The permaculture association Waldgeister e. V.
The Waldgeister and GAIA share many goals
The permaculture association Waldgeister e. V. was founded in early 2018 in Waldberg in the Rhön, Germany. Its aim is to develop and promote a sustainable way of living and doing business, to create lasting habitats and to close cycles.
We develop projects and activities that serve to promote a sustainable way of living and doing business. These include conversations with the neighbours and leading by example, just as much as an ecologically intact permaculture garden or talks on creating a natural, species-rich hobby garden. Our project plans are so varied and diverse that we hardly know which projects to tackle next. The guiding idea behind everything is the basic ethics of permaculture.
What is permaculture?
Permaculture is a concept aimed at creating lasting, sustainable and natural cycles. Originally developed for agriculture, it has since become a way of thinking that also covers areas such as energy supply, landscape planning and the design of social infrastructure. The basic principle is to manage all resources in an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable way.
What ethics does permaculture stand for?
From the very beginning, applying permaculture principles to the integrative, sustainable design of our living spaces has led to the formulation of basic ethical ideas. These, too, have been and are constantly being developed further, and they form the basic attitude of permacultural thinking and action. They are meant as a guideline for any permaculture design, whether a garden, farming or forestry project, the building of a house or an entire settlement, or even urban planning.
These core ethical values cover the ecological, economic and social components mentioned above and can be summed up in the following three terms:
Care for the earth (Earthcare) This ecological component aims at a careful and far-sighted handling of the natural foundations of life (resources), which are seen as a gift of the earth to all living beings. For a permaculture design to be called sustainable, the natural regeneration cycles (cycles of matter and energy) of life-sustaining systems should be planned for consciously and over the long term.
Care for people (Peoplecare) This social component pays particular attention to the right of all people to self-determination. This is where the problem of freedom and responsibility becomes especially clear. Guaranteeing everyone the right to use the foundations of life as they freely choose requires a balance between individual and collective needs. From this arises an ethical demand for social justice: all people should have the same right of access to the foundations of life.
Self-limitation, moderation and sharing of surplus This component derives from the limited capacity of planet Earth to bear strain and to regenerate. People should learn to practise a sustainable self-limitation in satisfying their needs, as individuals and as communities. The third component therefore stands for consciously putting self-limitation into practice and for (re)distributing jointly achieved surpluses. The latter also includes returning them appropriately to natural cycles. This brings us full circle to Earthcare and Peoplecare; the three ethical aspects overlap.
Today’s grievances compared with our vision:
Source: Margrit Kennedy (German) 1982
Permaculture garden
Our garden project is in the Bavarian Rhön, the “land of open horizons”, in a small village called Waldberg. The field, with a total area of 2,770 square metres, lies about 300 metres outside the village. By now the garden holds all sorts of things: an old apple tree, a freshly planted traditional orchard meadow and several smaller trees along the edge. There are also several berry hedges and a deadwood hedge. Of course we also have a few beds for our vegetables: we have created “mini swales”, “keyhole beds” and a beautiful mandala bed. Wildlife finds plenty of habitats in our garden, such as stone pyramids, piles of deadwood, nesting aids and hedgehog hotels.
A beautiful drone photo, taken in spring 2019:
1. Earth Kon-Tiki (biochar kiln) 2. Growing area 3. Orchard / meadow on poor soil 4. Future communal area 5. Compost area 6. Deadwood hedge
It’s not about saving the whole world at once, but about making it a little better.
Sustainable in everyday life
Our first steps towards an everyday life in which sustainability plays a part did not happen overnight. It is always small steps forward and sometimes back. We try out many things; some become a fixed part of our lives, others just a nice change.
For us, everyday life covers everything to do with children, the household, gift ideas and much more. If you like the posts or have ideas you would like us to try out, feel free to write to us.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Notes on content provided by authors
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