| >There are lots of "grey water" uses that don't require drinkable water, like watering plants, flushing toilets. Yes. I've heard/read grey mentioned many times in permaculture articles. I like the fact that permaculture takes a systems or holistic approach. Another nice, small but useful example of permaculture design is the concept of guilds, when it comes to planting crops around a house. They plant by category, in concentric bands called guilds, with the guild nearest to the house having most commonly used plants such as herbs, then vegetables, then grains, then fruit trees, etc. So you have to walk less to tend to or harvest them. Edit: I may have used the term "guild" incorrectly. The Wikipedia article on permaculture uses it differently, under the section "Guilds". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_(ecology) |
Guilds are about companion planting - they're combination of plants that form a small ecosystem where they provide benefit to each other. E.g. comfrey is often used around fruit trees to break up subsoil (it has very long taproots, to 10 feet or so), and as a prolific mulch producer (cut it back every couple months, and chop and drop the leaves in place). Nitrogen fixing plants are common, as a way of providing nutrients. Etc.