Intro to Permaculture

What is permaculture? What is it to practice permaculture? How does it lead to positive outcomes?

The way I’ve been practicing, I’d call it a philosophy. A way of being. I think you can see it most clearly in the choices I’ve made. It is a process. It is the adjacent possible.

What is this world for? Life happens so that life may happen. It’s there for us. It is a power on a grand scale. How do we tap in to that power when we’ve been so disconnected from it?

That’s permaculture. It is to that which I am a guide.

We sit under the shade of a tree and watch the wind whip the grass. We see where water has rushed past in previous storms. A cardinal, a woodpecker, a nuthatch appear and disappear above. A rabbit peaks out from under a shrub.

Idyllic no? But it is the truth. If you listen hard enough, long enough, you’ll hear what the adjacent possible might be. What would be welcomed. How you could be welcomed.

If you can put your energy behind that, what would happen?

What stands in our way? Nothing but ourselves. We just have to start.

I hope I can help you take those first steps:

Introductory Permaculture

Published by Milton

C. Milton Dixon is an permaculturist, forager, educator, and computer wizard. He is co-manager at the emergent Cooperative at Dawn Farm and teaches with Three Waters Permaculture. You can reach him at or 773.789.8887.

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