Permaculture

Use the ethics to make decisions

The three ethics help you decide what the garden should protect and provide:

• Earth care. What already lives here, and what should stay? Mark existing trees and habitat. Match crops to the conditions before changing the site.
• People care. Can everyone using the garden reach its paths, tools, and harvests? Choose a regular caretaker and someone to cover absences.
• Fair share. What water, money, and materials can you reasonably use? Set a spending limit. In a shared garden, agree how to distribute the harvest.

Turn an answer into a rule for the plan: "Keep the existing tree," "leave the entrance accessible," or "use the tools we already own." Use that rule when deciding where the bed belongs.

Make a simple site sketch

Take paper and a tape measure outside. Add what you can observe now; leave unknowns marked for a later visit.

1. Draw the boundary, buildings, existing plants, paths, and water point. Trace the route you actually walk.
2. Mark sun and shade in the morning, around midday, and later in the day. Repeat in another season before deciding where to put long-lived plants.
3. Check whether a hose or watering can reaches the proposed bed. After rain, mark puddles and runoff. Size the planting for the water supply you can sustain in dry periods.
4. Note compacted soil and previous land use. Before adding fertiliser, get a soil test for pH and nutrient needs. Ask a local testing service about suspected contamination.
5. List the tools and materials you already have. Note your spending limit and the care time you can reliably provide.

Two permaculture terms describe parts of this sketch. Zones group areas by how often you visit them: put regularly picked herbs on a frequent route. Sectors describe influences coming into the site, such as wind or strong afternoon sun. Draw arrows for those influences.

Try an annual crop while observing how the site changes.

Record your elevation and exposure. Higher gardens are colder than the coast, while inland lowlands can have hotter summers. Check frost exposure and use local observations and forecasts to choose a planting window.

Choose one useful change

Choose a result you can check, such as "Pick salad ingredients twice a week during the local growing season." Consider the smallest change that would help:

• Make a small bed if the soil and light suit your crops and water is close.
• Use containers if space or suitable ground is limited. Include drainage and a watering arrangement you can sustain.
• Improve an existing bed if a shorter watering route or easier access would solve the problem.

Price the essentials locally: seed or plants, soil preparation or growing medium, watering equipment, and any protection needed. Leave optional structures for later. Start with something you can maintain and adjust.

A small food bed near a tap

This example uses a 6 × 4 metre Cyprus garden with suitable soil, a sunny area near a tap, and a locally suitable cool growing period. The household eats small salad radishes and loose-leaf lettuce. Existing trees and the path stay. The dimensions illustrate the plan; adapt them to the users' reach and access needs.

1. Mark a possible 1 × 2 metre bed. Check that its centre is reachable from the surrounding path.
2. Walk the watering route with a full watering can. Move the proposed bed if the route is difficult to use.
3. Remove weeds, break up hard surface lumps, remove stones, and rake a fine seedbed. Mark separate strips for radishes and lettuce. Use the sowing steps below when local conditions suit your varieties.
4. Put tools by the route to the bed. Keep a container for trimmings beside the existing compost area. Use finished compost according to the soil's needs.
5. Choose a caretaker and backup. This household reserves two short weekly visits for weeding, checking, and harvesting, plus whatever watering visits the soil and weather require.

Sow and harvest the radish strip

Sow small salad radishes about 1 cm deep and 5 cm apart, with 15 cm between rows. Cover, water gently, and label the variety and date. Remove crowded seedlings to leave about 5 cm between plants. Keep the soil consistently moist as roots develop. Start checking roots at about 2.5 cm across and pull them while young and crisp. Follow the packet if your variety's spacing or harvest size differs. Use Cyprus conditions for dates; the source guidance uses a UK calendar.

Grow lettuce for a few leaves at a time

Sow loose-leaf lettuce thinly about 1 cm deep, in rows 30 cm apart. Cover, water gently, and label. Keep the seedbed moist. Thin seedlings gradually to about 15 cm apart for small loose-leaf plants; use the packet's spacing if it differs. Keep weeds down and check seedlings for slugs and snails, removing any you find feeding on them. When leaves are about 10 cm long, snip a few from each plant and leave it growing. Choose sowing dates for your Cyprus site and variety.

Check moisture during gaps in rain, even in cooler weather. Seedlings may still need watering.

Check whether the change helped

Start with the route and possible bed marked on your sketch. Verify its light and water access on your next visit. Once conditions and the sowing season suit your crop, sow one short row and label it with the date.

Keep a weekly note of harvests used, watering visits, care minutes, and problems. At the end of the crop, use those observations to choose one adjustment:

• If produce goes unused, grow less or choose a crop you will eat.
• If watering is missed, improve the route or care arrangement before adding beds.
• If the bed is manageable and meets your goal, consider the next small project.

Buy plants after checking their needs and the available care. For a planting project, follow a syntropic garden trial or a plan for trees in permaculture.