Permaculture – Landscape
Erosion furrows, ridges, shaded areas, multi-storey building facades and sun-exposed sites all offer multiple opportunities ‘as differences in speed’ and slope of streams or cascades provide specific niches.
We can find a use for each of these sites, as a food storage or drying aid, energy source, or niche for specific plants or animals. With the passage of time, man too can ‘implement favorable conditions for ergonomic agriculture, opening up as many opportunities’ by implementing wooded areas, building embankments and dwellings, or digging caves.
The key to an increased diversity and richness of natural systems is in the promotion of microclimates.
Each group of trees invites new species to settle, each shady corner offers shelter from the heat, and each pile of stones a patch of shady, damp earth.
On the basis of data gleaned from a careful observation of natural systems, we can plan these evolutions and place plants in a way that benefits them.