By Laura Lukes, UC Master Gardener of Butte County, and Stephanie Ladwig-Cooper and Anne Ainsworth, Earthshed Solutions, January 5, 2018.
We begin where we left off in Part One: listening to the land. Earthshed Solutions board members Robert Henry and Anne Ainsworth spent three seasons in thorough observation of their private property, recording on a base map what the land told them. A recent presentation about their experiences (summarized here and in Part One) provided insight into how a virtually bare quarter-acre piece of their land (the Target Area) just southwest of their home site is being transformed into a permaculture garden.
Analysis of existing conditions, combined with the basic principles of permaculture, helped Henry and Ainsworth develop a list of goals and wishes, and shaped the design they developed for their working master plan. By carefully considering all of the conditions on their land, and by following the ethics and principles of permaculture, they had a system by which to filter their design choices.
Chief goals for the first permaculture ethic, “earth care”, were the following: restore damaged areas; increase habitat for wildlife, including plant and animal diversity; prevent soil erosion; and create compost and water storage areas. Primary goals for “people care” were: grow plants for personal use (food, herbs, flowers) and for year-round production from citrus and other fruit trees; create space for play and for hosting friends and family; and humanely raise animals (for food and pleasure). The third ethic, “fair share”, is being implemented by their willingness to share their property as a teaching and demonstration garden for Earthshed Solutions workshop participants. They have hosted several workshops through their 501(c)3 educational nonprofit organization. Courses they offer cover a range of subjects, including Energy Efficient Design, Solutions for Water Resilience, andContour Technology for Water and Land Restoration and Water Retention Strategies. Lastly, as a part of their master plan, they took an honest inventory of their abilities and limitations, such as age, strength, carpentry and equipment skills, and finances.
Their Wish List consisted of many things, including: building a citrus guild; privacy screening from neighbors to the south; protection from strong winter winds from the northeast; additional sheds for tool storage; ensuring easy evacuation for an existing trailer; and consolidating livestock in the areas which were best suited for the animals.
In the presentation, Brian Ladwig-Cooper discussed strategies and techniques which take the design process even further to the specific details of how one could implement the design on the ground. These strategies are the actions used to achieve design goals utilizing the permaculture principles as a guide. Techniques are the methods and tasks needed to implement the strategies.
According to Ladwig-Cooper, one always looks for techniques with multiple functions, capable of furthering more than one strategy and/or meeting several goals. For example, the Citrus Guild includes the use of many strategies and techniques to get the most out of the food-bearing guild. A guild is a group of plants based around a central element (for example, a fruit tree) which together work to build fertility, create a barrier from weeds, attract beneficial insects for pollination, provide mulch, and much more. Guilds are designed to mimic native plant communities.
The strategies which Henry and Ainsworth are utilizing on their land are water, access, soil, wind, and food. Here are descriptions of the ways in which they have addressed three of these five strategies and applied the use of specific techniques:
Water: Capture rainwater on site and store it in the soil. Each tree will have a mulch basin designed to catch and store water during the rainy season. Any overland flow will also collect in the basins.
Wind: Provide wind and sun protection. Both of these elements were identified as potential problems in the concept design phase. Pigeon pea shrubs and lablab beans will be planted as nurse (protection) species. The pigeon pea and lablab will protect the citrus from afternoon sun. A new shed and windbreak trees will be planted to the northeast of the guild to protect from winter winds.
Soil: Build up soil health and increase fertility. Both pigeon pea shrubs and lablab are nitrogen fixing which will provide this vital element to the plants and citrus as they grow. They can also be “chopped and dropped” as desired to increase overall soil health and add to the overall soil food web.
The working master plan illustrates the design that Henry and Ainsworth developed to meet their goals and wish list ideals, while remaining true to the bedrock ideologies of permaculture and Earthshed Solutions: to make a positive difference in how we live, farm, and work on our earth. Over the coming years, these two permaculture practitioners will continue to refine and improve their footprint on this land, as they listen closely to what the land tells them.
NOTE: Earthshed Solutions offers ongoing educational programs, one of which is the PermaBlitz, an organized community gathering where permaculture principles are applied through a full design on volunteer host property. Upcoming Pre-PermaBlitz Gatherings are scheduled for February 18, and March 18. The PermaBlitz itself will be held in April. Please check their website, www.earthshed.org for more information.
By Laura Lukes, UC Master Gardener of Butte County, December 22, 2017.
On a piece of land near Oroville, the educators from Earthshed Solutions are walking their talk. Utilizing permaculture principles, they are designing “regenerative systems for food production, soil fertility, energy efficiency, and water conservation,” and for human and wildlife habitation.
At a recent Butte County Master Gardeners Workshop, Earthshed Solutions President Stephanie Ladwig-Cooper and Board members Brian Ladwig-Cooper, Robert Henry, and Anne Ainsworth demonstrated how they are transforming their vision into reality. This two-part Real Dirt series summarizes the information packed into their presentation.
Earthshed Solutions grew out of the original Chico Permaculture Guild that was founded in 2009. They aim to Educate – Motivate – Regenerate by teaching people to develop systems that mimic nature, that combine the needs of people and the environment, and that utilize agricultural practices that work with nature. More information is available on their website: www.earthshed.org
Permaculture was developed by David Holmgren, then a graduate student, and his professor, Bill Mollison, in 1978 as a “system of agricultural and social design principles centered around simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems.”
Originally, “permaculture” combined the words “permanent” and “agriculture.” More recently the term is understood to blend “permanent” and “culture” because the culture in which humans are immersed dictates how we see, and subsequently treat, the world around us. The ethical considerations that underpin this philosophy are earth care (all life), people care (all human life), and fair share (returning surplus resources from whence they came and limiting consumption).
According to S. Ladwig-Cooper, the tangible rewards of this system lie in putting theory into practice. The bulk of the workshop focused on the permaculture design process and how it is being applied at the Earthshed Solutions property in Oroville. The educators shared their experience of going through the steps of the design process and remaining true to the principles of permaculture while emphasizing that the principles and their implementation are applicable at any scale and in any climate.
The process, although not strictly linear, begins with Goals, which are developed into a Wish List, followed by close Observation and Research, which dictate the Design Methods used to create a Concept Level Design, which becomes the basis of the Working Master Plan, leading to the final step, Implementation. “Final” is a misleading term, however, as continuous refinements and adjustments are made, based on ongoing observation and results.
What follows is an annotated outline of the steps they followed. The second article in this series will illustrate precisely how these theories and principles were applied to the property, the living lab in which permaculture is being practiced.
Of prime importance is the luxury of time: Henry and Ainsworth gave themselves a year to observe existing conditions on their property, paying attention to slope, natural features, wind and rain and frost patterns, water sources and flow, range of soil types (including drainage or lack thereof), animal activity, existing plants, and adjacent land use activities. While computer applications can help determine sun angle, soil composition, prevailing wind directions and the like, nothing beats observing and experiencing what actually happens throughout the year.
A logical and deceptively simple first step is orienting the plot of land in terms of the cardinal directions: a basic map will do. The aspect of the plot and its landforms in relation to north-south-east-west dictates the effects of wind, rain, water, sun, and shade.
The design process begins with setting GENERAL GOALS. Ask, and make note of, the following: What does this land need? What can it produce / grow? What is wanted / needed from this land? What are the skills and limitations (physical, financial, etc.) of the occupants?
Create a WISH LIST of SPECIFIC GOALS. For instance: grow ornamental / edible plants; provide wildlife habitat; raise livestock; identify areas for living and for recreation.
Next, start the process of OBSERVATION AND RESEARCH: Create a base map depicting seasonal patterns of wind, rain, and sun; natural formations with high and low spots; drainage courses; areas of shade and hot spots; animal migration / feeding / sleeping patterns; and prevailing wind directions and times of day.
Determine and choose DESIGN METHODS based on these observations. Analyze the “scale of permanence” by putting these elements in order, beginning with the element that is the hardest to change: climate; landforms; water; invisible structures (social and economic factors); access and circulation; vegetation and wildlife; microclimates; buildings and infrastructure; zones of use; soil; aesthetics; experience.
Complete a CONCEPT LEVEL DESIGN by utilizing some of permaculture's design methods: energy efficient planning, microclimate analysis, random assembly, Water / Access / Structure (WAS) design, relative location, and functional analyses for specific elements. Examine each existing and planned element, and determine the connections between these elements. Spark new ways of looking at each element and the overall design plan by connecting seemingly disparate elements through spatial concepts such as “attached to,” “beside,” “with,” “around,” “over,” and “in.”
After filtering the goals and wish list items through the permaculture principles and design methods, a WORKING MASTER PLAN will result from all of the above. Employ a process of elimination to refine the plan: how do initial goals fit with on-the-ground conditions? Filter design decisions by developing Strategies (actions used to achieve design goals) and Techniques (IMPLEMENTATION of the strategies with specific tasks).
Until Part Two of this summary of the presentation by Earthshed Solutions, keep this in mind: The core of permaculture is design and there is never a final design, only a working Master Plan. In this system, “you're always observing, interacting, and adjusting based on what the land tells you.”