My Year of Redesigning Life, later in Week 1 Dream of Permaculture Principles

I had a dream….. I don’t mean a dream about hopes, goals and aspirations. No, no, no, I had one that was more like a ‘wake in fright’ 4am nightmare. In the dream someone was quizzing me about whether I had done a PDC course. I cautiously admitted that I had done one quite a while back. So what are the Permaculture Design Principles again they queried? Of course they would ask, I didn’t have a clue. I began searching my mind for the first principle and managed to come up with, ‘observe and something-or-other.’ It was 4am after all.

I could not remember one of them, for love nor money. After a few minutes in my hyperalert state it became clear that I was going to have to remember them if I wanted to get back to sleep. Easily said but having just moved house I hadn’t unpacked any of my books, or anything else much really. Crap, I definitely wasn’t going to get back to sleep. My psyche was pretty insistent that I find them, particularly given my intention to redesign life, self-sufficiency was a pretty big part of it. What was even more embarrassing is that I consider David Holmgren, the co-originator of Permaculture to be a good friend of mine. Finally after faffing around for a bit, I remembered they were listed in the back of a Pip magazine I’d left out to read between packing boxes. I got my journal out and copied them down. Feeling much relieved I went back to sleep. In the morning I thought about going out to pick fresh dandelions to brew tea, but still in my pyjamas I thought I might frighten the neighbours, just too naff. I opted for my usual coffee to review and reflect on the 12 Principles. It was as if I was reading them for the first time, they were just so sound and so relevant. The Permaculture Principles are underpinned by the ethics of Earth care, People care and Fair share; and can be applied to land and nature stewardship, building, tools and technology, education and culture, health spirituality and wellbeing, finances and economics, land tenure and community governance. Quite a lot to put into practice though. One step at a time I suppose. Permaculture is a creative design process based on whole-systems thinking informed by said ethics and design principles. The aspects that most interest me are education and culture and health spirituality and wellbeing. I realise that to be self-sufficient I should broaden my interest to at least include land and nature stewardship and finances and economics. In practical terms that means cultivating land and growing some veggies. It is not that I haven't grown veggies before but always in an existing garden with malleable soil. The thought of setting up from scratch in a dry region on a bare block with with compacted soil is quite daunting. Preparing the bed, mulching the soil, propagating the seeds, watering, I felt like a Luddite. Too much! The idea was to enjoy redesigning my life. I didn’t think it was going to be hard. All the local seeds and seedlings had been snapped up by the pandemic hoarders who I bet have never had a veggie garden in their life. Damned survivalists. I began to think that I hadn’t thought this through very well. I like the idea of doing it more than actually doing it. Alright, change of attitude required, and some good local gardening advice. A mattock for the dry compacted soil wouldn't go astray either. What can grow in a dry climate at this time of year? Where can I find some seedlings? Better get to know the locals! There's more to this self sufficiency thing than meets the eye. A small win I just found Morag Gamble's no-dig garden video clip. I am off to watch it for some inspiration. Reference: permacultureprinciples.com; pipmagazine.com.au Morag Gamble, No dig garden, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Wq32IRrPQ