Permaculture Principles

Permaculture is a design philosophy that includes a set of governing ethics and principles. The gentle, time-tested Permaculture principles, are a map for creating systems that work with nature—freeing up your time, restoring your energy, and inviting a more thoughtful, seasonal pace. This is a really a quiet rebellion. A return to the ways that honor the Earth’s wisdom and protect the sanctity of a life well-tended.

Each permaculture principle really deserves an article of its own so we are starting a series with this being an introduction. Let’s start with a quick list!

12 permaculture principles:

• 1. Observe and interact – take your time before designing or implementing
• 2. Catch and store energy – aim for a closed, but also interdependent system
• 3. Obtain a yield – far from a call to produce less, permaculture is more productive
• 4. Accept feedback – nurture resilience in yourself and the systems you create
• 5. Use renewable resources – keep designs as nature based as possible
• 6. Produce no waste – use your waste as a resource in other systems you design
• 7. Design from patterns to details – not the other way around
• 8. Integrate rather than segregate – find ways to embrace and collaborate with weeds
• 9. Use small and slow solutions – what is the smallest change that makes the most difference?
• 10. Use and value diversity – in plants, animals, people, places – in everything
• 11. Use edges and value the marginal – increase edges and don’t create from the center
• 12. Creatively use and respond to change – resistance causes persistence

This isn’t about chasing abundance for the sake of more. It’s about enough. About tending what truly matters—soil, self, and simplicity. Whether you live deep in the country or tucked in a city corner, permaculture is a call to come home to a life of grounded purpose, quiet satisfaction, and true nourishment.

Stay tuned for the release of 12 individual articles, one each week, exploring and elaborating on each principle the old world lazy-lady way!

~ Krista