Elements of PermaculturePlants & People

Ben Kessler & Meredith Hartwell Laughing Crow Permaculture

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Analysis of Elements

List the Yields, Needs, and intrinsic characteristics of eachElement.

Lists are made to try to supply (by some other Element inthe system) the Needs of any particular Element.

Experiment on paper, connecting and combining Elementsto achieve no Pollution and minimize Work.

Close the Loops!

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GuildsA Guild is made up of a close association of species clustered around a central element, usually a plant or an animal. This assembly acts in relation to the element to assist its health, aid in management, boost yields, or buffer adverse environmental effects.

Corn, Beans, Squash & MulletMullet remains dug into soil at planting to boost nutrients. Corn provides structural support for the Bean vines. Beans provide Nitrogen for the Corn and Squash. Squash acts as a living mulch for the Corn and Beans. Food waste fed to Mullet.

Ecological EquivalentsEcological Equivalents are organisms that fit similar niches in an ecosystem, or fulfill similar Functions in a design. Often the result of convergent evolution.

Dusky Hopping Mouse Kangaroo Rat Small Five-Toed JerboaNotomys fuscus Dipodomys sp. Allacteaga elater

Australia North America Arabia

Small, Seed-Eating, Hopping, Burrowing, Desert-Dwelling Mammals

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Environmental Equivalents

Bison

Prairie Chicken

Tallgrass Prairie

Water Buffalo

Cattle Egret

Savanna

Cow

Chicken

Pasture

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Needs & Yields

Tomato/Tomatl Solanum lycopersicum

Needs YieldsFull Sunlight, Water, NPK, Micronutrients, Warm Soil, Protection from Herbivores,

Mycorrhizal Partners, Slightly Acidic Soil pH, Well-drained Soil, Structural Support, Love

Delicious Fruit, Spatial Demarcation, Mulch, Dense Verdant Foliage, Pest Protection for

Brassicas and Gooseberries, Companionship for Basil and Nettles, Compost

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Needs & Yields: The Permaculture Chicken

What does each element need in order to live or be maintained?

What products or services does it naturally provide?

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Needs, in a High Altitude Garden

Ideally, link garden elements together so that the needs of one element can be met by the outputs of another. 8

Short growing season (90-110 days) & short day length,

Day/night temperature fluctuations ,

Low soil organic matter & alkaline pH,

Appropriate selection of vegetable and fruit varieties.

What’s different at 7,000 feet?

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High Altitude Garden Needs: Temperature Regulation Strategies

• Garden bed placement:– ~ Evaluate sun/shade/wind sectors and create

warmer or cooler microclimates depending on vegetable type

Structures & thermal mass:~ Raised beds & black pots~ Frost cloth & plastic “mulch”~ Cold frames & hoop houses~ Greenhouses 9

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Garden Inputs• Soil Amendments to raise pH, organic

content & nutrient values:– ~ Compost, leaves, animal manures, organic

fertilizers, earth worm castings, beneficial soil mycorrhizae, nitrogen fixing plants (green ‘manures’), straw or hay mulches

Water:~ Capture on landscape, drip systems, water in evening

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Yields: Food!•General guidelines for • growing high elevation crops:

– ~ Emphasize cool season veggies in your garden: Cole/cruciferous crops, greens of all kinds (from arugula to spinach to lettuces), root crops, certain grains (quinoa, millet, amaranth, spring wheat

– ~ Select short-season & short day varieties: less than 90 days to fruition is ideal

– ~ Start warm-season crops inside, esp. nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, chilis) & plant them in a WARM microclimate

– ~ Include mid-story native berry shrubs– ~ Plant late-blooming fruits (Best: apple trees with 800-1000 ‘chill hours’

before blooming; cherries, plums, grapes, & certain varieties of apricots & peaches)

– ~ Companion plant fruits, veggies, flowers & trees wisely for beneficial relationships

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Other Yields:~ Compost~ Improved soil structure~ Beauty~ Sense and/or knowledge of place~ Personal experience & knowledge of your garden~ Seed~ Localism: contributing to bioregionalism by growing and eating locally~ (Perhaps) Increased community involvement involving food

Photo by Jennifer Temkin

Photo by Meredith Hartwell

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GroundcoverLiving Mulch, Walking Surface

PussytoesAntennaria parviflora

HelianthusHelianthus sp.

Wild SageArtemisia ludoviciana

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Temkin

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Dynamic AccumulatorsSoil Aeration, Nutrient Accumulation, Shade

Sequestration of Environmental Toxins

Comfrey Symphytum officinaleStinging Nettle

Urtica dioicaKale Brassica oleraacea

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Nitrogen FixersNitrogen Fixation

Alder Aldus sp.

Clover Trifolium sp.

Lupines Lupinus sp.

Root Nodules on Soybean (Glycine max) roots

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InsectariesPollinator Attraction, Aesthetic Prettification

Calendula Calendula sp.

Fennel Foeniculum vulgare

Borage Borago sp.

Photo by Jennifer Temkin

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Cover CropsSoil Building, Animal Forage, Fallow Cover

BuckwheatFagopyrum esculentum

Especially for the Southwest:Annual Rye

OatsField Peas

Hairy VetchWinter Wheat

Winter RyeWildflower MixWestern WheatSideoats GramaSmooth BromeBuffalo Grass

Indian Rice GrassEphram Crested Wheat

SanfoinCloversBorage

Blue GramaBouteloua gracilis

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Food

Tea/Medicine/Insectary

Food/Medicine/Insectary courtesy of Connor Stedman

Ground Cover/Nitrogen Fixer

Polyculture Design

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Food/AromaticPest Confuser

GroundCover/Medicine/Fertilizer/Insectary/BeneficialHabitat

Food courtesy of Connor Stedman

Food/Insectary

Food/Medicine/Insectary

Polyculture Design

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SSLUG & Bonito St. Gardens

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SSLUG 2010

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CSA Garden

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Composting at SSLUG

Photos courtesy of Ian Dixon-McDonald

Accelerate SuccessionStack functions in time and space

To enable a cultivated system to evolve toward a long-term stable state, we can construct a system, carefully planning the succession of plants and animals so that we can receive short, medium, and long-term benefits.

“Place is a verb.” – Jeanette Armstrong

Introduction to Permaculture (2004) Bill Mollison & Reny Mia Slay

What are the differences between invasive species and changing ecosystems?

Rampant & Invasive Species

“Is it better to build systems that include exotics or should reforestation aim only to replace what has been taken away?

Is a rampant exotic a weed, or nature’s most effective first aid treatment?” – Permaculture International Journal

Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius) on a CA hillside

“All rampant or weedy and invasive plants are gonna be everywhere eventually-why not just speed things up?” – Bill Mollison

Local Rampants

Salt Cedar Tamarix sp.

Benefits: Willow Flycatcher habitat, basketry material, erosion control, butterfly food

Detriments: Soil salinization, willow & cottonwood exclusion, flooding, water table draining

Russian Olive Eleagnus angustifolia

Benefits: Bird habitat & food, erosion control, N fixation, windbreak, mulch, shade

Detriments: Willow & cottonwood exclusion, meadow encroachment

Appendices

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Plants in the Landscape

Forest Garden Hedgerow

Silvopasture Coppice & Standard Alley Cropping

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Plants in the Landscape

Companion Planting

Keyhole Garden Intercropping Herb Spiral

Integrated Pest Management“Mulch your cat. It’s eating all the frogs and lizards that control insects.” – Bill Mollison

“[Industrial pest management] is like pokin’ a gopher with a rope- you can’t do that!”

– Gordon Tooley

Integrated Pest Management is a crop management approach designed to address ecological dilemmas in agriculture.

1. Acceptable pest levels

2. Preventative cultural practices

3. Monitoring

4. Mechanical controls

5. Biological controls

6. Chemical controls

USDA IPM Principles:http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/ipm.htm

Convergent EvolutionEcological Equivalents are organisms that fit similar niches in an ecosystem, or fulfill similar Functions in a design. Often the result of convergent evolution.

Lesser Hedghog Tenrec European Hedgehog Short Beaked Echidna Echinops telfairi Erinaceus europaeus Tachyglossus aculeatus

Adorable, inedible, insectivorous, little mammals

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Resources• High Altitude Gardening websites:

http://gardening.coloradohighaltitude.com/VegetableGardening/index.php

• http://flagstafflandscape.com/?p=520

• Coconino County Master Gardener Association: http://coconinomgassociation.blogspot.com/

• Flagstaff Planting Guide, by Julie Lancaster: http://www.facebook.com/pages/for-anyone-who-grows-anything-in-Flagstaff-AZ/Flagstaff-Planting-Guide-Gardening-Community/332493936810?filter=3

• Gaia’s Garden, by Toby Hemenway

• Four-Season Harvest, by Eliot Coleman

• The Winter Harvest Handbook, by Eliot Coleman

• The New Organic Grower, by Eliot Coleman

• Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains, by Lisa Rayner

• J. Howard Garrett’s Organic Manual, 2nd Edition

• Successful Small Food Gardens, by Louise Riotte

• Carrots Love Tomatoes, by Louise Riotte

• Start with the Soil, by Grace Gershuny

• A People’s Ecology, by Gregory Cajete

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Thanks toThe Internet

for words and picturesand

Joanna Hale, Jennifer Temkin, DeJa Walker & Ian Dixon-McDonald for photographs

Contact Informationbkessler@gm.slc.edu

laughingcrowpermaculture.wordpress.com