#19: Wholistic Garden Design

When planning a vegetable garden it’s all too easy to jump in with both feet and try to grow as much as possible in the first year. Many experienced gardeners will tell you that this is just setting yourself up for disappointment as the amount to learn, maintain and weed can quickly become overwhelming. Wholistic garden design is a set of design principles centred on whole systems thinking, utilizing the patterns observed in natural ecosystems. Holistic Garden Design Before you even begin to think about creating your new vegetable garden, it is a good idea to spend some time getting to know your site, and thinking about design. In the first lesson of our course we mention permaculture. Permaculture ethics are not the only thing that can be helpful to keep in mind as you start to plan your new growing areas. Permaculture also provides a series of design principles. The twelve permaculture principles are: -Observe and interact. -Catch and store energy. -Obtain a yield. -Apply self-regulation and feedback. -Use and value renewable resources and services. -Produce no waste. -Design from patterns to details. -Integrate rather than segregate. -Use small and slow solutions. -Use and value diversity. -Use edges and value the marginal. -Creatively use and respond to change. Keep these principles in mind as you begin to plan and create your garden Becoming a regenerative and sustainable food grower is about supporting bio-diversity and learning to work with the planet rather than against her. It begins with a simple premise; that the world is a living planet with core fundamentals that sustain balance. When these fundamentals are understood and met, life begins to thrive. An Introduction to Permaculture. Permaculture is a blueprint for sustainable living that can guide you as you create your new food producing organic garden. Permaculture, which is 'permanent agriculture' or 'permanent culture' is a simple series of concepts and practices that can help you to work to design, create and maintain an organic growing system. At its heart, permaculture has three core ethics: Earth Care People Care Fair share (and return of surplus to the system). We have an opportunity to plant the seeds of change and care for our planet and keeping these three core ethics in mind can help us to do so. By choosing to be a sustainable food grower, you are doing far more than growing your family's food. You are joining a movement of people around the world who care about our planet and are connecting back to earth by planting seeds for change and hope for generations to come. Food growing teaches us the cycle of life and the fundamentals of nature's systems to thrive. Through your own garden and the soil you will connect deeply to nature and the cycles of life that flow through it. If there is one legacy we can leave to our children, may it be the love for and the connection to the earth that comes through growing a garden. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/shambhalaliving/message