Permaculture in 2 sentences

Please describe permaculture in two sentences.

How many commas, semi-colons and dashes are allowed in these sentences?

Wikipedia says:

Permaculture is a set of design principles centered around whole systems thinking simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems. It uses these principles in a growing number of fields from regenerative agriculture, rewilding, community, and organizational design and development.

I'd say it's a design system where you work with Mother Nature instead of fighting her to bring prosperity to you and the land.

How about just one? I often say when describing it to those who never heard of it.

"It is a mimicking of natural systems in a way that is beneficial not only to humans but the rest of nature as well."

Then if that seems to interest them go into the longer explanations. Always judging their responses and body language. As well as verbally asking if they really want me to continue or to move on to other subjects. I don't want to overwhelm someone and have them have a bad connotation with permaculture. So I try to tread carefully, since I am passionate about the topic and can go on for hours if allowed.

Be partners, not masters, of the earth,  its peoples and its ecosystems.
That which is unsustainable must change.

A system that mimics Nature's methods so that once the design is installed, little work is needed to maintain it.
A methodology that grows food plants while building the soil microcosm.

Six sigma for gardening.
Lean, mean green, gardening.

Permaculture is a philosophy that embodies biomimetic resilient design and whole-system cost accounting to eliminate the concept of waste. It can be applied to all aspects of life.

-CK

Brevity is the soul of lit.

Permaculture is an ethical interdisciplinary design science.

In practical terms, I can't figure out what is permaculture and what is not from most of above descriptions.

There's a production garden not too far away from here, they call themselves permaculture and they give permaculture courses. But everything on their gardens is bought from elsewhere as small plants; not a single bean or other seed they've put in the ground themselves.  They do this mainly because we're in the north here, and if they import from a more southern region they can start selling about a month earlier.
So that makes sense, but my personal idea of permaculture is at odds with an ongoing and full reliance on import material. To try manage your own propagation is for me a cornerstone of it; without that there's not much of a self-sustaining system.
So that's the trouble I'm having with descriptions like 'our design principles are inspired by nature' and such.  

Jondo Almondo wrote:Brevity is the soul of lit.

Permaculture is an ethical interdisciplinary design science.

Can you please clarify.

J Grouwstra wrote:In practical terms, I can't figure out what is permaculture and what is not from most of above descriptions.

There's a production garden not too far away from here, they call themselves permaculture and they give permaculture courses. But everything on their gardens is bought from elsewhere as small plants; not a single bean or other seed they've put in the ground themselves.  They do this mainly because we're in the north here, and if they import from a more southern region they can start selling about a month earlier.
So that makes sense, but my personal idea of permaculture is at odds with an ongoing and full reliance on import material. To try manage your own propagation is for me a cornerstone of it; without that there's not much of a self-sustaining system.
So that's the trouble I'm having with descriptions like 'our design principles are inspired by nature' and such.  

That's the reason I ask the question in the first place. There seems to be contradictions. But hey we are still learning. Whats important to me now is to get the grasp of what our friends are doing and start from there rather than start from zero and reinvent everything. Because undeniably they have made a big difference. this site is a wealth of knowledge on farming I dont see anything that comes close. Hundred folds better than getting a formal miseducation.

Doing it your damn self instead of giving those bastards money.

That's actually just as good a description, in my view.

julian Gerona wrote:

Jondo Almondo wrote:
Permaculture is an ethical interdisciplinary design science.

Can you please clarify.

Historically, academia, homes and businesses has been extremely reductive and compartmentalized.
Typically you would study or apply agriculture or mushroom-farming or aquaculture on their own.
Permaculture seeks to locate multiple food-growing modalities on the same site and have the waste output of one system feed into the next.
If you can turn the output of waste-disposal into an input for the fruit orchard, you've made a connection, cut costs, reduced pollution and become more self-sufficient.
Rather than focus on annual market crops, permaculture might prefer to grow perennials and tree-crops, which have added environmental benefits.
Designing the system in such a way that water and nutrients are delivered to plants automatically or easily, by swales, gravity and nearby animals.
So the system works for the human long-term and not the other way around.

You can apply it in complex ways and try to achieve total off-grid self-sufficiency or it can be as simple as a mulched garden and a compost heap.
There are some who try and grow all their own mulch and others who are using the abundant 'waste resources' of modernity to fast-track their systems.
What motivated me into permaculture was a desire to totally offset my carbon footprint, which in turn gives me hope that we can heal the planet as quickly as we screwed it up.

Permaculture is a system of designing permanent agricultural systems with the aim of reintegrating human culture with the natural world to ultimately create a permanent and sustainable culture. And also run on sentences

Ben Zumeta wrote:Doing it your damn self instead of giving those bastards money.

was trying to give you my first pie then found myself on paypaland. hahaha makes my day. I will make you a damn pie myself rather pay those ...

stephen lowe wrote:Permaculture is a system of designing permanent agricultural systems with the aim of reintegrating human culture with the natural world to ultimately create a permanent and sustainable culture. And also run on sentences

I could request a title change just to hear what else you have to say. kidding aside. That;s the best definition so far. Maybe not what Mollision envisioned... but we'd rather invent a name for the idea, lets try "Reconnecting an especie to itself" and permaculture makes one branch of it.

Jondo Almondo wrote:

julian Gerona wrote:

Jondo Almondo wrote:
Permaculture is an ethical interdisciplinary design science.

Can you please clarify.

Historically, academia, homes and businesses has been extremely reductive and compartmentalized.
Typically you would study or apply agriculture or mushroom-farming or aquaculture on their own.
Permaculture seeks to locate multiple food-growing modalities on the same site and have the waste output of one system feed into the next.
If you can turn the output of waste-disposal into an input for the fruit orchard, you've made a connection, cut costs, reduced pollution and become more self-sufficient.
Rather than focus on annual market crops, permaculture might prefer to grow perennials and tree-crops, which have added environmental benefits.
Designing the system in such a way that water and nutrients are delivered to plants automatically or easily, by swales, gravity and nearby animals.
So the system works for the human long-term and not the other way around.

You can apply it in complex ways and try to achieve total off-grid self-sufficiency or it can be as simple as a mulched garden and a compost heap.
There are some who try and grow all their own mulch and others who are using the abundant 'waste resources' of modernity to fast-track their systems.
What motivated me into permaculture was a desire to totally offset my carbon footprint, which in turn gives me hope that we can heal the planet as quickly as we screwed it up.

Beautiful. looks to me like a unit of energy going through nodes of creation in a close loop. Seemingly a perpetual motion machine. sustainable!!