I understand Permaculture as a systems science, seeking to weave 
meaningful relationships between system components in order to create 
self-regulating and regenerative systems.  System components may be 
plants woven together to create guilds, people/organizations woven 
together to create communities, or otherwise.  Basically, Permaculture to 
me is a form of ‘Biomimicry,’ applying the principles of inherently-
sustainable ecosystems (waste-as-resource, stacking functions, etc.) to 
potentially all realms of human activity (although it has thus far been 
primarily focused on those which satisfy basic human needs). 

In order to practice Permaculture and embed its essentially ecological 
principles in our thinking and creative processes, the medium both for 
teaching and learning must match the message.  We must employ systemic 
learning materials, in the form of games, exercises, software tools, 
etc., in order to think systemically.  You know where this is going we 
must apply Permaculture principles to the manner in which we teach and 
learn Permaculture.  (To get an idea of what this might look like, please 
check out Christopher Peck’s ‘Developing the Art of Teaching’ at 
www.holistic-solutions.net/ Articles/DevelopArtofTeaching.pdf, and my 
recent article in the Biomimicry Newsletter titled ‘Bio-Education at 
http://www.thinkcycle.org/tc-filesystem/file?file_id=50371.)  


Central to Permaculture is the concept of guilds.  Guilds may be 
understood as the basic unit of Permaculture, the designed plant 
communities from which natural ecosystems evolve.  Guild design usually 
starts with a tree, and branches outward to include related vegetation in 
concentric rings, until a vegetative ecosystem is established. Guild 
design is highly specific to its local environment, and must account for 
both the intricate relationships between native vegetation, and between 
native and non-native vegetation.  Because of such complexity, they are 
quite difficult to design, requiring expertise regarding plant 
relationships and the results of time-tested experiments...However, 
because Permaculture in North America remains a young field, mature 
guilds are only now being created and discovered, and their development 
would certainly benefit from a shared database of successful guilds.   

+++++++++++++++
Stephanie Gerson
sgerson@stanfordalumni.org