Garden All Year Round. What is Permaculture

The book by French writer Nelly Ponn and artist Ioanna Jezak is for those who would like to have their own garden. Who will cultivate the land, like many people in various parts of the planet, from the African peninsula of Somalia and the foothills of the Andes, in island valleys and rice fields, and sometimes — just a stone's throw away from us, on a balcony or windowsill.
A gardener, of course, needs preparation, but first of all, he must think. How not to harm the environment? How to better care for the land and preserve it? Where to start and how not to give up at the first failure? Fortunately, the novice gardener has many like-minded people, and their reflections, conclusions, and practical experiences are collected, presented in an accessible manner, and vividly illustrated in this book.
Over the year — from autumn to autumn — we will master 12 principles of permaculture.
Permaculture is both a science and a philosophy. It was born in the 1970s in the minds of two Australians, university lecturer Bill Mollison and his student David Holmgren. Their shared interest in nature and the search for a way of life that implies careful treatment of our planet brought them together. In fact, the researchers did not invent anything new. They merely utilized the hidden mechanisms of nature itself and the agricultural methods of peoples who have lived in harmony with the surrounding world for centuries. Today, permaculture has hundreds of thousands of followers around the world. Some of them have even transferred its principles and ethical norms to other areas of human life: urban and home construction, business management, culture, and economics.
The scientific editor of the Russian edition is Anastasia Sdobyreva — a staff member of the Soil Science Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University, a permaculture designer, and the leader of the Permaculture Practitioners Club. Anastasia helped us adapt the book for the Russian edition — so that the soil processing methods, planting calendar, and recommended informational resources would be as useful as possible for our readers.