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What Are the Benefits of Having a Permaculture Design at Home?
- Enhanced food security
- Time savings
- Improved resilience
- Ecosystem restoration, and
- Pride
Now, let's take a look at all these benefits!
1. Enhance Food Security
Why rely on stores with variable prices and risks of shortage or recall? It can be tricky buying food only to find out that you have to toss it because it fell to the back of the fridge, and you forgot about it.
Buying food has many steps and processes, regardless of whether it was grown on a plant or made in one. Any process has the potential to generate waste. The best way to cut down this waste is to increase the amount of food grown at home while decreasing what you purchase elsewhere.
You’re in charge of what you eat and where you get it. You know what nutrients went into the ground, what food you’ll have in season, and best of all, nothing beats the taste of freshly picked fruits and vegetables.
Sound enticing? A permaculture designer will help guide you through your property and notice the areas to enhance food production. They’ll consult with you about what foods you may be interested in and how much time you’re looking to invest in your garden’s “groceries.”
And don’t forget, when your yard is full of food, you’re going to have more than enough to suit your current needs. Talk with your permaculture designer about resources for preserving your harvest and extending that bounty into the winter months.
4. Restore Ecosystems
Permaculture was invented for the suburbs and the cities or other landscapes devoid of a diverse, natural ecosystem. Designers are taught to find use in the marginal regions of your property and seed life. It’s a way to help people grow food in their yards while also creating habitat for insects, food for local wildlife, and many more activities that occur commonly in nature.
The permaculture designer will examine various features of your landscape, ranging from placement in the watershed to solar aspects. They will guide you through what will grow best or which natural features can be enhanced. They will often give preference to native plants to help support your local ecosystem.
By restoring the ecosystem, you are helping create habitat for all species, both big and small. A recently published study revealed a decline of North American birds, with a staggering loss of 3 billion over 48 years. This coincides with insect populations' decline over time. By restoring local ecosystems on your property, you are helping rebuild our damaged world.
5. Feel Good
Having a permaculture design done for your home brings on a feeling of pride. You decided to make your property and your family more resilient to the uncertainties of our current climate crisis.
A detailed permaculture design looks at long-lasting natural systems. This means that your family can potentially have nutrient-rich food, clean water, and abundant natural resources for many years. A developed method can be passed down from generation to generation. Your children and their children can inherit not only a home with long-lasting memories but an ecological system that was designed to keep them sustained.
Even if you don't have children, the system you create could one day become the beacon of hope that someone else needs. By 2050, 143 million people will be forced from their homes due to climate change. Someone escaping the horrors of the future climate reality may feel safe because of the work you did to prepare this system today.
Tanner Sagouspe
Tanner Sagouspe has a Masters in Environmental Management and is a Permaculture Designer who promotes tackling the climate crisis at home.
