A Permaculture Will Emerge

From the Oxford English Dictionary:
permaculture, n.
orig. Austral.

The development or maintenance of an artificial ecosystem intended to be self-sustaining and to satisfy the living requirements of its inhabitants, esp. by the use of renewable resources.

My wife Marion and I have been looking for a way to expand our vegetable garden and few fruit trees into something that we can use year round and make it as self sustaining as possible. After attending a Brown-bag lunch on "Slow Food: An Idea, A Movement, A Way of Life?," presented by Charlie Headington, who teaches earth matters at UNCG, I did some research and we will be attempting to convert our backyard into a permaculture site using the guidelines provided by Headington and others.

The reason we cannot do this on the entire lot (aprox. 1/2 acre) is that we live in a development that has a homeowner association and the covenant forbids any changes that detracts from the overall continuity (read it as everything must look the same) of the neighborhood.

I will be posting our progress as we convert to a permaculture. The first step will be a major one. Our backyard is on the north side of the has a pronounced slope in two directions. The east-west slope is approximately 10 degrees and the north edge as and increasing slope as it enters a wooded area and drops down to a small stream bed. We will have to do some terracing in the yard to create growing space, as well as clearing out the underbrush in the woods to make it more usable.
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Here is Charlie Headington's reading suggestions for Permaculture:

• Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison
• Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemingway
• Weedless Gardening by Lee Reich
• Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza
• The Basics of Permaculture Design by Ross Mars
• How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield
• Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow
• Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren
  

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This is a list of useful websites I have found so far:

• Earth Matters ~ Resources for Sustainable Living
  Charlie Headington, Ph.D.
• Permaculture Principles
  This site explores the 'essence of permaculture' in a simple and clear way, expanding on the work of co-originator of the permaculture concept, David Holmgren.
• Gardening for Keeps
  Mother Earth New
• Introduction to Permaculture: Concepts and Resources
  By Steve Diver, NCAT Agriculture Specialist