Patterning patterns in nature: emulated/enhanced/stabilized/reproduced in permaculture systems Here's something Milo wrote about patterns and permaculture: <> Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 13:49:25 EST From: Milogic To: Cc: Subject: Pattern and difference To echo Scott on the permaculture list and Bea on the biodynamics list (to a degree): core elements, for me, within the permaculture vision and Mollison's crazy wisdom* are what Bateson called 'the patterns which connect" and differences that make a difference. (*substitute Steiner and Biodynamics freely) Polyculturing is patterning in ways that create differences which make differences--and doing so within manageable microcosms. Permaculture is dynamics in systems. People outside permaculture like Theodor Schwenk and Hans Jenny or Ralph Abraham are working within patterning ideas and finding pragmatic links between cosmos and soil particles. Some of the precursors in people like Rudolph Steiner, Edmund Bordeaux Szekeley, Wilhelm Reich et al, worked earlier in time and under conditions no longer available. In a remarkable way, in terms of human experience on this planet, we are totally connected and totally alone together. New ways of linking, such as this, may be creating the webs of relationship, community, through which we can abandon reason as we have been taught and find actualities in tune with now. I suspect permaculture is one of those linking ways. As we try to cope with conditions presenting themselves from soil imbalances in my back yard to firestorms in South East Asia, we are dealing with dynamic systems overburdened with positive feedback, thereby increasing entropic tendencies at exponential rates. Reason, as we have been given to understand it, is proving irrational and failing us. Permaculture offers pattterns, which if explored with open mind, may allow us to grok differences needed which, in place, will make key differences in species survival for humankind. Permaculture, by encouraging people to take action in place, with awareness of universal sentience, provides essential anchors for turbulent times. Crazy wisdom is in short supply. Treasure every bit that falls upon you. For those inclined to Eastern spiritual practices and thought, permaculture may be understood as a grounding of bliss to find grace, one way of ending suffering through finding out who we are. For those who follow such paths, it is clear, at least to me, that east and west are converging into sets of understandings more like parallel and converging paths. The works which flowed through a Western mind who integrated Eastern patterns, Lama Anagarika Govinda, are particularly cogent in adapting and adopting these sets. And also, an Eastern Mind who groks Western mind, Tarthang Tulku, continues to expand his Time, Space and Knowledge series. A Western scientist who groks well is Ralph Abraham (see his Chaos, Gaia, Eros). Perhaps the better path is simply to meld your being with the soil on which you walk (if any is available to you). Milo Clark Berkeley CA USA <> and from Lee Flier: - To: Subject: Re: edge zones From: Lee Flier Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 >Would anyone care to expound on the design and usage of >edge zones and patterning in the context of permaculture >systems? OK, I'll bite. Yes, the patterning in design and the use of edge zones is very important in maximizing use of resources on any site. It's a really underrated and fascinating area of study. "Edge zones" occur naturally at the transition point between any two media. This could be between air and water, water and soil, forest and field, valley and slope, etc. The interesting thing is that the edges of anything are always very dynamic and productive compared to the interiors. For example most farmers know that the yields at the edges of grain or cornfields are almost double what they are in the interiors! Also if you look at a pond, there is more potential diversity of species at the edges of ponds than in the middle. So, in designing sites we want to maximize the amount of "edge". In the case of the grain fields for example, you can plant trees, (together with herbs, fruit bearing shrubs, vining plants, tubers and anything else that will do well under trees), and then run 6 foot wide swaths of grain in clearings between the trees. This gives you a "perpetual edge" and you will get nearly the same yield you would have had if you'd planted all grain, PLUS the yield from the trees and other plants. Likewise with a pond, if you make "fingers" all around instead of a simple round or oval shape, you will get much more edge which will yield a lot more in the same area. Nature itself has a tendency to arrange things into certain patterns that appear random to us if we aren't conscious of them, but which are often optimized to create edge (as with the "finger" shape which is also in an oak leaf, the "branching" shapes of rivers, lungs, and tree branches, etc.) The shape of a mushroom is also prevalant; trees, bones, the flowforms of running water, and many other things take on this shape. The patterns, the reasons why the patterns occur, and the connections between them are endless but the basic ones are fairly simple, and a lot of aboriginal "abstract art" is really a map of these natural patterns, a way to pass knowledge of them down to the children. Most westerners see this artwork and see it as purely aesthetic, not having a clue that they're looking at the equivalent of a school textbook - only a lot easier to memorize! The idea in learning these natural patterns is that by imitating them in human designs (rather than patterning everything after the needs of machinery, such as in straight lines and squares), we will get more out of the system with less work and less use of resources because these are the patterns things "want" to fall into without our help. We in fact are wasting resources every time we try to design a system that runs counter to these patterns. Well that's the basic idea... I'm sure others will have something to say too! = Lee = ================================== Lee A. Flier Atlanta and Ellijay, Georgia, U.S.A. <><> Graham Bell says: 'All patterns of occupation or behaviour have edges and they offer a particularly rich envronment. This is because the edge of anything is especially rich in species, supporting plants, animals and activities from both its neighbouring areas, and also the species and activities which only take place in that special zone.'