The role in a truly sustainable home
It can be easy to get caught up with negativity but if you are seeking a more sustainable future for yourself and your family then you will get a much better result by focusing on solutions. Permaculture represents an approach to sustainable living that presents options and opportunities instead of negativity and barriers and in doing so it supports the positive focus that we need.
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a design system for sustainable human habitats and lifestyles. At its core permaculture has the three ethical considerations of Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares. Permaculture is based on science, observation and reflection and it utilises a range of systems, design considerations and techniques drawn from a variety of successful current and traditional cultural and agricultural approaches from around the world.
A simple lens for us to view this through is as a way to bring energy generation, water collection and food production back to where we live. This re-localisation can help us to create more robust local communities and places us in a much better and more secure position as the global populace starts banging even harder into our limits to growth. The Earth isn’t getting any bigger.
Our rubbish dumps aren’t going to get any emptier, our air and water won’t get any cleaner and our overall footprints upon the Earth won’t get any lighter unless we make it so. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?
Filling Ecological Niches
‘Nature abhors a vacuum’ as the saying goes, and what it means for a garden is that if we leave an ecological niche open then nature will fill it – it is the way of things. For example if we leave an opening for a weed then a weed will arrive, unannounced and uninvited. So our best options are to find a useful purpose for the weed or to fill that space with something that we do have a use for. That could include planting something that can provide us with food, attract beneficial insects or small birds, provide habitat for lizards or frogs, replenish the soil, provide fresh greens to feed our chickens, or to enhance our experience of the space with beauty or a wonderful scent from herbs & flowers in the garden.
An important strategy within a permaculture framework is to identify all of the most important functions or outputs that you might want, and realistically be able to achieve, from your home & garden. Prioritise them for yourself and the other inhabitants – don’t forget your pets and any wildlife. Next step is to match as many of those up with spaces that could be cultivated to provide the necessary conditions for it to flourish, whether that be a plant or a social interaction with your family and friends.
A great way to think of permaculture is to seek an understanding of how you can come up with an abundantly productive food system at home, and within your immediate community, by turning wasted or under utilised resources from one system into inputs for another.
Rainwater & Greywater
When we turn on a tap at home, or have a shower, or put on a load of clothes for washing, we are using water that has come from a water catchment. The most sustainable option is for that water to be collected on our own rooftops and stored in a water tank. For most people this actually involves using rain water that fell in another catchment and was stored in a dam before being transported through the reticulated water supply system to your house.
It is shortsighted for us to waste that precious resource – once the water has been used once there is no reason why it can’t be used again. Whilst composting toilets and biodigesters can be wonderful options from a sustainability perspective they aren’t an easy option for everyone so let’s turn our attention instead to greywater reuse.
With a little treatment from a suitable greywater system used water can again be made fit-for-purpose and fulfill more useful activities for us. This is a much better alternative to leaving it to the old fashioned plumbing systems to steal it away from our property, only to have a detrimental environmental impact somewhere else.
Greywater
If you have not heard of greywater before, it is used water from the home with the exclusion of toilet water. Some people also prefer to exclude kitchen sink (and dishwasher) but that is a matter of preference and on the capabilities of the greywater system installed. The use of greywater is a crucial strategy to help us to drought-proof our homes and our local food supply.
The use of rainwater and greywater is perfectly aligned with the principles of permaculture and other sustainable living concepts. Allowing rainwater to escape down our stormwater drains, losing greywater to the sewer are wasted opportunities for us to support meeting our needs from our own homes.
Focus on solutions
Rainwater is great for all plants in our garden, especially our veggie gardens, so that is the best place to send it other than into the house for use. Whilst greywater is not suitable for vegetable gardens, or for most Australian native plants, it is ideal to apply to high demand plants like fruit trees.
So if plants in your garden such as bananas and orange and lemon trees, amongst many others, are struggling then you should consider setting up a zoned rainwater and greywater irrigation system. It will provide them with what they want – lots of water and nutrients to produce bumper crops of free, healthy, home grown fruit and nuts. Just add compost made from your food and garden waste, and also some worm tea and chook poo, and you will have everything they need to thrive.
So what are you waiting for? Focus on the solutions, get some advice and assistance if you need it and achieve your sustainability objectives!
