Niche Analysis is one of many permaculture design tools we can to implement the least change for greatest effect. By understanding needs and yields of all elements in any system, we can organize relationships among these elements to mimic nature. We can also use this tool to think outside of the anthropocentric norm to fulfill needs and utilize needs that includes but is not limited to human involvement. This helps us understand what needs could be fulfilled by other parts of the system rather than external sources, and identify potential problems and their solutions before implementing a design. You want to run a niche analysis on all elements within your system, from plants, to animals, to uninvited guests, neighbors and yourself. One way to do this is to use scrap paper, one piece for each element, and write down the following:
Also make note of:
Element Examples (Needs/Wants):
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We have only begun to understand how to utilize plants for uses beyond eating. As we've learned more about herbs and their roles in guilds and bird and insect forage, we've also begun to use them medicinally. An herb spiral planted or potted herbs in zone 2 as part of a kitchen garden is one idea we have for limited space where we live now. In our first garden, we distributed culinary and medicinal herbs throughout the garden design. Preparation methods:
How and how much to harvest:
Selected herbs list with uses: Sage, in addition to its culinary and spiritual uses, can be used medicinally. It is considered anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. Different varieties have different uses. Violet leaves can be infused into oil while the flowers are candied or used in salads or drinks. When rubbed topically, its anti-cancer properties strengthen the lymph nodes. Chocolate mint is available at local nurseries which is a more potent form of mint that is medicinally used for respiratory and stomach issues. We have wild peppermint in the backyard. Comfrey can be used for injuries, good for the skin. Also a dynamic accumulator of potassium, comfrey is a great for mulching fruit trees and flowers. We recommend planting in close proximity to fruit trees so you can chop and drop - leave a small trench around the base of the tree so the comfrey doesn't rot.
As part of our Permaculture Design Course, we watched Bill Mollison's "In Grave Danger of Falling Food". Here are some of the key points we took from the film (which you can watch for free on YouTube!) Permaculture aesthetics - Tidiness is maintained disorder - the garden does not have to be neat and clean. Nature wants abundance, not to only be aesthetically pleasing.
Resiliency and redundancy - Each element in a permaculture design supports many different functions, just like the forest. In the forest, everything has its duty. The birds are the planters. Fertile forests that are a billion years old are so complex that they are highly adaptable and productive. Permaculture is reliable. It is not stable like concrete or roads, there are hundreds of constant adjustments that need to be made like when you ride a bike. It is not like a machine. Teaching and learning - permaculture offers tools to show people they already have the resources - reskilling. You just have to put things in the right places and understand relationships already present in nature. Modern agriculture - produces money not food = agribusiness. Yet Commercially available food would be 95% cheaper if the food was grown locally (New York City as an example). 13% of food is lost in the distribution process. Since the 1940s:
Some Quotes from Bill (not verbatim):
Permaculture ethics makes practicing permaculture unique and challenging. They provide guidelines to follow as we interact with the landscape to suit our needs in the face of our ability to be destructive and wasteful. These ethics have been challenging for us to incorporate in the day to day as we change our lives. The dominant culture and economic system of over-consumption is completely antithetical to this work, so we remind ourselves that our ability to practice these ethics is always in progress, and a consciousness about them is our first step towards embodying them.
Design Care: When we design, are we meeting the other 3 ethics? These ethics are not defined, we can decide what they mean for us, but they are the measurables for the work we do. How do/will permaculture ethics inform your work? We started a lot of seedlings, and we mean a lot of seedlings. We didn't know how many would survive, or how many plants we would need of each variety to produce enough yield to eat over the summer and into the fall. Instead of purchasing a ton of new seedling trays, we:
One option we found online was newspaper pots. Not only do these use on-site materials, reusing a material that would otherwise be recycled, but they can go straight into the ground. The thin layer of newspaper breaks down, and makes the transplanting process less stressful for all involved. We used this source from Dave's Garden to create ours. We found other ideas that involved some origami folding which in general seemed more complicated. We did use paperclips to hold the edges of the pots together which we easily removed during transplanting (and reused on our seed packets). What DIY seedling planters have you made for your garden?
In our F.E.A.S.T. Permaculture Design Course, we brainstormed a list of "the shoulders we stand on", the pioneers that have come before us - people, places, books, experiences - that we draw upon and have gratitude for:
There are many more that are not present on this list -- What would you add? We don't like weeding. Weeding can definitely be a zen experience, but it is not something we like to make s regular part of our gardening routine (planting and harvesting aka eating are our favorite parts). But weeds do compete for the same minerals and nutrients we want to direct to the plants we want to harvest. We are experimenting with various low impact/no till techniques to maintain our garden without weeding, and sheet-mulching is one of those techniques we've employed. The basic ideas is that you lay down a barrier to block sunlight from undesired plants to prevent them from growing. We tried this method on two of our main beds--which we later turned into one main bed housing our kale, chard, cucumbers, strawberries, and various herbs and flowers this season. We laid down cardboard and grocery bags to kill the weeds and retain nutrients and minerals (large, not small pieces so there are no gaps). We wet the cardboard, and then filled in a layer on top from soil found on the property (behind the fence in a wooded area for us). We watered again 1" deep. If you do need to weed, use a big fork to loosen the soil for easy removal and low impact on soil quality. More disturbing techniques like digging can break down the structural integrity of the soil molecules and negatively impact the soil life which is crucial to a healthy yield.
This is one of many techniques you can use to battle the weeds without exerting much effort or time, maintaining the health of your soil while reusing materials that would otherwise be sent into the waste stream. The results have been better than we expected, and we spent only several hours in the height of summer hand pulling weeds from our main beds. This is the same two beds, merged into one, with healthy high yielding plants that fed us throughout the season (and continue - frost sweetened our kale and chard!) Have you tried sheet mulching? Let us know how it has worked for you in the comments. We sponsored and helped to organize the Northeast Permaculture Convergence this year to contribute to strengthening the Eastern MA permaculture community. During the convergence, Jessica was interviewed by Sevan at Bell Tower Foods who asked what permaculture is and how it can be used to grow food. His organization works in a mobile food-truck capacity to make local delicious food more accessible in urban areas of Boston. The first thought for many folks when they think of permaculture is food production, probably because the term, when coined, referred to permanent agriculture. Permaculture is now thought of and applied as framework for thinking about permanent culture, including but not limited to agriculture. David Holmgren visualized this in the shape of a flower (below) in his book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Petals represent broad areas of focus within a wholistic interconnected system, informed from the center by ethics and design principles. Growing food is a great entrance point for many folks new to permaculture -- it's easier to get people excited about growing kiwis in Massachusetts than to talk about the evils of big banks, or the damage the industrial food system is doing to the land. However it's not the only possible point of attachment. This past year growing food touched upon all of these petals in an interconnected way - we learned how to take care of our well-being, try low tech human powered tools, not go to the grocery store to buy food, lower the toxicity of our food, among other yields.
After one full season, now the work begins to find new points of engagement on this flower, and winter is a perfect time to articulate goals and develop a design. What petal(s) would you focus your next year on? One of the more satisfying harvests we've experienced has been potatoes from our potato barrel. It's like digging for treasure. Unfortunately we yielded a very small harvest compared to what we've seen elsewhere online. Why? We're not 100% sure. It could be the black barrel retaining too much heat, the starter potatoes we purchased (and probably kept too long before planting), not enough/too much water, or not a good ratio/quality of potting soil and peat mix.
We're definitely going to try container potatoes again next season and play around with some of those variables. The potato barrel saved us some space for other crops, and prevented us from thinking about pests or diseases common with potatoes. We've heard from our friend Rachel at Elemental Green that a version has worked extremely well in her small urban garden in Somervill, MA. Here are pictures of what treasure we did get to harvest. We love the Waltham Farmer's Market. Not only do you find a variety of fresh local food, but you directly support farmers in your community (plus it's one of the few that is open on Saturdays in our area). The taste and quality cannot be beat by chain supermarkets with food that is often picked weeks ago, transported thousands of miles and ripened by ethanol gas, and the price is comparable. By reducing the space and time between farm and table we:
We mainly buy our fruits like raspberries, peaches, and nectarines from Bart's Farm Stand from Leominster, MA and our veggies from Heaven's Harvest Farm from New Braintree, MA. Heaven's Harvest always has a wide selection you can't find at most other stands - lemon boy cucumbers, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, red onion, kale, and uncommon squashes. We also like Flats Manor Farm for some rarer greens like amaranth, purslane, bok choy and a variety of fresh herbs. You can also find pasta and sauces from the Pasta Man, and homemade soaps, body oils and loofas from Donna Dee's Designs. Jessica led a Farmer's Market Tour through the Copley Square Farmer's Market this summer for her coworkers at her old job at Wayfair as part of Wellness Programming. Check out this guide to shopping at farmer's market she put together for anyone looking for quick tips before heading out. |
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