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Although permaculture is now defined as 'permanent culture', incorporating all areas of human life, it was originally defined as 'permanent agriculture', and was firmly focused on land stewardship and living in harmony with nature. Land stewardship remains a central part of most people's permaculture experience.
This section covers a range of land stewardship techniques which maximise yields and environmental benefits, while reducing inputs, costs and labour.
Aquaculture is the growing of human food, both plant and animal, in water. It may also refer to the conscious creation of aquatic environments.
UK woodland has plenty to offer with exciting ingredients for soups, sauces, desserts and tipples found in abundance.
It is hard to envisage any system of sustainable land management that does not involve extensive use of trees.
Using a permaculture approach to design and grow a garden or orchard can realise a functioning ecological system, composed of many parts, each contributing to the overall stablility, health and resilience of the whole.
Animals have a key role to play in truly sustainable food systems.
The permaculture principle 'produce no waste' stands in marked contrast to our throw-away society in which millions of tons of 'rubbish' are simply dumped in huge holes in the ground each year.
Biodiversity is fundamental to our survival. Every living thing has a place in what we call the 'balance of nature', and upsetting that balance can have untold effects.
Broadscale agriculture refers to field management techniques at the landscape scale.
As permaculture designers we need to be designing rich, healthy, living soil. Geoff Lawton has described permaculture as "ethical design science", and we need to ethically and scientifically design our soil.