Practicing Permaculture

Each Saturday, from 2-5pm, we meet to explore the concepts behind permaculture, and spend time applying these principles here at Ananda Center at Laurelwood. Our campus with 55 acres, 7 buildings, orchards, gardens, and a multitude of green spaces offers a large canvas for applying and practicing permaculture. All are welcome! Permaculture, a combination of permanent and agriculture, is commonly misunderstood. Permaculture is not just food foresting, or perennial vegetables, or no-till polycultures. These are common themes in permaculture-informed agriculture, but it cannot be defined by any one technique. It is driven by principles. Those principles boil down to: using the simplest appropriate technology to accomplish one’s goals while being respectful of the earth and all our fellow inhabitants, to spend more energy thinking and planning than mindless toil. I love how it encourages expanding awareness–caring for plants; including the realities of deer and voles into our own; being positive–seeing “problems” as opportunities; working with spaces and plants from thought and energy planes before the physical; doing what needs to be done in the most efficient way possible; working intuitively…etc. Call with questions or look for us in the garden. Ananda Center at Laurelwood Permaculture design map