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PERMACULTURE DESIGN BITES 2
Each Element Performs Many Functions
by Maddy Harland
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In a permaculture design, each element has many functions, the minimum being three. Having three or more functions helps create a stable and diverse food growing system because each element is connected together, making energy cycle through the system rather than being lost as wastes, i.e. food production can be connected to animal husbandry, composting, useful structures etc... This diverse food growing ecosystem is the opposite to a monoculture which only has one yield and is of little or no benefit to the surrounding eco-system. Performing many functions therefore creates diversity of yield, resourcefulness, greater opportunity and, by allowing energy to flow throughout the system, enhances efficiency. Here are three examples.
Take, for example, the humble yet marvellously multi-functional comfrey plant. A patch of comfrey in a garden can be cut as a compost activator; can make liquid comfrey manure to feed fruit trees and vegetables because its high potash content stimulates the production of flowers and the development of fruit; makes valuable bee and chicken forage; creates shelter for tender plants; can be planted as a barrier to stop weeds like couch invading a vegetable garden (as long as it is allowed to establish itself first – mulch with carpet, cut holes and then plant it); draws trace elements and nutrients from deep in the soil; accumulates potash which is released when cut and used as a top dressing or mulch; can be occasionally eaten in fritters; is a powerful medicinal herb used for pulmonary complaints, aids the healing of broken bones (its folk name was Knitbone or Nipbone), can be applied as a poultice for ulcerous wounds and made into an ointment relieving inflammation, pain, and bruising.
In a monoculture, battery chickens are solely reared for eggs. Meat pies are a by-product, not a part of the main function. In a permaculture design, the noble chicken can have many functions: eggs, meat, manure, feathers, heat for a greenhouse, weeding the vegetable patch in tractors, pest control, recycling cooked kitchen waste, education for children, even friendship (chickens make good permaculture ‘pets’!). This multi-functional approach to keeping chickens has a number of benefits: it is more compassionate – the birds are happier and healthier – all wastes are converted into resources and the chickens are also able to share in some of the gardening tasks like weeding and pest control.
Hedgerows can have many functions. In our garden the mixed species hedgerow provides privacy and a valuable windbreak for the fruit trees. Most of the species in the hedgerow are native, thus supporting a diversity of species of birds and insects. The trees have been grown from locally harvested seed in Hampshire and provide a gene bank for conservation garden designers on our LETScheme. The hedges also provide shelter for our chickens and ducks, and berry bearing plants and insects provide them with forage at the lower levels and berry harvests for us higher up. The trimmings are converted into mulch, kindling and woodchip. Some of the hedge plants are being left to become standard trees to provide more wind protection, firewood and food as well. We are also beginning to underplant the hedgerow with useful trees and bushes like Elaeagnus x ebbingei, Rosa rugosa, cherry plum (Prunus myrobalan) and Godshill elder (an elder with has large berries grown by Deacon’s Nursery in Godshill on the Isle of Wight). These will eventually be allowed to grow to maturity whilst some of the plants which are currently sheltering them will be removed.
The hedges also provide our bees with forage early in the year. In springtime the buckthorn gives us particular pleasure, bursting into exquisitely fine clouds of tiny white blossom, heralding the changing season and lifting the spirits in a way the poor old privet could never do!
These three examples demonstrate how a single element can have many functions, particularly when linked to other elements in a design. This approach has many benefits and is a creative approach to maximising yields which might otherwise go to waste.
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