A Peek Into Permaculture: Principles

Throughout the day yesterday, the wind swirled and howled outside and torrential rain, from the lingering "remnants" of a tropical cyclone that crossed the coastline much further north, drummed heavily and loudly on the roof. Our region had a month's rain in just one day!

Pouring, drenching rain falling from the heavens.

During this unusual rain event, as I watched gutters and drains overflowing with precious water, I have been thinking about what happens to all the "liquid gold"  that falls on our property.

Water lost as it flows downhill into gutters and drains.

(Our house is at the top of this little street.)

In the Introductory Permaculture Course I recently attended, taught by the enthusiastic and inspiring Morag Gamble, who writes over at Our Permaculture Life, we were introduced to David Holmgren's twelve design principles. One of those principles encourages you to think about how to catch, harness and store energy; energy that is embodied in things such as sunlight, wind, seeds, food and water.

Water gushing from one of our neighbourhood's storm water drains.

A lot of rain fell in our area, over our land, yesterday. Looking out my misty windows to the street, venturing out to the soggy backyard and beyond under umbrella cover, there was much that I observed. While some of that rainwater poured off our roof and into our tanks, there was much that pooled in the circular "impression" where our old trampoline used to be, that trickled along the edge of the veggie patch like a little mini waterfall,  that flowed in under the house where it will no doubt be very muddy for a while, and that was lost as it gushed downhill into our street's gutters and drains. 

Yesterday's rain turned a dry brook into a swift stream.

The challenge as I understand it, remembering that I am just beginning to develop my understanding of Permaculture, is to find ways to capture more of the different energies that fall upon or move across/through your land. For example, when the sun is shining, we have solar panels to capture the sun's energy though the cost of batteries prevents us (at the moment) from storing that to use at night or in times of heavy cloud. We have a worm farm and compost bins that capture the energy stored in our food scraps and convert it into a form we can use in the garden. Our large sash windows, glass sliding doors and french doors help to harness the breezes we get here and bring them inside. In terms of the precious water that rain brings, we have one large tank under our house and another much smaller one under our back verandah. Water that doesn't fall on our roof and into our tanks, flows downhill as our land slopes sharply at the front and gently at the back. Some of that water soaks into our soil but a lot is lost in run-off. So I need to think about how to:

          *  slow that water down to give it more time to soak into our soil;
          *  use areas where the water naturally pools on our block of land;
          *  direct water into drier areas;
          *  direct water away to stop it flowing under our house.

One of the many large mushrooms popping up in moist soil.

I like the way in which the different Permaculture principles provide a framework for me to think about things and they way they throw up questions about how to build sustainability practically into our life here. I think they are applicable as much to my little suburban home as they are to the largest property. I think I'll sit with each one for a while, ponder them, learn more  and then see to what decisions they lead.

Meg

p.s. If you experienced the wild weather over the past few days, here in Queensland or Northern NSW, I hope that you are safe and dry this morning. My best wishes and thoughts to all those whom Cyclone Debbie impacted this week.  Xxx