Profitable Permaculture Principles

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Keeping animals in a winter hoop house eliminates the need for heated waterers and enriches the bedding for vegetables.
Keeping animals in a winter hoop house eliminates the need for heated waterers and enriches the bedding for vegetables.
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Rabbits urinate into the bedding below, and chickens scratch and aerate the bedding to create compost.
Rabbits urinate into the bedding below, and chickens scratch and aerate the bedding to create compost.
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The cows graze on pasture ahead of the chickens, who like to eat shorter grass.
The cows graze on pasture ahead of the chickens, who like to eat shorter grass.
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This Eggmobile follows grazing cattle with hundreds of hens that spread cowpies into the soil.
This Eggmobile follows grazing cattle with hundreds of hens that spread cowpies into the soil.

I can still remember my first encounter with the term “permaculture.” It was a Plowboy interview with Bill Mollison in MOTHER EARTH NEWS in 1980. I remember well how the ideas resonated with me, and I resolved then and there to adopt as many of them as possible in my future farming systems. And since then, we’ve incorporated several permaculture principles at Polyface.

Value High Water

The first permaculture principle that we use on the farm is high water. The higher the water on a terrain, the more it can be used as it gravitationally moves downhill. We’ve built more than a dozen ponds over the years and now have about 7 miles of water pipe traversing the farm. A valve roughly every 100 yards offers plenty of access points. These ponds don’t dam up ever-flowing streams; they’re in valleys to catch surface runoff during snow melt or rain events. Even the driest landscapes enjoy a flooding event at least once or twice a year. When water runs across the surface of the ground, it means the commons is full. Keeping that water at home protects the neighbors downstream from flooding damage. Using it during dry times adds to the base flow and keeps biomass growing.

Sucking water from aquifers and streams depletes the commons; building ponds to hold surface runoff increases the commons. Furthermore, ponds offer habitats for amphibians, aquatic life, and wildlife. You can see how much water you have in your inventory. Gravity-fed water is perhaps the most valuable development you can bring to a landscape.

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  • Published on May 25, 2017
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