Current SSI Projects

OSU Permaculture Alliance

The OSU Permaculture Alliance is a new club that offers a place for students to meet, share their knowledge, and progress the ideas of permaculture. The club meets weekly to organize workshops, round table knowledge shares among members, and guest speakers. The club encourages community outreach and is developing a flagship farm that will exemplify the vary values that we promote.

The club works in close conjunction with the Permaculture Design classes at OSU (Hort 299) taught by Andrew Millison. The class and club are implementing the following projects on site at the SSC and the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture (OCCUH):

• Bioswale to divert water from the garage roof to the Zone 2 orchard
• Plant guilds, including 8 apple guilds, 2 pear guilds, 1 cherry guild, 2 swale guilds, and a large vegetable garden guild
• Site analysis of the OCCUH, including sector compass, plan view, watershed map, and section view
• Conceptual and final designs for the OCCUH
• New greenhouse behind the SSC

What is Permaculture?
Although rooted in horticulture and agriculture, Permaculture Design is interdisciplinary, touching on a wide range of subjects including regional planning, ecology, animal husbandry, appropriate technology, architecture, and international development. It is both a technique and a philosophy that seeks to integrate human and non-human systems, creating landscapes that are both regenerative unto themselves and useful for people.

The ideas of permaculture have sustained cultures for thousands of years. The term "permaculture" and the movement behind it, however, were founded in Australia in the mid-1970's by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Today, permaculture is rooted in three primary ethics:

1. Care for the earth
2. Care for people
3. Set limits to consumption and redistribute surplus

Co-originator David Holmgren also outlines twelve design principles that underlie Permaculture and can be applied to myriad situations and circumstances:

1. Observe and Interact
2. Catch and Store Energy
3. Obtain a Yield
4. Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback
5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
6. Produce No Waste
7. Design from Patterns to Details
8. Integrate Rather than Segregate
9. Use Small and Slow Solutions
10. Use and Value Diversity
11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal
12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change

To learn more...

• Come to an OSU Permaculture Alliance meeting and stay to chat, every Monday from 6-7 pm at the Student Sustainability Center.
• Take a Permaculture Design Course at OSU! Andrew Millison is teaching a three-week summer course for enrolled students and community members (click to see flier). Contact him for more information or register online.
• Check out these books (plus many more!) in the SSC library:
  • Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren
  • Edible Forest Gardens: Ecological Design and Practice for Temperate Climate Permaculture by Dave Jacke
  • Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
• Observe the world around you and envision a healthy future. Change comes from within.

Last updated 5.26.09