Gardens
The gardens stretch uphill towards the forest of Maisonsgoutte. Back in the day this south facing slope was used for wine cultivation, when we bought it in 2022 it was all grassland and brambles. We are in the process of turning it into our permaculture dream with fruit trees, a vegetable garden, chickens, a food forest, medicinal plants, and enough places to sit and enjoy the buzzing of (wild) life, the view on the mountains and the silence in the evening when the sun goes down behind the hill.
Permaculture
We build our gardens according to the permaculture principles.
Permaculture comes from the Latin words ‘Permanens’, to persist indefinitely and ‘cultura’ the practices that support human occupation. These words together means a persistent system that supports human existence. It was first introduced by Bill Mollison in the 70s in Australia.
‘A system of design that provides all of the needs for humanity in a way that benefits the environment’
Geoff Lawton
We first came across permaculture when gardening on the 25m2 plot in a community garden in Haarlem (The Netherlands) which Roos already had for a couple of years. The ground was tilled every season to start with a nice fresh black sheet of earth like the rest of the gardeners. One winter we read a book on permaculture and started experimenting, some things failed and others were successful. By the time we moved to Maisonsgoutte we learned that it involves way more than not tilling your ground and mulching. To dive deeper in the subject we worked as volunteers on a permaculture farm and we both started a course: Roos ‘Permaculture Design Certificate’ and Julien ‘Sustainable Soil Management’.
Design process
Permaculture is a holistic design process based on 3 ethics and 12 design principles. It tries to mimic the patterns and relationships that we find in nature in order to build a resilient ecosystem. This does not only apply to the garden, it also involves the way we renovate and use our home, how we manage energy, water and waste and the role we play in the community. There is not one design solution because location, available resources, climate and weather conditions vary.
Ethics and principles
Earth Care
There is one Earth and we need to be gentle with it. It means taking care of all living and non-living things: animals, plants, soil, water and air.
People Care
Promote self-reliance and make things better for people using the power of community responsibility.
Fare Share
We share the Earth with all living things and our future generations. It involves sharing your surplus in order to support Earth Care and People Care. Surplus can be yield or compost but also time and knowledge. Creating abundance.
It starts with observing the land in all the seasons: the condition of the soil, were we have water or drought, which plants grow were and what they can indicate, the wind and the sun exposure, the animals that visit the land and the insects. We live in the house and connect to our neighbours and the people in the valley. Asking for advice and past experiences shaped our ideas and step by step we created our permaculture design for the garden.
We keep learning, reading and observing. There is so much to discover.