Nerding out in the “permagarden”

Stacking functions in permaculture

Daniel McFly often geeks out about permaculture “stacking functions.” Can you figure out how each element of this permaculture garden supports other components?

Permaculture can be defined as the science of assembling beneficial relationships. When designing regenerative systems of agriculture, a key concept to keep in mind is how to effectively pair elements within the design to fill more than one niche in the ecosystem.

Trees & chickens make good neighbors

A fruit tree not only produces food for humans, it also attracts pollinators for other nearby fruiting plants. If placed near a chicken coop, it may drop fruit to the ground for chickens to eat. The decomposing fruit on the ground might attract insects for the chickens as well. The tree also provides shade in the summer, and protection from predatory birds overhead. If the tree drops leaves, it provides mulch for the surrounding area, and its deeper roots pull up nutrients from the depths of the soil for nearby plants with more shallow root systems. If this fruit tree overhangs a pond, dropped fruit and branches might provide food and habitat for fish and other inhabitants. 

Chickens serve multiple functions within a design system. Of course, they can provide meat and eggs for human consumption, but they also provide fertilizer, they are a resource for food scrap disposal, and they can even provide weeding and pest reducing services to your garden. The key idea here is to identify what benefits different components of a system give, and what they take, and arrange them so they may passively benefit each other.

The greenhouse effect

Consider the many possible functions of a greenhouse. It provides warmth and protection for plants thereby extending growing seasons. The roof may serve to collect rainwater that could be delivered to plants within the house, or an adjacent animal enclosure. Radiant heat from a shared wall can provide overnight warmth for nearby chickens, rabbits, or other small livestock. 

A good landscape design will consider the interaction of the elements within the design to achieve mutually beneficial relationships among them. Every design component will have multiple functions, and every essential function will be supported by multiple elements.

Photo Credit: By PermaKulturgut.de – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0