PC glossary

„Becoming Indigenous“: Indigenous people have lived with the lands for thousands of years in a relationship of mutual care. Becoming indigenous means developing a knowledge of the lands we live on and of its relationships, establishing an intimacy of knowing how its elements relate to each other and build the bigger whole. Getting to know its life cycles, and adapting to them in a certain way. Becoming indigenous also means to establish an attitude of mutual care and stewardship towards the land. It nourishes me as much as I nourish it.

Beneficial Relationship : Permaculture aims to design relationships between elements in a system (be it a garden, a community, household or whatever), that are beneficial to each other, which means that we try to create closed systems of circular energy flows, where one thing nourishes the other. Take the example of a compost. When cooking with veggies, the scrap goes to compost or the animals (like chicken or rabbits) who nourish themselves from what is not useful for me anymore. And both compost and animal shit increase fertility and aliveness of the soil which brings new growth for nourishing and sheltering plants for both animals and humans.

Companion Planting: Placing plants from differnt species close to each other, so one benefits the other, for example by keeping away pests or insects.

Cover Crops: are crops which are planted specifically with the aim of preventing soil erosion through dry out and suppress weeds.

Deep Ecology: is both a holistic worldview, which understands earth as a living system in which all is related. Thus it understands humans as embedded in the ecosystem, not superior to it. Deep ecology also insists of the inherent value of all forms of life through their role in the eco-system. As an applied approach towards the world, deep ecology aims to reconnect humans with their individual grief which is understood to be the expression of the systemic violence exerted by industrial growth societies.

Degrowth: questions the logic of growth inherent to the present economic system,reaching deep into the values of the culture of industrial civilization. Degrowth aims to explore ways of a simpler yet more fullfilled and earthbased life.

Decolonizing: Means questioning power relations based on the understanding of power as “power over”. This means questioning stories that legitimate the violence exerted from those at the top of the hierarchy, towards those lower in the hierarchy. Decolonizing means: understanding every living being (regardless if it is a human or not) as bearing an inherent value and being open to listen to their story, instead of imposing violence on them. In connection with Permaculture this also means: Decolonizing our understanding of nature. We are trying to find a way of transforming “power over” the lands into “power from within” and synergy through deep listening and observation.

Energy: is central in permaculture, since it is an approach to design closed energy flows. Energy can be the electricity that I get from my solar panels or the wind urbine on my roof, but also money, water, people’s skills, …  can be understood as “energy” flowing through a project or permaculture estate.

Ecology: is the way of understanding every element in this world as a product of it’s relations. Thus everything is connected. Similarly also Permaculture is an approach to design realtionships rather than elements.

Economy: Can we create an economy that is embedded into the principles of ecology?

Edge: describes the place where two systems meet, like a bushy hedge between forest and field or the brackish water where a sweet water river flows into the salt water sea. Edges are increasing diversity, since they offer living conditions for inhabitants of both systems and create conditions for new inhabitants of the edge itself.

Guild: is a harmniously interwoven group of plants and animals, often centered around one major species (ex. Apple tree guild in the forest garden). It benefits humans while creating a habitat for wildlife.

Niche: is the role that a particular organism takes within an ecosystem. One could understand the niche of an organism as the profession and the habitat as the workspace it needs for performing its job.

Nitrogen Fixers: are plants (like leguminosae) that make atmospheric nitrogen available to other plants by storing it in their roots. Once they die and decompose, they release the nitrogen back to the soil, from where it can be taken by other plants. Nitrogen fixers are a key element for bringing fertility to the soil.

Nurse Plants: are species that create shelter and otehr favorable conditions in which more delicate plants can more easily sprout and start to grow.

Nature Based Practise: is a way to develop ecological senistivity through connecting inner work with experience of wild nature through different practises. It helps us to come to a greater understanding of the self and our role in the web of life, by connecting to non-human surroundings and recognizing our embeddedness in natural processes.

Pioneer Plant: are fast growing, nutrient accumulating flora that arrives first after disturbance. They create conditions for other plants to grow and are represent the first step in the >succession.

Pruning: is describing the process of cutting the branches of fruit trees.

Principles: There are 12 Principles (Like: Obeserve and interact”) that guide the permaculture design process. They are a tool which aims to bridge the more mental aspects of a design, like ethics with the physical elements and zones.

Permaculture and Peace Building: through the ethics of earth care, people care and fair share, which stand at the core of each permaculture design and aim to create mutually beneficial relationships that foster synergies, and thus peace and coexistance, permaculture can be used as a powerful tool to design transformation within societies that lead towards a more peaceful togetherness. Through 3peas Project, GAIA Kosovo is trying to implement permaculture as a peacebuilding tool in the Balkan Region.

Regenerative Agriculture: is a way of farming that aims to increase soil feritility, and regenerate aliveness of landscapes through working with the principles of nature, not against them.

Resilience: describes the ability of ecosystems but also communities to recover from or resist shocks. A key element that creates resilience is diversity. A monoculture field will fall victim to pests if no pesticides are used. An intercropped field of diverse plants that stand in beneficial relationship to each other will not leave much target to shocks like pests, and is thus more resilient.

Reduce, Refuse, Reuse, Recycle: are principles of >degrowth, aiming to decrease energy consumption and work towards the establishment of closed energy and material flows.

Succession: is describing how a biological community evolves over time. In regions of temperate climate, woods are the natural state of the landscape. In this case, succession describes the process of how grasslands turn into forests. In permaculture we use the process of succession for designing processes of longer duration, like forest gardens.

Sheet Mulching: is a method of composting in place through combining different layers of organic matter and thus building soil and eradicating weeds without tilling or the need for herbicides

Swale: is a shallow trench created along the lands contours (>keyline design) to allow water to enter the soil.

System Thinking: is a systematic and holistic approach towards problem solving that sees the interrelatedness of everything, and aims to take action from a deeper level, in order to create a greater and more sustainable effect on the symptom level.

Stewardship: is a principle of approach to wards the land that is rooted in an attitude of care. It also reverses the logic of human as standing on the peak of eco-systems and sees us as embedded into a living system that we can meet in an attitude of care, aiming to increase its beauty rather than using it until everything is destroyed.