Posted yesterday at 6:00 p.m.
What is permaculture?
To this fundamental question comes a rather abstract answer. Let’s see what the new one has to say Larousse guide to permaculture, which already offers an excellent clue with this advice on the cover: “Don’t fight nature, imitate it!” The term, we learn, is derived from the English permanent agriculture (permanent agriculture) and implies the use of cultivation techniques that work in partnership with nature and not against it in order to obtain better results with less effort. Thus, rather than turning over the earth, we will create, for example, a living soil where biodiversity reigns.
The Larousse Guide to Permaculture
Christopher Shein and Julie Thompson
Larousse
256 pages
The concept develops beyond simple techniques with an ethical approach that encompasses a way of living in one’s environment, of consuming and of designing the dwelling. “Permaculture is a set of principles that allow the design and operation of sustainable human systems,” summarizes the co-founder of Les Écosestibles, Jonathan Pineault, whose cooperative designs facilities in permaculture and agroecology.
Twelve principles
Permaculture is built around 12 principles that followers will tell you are full of common sense. Here is an overview, to apply on a balcony in town or in a country garden.
Observe and interact
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JONATHAN PINEAULT
Jonathan Pineault, co-founder of Les Écosestibles
This is the basis for understanding one’s environment, underlines Jonathan Pineault. Observe your garden over four seasons, see who its inhabitants are, what its soil is made of, what flora there is. Will you cause more harm than good and can you repair rather than magnify the damage?
Produce to eat, for the eyes, to recharge…
Photo provided by Écosestibles
As part of a daycare development, Écomestibles has opted for the establishment of fruit trees and shrubs. While waiting for the trees to produce, his willow hut has become wildly successful and has become a gathering place.
Whatever your motivations and goals, produce something that will help enrich the environment at your scale. Maintaining a fruit vegetable garden may be difficult for some to achieve. The cultivation of beans and peas, on the other hand, is accessible to a majority.
Zero waste
PHOTO ARCHIVE THE SUN
Recycle your waste by composting organic materials through municipal collections, but ideally through your own system.
Prefer natural and degradable materials such as wood or stone to synthetic materials that nature will not know what to do with. Recycle your waste by composting organic matter through municipal collections, but ideally through your own system, more ecological, installed at the bottom of the yard and composed of 50% organic matter — leaves, sawdust or wood shavings — and an equivalent share of green materials such as table and garden waste.
Start from the whole to arrive at the details
IMAGE PROVIDED BY ECOMESTIBLES
Permaculture landscaping by Écomestibles
Many people cling to details and in particular choose their plants without taking the main lines into account, observes Jonathan Pineault, who instead seeks to identify the resources and define the values that guide actions to obtain sustainable solutions. “Planting 50 fruit trees is great, but in 10 years, what will we do with 500 kilos of apples? asks the permaculture designer who adds this example again: if you are not ready to put your vegetable garden in front where there is the most sun, you will probably have to revise your expectations. There is a way to encourage short circuits at the market while growing plants that need less sun and which will enrich the kitchen. »
Collect and store energy
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Water can be harvested through small rainwater retention basins.
Water can be harvested through small rainwater retention basins: a pond, a cistern or even a boiler, which can be used to irrigate the garden. “For a property of 25 ft by 30 ft, an average of 67,000 liters of water flows through the roof”, assesses the designer.
Valuing diversity
PHOTO DEBRALEE WISEBERG, GETTY IMAGES
Pollinators, birds and insects benefit from a diverse garden.
Pollinators, birds and insects benefit from diversity. And no offense to cleanliness enthusiasts, spaces without mowers and without tractors are a better refuge. Reserve a place for wild plants — even on a small scale on a balcony with a mini flower meadow or a roof. Favor native species that are better suited to local wildlife. “If you don’t feel like gardening all the way, advises Jonathan Pineault, there are incredible tools called shrubs and trees that reduce the lawn area and all the maintenance that comes with it. ! »