Permaculture Principles – Stacking Functions and Stacking Elements
View this post on Hive: Permaculture Principles – Stacking Functions and Stacking Elements
Since the Steem blockchain became a centralized, top-down dominated place, where control and censorship thrive, I have decided to move my content. Don't worry, though, all my posts and up and doing well on the decentralized Hive blockchain. Come and check it out!
Epic! We need more permaculture on steemit! Thank you for posting this @stortebeker !
Oh, more permaculture is coming! Thanks to good folks like us. ;-)
Beautiful! Really enjoyed the article and the examples. Only thing I didn't understand is HOW you concluded that "neither Mollison nor Holmgren put that much emphasis on" these two principles. Wouldn't some of the 12 Principles from Holmgren ie Design From Patterns to Details – AND
Integrate Rather Than Segregate – “Many hands make light work”
By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other. Plus Bill's Designer Manual is FILLED with dozens of examples emphasizing the importance of stacking functions.... Don't get me wrong, I loved the article, I just couldn't find any truth to that claim in my own observations or study. Maybe you could clarify.
You're right, it's my wording that's poorly chosen. It's not that they don't put emphasis on these concepts, but they both structure their set of design principles in a way that they are not treated as separate principles. Of course the same ideas can be found in principles such as work with nature not against it (elements serve functions by their nature) or everything gardens (another way of saying they serve a function), integrate rather than segregate as you pointed out, or even make the most of energy which ironically is another principle from the same set. But no, it is incorrect to imply they don't consider it important. They just never turned it into it's own principle.
So I will have to rephrase that part (while I still can edit it). I think a couple more attempts at explaining myself should let me come up with the best wording. Thank you for pointing this out, by the way.
I really appreciated you doing the same and calling me out in a previous post I had done and I just wanted to encourage you to make a fantastic post EVEN BETTER. I got your back, and that will come in the form of unreserved praise (your stuff IS great @stortebeker! )and the occasional prod or bit of constructive criticism. As a community, if we can put all our skills together, we can do all the things......and have fun improving our craft in the process. Great clarification man, thank you for the wise retort. My friend commented on a video I had posted and quite correctly pointed out how dry and difficult it was for him to watch. I was irked at first but then saw exactly what he meant and replaced the video with one more flashy, shorter and to the point. He was right. Been having a lot of awkward but ultimately worthwhile teachable moments lately so I guess it's just my mood. The editing in the first week is AWESOME, just wish I also realized the only thing you can't really edit are the title and main category you wanna post in. May the Forces of Nature be with you..... @ecoknowme :)
Done! And it sounds so much better this way. Once again, thank you for nudging me towards the right direction. And yes, once I notice something that doesn't sound quite right (or outright wrong) I'll make sure to say something.
You know, I think we are not yet used to actual dynamic writing. After centuries of one-way communication in print-media the above interaction seems still unusual. Changing a published article? Unheard of! But had we been talking, you would probably have asked to clarify this point right there and then. But given our current abilities, we still can do it. Now the text is changed, and we both feel more comfortable about pointing out things that may need a bit more work. I'd say it's a win-win.
Best. Agreegument. Ever. Total win/win and reminded me of the cultural anthropology guy who studied this phenomena and made a cool video called the 'Machine is Us/ing Us"
I really appreciate you sharing these permaculture principles. I feel like a lot of people who should be learning this information don't because of the cost of a course and that it should be open to everyone as you're doing here.
Thanks!
Well, it's a challenge, that's for sure. Since there is no X number of principles, the list could go on and on. As many teachers of permaculture, as many lists of principles there are. Of course Holmgren's 12 points are the most famous set, but these two for example, I learned about at my PDC. So I'm trying to review the ones I can relate to most, and then... then tackle the rest. Thanks for reading! ;-)
What an educational read! The principles you outline make so much sense, I think about if planning and strategy would really go a long way in stacking elements and improving the efficiency of a homestead.
Thank you @jaymorebeet! You are right, all these principles help us get the most out of everything, not specifically just a homestead. However, living elements are generally so diverse that they tend to offer a lot more ways of combining them, and so increasing the overall efficiency of the system. Honestly, I believe anyone reasonable enough already does this, calling it common sense. So now, the same principle can be applied to less obvious areas.
Excellent post @stortebeker!
IMHO the web created by stacking elements and associated functions to create resilience is one of the most vital parts of design.
If I may add something... Consider the dimension of time when designing your stacks. Time stacking allows us to expand our design functionality and forge even more layers of resilience in that way.
A simple example of this would be planting fast growing tree species as a pioneer to provide shade and shelter in which secondary succession is established. The pioneers are then cut back after several years and used as timber or firewood.
Awesome @qholloi, thank you for this great example! Indeed, time is an important factor that's too easily ignored. Certain systems can be put together almost immediately, while others need time to get established. So it is up to us to make use of the functions of quick elements, like the pioneer trees in your example, to help us get the slower ones working.
Let me see if I can apply the same idea in the kitchen: For example, by using the hot water drained from pasta to make the base of a soup, I'm not only taking advantage of the starchy water, but the fact that it's just been boiling. Okay, not exactly the same, but I think the idea is to design for an element to be not just in the right place, but to be there at the right time, and for the duration it's needed.
I appreciate you bringing up this conceptual exercise! This helps us reveal more valuable information hidden behind an idea.
Some really great permaculture info here. I'm looking to start implementing a few more principles here where I live, and all this provides some ideas. Thank you!
Nice to hear, @cosmicorder. Which principles would you like to implement, and in what way? It's exciting to hear about the practical applications of these theoretical concepts.
Well, I'm not certain as of yet. The main focus here though is finding better ways to grow my vegetables. I'm in a temperate climate region.
#Permaculture meets #PassiveIncome http://nodesofvalue.com/explore-6-types-sources-of-passive-income-nature-social-side-hustle-traditional-financial-and-crypto/. #Nature, #Social, #Sidehustle, #Traditional, #Financial, #Crypto #dividends