If you are getting started with your first garden, now is a great time to learn about permaculture while still in the planning stages. Even if you currently have a garden, this guide will assist you in gradually transitioning your current garden to a more sustainable design. Keep reading to learn how to create a permaculture garden.
The best way to create a permaculture garden is to decide where you want your garden to go, look at your site and see what makes sense for your area, plan your garden, build in water systems and other infrastructure, and then plant perennials first, followed by annuals.
In this post, you’ll learn the important tips on how to create a permaculture garden, but before that, it’s crucial to understand what permaculture is and how it works.
What Is A Permaculture Garden, and How Does It Work?
A permaculture garden uses natural elements such as the sun, wind, and water to work for you rather than against you- it is more like a work of art than a scientific experiment.
What makes sense for your particular piece of land and the climate and ecosystems there will determine how you build your garden.
Permaculture emphasizes progressively building up soils overtime to ensure that they are well-balanced and nutrient-dense.
Before you can begin developing your permaculture garden, you must first comprehend
what a permaculture garden entails.
Permaculture allows for a great deal of versatility so that you may design and build your garden in any way you like.
You’ll have to decide what your top priorities are. Various elements, such as productivity, sustainability, aesthetics, and more, are taken into consideration.
Every small bit we can do to live in a more environmentally friendly manner helps the environment, whether you want to cultivate enough food to feed your family or simply enough tomatoes or fresh herbs to get by throughout the summer.
Or simply have some greenery to help you keep connected to nature while also helping the local pollinating insects.
Now that you understand better about permaculture, let’s speak about how to create your permaculture garden step by step. Below is a guide on how to create a permaculture orchard.
A Guide on How to Create a Permaculture Garden
Size doesn’t matter in permaculture; in fact, permaculture gardens are frequently modest. Follow these steps to create a permaculture garden, regardless of the size of your yard.
Step 1: Familiarize Yourself With Your Yard
The first stage in learning how to create a permaculture garden is to get to know your yard over a year, ideally during all four seasons. Learn about the natural ecology, climate, microclimate, and how much light, wind, and water it receives. Consider how a slope impacts rainwater flow, where rainwater gathers, and where the prevailing wind originates.
Step 2. Create Zones in Your Permaculture Garden
Another step when learning how to create a permaculture garden is making zones in your yard. Plants you frequently visit, such as cooking herbs, should be placed closest to the house. The zone that is the furthest away requires the least amount of care and attention.
Step 3. Determine your spacing.
Get a sense of the region if you want to learn how to create a permaculture garden, then decide how many plants you want to cultivate and how much space is required.
For example, determine how many plants you will want if you want to grow tomatoes in a specific rectangle space. If you stake the plants, they will take up less space than if you leave them sprawl on the ground. You can also save space by engaging in vertical gardening.
Grapevines and other plants will grow on trellises, walls, and fences.
Step 4: Determine the physical type of garden you want to cultivate.
The next stage in learning how to create a permaculture garden is determining whether you want to build raised beds, use plant containers, or plant in regular garden soil.
Step 5. Use Native Plants
Another important tip, if you want to learn how to create a permaculture garden, is to include as many native plants, but be sure they are local in your area. Native plants have various advantages over invasive species: they attract pollinators, provide food and shelter for wildlife, and better adapt to your local climate. They’re also resistant to disease and drought.
Step 6: Use Edible Plants in Your Garden
Edibles and ornamentals are interspersed in a permaculture garden, which does not create tight lines. Rhubarb doesn’t have to be in the same spot as your vegetables, and bee balm attracts pollinators, so it’s good to plant it in the middle of them.
Step 7: Mulching Practice Sheet
Instead of digging up your lawn or any other cultivated area, use sheet mulching to transform it into a permaculture garden. This method, also known as lasagna gardening, involves covering the area with a thick layer of mulch and then waiting for the plant beneath the mulch to decompose. This takes time and forethought. Sheet mulching should be done in the late summer to early fall to be ready for planting the following spring. Sheet mulching takes less time and effort than digging up the soil, and it causes less soil disturbance. It also returns decomposed plant material to the soil, one of the permaculture principles.
Step 8: Practice spot planting
Instead of removing an entire patch of grass, remove only enough to plant a tree or shrub. This is known as spot planting.
Step 9: Use plant waste
Use Plant Waste Compost any plant waste suitable for composting, such as vegetable scraps, grass clippings, and leaf litter.
Step 10. Improve Soil Quality Gradually
Improving soil quality is a constant activity in permaculture. Utilize decomposing plant waste to add organic amendments to the soil wherever possible.
Step 11. Engage in Water-Savvy Gardening
Plant natural plants that do not require irrigation. Collect rainwater in barrels and plant a rain garden. Use watering options that are effective and sustainable, such as drip irrigation and soaker hoses.
Step 12: You should avoid chemicals.
There are alternatives to chemical weed killers, insecticides, and pesticides. Fill any empty places with appealing plants to keep weeds at bay. Plant perennials first, then fill in with annuals like sunflowers. Choose plants that attract natural pest predators, such as hover-flies, the larvae of which consume aphids.
Conclusion
Creating a permaculture gardening is an excellent alternative if you want a low-maintenance gardening strategy that benefits you and the environment. It’s an eco-friendly strategy that may educate you on decreasing waste, using what nature provides, and thrive—both in and out of the garden.
