The practice of Permaculture is grounded in ethics and principles, and many new permaculture students get bogged down by them, impatient to move forward and learn the actual design system.

“Why all this philosophy?” they ask.

“I just want to learn to design amazing gardens and grow a lot of food.” It’s easy to understand the eagerness of the neophyte who has discovered a design system that actually works, but it works precisely because it is based on and informed by those ethics and principles.

What are the ethics, and how do they apply?

How is one to understand them? In her book, Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture, Rosemary Morrow writes, “Ethics provide a guiding sense of obligation and are the broad moral values or codes of behaviour against which ideas and strategies can be tested.” (p. 9, Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture, by Rosemary Morrow). There are three ethics underpinning permaculture, and they are Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share (alternatively called Future Care, as described by Heather Jo Flores, author of Food Not Lawns. Read The Food Not Lawns Book For FREE) Rosemary states that they are equally important, though I might add that Earth Care is mentioned first in most books, and if we don’t take care of the Earth, nothing else matters.

Let us look at Earth Care first.

Whatever we do in our gardens, whatever changes we make to our land, and whatever we purchase, we should ask ourselves the question, is this good for the Earth? If we buy a chemical to spray in the garden, is that good for the planet? Will it benefit any creature on our land, besides the short term benefit to us of eradication of a “pest”? Probably not. What about those pesky caterpillars who were eating my plants, and who later turned into Swallowtail butterflies? Or the small flies and mosquitoes – if I kill them, what will bats and birds eat? And spiders, too, eat flies, becoming food for hummingbirds in their turn.

If I buy organic produce that is wrapped in layers of plastic, does the positive of buying organic outweigh the negative of the plastic waste that may end up in the ocean?

What about those organic cucumbers that are tightly wrapped in a plastic sheath? Perhaps it is better to choose from the pile of unwrapped cucumbers, even if they aren’t so long and straight. Or go to a farmer’s market and bring your own satchel to carry what you purchase.

Try measuring your garden projects against this ethic of Earth Care. Should I buy big cement stones to shore up some plants that are growing on an incline and losing soil when it rains? I see the soil running off onto the pathways, and the plants’ roots are becoming exposed. What is best for the earth? Cement is not a good thing to use, as it contributes to climate change. The article linked here explains it. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24062022/concrete-is-worse-for-the-climate-than-flying-why-arent-more-people-talking-about-it/

What to do, then?

I may find some rocks or chunks of wood lying about, but if not, maybe I can find something on a neighborhood website, where someone is giving some away. And if I just can’t find anything, then maybe I can use a different material. Some garden and construction centers sell rocks. Bricks are probably too small. Thick cuts of wood work also, depending on how curvy the plant bed is. 

You see how you can use this ethic to aid you in making decisions about your garden?

From Earth Care we move to People Care.

This ethic informs our decisions on more than gardening; it tells us how to treat our neighbors and community members. If I have way too many apples, should I hoard them, just in case of the apocalypse? Wouldn’t it be better to give some to my neighbors? (And save some for insects and some for my chickens). One of my neighbors loves prunes, and I have too many. I give her some and leave some on the ground, where they get devoured by honeybees! By giving my neighbors some of my produce, I not only help them save a little money and eat better, but also reduce their dependence on destructive Big Agriculture. 

We start with ourselves and our families, then our neighbors and community, and then to society at large. Extending our examination outward, we can look at how we treat the person who makes our coffee, or picks the food that we buy. Shouldn’t these people get a living wage? We can support agricultural workers by boycotting the company they are striking against, and we can support local farmers who are growing food in an organic manner but can’t afford the certification. When we buy from these local farmers, we are helping the small farmer as well as the earth, for surely it is better for the planet to buy from a small farmer who is using ethical practices on her farm.

You see how the ethics intersect?

The third ethic is called Fair Share, or Future Care.

It means that we should take our fair share but no more. If we have surplus, we should share that with people who need it more. The ramifications for the gardener should be obvious now, but this ethic also applies to much larger scale enterprises. It applies to our use of fuel, for example. If we destroy ecosystems while mining for lithium for batteries, is that fair? Is that wise? Besides the obvious destruction to species and habitat, there is the future to consider. What will happen when all that energy is gone? We’re taking more than our fair share. Is cutting down forests and sending them to foreign countries to use as pellet fuel in line with the Fair Share/Future Care ethic? Perhaps we should be looking at ways to conserve energy, using less. Perhaps we should be using only our fair share. Perhaps we shouldn’t build more pipelines on reservation land (which the people living there oppose), pipelines which leak and pollute water resources, pipelines which allow us to burn yet more oil. Is the destruction of land on the reservation, from which the people living there are reaping only the high costs of toxic waste cleanup, in any way an example of fair share?

Principles

As you see, we can measure most of our actions against these three ethics, but there are also principles to guide us. Principles are more specific than ethics, and they can be revised over time. Bill Mollison revised his, and David Holmgren, who worked with Mollison, came up with yet another set of permaculture principles. Rosemary Morrow has organized the permaculture principles based on her (correct) perception that we desperately need to repair Earth’s ecosystems. She divides the principles into three groups: the design principles, the strategic principles, and the attitudinal principles. 

Morrow’s design principles are based in ecology, namely water, energy, and soil, all of which are absolutely essential.

They are: preserve, regenerate and extend all natural and traditional permanent landscapes; conserve and increase all sources and supplies of water and maintain its purity; catch and store energy by all non-polluting and renewable means; preserve and increase biodiversity of all types. These directives are clear. Leave as much of your land alone as you can, and work to regenerate and heal land that has been exhausted or damaged. The best land for permaculture is depleted land that needs urgent help. Buying a big piece of land covered with forest and then cutting down trees in order to make room for your farm is not permaculture. 

Find ways of harvesting water, especially from your roof. This can be stored in a pond, funneled out to garden beds, or sequestered in large cisterns. I’ve seen huge tarps used to catch water as it crosses the ground; then they’re rolled up to trap the water, which is then used in the garden as needed. If appropriate, plant things that filter out pollutants in your water, and find ways to keep rain water on your property. We had a problem with water running from our property onto our neighbor’s property, where it flooded their yard and basement. It was also taking some of our soil with it, eroding our land. We planted bamboo all along the property line, and now the neighbor no longer has problems with flooding. The bamboo is also beautiful and useful (poles for holding up beans and other vines), and it provides habitat for many animals. We also have done some contouring of the land, so that the water doesn’t flow too quickly and cause erosion. This is an ongoing project.

Catching and storing energy can mean insulating your home well, building a solar water heater, or using a rocket mass heater in your home (it uses MUCH less wood than a traditional fireplace). If you live in an appropriate climate, you can build a strawbale home, which does an excellent job of insulating against both heat and cold. If you’re building a home, consider orienting it with windows facing south (in the northern hemisphere, the opposite in the southern hemisphere), and building a thermal mass floor on that side. You can buy or build storm windows for the winter, to conserve heat. There are many such small projects that will improve the energy efficiency of your home.

Preserving biodiversity is straightforward. In our yard, I try to plant as many species as possible, both for the sake of the plants and their relationships with each other, and for the sake of attracting more insects (who will pollinate!) and animals. This can be a bit hit-and-miss: sometimes I discover that a plant is not happy with its companions, so I move it somewhere else. I find that doing inventory is a helpful tool – see my last article.

The strategic principles, which help us to get things in our designs right the first time, are : Focus on long-term sustainability; cooperate/don’t compete; design from pattern to detail; start small and learn from change; make the smallest change for the largest result; prioritize renewable resources; and bring food production back to cities.

Focusing on long-term sustainability requires slower, careful planning. Consider where you put your pond or your chickens – will they really thrive where you first wanted to put them? Plan this carefully. Our chickens are in the shade, with vines climbing all over their fence. This keeps them as cool as possible in our increasingly hot summers. We have had to add some tiny canals in front of their yard, to allow water to escape during heavy rains – we should have done some earthworks when we installed the chicken area, as that would have reduced the work we have to do now.

Cooperation, not competition, will help us all thrive in the long run. There are many examples of various species of animals cooperating, and they all benefit. Isn’t it far better for me to cooperate with my neighbor than to compete with him? If I share my knowledge with my neighbors, they will become more self-sustaining, and vice versa. And while we’re all learning from each other, we should make small changes first, to avoid expensive mistakes. Often, a small change is all it takes to fix a problem; digging a little canal around our chicken yard solves the water problem, and we don’t need to resort to drastic and expensive measures like moving the chickens. 

Bringing food production back to towns and cities should be a priority. This not only reduces the distance our food travels and the energy waste, it also gives us more oversight into our food production. We can plant fruit trees along our streets, that means a little more food for everyone, more shade, and less dependence on food from huge monoculture farms. I grow a lot of tomatoes, but my friend Rachel has no luck with them where she lives. I give her my extra tomatoes, and she gives me apples. We both profit from this, and we both know that we raise our food ethically. We sometimes trade seeds. 

The attitudinal Principles, which are broader and help clarify our work are : work with nature and not against it, value edges and the marginal and small, see solutions inherent in problems, produce no waste, value people’s skills and work, respect all life, use public transport and renewable fuels, calculate food miles, and reduce your ecological footprint.

Some of these are quite specific, such as using public transport, while others need a little more thought. What does it mean to value the edge? 

In permaculture, we discover that the edge, where two ecosystems share a boundary, hosts more biodiversity. Consider a field that abuts a forest. There are field plants and animals in the field, and forest creatures in the forest, but where they intersect there are different plants and animals. Along with the creatures specific to this edge habitat, few forest animals and field animals will come and go in this third, edge, ecosystem. Look at a forest edge next time you’re out walking. You may find wild roses, hawthorns, wild apples and plums and cherries, blackberry brambles, “weeds”, and all the animals who make their homes there. Grazing animals from the field may wander in and out, and some forest animals may venture into this edge. So when we say “value the edge”, we mean increase the edge zone when you can. If you build a pond, you can make a crenelated, wavy edge, instead of just a circle. This will increase the circumference (edge), without increasing the area of the pond. Now you’ve created more edge habitat for frogs, insects, and pond’s edge plants.

How should one understand seeing solutions inherent in problems? Bill Mollison says it another way: the problem is the solution. Let’s say you have a large snail infestation in your yard. Mollison would say the problem is not that you have too many snails, but that you have too few ducks. There are not enough snail predators in the area, and the ecosystem is out of balance. If allowed where you live, raise a few ducks, but not too many, or your ecosystem will again be out of balance. A few will solve the snail problem, and you’ll get some delicious eggs, but don’t let the ducks run rampant and reproduce like mad. That would cause other problems!

Respect for all life means fostering the ecosystems in your yard, leaving some wild areas for other creatures, refraining from using pesticides and herbicides, and finding ways to share our space with other creatures. Produce no waste is easy to understand, but sometimes hard to do. Composting is a good way to cut out food waste, but what do we do with the empty toothpaste tube or the unrecyclable yogurt container lids? I could write a whole book on this principle alone, and people have. Beth Terry has written the excellent book “Plastic Free – How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too”. Her website https://myplasticfreelife.com/ offers a huge array of resources and tips. I highly recommend it.The principle, reduce your ecological footprint, is more general, but you can measure your actions and purchases against it.

I hope this outline has helped you understand the importance of the ethics and principles of permaculture.

As I see it, the principles all fit within the ethics and explain how to apply them. If you really look deeply at the ethics, you have everything you need. After all, isn’t it our most basic goal to live ethically on this planet? The earth needs us to do all we can to repair the damage of millenia, and the ethics and principles of permaculture tell us how to do that.

We owe our planet that much.