July Permie Corner

By Lorraine Sharaf 

Over the past year, we have explored the 12 permaculture principles one at a time. Taken together, they offer more than gardening tips. They are a way to look at gardens, farms, homes, communities, and local food systems as living relationships rather than isolated parts.

At the heart of permaculture is systems design: paying attention to how soil, water, plants, animals, insects, weather, people, and place affect one another. A food forest is one clear example. Modeled on the layers and relationships of a young woodland, it is designed not just to grow food, but to build soil, hold water, welcome wildlife, reduce waste, offer places to gather, and become more resilient over time.

🌎 The Three Ethics: The Guiding Light Beneath the Principles

The principles give us practical design tools, but permaculture’s three ethics provide guidance for making design and material choices that improve the overall health of the land and all who depend on it: Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share.

🌱 Earth Care
Protect and restore the living systems that support all life: soil, water, plants, animals, fungi, insects, air, and climate.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People Care
Support human needs, including food, shelter, health, beauty, access, community, rest, and belonging.

🔄 Fair Share
Recognize limits, avoid taking more than we need, and return or share surplus in ways that support the whole system. In a garden or food forest, Fair Share can mean composting, sharing excess, saving seeds, reducing waste, and leaving some abundance for wildlife.

🌿 The Result: A healthy system that gives, receives, and returns.

🌿 The 12 Principles in Practice

1. Observe and Interact
   Proverb: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

“Observation and interaction involve a two-way process between subject and object: the designer and the system.” — David Holmgren

Good design begins with attention and relationship. Observation is not passive, and interaction is not domination. Before deciding what belongs where, this principle asks us to slow down, set aside quick judgments, and look closely at what is already happening. Even on land we know well, it helps to approach the place with fresh eyes and notice what habit or familiarity may have caused us to miss.

Walk the landscape from different directions. Sit in different places. Notice it through all your senses: light, water, wind, sound, soil, plants, insects, animal movement, and the places where you naturally want to pause or pass through.

Maps, soil tests, weather records, and other tools can deepen our understanding, but they should not replace experiencing the land directly.

2. Catch and Store Energy
   Proverb: “Make hay while the sun shines.”

We are used to thinking of energy as fuel or electricity that we purchase, but in permaculture, energy is much broader. It includes any resource that supports life, growth, resilience, or future needs.

In a food forest:

• Sunlight can become heat, solar electricity, fruit, nuts, roots, leaves, and wood.
• Rain can be held in soil, mulch, swales, ponds, and deep-rooted plants.
• Wind can cool, dry, pollinate, power turbines, or be softened by trees, hedgerows, and windbreaks.
• Compost stores nutrients from yesterday’s scraps.
• Seeds carry next year’s harvests.

This principle reminds us to capture and store energy and resources when they are available.

3. Obtain a Yield
   Proverb: “You can’t work on an empty stomach.”

I consider this to be the “goal” principle: What do we want our designs to provide, and for whom? In permaculture, a yield is not limited to profit or even harvest. It can be food, shade, beauty, habitat, soil fertility, knowledge, leisure, community, or peace of mind.

In a food forest, one yield often supports another. Leaves feed soil, soil feeds plants, plants feed insects and birds, and people receive nourishment, comfort, beauty, and connection. The point is not to squeeze the most out of every plant, but to create a living system where many plants and yields support one another.

4. Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback
   Proverb: “The sins of the fathers are visited on the children unto the seventh generation.”

Every garden gives feedback. Leaves droop, paths flood, pests appear, plants fail to thrive, and sometimes people run out of energy. These moments are not simply problems; they are information. In permaculture, feedback is guidance, not failure.

A food forest grows stronger when we notice and adjust small imbalances before they become larger ones. That might mean making a different plant choice, improving water flow, adding diversity, reducing maintenance demands, or deciding that a particular crop is not worth the effort required. This principle also reminds us to experiment at a “safe to fail” scale: try one change, observe the results, and adjust before scaling up.

Because our choices can affect neighbors, waterways, wildlife, soil, and future generations, those effects need to be part of our design decisions from the beginning.

5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
   Proverb: “Let nature take its course.”

Much of the work we need done in a garden is already happening in nature. Bees and other insects pollinate. Leaves become soil. Trees shade and cool. Fungi and microorganisms break down organic matter. Birds and insects help keep pests in balance. Sunlight grows plants and can be captured as heat or electricity.

This principle asks us to rely more on free, renewable, life-supporting flows and less on systems that deplete soil, water, energy, or community. “Let nature take its course” does not mean doing nothing; it means designing so nature’s own processes can do more of the work.

6. Produce No Waste
   Proverbs: “Waste not, want not” and “A stitch in time saves nine.”

In nature, there is no trash can. Leaves fall, fungi arrive, insects shelter, worms digest, roots decay, and nutrients return to the soil. What looks like waste is often the beginning of another cycle.

In a food forest, fallen leaves can feed soil life, prunings can become wood chips or habitat, kitchen scraps can become compost, and extra harvest can be shared, preserved, or returned to the soil. Producing no waste is not only about recycling after the fact; it is about designing systems that prevent waste in the first place by reusing materials, choosing durable tools, composting nutrients, and finding new uses for what we already have.

7. Design from Patterns to Details
   Proverb: “Can’t see the forest for the trees.”

It is tempting to start with the fun details: the apple tree, herb spiral, rain garden, trellis, or perfect sitting area. But good design begins by stepping back. Where does the sun fall? Where does water collect? Where is the wind strongest? Where do people and animals already move?

The larger patterns usually tell us where the details belong. A sunny, moist low spot may be perfect for elderberry. A shortcut may want to become a real path. A windy edge may need evergreen shelter. Once we understand the pattern of a place, the details more easily fall into place.

8. Integrate Rather than Segregate
   Proverb: “Many hands make light work.”

Think of a landscape, farm, or garden as a living team. Each part may be useful on its own, but it becomes far more effective when connected to the others. A compost pile can feed soil, but only if it is close enough to use. A fruit tree will be healthier if nearby plants attract pollinators, protect soil, and support beneficial insects.

This principle is about relationship, placement, and cooperation. Instead of designing one feature at a time, permaculture asks: What do we want the system to do? What elements can help? Where should they go so they support one another?

In a food forest, chickens can eat fallen fruit and pests beneath orchard trees. A compost pile near the kitchen and garden is more likely to be used. Flowering borders can feed pollinators while making the garden more beautiful. When we integrate rather than segregate, the system can begin to take care of itself: less weeding, fewer pest issues, healthier soil, stronger plants, and less effort.

9. Use Small and Slow Solutions
   Proverbs: “Slow and steady wins the race” and “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”

Regardless of temperament, farmers and gardeners can feel pressure to move faster than is wise. The weather looks perfect, helpers are available, rain is coming, and the research is done. What could go wrong? One small project becomes three new beds, a trellis, a pond idea, fifteen seed packets, and a Saturday afternoon that requires heavy equipment.

In permaculture, small and slow solutions are easier to maintain, more adaptable to change, and less likely to fail than large, fast systems. When a project grows at a manageable scale, we can observe it, learn from it, and adjust before mistakes become expensive or overwhelming.

In a food forest, that might mean beginning with one tree guild, one hedgerow, one compost system, or one rain garden instead of redesigning the whole landscape at once. At the community scale, strong local food systems often grow the same way: one farm partnership, one market, one shared tool, or one volunteer effort at a time.

10. Use and Value Diversity
    Proverb: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

Diversity sounds easy to apply in theory but can be misunderstood in practice. It does not mean planting as many different things as possible and hoping for the best. As Bill Mollison put it, “It is not the number of things, but the number of ways in which things work.”

A food forest is a designed, multi-layered planting system that mimics the structure of a natural woodland. Instead of isolating crops, it gathers trees, shrubs, herbs, vines, roots, fungi, pollinators, birds, insects, and soil organisms into cooperative layers. Some feed people. Some feed the soil, and others attract beneficial insects, shade roots, deter pests, or provide habitat.

Diverse systems are less likely to fail because they do not depend on one crop, one plant family, one pollinator, or one narrow set of conditions. If one crop struggles, another may fill its niche. A strong local foodshed works the same way, depending on many farmers, crops, skills, markets, and community relationships rather than one fragile supply chain.

11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal
    Proverb: “Don’t think you are on the right track just because it’s a well-beaten path.”

“The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place,” wrote permaculture co-founder David Holmgren.

Edges are where different worlds meet: forest and meadow, pond and shore, garden and path, fence and field, sun and shade, cultivated space and the wilder world. These in-between places are full of movement and exchange.

In a food forest, edges appear along hedgerows, beneath trees, beside paths, on fences and trellises, and in the layered transitions from canopy to understory to groundcover. They can also be fun places to design: a berry-filled path, a shady nook planted with woodland herbs, or a narrow strip transformed into flowers, herbs, and pollinator habitat.

This principle encourages us to notice existing edges and create new ones where they would add life, beauty, or function. A curved bed, a small island planting, a stepping-stone path, a brush pile, or a soft transition between lawn and meadow can all create more edge — and more opportunities for useful yields.

12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change
    Proverb: “Vision is not seeing things as they are, but as they will be.”

Some changes are unexpected and unwanted: a late freeze, a failed crop, a fallen tree, a flooded path, a new pest, or a farm season damaged by weather. It is easy to focus on what we have lost or what has gone wrong, but how we respond matters for the health of our gardens and the landscapes we share with other species.

Change can also come as growth: a young tree that finally casts shade, a pollinator border that fills with bees and butterflies, a compost pile that becomes rich soil, or a farm tour that grows because neighbors are curious and engaged. Success needs tending, too.

In all these moments, the permaculture founders ask us to consider what has changed, what the system is telling us, and what might now be possible. Often, the solution is hidden inside the problem: a lost shade tree may provide a new sunny growing space, a soggy corner may point toward a bog garden, and a weedy patch may tell us the soil needs attention. We just must keep paying attention and be willing to respond as things change.

Conclusion

Together, these 12 principles remind us that a food forest is not only a planting plan. It is a way of seeing. It asks us to notice relationships, design for resilience, respect limits, welcome diversity, and participate more thoughtfully in the living systems that support us.

The same is true of a strong local food system. Farms, gardens, markets, soil, water, pollinators, consumers, volunteers, neighbors, and communities all depend on one another. When we understand those connections, we can make choices that strengthen the whole.

After a year with the 12 principles, perhaps the most important lesson is this: permaculture is not about controlling nature or completing a perfect design. It is about learning how to work with life — patiently, creatively, and with care.

📚 Sources and Further Reading/Listening

In addition to my familiarity with permaculture, I drew upon several resources while writing these articles.

Favorite repeat podcast sources:

• Sovereign Homestead Podcast — Host: Casey Pfeifer
• Self Sufficient Hub Podcast — Host: Carl Mintern

Books:

• Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren
• Paradise Lot by Eric Toensmeier
• The Food Forest Handbook by Darrell Frey and Michelle Czolba

Other helpful permaculture resources:

• Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition, by Toby Hemenway
• The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience by Toby Hemenway
• Permaculture Design: A Step-by-Step Guide by Aranya
• Essence of Permaculture by David Holmgren: https://holmgren.com.au/essence-of-permaculture-free/
• Free Permaculture: https://www.freepermaculture.com/
• Deep Green Permaculture, “A Comprehensive Guide to David Holmgren’s Permaculture Design Principles”: https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/a-comprehensive-guide-to-david-holmgrens-permaculture-design-principles/
• Permaculture Association, “Zoning”: https://www.permaculture.org.uk/design-methods/zoning