PDC Day 2: Permaculture Design Methods

Day 2: Permaculture Design Methods

This month's course date seemed to take forever to come around! It took place on the last day of the month but it was well worth the wait! This month we were at Country Haven in Wilson Creek on the Sunshine Coast - another fantastic day!

 

The zone "4.5" forest on Billy's permaculture farm. Photo: Lucie Bardos

Billy and his family own Country Haven, a 5-acre property designed according to the very Permaculture principles we were there to learn about. We saw how they integrated the different Permaculture zones according to intensity of cultivation, distance from the house, and frequency of visits. We learned that zone 00 was the SELF. As Delvin so brilliantly put it: "that's where you are ALL THE TIME!" Zone 0 is the main house or the place you spend most of your time, zone 1 is the doorstep - the most intensive cultivation happens here, zone 2 is the yard or orchard, zone 3 is the farm, zone 4 the managed woodland (and space for careful observation of nature's patterns), and finally, zone 5 is the wild - protected from human activity and influence and rarely visited.

 

Zone 3, The Farm. Photo: Lucie Bardos

I always feel that while we learn so much during each of our monthly workshops the flow of knowledge seems so effortless and is mingled with enough fun playtime that it doesn't feel like a course at all. That's right, FUN PLAYTIME! I feel like we can all be children again during our workshops: marvelling at nature, asking hundred's of questions, making food together, laughing... it's great!

Billy's cob oven, photo: Lucie Bardos

This month we were treated to cob oven pizzas fresh from Billy's backyard cob oven, built so well that it holds heat for up to a day once the coals have been removed! We worked together dressing the pizzas, which looked like works of art at the end. What a great treat!

Cob oven pizzas! photo Lucie Bardos

We also visited an old ecovillage project behind Billy's property. It was a project that got started, but due to poor planning was left abandoned and we were able to see the layers of natural succession enfolding before our eyes on the property. Geoff Lawton says that in Permaculture you are more likely to spend 100 hours thinking and 1 hour doing meaningful work, rather than spending 1 hour thinking followed by 100 hours of non-meaningful work, as tends to happen far too often. You can subscribe to free Permaculture videos by Geoff at www.geofflawton.com.

Well, next month we will start off in North Vancouver so we'll be right close to home for Victor and I! Can't wait!