If you’ve ever studied a bit of biology, you may recall the basics of symbiosis or, to put it simply, the different types of arrangements which exist between two living things.
Some relationships are mutually beneficial, such as a bee feeding from a flower and spreading the flower’s pollen. Other relationships can benefit one organism at the expense of another, such as mosquitoes biting humans for their blood.
But what of humans and the planet? If we look at both as living organisms, we might consider the relationship to fall under parasitism, where humans benefit at the expense of the planet.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, said Kenton Zerbin, who travelled to Williams Lake on Thursday, April 3 to show just how easy it is to flip that relationship around.
“Permaculture is transitioning from that to mutualism,” Zerbin said as he presented to a group of over 40 people during a Williams Lake Garden Club talk.
The founder of Attainable Sustainable Academy based in Kelowna, Zerbin has spent years teaching people around the world about building homes, communities and food systems guided by the concept of permaculture.
He said permaculture is a design science. It’s finding ways to meet human needs by tapping into opportunities presented by the natural world. By designing a human’s needs around these opportunities, the impact on the planet can be minimal, or even beneficial.
All of us likely have something in our lives which follows a basic principle from the permaculture handbook, whether we realize it or not. Placing windows on the south side of a building to maximize the intake of heat from the sun while avoiding placing windows on the north side to minimize heat loss is one example of benefiting from the opportunities nature presents to us.
“Waste is a lack of human creativity,” Zerbin stated. Like a forest which finds a use for everything, living or dead, a community built with permaculture in mind finds creative ways to maximize its collaboration with nature in a mutually beneficial way.
If you want to practice permaculture design at your own home, Zerbin said there are three key things to keep in mind.
The first and most important rule is to plan around “sectors,” including the sun, wind and water. Mapping out the course of these sectors allows homeowners to strategically place items on their property so they can work with or against these sectors.
A basic example would be to point solar panels, if you have them, towards the sun, keeping in mind how it travels across the sky.
“You got to work with nature,” Zerbin said.
The second most important concept is “zones,” or what Zerbin described as “human energy efficiency.”
“The idea is that what you need to see most often, you put most close,” Zerbin said.
A common example of zoning failure is when compost is hidden in the corner of a property. The further the compost is, the more it feels like a task to use. Placing it closer, even right next to your garden, makes the most sense, Zerbin said.
Finally, Zerbin said the third most important concept is “relationship placement.”
“Relationship placement is the idea of understanding something's needs and yields and then tapping it in so it can serve you,” Zerbin said.
He brought up chickens as an example. Along with the eggs and meat they offer, chickens also create excellent fertilizer and, with all their pecking, help with pest control. Leave them in one spot for too long, and that space ends up destroyed.
“That's a yield you can design around,” Zerbin said. If you can’t let your chickens outside of their pen to roam around a larger area, why not create a wheeled chicken coop? Once an area has been fully dewatered, de-seeded, fertilized and aerated by the chickens, wheel their coop on to the next spot.
Another example of relationship placement would be to place deciduous trees along the front of a building. During the summer, the trees’ leaves will help shade your home and keep it cool, and as they lose their leaves in the winter the sun will come through and keep you warm, reducing both cooling and heating bills.
“Every single one of us is a designer,” Zerbin said.
He spoke a lot about water and encouraged people to think about it in the same way a child thinks of a marble maze.
“The number one thing you have the power to place that is going to be working hard for you is water,” Zerbin said.
Placing water higher up allows it to stay in the landscape longer, reducing drought and fires and making everything greener. Harvesting rainwater from your roof gives you access to fresh water to feed your plants.
And, if you design it properly, Zerbin said you can make it so that you don’t even have to do any of the watering for your gardens. An old, decomposing log can be used as a deep water source for your plants, encouraging roots to grow downwards. Add grass clippings and manure, and you essentially have a composting system beneath your garden which may not need to be re-fertilized for another 15 years in the time it takes for the log to break down.
This is just the beginning. Zerbin’s enthusiasm for permaculture was truly contagious, pulling in members of the audience, both young and old, to engage by sharing ideas and questions.
Zerbin left guests with a few book recommendations, including Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, Edible Food Forest Gardens: Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate Climate Permaculture and Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit.
The Garden Club’s next event will be a field trip to Frank’s Plants and Produce in Horsefly on April 26 at 11 a.m., and then a talk on beekeeping by Kat Koppe on May 1. Seedling Saturday is also coming up on May 3 at Kiwanis Park where you can buy garden gear and plants, as well as visit information booths.
