The Permaculture Market Garden

A Visual Guide to a Profitable Whole-systems Farm Business

Zach Loeks

• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781550926200
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Sustainable Agriculture
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The illustrated guide to profitable, vibrant and sustainable permaculture-based market gardening

Permaculture tends to be very much in the domain of home gardeners and property owners. But what if we could take it all a step further, and merge the fields of permaculture and market gardening?

In The Permaculture Market Garden, author Zach Loeks brings together his passion for sustainable permaculture food production systems and beautiful, vibrant illustrations to provide a highly visual guide to the smooth integration of permaculture into the market garden, in ways that are scalable to specific situations. Profiling crops and ecosystem-based techniques, Loeks demonstrates a profitable, sustainable and approachable model for the future of market gardening.

Along the way, Loeks introduces his own system of PermaBeds, season extension techniques, intensive and rotational interplanting, in-depth discussions on soil health, and more, bringing activities, designs and prospects of farming to life through illustrations, so the reader can be immersed within the world of permaculture farming. Playful, informative and curious, inspiring and beautiful and packed with accessible practical information, The Permaculture Market Garden will inspire both the seasoned market gardener as well as anyone aspiring to start a business.

Zach Loeks is a market gardener, farm consultant and educator living in the Ottawa Valley. Winner of two regional awards for sustainability and innovation in agriculture, he shares his expertise in farming, design and business through a successful series of on-farm workshops, conferences and schools, as well as a successful year-round CSA.

Earth Systems and Natural Science

A Natural Truth

We Must Start with Nature

Socioeconomics and culture exist within natural systems. Humans have studied the natural world and organized it into spheres, systems and scientific laws. Our mathematics, philosophies and politics are derived from nature. There is a greater truth out there. A natural truth. The truth that water flows downhill.

When I was young, my father, a permaculture designer himself, showed us this truth through trips into the backcountry of northern New Mexico.

Many times when camping in the mountains, we would play amidst myriad creeks that fell sharply from balsam- and spruce-covered granite ridges to the valleys where the aspen grew. Here the water meandered tightly on course to bigger waters; when obstructed by roads, it followed ditches.

Watching the waters flow, we made bridges and fish weirs out of the red and black stones that had tumbled down the weathering hillsides. We cheered and played “One, two, three! More! Here, fill in some more here, there are some little fish there!” My brother and I worked diligently. We fortified against the flow, the water slowed and deepened and eventually seeped over the sides.

“The water is moving, watch the way it turns!” my dad commented. We watched the water swirl to make way. Fish forgotten, we delved into the pure mastery of nature.

“More rocks?” my sister was determined to aid us in the exploit.

The water was constant as we interacted with it. It moved around our stones, rose and flowed over, squeezed between and eroded material out of the way. As the slope of the land grew steeper and small streams coalesced, the water was working under greater forces, unwavering, and becoming part of a larger system.

We grew exhausted in our labors, our original goal, the provisioning of food for our camp, forgotten. Let us not forget the aims of our work; the provisioning of food for the present and into the future.

To do this, we must understand nature. This section is a glimpse into natural science as it pertains to the farm. In this way, we can work with the flow that surrounds us.

If the aim of society isn’t the provisioning of health to the greater systems that support us, then we are destroying ourselves in the most primal way and fighting an unwinnable battle.

Earth’s Spheres

How does nature express itself on, under and around your gardens, property and community? Having a good understanding of natural systems can help market gardeners maximize local resources, adapt to local climates, design for ecosystem services and avoid the costly mistake of working against the greater powers that be.

Only in the last moment in history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world.

— E. O. Wilson

The Study of Earth

Natural Sciences

These spheres are ever interacting through flows of energy and matter. To best understand them, science has given us the following disciplines.

Climatology: The study of global, regional and localized movement of wind, water and weather patterns.

Hydrology: The study of water, its movement and reserves in the air, surface and below ground.

Geomorphology: The study of landforms, their creation, destruction and layout.

Biogeography: The study of the distribution of plants and animals through time and space.

Geology: The study of Earth’s rocks and minerals, their origins and cycles.

Pedology: The study of soil, its types, origins, layers and structures.

Edaphology: The study of soil’s effect on living things.

Note: We will look at this most of all, not only because it is so directly important to farming, but also because it is a microcosm of all of Earth’s spheres. The very life layer of earth with air, water, mineral and biological components dynamically at play.

Ecology: The branch of biology that deals with the relation of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

There are many kingdoms of life

Human Geography: The study of humans, our interactions, distribution, cultures and movement through space/time and our creation of place.

Because these natural systems are always at play, it is important to place our farms (and their socio-economic context) conceptually within Earth’s systems since they actually are.

Scientific Method

Here is a breakdown of the scientific method. Since it is a primary tool in science used for examining natural systems...