"Permaculture In Action" with Brandy Hall of the Shades of Green Permaculture

Permaculture [n]

A sustainable design science and methodology that focuses on integrating Human activity with natural surroundings so as to create an efficient, balanced, and self-regenerating ecosystem.

A portmanteau of 'permanent' and 'agriculture', Permaculture is a design methodology can be applied to any location in order to create lasting and productive ecosystems which yield food, fiber, and fuel year after year.

Permaculture fundamentally means to think of how we as Humans integrate into the landscape around us, and build sustainable systems for our integration into natural ecosystems through restoring the water cycle, building soil fertility, and cultivating both productive and native plant communities.

You can achieve any Permaculture goal using the 3 Pillars of Permaculture by answering three simple questions:

1. What do you value in your landscape?
2. What are function do you need it to serve?
3. What essential needs must it meet for you?

There is no singular way permaculture must look, and it actively looks different per individual need and desire; it is not limited strictly to Food Gardening, and it does not need to be "messy" or made strictly from secondhand or salvaged materials.

The first priority is to manage water in order to rehydrate soil, reduce the need for irrigation, restore the water cycle, and preserve the soil.

There is a runoff coefficient of roughly 622 gallons per 1,000 square feet of water impervious surface.

Traditional Turf Grasses have a runoff coefficient of 80%- meaning 80% of water runs off the surface of the grass rather than entering the soil.

Soil Percolation Rate (or the water absorption rate of soil) also affects runoff rates and amounts.

The intent of Water Retention Landscaping is to slow water flow, build the area's capacity to hold water, and allow time for the water to replenish as a resource within the area rather than eroding it.

Water Gardens do not actually hold water in place. Their purpose is actually to sink water into the watershed and surrounding soil- as well as to disperse runoff so that it doesn't maintain significant erosive force.

Water Gardens do not harbor Mosquitoes; Mosquitoes require roughly 24 hours of stagnant water to breed, and the majority of properly built and maintained Rain Gardens have a fill average of 12 hours under heavy burden.

Water Gardens benefit most from Taproot Plants which can aid in breaking up toucher soil that lies beneath the upper layers engineered to trap the water.

Thick vegetation, thickly planted, also aids to slow water and help control water flow.