity, with the use of a wide variety of niches.
• Cultural diversity also has its place in organic horticulture, special regional cultivation techniques or supply and disposal systems usually make sense.
• Only with such a wealth of variants in every possible direction can robust ecosystems be created that can adapt well to evolutionary changes.
• The use of chemical “gardening aids”, whether they are called fungicides or herbicides or insecticides or artificial fertilizers, is avoided.
• Other unnatural interventions, the use of growth regulators, antibiotics or genetically modified products are simply omitted.
• The garden soil is cared for naturally, nutrients are mainly supplied through organic means, through green manure or manure or liquid manure.
• The choice of plants is made consciously, robust and proven varieties are preferred.
• When diseases and pests need to be combated, ecological methods (various mechanical methods of pest and weed control) or biological pest control are the first choice.
• If pesticides are needed, various plant preparations (nettle liquid, plant and algae extracts) or oil emulsions are available.

Overall, it is about understanding the existing ecosystems and maintaining them in the long term, instead of burdening them with chemicals in order to achieve short-term success. In the beginning this is not possible without learning and work, but in the end it even pays off: A small system can be optimized with very little effort. This always includes using strategies with which a system works even if we largely leave it to itself. In other words: a well-designed natural garden is very easy to maintain.

A garden in which many man-made pesticides are used, on the other hand, is not easy to care for, even if the manufacturers would like to give the impression. Pesticides are produced with energy expenditure, the resources used will be lacking elsewhere in the foreseeable future, and they not only drive away the harmful organisms, but also the many beneficial insects that would otherwise keep the pests in check. This sets in motion a diabolical cycle: if pests migrate from the outside in the next season, they can multiply unhindered, the beneficial insects in the vicinity have not yet recovered. They can now only be destroyed by using an even greater amount of chemicals, it is better not to eat the vegetables that you have grown yourself, and if this little game takes place for a few years,

The goal in each individual case determines the procedure

Within these general principles of organic horticulture, terms such as “ecofarming” or “permaculture” are only expressions for the use of a special cultivation method in a crop. Expressions for the fact that an attempt is made here to cultivate crops while observing natural growth patterns. Depending on the objective pursued by the management, natural methods are observed, tested and used. All measures are basically interlinked, but individual ones can be in the foreground in a special scenario:

• The main aim can be to achieve the highest possible long-term yields with the least amount of work and energy consumption.
• In other cultural projects, the focus is on enabling self-sufficiency in environments with limited resources, little space or with little expenditure of time.
• Perhaps, above all, natural energy sources such as rainwater and solar energy should be used.
• Or in a project, the main aim is to improve soil fertility and avoid waste.

Here all the principles of organic horticulture are considered and, if possible, also applied, but depending on the environment, certain measures are increasingly used that guarantee particularly good results for the given cultivated area. In the garden and on the balcony you are usually free from a specific optimization goal; you can choose your measures without pressure and combine them as you like and suit the situation at hand.

Examples of applied organic horticulture

Here are some suggestions on how you can make your garden and balcony more natural, without a lot of effort and without having to build a new one:

1. Natural floor care

The garden soil is a “natural unit” that can also be cared for naturally:

• The soil can be loosened by a green manure, no equipment is required.
• Different plants or parts of plants can be used for a soil-improving mulch with different objectives.
• Some plants are specially planted for mulch use, others or their remains are included in an application cycle.
• Bare garden soil is transformed into an organic system with ground cover.
• A compost heap helps to create “new garden soil”.

Even balcony soil does not have to consist of questionable components that are bought in plastic bags, but can really be a soil.

2. Design with a planting plan that provides meaningful cultivation zones

Every user of a permaculture system should divide his garden into zones:

• Plants that are often harvested and / or require intensive care are grown very close to the living area.
• A vegetable garden in the comfort of your own home produces the vegetables that grow without any problems.
• More distant (culture) zones can have an agricultural zone in the garden (potatoes, grain, etc., little care and harvest at once), a meadow with fruit trees and nut trees (also hardly any care and harvest once a year) and all the rest of the way be a zone with hardly any vegetation (your own “wilderness”).

The parallels for the balcony are the herb bed near the door, the lettuce tree, the permanently planted summer / winter change boxes and the hardy plants in the tub that bring tasty harvests.

3. The herb spiral as an example of optimization

The herb spiral is practically a three-dimensional bed that has to be carefully laid out, but then guarantees a high level of biodiversity, ease of care and harvest in the smallest of spaces.

4. Mixed culture

In a mixed culture, the individual plants complement each other as optimally as possible, which saves work and energy for pest control and also increases the yield.

5. A natural pond in the garden

A fish pond with several fish species and pond zones of different depths with different aquatic plants can be designed in such a way that a self-regulating biotope develops.

Of course, these were only the first examples, you can bring many more ideas into the garden and balcony that can flow into sustainable cycles. In the garden there is a place for native wild bushes and wild roses, which provide a habitat for many different birds and insects. The lawn could be replaced by a meadow of flowers made up of many different plants, which are home to an incredible number of small animals, a hand-held lawnmower mows the path around and right through, the smelly petrol lawnmower becomes history. Or you can leave your lawn, but “mow” it by friendly ducks who also take care of every snail problem, or you can create a forest garden on the edge of your property (or in the forest behind, in consultation with the forester), which is currently totally trendy.

Running ducks on the balcony will be difficult, but even in this small natural area much more sustainability can be brought in, that starts with the selection of balcony plants and ends with chickens on the balcony and fresh breakfast eggs.

Conclusion
It is not particularly important whether you create a “permanent culture” in your garden or whether you are gardening “biodynamically” on the balcony is a piece of nature. That can be treated like a piece of nature without having to adopt the specifications of industrial plant production that aims to generate maximum yield while creating unnatural conditions.

The individual terms that appear in the entire field of dealing with sustainable natural land management are therefore not uninteresting. On the contrary, there are a number of interesting trends that are worth looking into: Under the heading Transition Town, sustainable and permanent cultivation culture is being promoted in numerous initiatives in German cities, real circular economy is not only an issue in the garden and sufficiency is not only in the Ecology, and for whom all of this is too difficult, simply turn to “LOVOS”, the “Lifestyle of Voluntary Simplicity”, in short, to “Simple Life”.