Permaculture Resource List

Compiled by Elizabeth Lynch, 2011; added to by Juliette Jones 2012

Pc Communities, on-line or other

Pittsburgh-local Resources

Pittsburgh Permaculture’s Resources
  • What is Permaculture? – A brief description of permaculture
  • Pittsburgh Hardiness Zones – this article takes a detailed look at the USDA hardiness zones and the updated Arbor Day Foundation map
  • Patterns and Design – a discussion about the pervasive patterns of nature and how they might be integrated in our designs
  • Fruit Tree Guild - this page describes a permaculture design we installed at the Edgerton Avenue site in Point Breeze
  • Permaculture Pond – a description of a pond install that is designed to function without pumps or filters while providing a beautiful, productive habitat
  • Grape Vine Awning – a page explaining the placement of a grapevine on the south side of the home to help reduce energy costs
  • Vegetable Seed Starting – color coded charts to help you time your vegetable starts
  • Actively Aerated Compost Tea – a guide to making your own compost tea and constructing a cheap yet effective brewer
  • Grafting at Home – an article explaining the theory of grafting fruit trees and how to do it with what you already have at home
  • Stackable Worm Bin How-to – a picture guide to making your own stackable worm composting bin using 5 gallon buckets
  • Addressing Concerns about Worms – a discussion about the recent concerns surrounding invasive worms and the relative risk they pose

National/ International Resources

Pc List-serve

Economics

Podcasts

Other Resources

Books

Pesticides/Pollution

Films

Worktrade Opportunities

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is about intelligent design that works with nature.  The basic premise of permaculture is to increase human sustainability by creating self-sufficient systems that literally become more than the sum of their parts.

Village Homes in Davis, California.
Village Homes in Davis, California (photo by Wayne Senville, Planning Comm’rs Journal, www.plannersweb.com).

That is to say, each aspect of the system (the soil, water, plants, and animals) is integrated in such a way to enhance the positive aspects of each other feature. This is not spiritualism or magic, though it may inspire such. Rather, these are tangible benefits such as shade, pollinators, mulch, weed-eating animals, nitrogen-fixers, and composting that stack throughout the systems to create positive feedback loops. While these designs are borrowing inspiration, patterns and design from nature, we’re doing so in order to provide for human needs such as food, clothing, construction materials, medicines, fuels, etc.

Food-based permaculture designs are typically centered around perennial, food-producing plants such as fruit or nut trees. An important aspect of these systems is layering plants of differing heights to capture the maximum amount of the sun’s energy. Tall trees, short trees, shrubs, herbs and vines do not lay in a two-dimensional grid like a typical vegetable garden, instead they reach up into three dimensions capturing light from above, below and all around. These systems will out-produce traditional systems in terms of energy, diversity, soil quality, and provision of habitat for wildlife.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is in need of creative solutions to take it from an industrial waste site to a livable city. It has come a long way and has strong communities which, given tools like permaculture, can move the United States to a more sustainable future.

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The seven layers of a forest garden.
The seven layers of a forest garden (Diagram by Graham Burnett).

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To read a more comprehensive description of permaculture, please visit the Wikipedia article or start searching the web.

For more external links, please visit our More Information section.

Regenerating Pittsburgh Event Canceled

We am sorry to report that we have failed to achieve enough registrations for the Pittsburgh event even after welcoming all scholarship recipients and slashing the budget to simplify the program. We are therefore canceling the whole weekend of events in Pittsburgh. :(

We hope to reschedule and get Dave to Pittsburgh another time.

Peace and love,

Dave and Juliette