Welcome to the Permaculture Association Blog

You can find a wealth of news and knowledge that follows the work of members and partners.

Zen in the Art of Permaculture Design - a book review by Laura Gibbs

Laura Gibbs ponders the art of quiet observation in her review of Stefan Geyer's book, Zen in the Art of Permaculture Design.

Zen in the Art of Permaculture Design opens with a quote from a Zen teacher:

“For Zen students a weed, which for most people is worthless, is a treasure,” and just like the Zen student, permaculture students also have the ability to see the potential in an ordinary weed, and so stands to learn a lot from Zen teachings.

Another way of learning - by Graham Bell

Graham Bell reflects on the huge impact Permaculture Design Courses have had on participant's lives and their journeys of 'unlearning' and 'learning'. After thirty years of engagement with Permaculture it never ceases to amaze me how the Permaculture Design Course (PDC) changes peoples’ lives. This brilliant understanding of how to meet peoples’ needs, without working so hard, and at the same time learning to minimise waste was crafted by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren before I came along to connect with it. I’m also hugely aware that it has always been a fantastic effort of trawling wisdom from all across the planet contributed by unknown numbers of people.

People Permaculture Adventures in Learning

by Delvin Solkinson
Adventures to the wild - a group walk along a path in a woodland glade"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit"
- Edward Abbey

Driving through the endless country backroads of Herefordshire through a pastoral landscape of stone farmhouses, we went by fields filled with sheep and lined with hedgerows. It looked the same as I imagined it looked a hundred years ago. On pilgrimage with my permaculture partner Grace, we are questing towards the next level of facilitating, teaching and mentoring.

Beginning with a tour of the Applewood Permaculture Centre, we explored the a gardens, orchard, fields, pond, structures, tents and a herd of semi-wild rams. As the group journeyed together we felt a sense of kinship, not only with each other but with this natural place.

The basics of permaculture — ethics and principles by Alex Heffron

This is part one in a series of blogs in which Alex Heffron of Mountain Hall Farm looks at the fundamentals of permaculture, using David Holmgren’s Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability as a guide for discussion

There’s a bit of a trend amongst the old-guard of the organic movement to write off permaculture as some sort of modern, utopian fad — one author I greatly respect called it a ‘distraction’. Largely these criticisms are based on condemnation before examination, so in this series of posts I am going to explore the core of what permaculture is, from the standpoint of its ethics and principles, in a more philosophical manner.

Many hands make light work…photo call

The world of permaculture is complex, diverse, colourful, dynamic and creative. The backdrop to this amazing movement is equally polycultural: cityscapes and farms, wild places and housing estates, icy northern climates and humid equatorial zones.

The characters in our movement’s stories encompass all ethnicities, all species, all kingdoms whether they be animal, plant, fungi or bacteria...

Together we comprise millions of individuals working together to design and create harmonious habitats where humans and our natural companions can thrive together.

The Permaculture Association’s key roles are to educate and to connect people and what better way to do that than through beautiful images celebrating your lives, your work, your projects and your communities.