When Bill Mollison* started teaching his first permaculture courses in Australia in the 70s, most of the people who came to him had the same problem. Their gardens were full of life, but not the life they wanted. After the rain, the vegetable beds were holed, the lettuce was eaten, and there were snails everywhere. The most common question was what poison to use, what product worked best, and how to “kill the problem.”
Mollison listens, but instead of talking about chemistry or fighting, he starts asking questions. What else lives here? What animals pass through the garden? And most of all – what is missing? In response to yet another such question, one of the iconic phrases for which the Australian scientist, ecologist and co-founder of permaculture is now known is born – “You don’t have a snail problem, you have a duck deficiency.”. It contains not only a solution, but also a whole philosophy. Mollison explains that snails do not invade the garden with intentions. They are there because the conditions are good – moisture, organic matter, tender plants. It is a working system, but an incomplete one. In nature, snails rarely multiply unchecked, because there is always someone to eat them. In a garden, that “someone” is often missing. The problem is not the snails, but the absence of that “someone”. The example he gives is of the Indian runner ducks, which walk between the beds and happily devour the snails, without digging up the soil, but leaving behind manure and eggs. One element solves several problems at once. Instead of war with nature, a partnership emerges. Instead of poison, life.
Permaculture doesn't ask "how do I get rid of the problem?", and "What is missing in the system?"
Over the years, the "duck shortage" has come to mean much more than gardening, entering as a metaphor into areas such as education and economics, social and public issues, even urban planning - almost everywhere, problems are often the result of missing elements in the system.
In the context of ecology and nature, this is just one of the basic principles that underpin the creation of the entire concept of permaculture – an applied science for the design of human habitats and agricultural systems, where people learn to live and produce food in cooperation with nature, rather than fighting it. It seeks the connections between all elements in a system and shows that sustainable solutions are often born not through control and destruction, but by adding what is missing and restoring balance.
Read more: Daniel Dimov: "I work first for the land and will do everything possible to tell its beautiful story"
Many people probably wonder what the difference is between the agriculture that our grandparents used to make a living from and what we call permaculture today – the difference is that it was part of their way of life and everyday life and they did it according to tradition and natural logic, because of their connection to nature – the garden is close to the house, animals are part of the cycle, nothing is just thrown away, seeds are preserved, the soil is a treasure. Today, permaculture does it consciously, in a world that has moved away from these connections. It does not idealize the past, but tells it in modern language – through ecology, systematic and sustainable thinking and education.
When the overall concept for the creation of International School of Culinary Arts and Crafts in the village of Golyama Zhelyazna, we knew that the Troyan region is a place with a deep connection to the past and traditions, preserving the authentic taste of the garden, the forest and the land as a whole. In our quest to tell about the roots of our traditions, to preserve the living memory, following the natural logic of the theme of clean food that comes from clean land, we could not help but become ambassadors of the philosophy that shaped permaculture design. That is why the professional programs of the culinary school include gardening classes, which will be held on a 12-acre field of educational gardens, which are created entirely according to the principles of permaculture design. Apart from the training in the professional programs, people who are interested in going deeper will be able to enroll in a separate course in permaculture design, after which they will receive a certificate.
And perhaps right there, in the kindergartens in the village of Golyama Zhelyazna, this knowledge will not just be taught, but experienced.
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Bill Mollison* is a researcher, author, scientist, and educator, considered the “father of permaculture.”
SEE more: Two-week course "Permaculture Design"
