Coined in 1978 by Australian ecologist Bill Mollison and his student David Holmgren as a contraction of "permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture. " Permaculture involves designing ecological human habitats and food production systems emphasizing relationships between elements in (zones) and energies (sectors) that integrate human dwellings, microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, and water into stable, productive communities. According to Holmgren, permaculture is the use of systems principles and design thinking to make landscapes that mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature while yielding abundant food, fibre, and energy for human needs. Emphasis is on multi-use plants, cultural practices like sheet mulching and trellising, and encouraging animals to recycle nutrients and graze weeds. Community planning includes energy-efficient buildings, waste water treatment, and growing healthy soils as well as plants. "Without permanent agriculture," writes Mollison, "there can be no possibility of a stable social order. "

Other permaculture practices:

• Zones are laid out from the center (the dwelling) in terms of how many visits daily we need to make to something. Sectors: energies coming toward the house to be shielded, deflected or collected (ponds, banks, hedges, walls, screens, trellises, hedges, etc). * Elements are placed in zones to work together, as in the natural world, and placed to serve two or more functions (a tree for shade and for erosion control) while managing sector energies (blocking rough winds). Hedges provide forage, shelter crops, provide mulch, exclude rampant grss or weeds, exclude browsing animals. Swales manage drainage and help trees survive drought. * Likewise, every function (water collection, fire protection, etc. ) is served in two or more ways. * Plants that attract beneficial insects: buckwheat, clovers, corlander, coreopsis, corn cockle, cosmos, dill, fennel, feverfew, mustard, sweet alyssum, tansy, tidytips, yarrow. Alfalfa, sweet clover, comfrey, dandelion, earthworms, mulch, and daikon radish break up hardpan. * Water--drainage, collection, availability--is the chief design consideration. Storage sources should be placed on a slope above the site for gravity feeding downward. Roofs can collect rainwater in covered drums. Wire fences to drip dew on the plants below. * Everything is a resource. Pests tell something about soil and plant problems. Predators manage them. * Three key permacultural ethical principles: care for the earth, care for people, set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus. * Principle of Stability: connections between these components (Mollison). * Edge cropping: use of edges and zones, which tend to be areas of diversity and production. * Windbreaks (ideally one-fifth as high as the space between them) to preserve moisture; plant mulch-producing crops near them. Interplant leguminous trees in a crop and orchard for mulch, soil-building, frost cover, leaf drip. Wire fences above crops to feed them dew. Whitish plants like wormwood and birch to deflect sunlight and lower temps, or dark ones to retain it. Lots of trees for condensers, water-catchers, etc. * Mollison's Prime Directive of Permaculture: “The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children. Make it now. ”