So what does my recent discussion of the problem with solving problems look like in relation to the trunk in the Permaculture Tree diagram?

Well, the way I have come to see it is that the whole trunk is itself an imposition.

What, wait, what?

I believe the whole above-ground part of the permaculture tree has been growing from a grafted-on collection of design process understandings that were imported from outside.17

Imported from places like industrial design, engineering, architecture & landscape architecture.18

Because the scion wood and the rootstock were not a compatible match, the graft never really properly took. Indeed, as a result of it being there at all, the latent energy around permaculture generating its own process possibilities has either remained dormant in the roots, or been overruled by the DNA of the grafted-on material.

You see where I am going with this. I don't want to continue trying to patch up a trunk that in so many ways is a distraction from the work I'm here to participate in. I don't want to be pulling apart layer upon layer of imported design process understandings that shoot permaculture in the foot by dishonouring its very essence.19

I want to dive deep into permaculture's beautiful foundations and then to help grow and tend and realise fit-for-purpose design process understandings directly. Without distraction!

What this means for me is...

The Tree is Coming Down

I am cutting the permaculture tree down.

Consciously. Carefully. Lovingly. As a personal thought experiment, I'm cutting it down. Just below the place where the foreign design process understandings were imported and grafted on. To create a fresh surface from which all kinds of wild regrowth can spring forth.

I am talking about the development of design process understandings that stem from permaculture's own roots. From permaculture's own DNA.20

I’m talking about consciously coppicing the permaculture tree, take three.

To be clear, none of the tree is removed from the site after the coppicing operation. Yes, it will fall to the ground and it will remain there, branches, twigs, leaves. Hot compost the most diseased material, tuck the rest in around the stump.

Where as fresh growth bursts forth, anything relevant breaks down and is reabsorbed and assimilated into the living tissue of the re-growing tree. Just think, the fungi are going to have a field day and there will be mushrooms by the plenty. In other words, nothing is lost. I would like to think the babies will gurgle in contented gratitude to be free of the bath water.

This is when the real work begins. The work of tending to the new shoots. Watching them closely, nourishing them while delicate and young. As they grow, selectively removing weaker stems and shaping up those that remain for optimal health and form.

Making Permaculture Stronger - Phase Two

I declare Phase Two of Making Permaculture Stronger open.

Phase Two is all about tapping into permaculture’s essence, its potential, then co-articulating from scratch design and creation process understandings that resonate with and actualise this potential every step of the way.

Where those of us drawn to this work respectfully converse and collaborate in the hard, honest, yet immensely rewarding work of co-crafting, co-creating something fresh. Something authentic. Something alive.

Something worthy of what Bill and David gifted the world in co-originating the permaculture concept.

To me, this is one way of tapping the part of permaculture’s essence that Bill Mollison manifested when he talked about having lost heart in protesting and fighting against what he didn’t want. He retreated into the bush and when he came back he was a different person. He was intensely focused not on what he didn’t want, but on what he did want. He focused his fire and he took permaculture to the world, igniting a global movement.