If you could only teach one thing...

I am working on an article for a local paper about permaculture, and I would like to have one action item that most readers could do.  I may split it into two small tutorials/infographics; one for people with access to land and another for renters and apartment dwellers.  My first inclination is toward converting kitchen waste into soil to give a tangible example of how natural processes are in a cycle and how organic 'waste' has value.  A simple multi-tray vermicompost bin design is easy enough to explain, cheap to build, and doesn't require much maintenance.  

For landowners, I also thought about a small swale for water capture and soakage that could additionally be used to concentrate and break down yard green waste, though I am not sure I will have enough space to explain how to build and use a level to get on contour.  The climate here is dry Mediterranean (Koppen Csb), the community is very close to the ocean, and the surrounding land is grassy hills primarily used for cattle grazing with relatively low tree density.  

My question to you is: if you were given this opportunity to introduce a single (simple) project to a group unfamiliar with permaculture, what would you choose?  The goal is for them to taste enough success that they want to learn and do more.  Thank you for your feedback!

-David

I am working on an article about using woody debris from fire prevention thinning to hold water and build soil fertility for a regional northern California publication. I think it would apply in many parts of southern California as well. I intend to introduce the basic why and how for practices like hugelkulture, woody debris filled drainage trenches, and deep mulching. I am tempted to go way too broad and deep by covering keyline principles and forest ecology, but its only a few pages.

On ground, I intend to have a work party with my neighbors where we all go in on an excavator rental for a week and help each other clear ladder fuels and turn that into hugel beds. If I had one thing to teach fellow stewards of the west, it would be that any resource that is in excess due to being underutilized will become a pollutant. In our area that is true of small trees, which are more numerous than ever before due to logging. Large trees are an entirely different matter…

If I were to break it down for the majority of people it would be for suburban vs. urban(apartment dwelling). Swales or any kind of land works are not really feasible for suburbia or urban areas. Honestly for both of them I would concentrate on gardening, whether it be balcony gardening or edible landscaping in suburbia. My thinking is be part of the solution. Anything that you can grow for yourself reduces the need for industrial agriculture.

Grow something. Even if you do not have any land you can grow something. On my PDC, one person complained that they lived in a shared house so couldn't grow anything. I countered that with saying that my growing journey began by growing herbs on the kitchen windowsill of a shared house. So many people living in apartments and small houses with no garden think that permaculture isn't for them because "you need land to make it work". Prove to them that it's not true.
My question about turning kitchen waste into soil is : where would the apartment dwellers put the soil they make if they do not have access to a garden? Once you have them hooked on growing, the soil they make can be used for growing more food.
Do let us know how you get on.

Bury some wood. Obviously a full on hugelkulture mountain is a bit too big of a project but even just filling a 2ft raised bed halfway with sticks is pretty impressive. At least I know its pretty much what hooked me. The problem with this suggestion is that the results are not immediately apparent. But maybe if you can get people to do it, be profoundly underwhelmed, but then notice in a year or two how amazing that spot is. That might get 'em. The real money's in the long con...

If your audience is people with yards, I think a good first step into permaculture is just keeping your grass clippings and fall leaves in the yard and using them as mulch rather than paying a lawn service to haul all that goodness away.

Ara Murray wrote:Grow something. Even if you do not have any land you can grow something.

^^^This.

More specifically, for the urbanites: How to grow a Guerilla Garden.

Steps:
1. But first, lower your voice.
2. How to rescue plants and seeds for your windowsill.
3. Targeting a good -- or even better, a poor! -- guerilla garden site in your urban desert.
4. Scrounging organic matter.  (Hint, it's everywhere!)
5. Planting day...or is it planting night?
6. Keeping your plant alive via art and community adoption.
7. *Bonus* Making seed bombs

There are always plenty of nooks and crannies in dry climates which appear neglected and could be mulched and planted.  Recall that some cities, like San Diego, offer free compost and mulch.  

City of San Diego residents may self-load up to two cubic yards of compost or mulch for free with proof of residency.

For suburban, I'd say just getting a bag of clover and planting it in with your grass and not using weed and feed.  Super level 1 stuff but easy.  And the story you can tell about the permaculture elements of that one practice (nitrogen fixing, bee food, green when the grass gets dry, etc) are nifty.

My urbanish herb spiral made from reclaimed bricks gets a LOT of attention and comments.   Doesn't take much space.   Looks attractive to pull people in.  Most herbs are perennials so lots of return and reinforcement for the effort.   Drying and gifting herbs could carry the lesson farther...  

Well I'm not so sure how permie cold frames and tunnels are due to the amount of plastic that is used but if I could teach aspiring newbies it would be how to build cold frames and tunnels and how much food can be grown during the cool season and how easy the hardening off process can be in late spring.

David said, My question to you is: if you were given this opportunity to introduce a single (simple) project to a group unfamiliar with permaculture, what would you choose?  The goal is for them to taste enough success that they want to learn and do more.  

David, I would want to teach them that permaculture is about nature and how things happen in nature.

It is also how we live our lives. Living within nature.

The way nature uses patterns, the way seeds are washed away with the rains and how wildflowers are planted by these rains, how to live with the weeds and so much more.

Thank you all for the wonderful replies!

I think I will lean farther toward the "growing a thing" idea rather than the waste repurposing from my first impulse.  I was perhaps over-assuming that people were growing some amount of plants to begin with.

Ben - great concept with the conversion of fire ladder species into soil fertility.  Living in the most flammable region in the world presents all sorts of unique challenges and innovation is becoming mandatory.

To close the conceptual loop I would also point out how carbon is also an underutilized resource that has become a pollutant. Burying excess small trees and brush to kickstart photosynthesis is the best way I can think of for the average homeowner, gardener, farmer or public land manager can get carbon out of the air. That carbon then becomes a living, evolving, reproducing thing of beauty that provides food water and shelter to us in many ways.

Did you write that paper, David?  I'd love to read it, if so.