Permaculture in the garden: tips for creating a permanent culture

• Why does permaculture make sense in the garden?
• Create permaculture in the garden
• Create permaculture in the bed
• Permaculture for small gardens

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Permaculture has a number of advantages and it is no coincidence that it is considered to be particularly sustainable. We reveal everything about creating a permaculture in your own garden.

Permaculture is a particularly natural and low-maintenance form of gardening. We'll tell you how to create your own permaculture garden in six steps and how you can create a permaculture bed and, above all, permaculture in an allotment garden.

Why does permaculture make sense in the garden?

Permaculture in the garden has many advantages: On the one hand, it is a very environmentally friendly and resource-saving way of gardening. On the other hand, it leaves much of the work to nature and man has only a minimal effort.

The advantages of permaculture in the garden in a nutshell:
Permaculture is…

• Eco-friendly, both locally and globally;
• Resource-saving;
• Conducive to biodiversity and diversity;
• Beneficial for beneficial insects, which relieve us of a lot of plant protection work in the garden;
• A good idea if you want to build up humus to make your soil more fertile;
• A perfect tactic to save water in the garden.

For a definition of permaculture and all of its principles, see our article What is Permaculture?

Create permaculture in the garden

A permaculture garden does not develop by itself. If you want to delve deep into this form of management, we recommend the following six steps. Immediately afterwards we will explain the implementation of these individual modules.

Six steps to a permaculture garden:

1. Watch
2. Identify Resources
3. Zonate
4. Plan Items
5. Planting
6. Implementation

Create permaculture in the garden: 1. Watch

The first step to the permaculture garden is to observe nature in the garden and the current conditions. Take a look around your gardenExactly: Where is it rather dry? Are there wetter spots? Where does the sun shine all day? Which places are more likely to be shaded? Are there particularly wind-protected areas? Does the grass grow particularly luxuriantly in some places and not at all in others? Walk through the garden with your eyes wide open and familiarize yourself with what is already there. To record your observations, it is worth making a rough sketch.

Tip: Subsequent interventions - such as planting, creating watercourses or the creation of hills and depressions - can of course still be used to model the conditions in your garden so that other microclimates develop. After all, quite a few gardens consist of only two zones: a sunny, dry lawn and a shady lawn with moss.

Create permaculture in the garden: 2. Identify Resources

Now that you've thoroughly inspected your garden, it's time to identify important resources. The results of your observations should also be included in your sketch.

Key Gardening Resources:

• Ground
• Water
• Light
• Warmth
• Wind
• Working hours

Soil: Soil is the basic requirement for life. It is a habitat for important microorganisms, a water reservoir and, above all, a nutrient medium for he althy and strong plants. You can check the properties of your soil with a soil analysis - this would then be necessary in all different areas - or use indicator plants and your intuition as a guide. For example, nettle (Urtica) is an indicator of nitrogen-rich soil, daisies (Bellis perennis) and cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis ) indicate nutrient-poor soils. Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is an indication of acidic soils, bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) indicates alkaline soil conditions. Finger testing can also be used to roughly determine soil type: kneadable, cohesive soils contain a good amount of clay, dark, fragrant and crumbly soils are rich in humus, and soils with low cohesion tend to be sandy.

Tip: A soil rich in humus makes many things easier! It stores nutrients and water and supplies the plants with it as needed - so you have to water less often and only fertilize a few times a year. By introducing organic material and nutrients, for example with the Plantura organic soil activator, you improve your soil in the long term and sustainably.

Water: Water is also essential for the development of plants. Depressions in the garden that are not constantly dried out by wind and sun are ideal for storing water. Here a pond could become the basis of life for wet plants and associated insects, amphibians and birds.

Light: No plant can grow without light. So keep track of how long different areas of your garden are bathed in sun, shade, or partial shade.

Heat: Heat does not only depend on solar radiation. The soil and the air above it will heat up more quickly near house walls, dark stones and on humus-rich, dark soil or black mulch films - especially if the area is additionally protected from the wind. Such zones are valuable for warmth-loving plants such as persimmon trees or apricot trees.

Wind: Wind has a great influence in gardens. Windless areas are predestined for pests, especially fungal diseases and aphids. Wind can also play a role as a pollinator, for example with hazelnuts and walnuts. But wind also has major disadvantages: Windswept gardens often suffer from severe early and late frosts. Unprotected soils in particular also dry out extremely quickly in the wind, which in the long term affects the soil quality and, of course, every plant.
Therefore, it makes sense to design both wind-protected and wind-open zones in your own garden, if possible: For example with the help of windbreak hedges.

Working hours: Another important factor is time: do I have a lot of time to work in the garden, or do I actually only get to the garden very rarely? Depending on the available working time, the garden can be planned more or less labour-intensive.

Create permaculture in the garden: 3. Zone

The ideal model of a permaculture consists of five zones (rings), the center of which is the human being. The zones can also be implemented in small gardens, for example by using raised beds, vertical gardening or by merging the zones.

Zone 0 house or apartment: People live and cook here.
Zone 1 kitchen garden, herb garden: Above all Herbs that have daily use in the kitchen should be grown in this zone.
Zone 2 Vegetable Garden: Vegetables that are used more frequently and require a little more maintenance can be planted in this area. But also thatCompost, pond or beehives can be found here.
Zone 3 Agricultural zone: This includes arable crops such as potatoes or grain, which rarely require maintenance.
Zone 4: Fruit and Nut Trees, Pastures: Trees are the easiest crops to maintain and are limited to seasonal use and maintenance. For this, one gladly accepts a slightly further route. Any farm animals such as sheep or ducks also feel at home here between the trees.
Zone 5 Wilderness, relaxation area for people and nature: This zone is considered a place of retreat, where bees in particular , insects, butterflies, birds and small mammals such as hedgehogs and the like are undisturbed. Here it makes sense to set up an insect hotel; there are nesting sites for birds or a retreat for hedgehogs to hibernate in peace.

Zones 1 to 5 can be roughly drawn in your garden plan. The actual planning of the elements of the permaculture garden is now based on them:

Create permaculture in the garden: 4. Schedule Items

After the area has been examined and you know where which zone is, elements can now be planned in a targeted manner. It is important to ensure that as many resources as possible are used. For example, it rarely makes sense to remove existing structures such as trees or shrubs just to create a sunny spot for the herb spiral. It would be better to find another place for the herb spiral or at least to use existing plants elsewhere. The same applies to walls, ponds or existing bed areas.

Examples of elements in the permaculture garden:

• Raised Bed
• Hillbed
• Pond and wetlands
• Dry Wall
• stone bed
• Herb bed or herb spiral
• Nesting aid for wild bees that pollinate your plants
• Butterfly House
• Flower meadow as habitat for beneficial insects
• Nest Boxes for Birds
• Erdkeller
• Compost heap
• Hedges
• Logs for mushroom growing
• Fruit trees such as apple trees (Malus) or plums (Prunus domestica subsp. domestica)
• Nut trees such as hazelnut (Corylus avellana)
• Berry bushes such as raspberries (Rubus idaeus) or gooseberries (Ribes uva-crispa)
• Small animals such as ducks, sheep, chickens or mini pigs
• NativesShrubs such as sloe (Prunus spinosa) or rosehip (Rosa canina) for the wilderness area
• Seats and routes

Tip: Wild meadows are anything but a waste of space: Beneficial insects big and small are here, waiting to be used in your plant population. You can also let pests such as voles do their thing here. Apart from its usefulness, a wild meadow like the Plantura beneficial insect magnet is also an invitation to look and be amazed - it is therefore a good idea to set up a seat here.

Create permaculture in the garden: 5. Plant planning

When planning the planting, it is important not to promote monocultures, but rather a mixed culture. Diversity instead of simplicity is the motto here. There are many plant communities that support each other. Legumes such as peas (Pisum sativum) or clover (Trifolium) bind nitrogen from the air so that it is available for other plants. Foundation plants like the Bee Friend (Phacelia tanacetifolia) feed insects while loosening the soil. And thanks to the different growth heights and rooting depths of the most diverse vegetable plants, every spot of soil is optimally utilized.
Perennial useful plants are also preferable to annual ones. These last for several years in the garden and do not have to be replanted every year.

Create permaculture in the garden: 6. Implementation

After all the planning and preparation, the final step is implementation. Now let's get started: You can let off steam in the countryside to your heart's content and design and build a permaculture garden according to your wishes. Don't stick to your original plan too dogmatically: Sometimes new insights emerge in the development process and you have to react flexibly to them. For example, a very good offer, such as a group of berry bushes, should never be turned down just because you have already decided on a specific variety. You'd better see if you can't integrate the gift you've received in a meaningful way.

Create permaculture in the bed

You don't want to redesign your entire garden straight away, but at least want to create a permaculture bed? To create a permaculture bed, there are several principles and cultivation methods that you can consider. A popular practice in permaculture is no-tillDigging, as well as undersowing, mulching, green manure and - most importantly - fertilizing with sustainable fertilizers.

Overview of ideas for permaculture in beds:

• Direct sowing without digging: Serves to maintain soil fertility; Beds are not dug up, but weeds are removed by covering them with mulch or mulch film. After a few weeks, the mulch can be removed, the weeds raked off and the seed brought in or planted.
• Mulching: Here, bare soil is consistently covered with organic material, which protects the soil and provides new humus. Weeds are also suppressed.
• Undersowing: Between the rows of the main crops - for example leeks - a secondary crop such as parsley or rocket is sown. The plants hardly compete because they root at different depths and grow at different heights. It also suppresses weeds.
• Mixed culture: Here, plants are planted together that can benefit each other.
• Perennial Plants: Perennial crops are low maintenance and require no annual tillage.
• Site-compatible plants: For example, choose suitable vegetables for the shade or an apple tree variety that gets along well with the existing soil.
• Green Manure: It should cover the soil after harvest and not only keeps weeds out, but also improves the soil.
• Natural fertilisers: In order not to disturb the balance of acids and bases in the soil and to preserve useful microorganisms and humus in the soil, primarily organic fertilization is the only option in permaculture Option - with mineral fertilizers, the water and nutrient storage capacity of the soil would be greatly reduced in the long term. In addition to sustainable fertilizers such as our Plantura organic universal fertilizer, compost - whether from your own garden or purchased - as well as horse manure, ash, egg shells and other home remedies are valuable nutrient and carbon donors that can improve the soil if used correctly.

Permaculture for small gardens

If you don't have a lot of space in the garden, you can still implement a lot. One possibility is to omit zones of the classic permaculture model: the zone of annual vegetables or the herb garden, for example. Or you build upwards: with the help of hill beds or raised beds planted all around, for example, many elements of permaculture fit into oneallotment. Herb spirals also save more space compared to flat beds. Or try space-saving gardening on straw or mushroom growing on tree trunks.

Tip: Many people automatically associate growing potatoes with tilling large fields. But many potatoes can be harvested even in less than one square meter - we explain how:
Instructions potato tower:

• Fill the sack (e.g. made of jute) with some nutrient-rich soil, such as our Plantura organic tomato & vegetable soil.
• Plant a small potato or two in the ground.
• Water regularly and top up with soil so that only the top two or three leaves are showing.
• Once the sack is full of soil and the plant grows out, wait another 2 weeks for the potatoes to develop properly.

Natural biological plant protection can also work well in small gardens: An insect hotel can be attached to the wall of the house to encourage beneficial insects. You could also create a wildflower meadow spread over several flower boxes. If you don't have space for a large compost, you have the option of making your own vermicompost, which can be used to recycle kitchen waste in the smallest of spaces.
Water butts are a classic variant as water reservoirs, which also find a good place in small gardens be able. The installation of an underground rainwater tank, from which water can be drawn with the help of a pump, is a bit more complex, but much more space-saving.

Permaculture space-saving elements for small gardens:

• Raised beds
• hill beds
• Herb Spiral
• Insect waterers, wildflowers in tubs and boxes
• Nest Boxes
• worm box
• Rain butt or underground water tank
• Vertical gardening on house walls

If you're very interested in confined space gardening, read our special article!

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