Edible Landscaping and Permaculture Concepts

Garden Design

Permaculture

Definition of Permaculture: (From the words Permanent+Agriculture). A food system that mimics resilient and productive patterns found in nature.

Permaculture is about designing ecologically sound housing and food production systems. It encompasses land use principles and community building practices. The idea is to integrate human dwellings in a harmonious way with the local microclimate, taking into account soil and water conservation, and incorporating native, edible plants. In order to do this, permaculturists study and attempt to mimic patterns found in nature.

The "edible landscapes" created in this way contain plants that have multiple uses. Each plant is chosen to support the other plants, by attracting insects for pollination for example, or fixing nitrogen in the soil. Animals may be integrated into the design, to recycle nutrients and eat weeds.

Permaculture also extends to the use of energy-efficient buildings, wastewater treatment, recycling and the concept of proper land stewardship. The design concepts of permaculture are applicable to urban as well as rural settings, and are appropriate for single households as well as whole farms and villages.

(Much of this information is adapted from Steve Diver's Introduction to Permaculture: Concepts and Resources. National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/perma.html )

Ecological Design Principles:

Soil Building
Plant Communities
Perennials
Layers

TreeUtah’s EcoGarden

The EcoGarden is a perennial food forest garden installed in 2006. It was designed using permaculture principles to create a productive, educational, and community-building space. There are just under 20 fruit and nut trees as well as myriad shrubs and herbaceous perennials. The plants are organized into guilds, or beneficial networks of plants. The plant list from the TreeUtah EcoGarden is available from: http://www.treeutah.org/Permaculture.html

Further Reading and Resources

Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
The Permaculture Garden by Graham Bell
How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield
Forest Gardening: How to Cultivate and Edible Landscape by Robert Hart
Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke & Eric Toensmeier
Designing Your Edible Landscape Naturally by Robert Kourik
Stalking the Healthful Herbs - Euell Gibbons
Common Edible Plants of the West – Muriel Sweet
Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West - Gregory Tilford
Wild Foods for Every Table – edited by Tina Sams
Complete Book of Edible Landscaping - Rosalind Creasy
The Practical Garden of Eden – Fred Hagy
Diver, Steve. Introduction to Permaculture: Concepts and Resources. National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/perma.html
Wild Garden Seed: Ecological Crop Improvement For and By Farmers www.wildgardenseed.com
Oikos Tree Crops www.oikostreecrops.com
Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply www.groworganic.com
The Plants for a Future Database is a great resource for learning about wild edible plants. http://www.pfaf.org/index.php
Special thanks to the folks at TreeUtah for their help in presenting the Edible Landscaping workshop and for helping us compile this information!