Pepper Plants and Permaculture Design Principles

I noticed something pretty neat in my garden the other day. The first frost has come and gone. The basil, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, tomatillos and beans have all been killed off by the cold temperatures. That’s OK, they’re all warm-weather summer plants, and this just one more sign that the seasons are turning and we shift into new activities for the year.

So, all are dead, leaves blackened and shriveled, waiting to be cut down and made ready for the compost pile.

Except one little “hot apache” pepper plant.

Plucky little guy!

This little guy volunteered, meaning the seed was carried by winds or rain into the little crevice between the paving stones and border stones. Seemed like one day, hello!, he was just there.

The photo of the pepper plant was taken after the frost. The resolution is not the best, but we can see a bit where the top leaves are burned by the frost, but the bottom part is hale and healthy.  A few peppers are even ready to go in today’s salsa.

A permaculture innovator called Sepp Holzer has been growing citrus trees in the Austrian Alps by using stone walls and circles as thermal mass for solar gain and release. The sun warms the stones during the day, and the stones and rocks release this heat slowly during the cool hours of the night. By situating lemon trees up against south-facing rock walls, and placing stone rings around the base of the tree, Holzer has been able to grow lemons year-round at 1,100 to 1,500 meters elevation above sea level!

Same principle applies to the pepper plant. The heat released by the pavers and border stones kept the little plant from freezing to death. Might have been not much heat, but a few degrees is all it takes.

The Italian Peperoncini and Purple Basil did not have thermal mass benefits - all that's left to do is pick the peppers and compost the rest

A couple of the twelve permaculture principles developed by David Holmgren apply in this case: observe and interact (taking time to engage with nature, and designing solutions that suit our particular situation or environment) and catch and store energy (developing systems at peak abundance, which can later be used in time of need)

By observing this detail, I see something that I’d read and heard about, and have confirmed right here in my backyard (cool!). The catchment and storage of the sun’s energy – albeit in a very small way – is self-evident.

We could also extend this to perhaps construct raised beds with a rock border instead of treated wood. The thermal mass of the rocks can serve to raise the temperature of the bed’s soil in the cooler spring weather, and thus extend the growing season.

Discussing permaculture in just a bit more detail, and quoting Wikipedia;

“Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture.”

As it reads further on in the Wikipedia entry, the word Permaculture was coined by two modern-day “founders” or promulgators Bill Mollison and David Homlgren, to mean the fusion of permanent and agriculture, to design sustainable systems of agricultural production. There are three core values, or ethics, of permaculture (again from Wikipedia)

• Earthcare: recognizing Earth as the source of all life and recognizing that mankind is part of Earth, not apart from it.
• Peoplecare: Care: supporting and helping each other live in ways that harm neither ourselves nor the planet and develop healthy societies
• Fairshare : using Earth’s limited natural resources in ways that are equitable and wise.

To some or many, this may sound a little granola-crunchy and enviro-feely. But really, they form the basis for system design in any application.

Resources, whether time or money or people, are limited for any project. A systems design project at work, or a personal-debt repayment project so common with PF bloggers.

My backyard is limited in space. I have a little over 160 square feet of garden beds, plus assorted pots and containers, with which to productively raise produce for our table.

My time is limited. I can’t spend an hour a day in the summertime as I used to, hand-watering all the beds. But I can invest a little bit in drip irrigation fittings and pipe, and have the system running while I do other tasks. Going a little further in designing a closed-loop system, I could perhaps design a rain-catchment system that would take the water and deliver to the vegetable beds through a solar-powered pressure pump. A little ambitious, but possible.

Peoplecare also means taking responsibility for one’s own actions and family/community. Therefore, I am directly responsible for my immediate family, and indirectly and to a lesser extent, my chosen community.

“The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children” -Bill Mollison, 1990

Our incomes are limited by time and particular skill sets. But we can design systems that will increase and maintain this income with intensive initial efforts and later minimal maintenance. Researching and choosing dividend-paying stocks; developing sources of passive income such as what may PF Bloggers do with niche websites; investing in personal skills and continuing education; and planting and nurturing of fruit trees and other perennials such as berry bushes. All good examples of permaculture.

Permaculture layers - Image via Wikipedia

Moving to system design principles of permaculture, as outlined in Holmgren’s  book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability:

1. Observe and interact – By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
2. Catch and store energy – By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.
3. Obtain a yield – Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback – We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
5. Use and value renewable resources and services – Make the best use of nature’s abundance to reduce our consumptive behaviour and dependence on non-renewable resources.
6. Produce no waste – By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
7. Design from patterns to details – By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
8. Integrate rather than segregate – By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
9. Use small and slow solutions – Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
10. Use and value diversity – Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
11. Use edges and value the marginal – The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
12. Creatively use and respond to change- We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.

By thinking this through a little, we can see ways in which each principle applies to personal finance design. Personal finance is after all nothing more than a system of production on a very small and well, personal scale.

Just on the two I’ve mentioned in this post, see how catching and storing energy relates to household income. After all, in the book Your Money or Your Life, the authors liken money to our life energy. Setting aside an emergency fund is nothing more than storing a little bit of our life energy for when it’s needed. Same with a deep pantry, or a savings bond.

Observe and interact is not as direct, but equally applicable. I’ve stood in my gardens on windy days. With a mug of coffee and a cigar, just stood and looked around. Where is the wind coming from today? How is swirling and eddying in the backyard garden? At the hacienda, how is the garden protected by the trees and hedges on the south side, and what is the tradeoff between wind-screen and early-morning shade?

Keeping a budget acts on the same principle. Watch your expenses, see where they go. Does cutting this category out reduce or increase quality of life? What’s the tradeoff? A little less dining out, more home-cooked meals, more family time.

Small and slow solutions mean setting progressive milestones in quests to reduce debt or increase income. Or it can mean shopping local, and getting to know the farmer that raises the 1/2 a cow that will end up in your freezer over the winter.

I could go on, but this post’s already long enough.

Here’s a question for the readers. Which of these principles reflect systems of personal finance and growth, and how would they apply?

“…the greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.” – Bill Mollison.

Tags: agriculture, Environment, garden, permaculture, Sustainability