creativity

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Heather Jo Flores and your neighbor’s front yard…and the local park…and…and… ​Lawns use more equipment, labor, fuel, and agricultural toxins than industrial farming, making lawns the largest (and most toxic) agricultural sector in the United States, so grow food, not lawns.​ Growing food at home is hardly a new idea. But in this culture, where more people know how to take the perfect selfie than how to grow a potato, urban agriculture has become a form of activism. The slogan “Food Not Lawns” is spreading like wildfire. Here are some reasons why to grow food not lawns: ​Lawns are the…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Laura Bee “The goal of the PWG is to hold space for women who choose to work with women, for whatever reason is real for them. We aren’t asking permission to do this, nor are we seeking approval. We are simply, in permaculture terms, filling a niche that has been open for far too long”. — Heather Jo Flores, founder of the Permaculture Women’s Guild. I started my permaculture journey in April 2016, shortly after leaving an extremely stressful full-time job. I left with a lack of confidence and a depleted sense of purpose. Around this time, my friend Charlie Gray…

Permaculture Womens Guild

What is Permaculture Design? How would you explain it?

Permaculture Womens Guild

by Heather Jo Flores As Published in issue #98 of Permaculture Design Magazine, November 2015 First of all, I want to say that I do not represent anyone but myself, and though I have vetted this article with several peers and mentors, I do not presume to know the needs and desires of anyone else. However, it seems to me that there are ripples of injustice coursing through the permaculture community, manifesting as a pattern of landowners and/or self-proclaimed leaders doing things that hurt, offend, oppress, and devalue others. These behaviors discredit the permaculture movement at large, and unless we…

Permaculture Womens Guild

Building an anti/beyond/despite capitalist movement By Becky Ellis Permaculture is a philosophy and set of practices aimed at creating regenerative human spaces that mimic natural eco-systems. The concept was developed in the 1970s based on observations of the ecological systems created by Indigenous and “traditional” communities around the world. The philosophy of permaculture offers a counter-hegemonic worldview especially regarding the place of human societies within nature. While permaculture can be thought of as a movement, some of its proponents insist it stay de-politicized and professionalized as a system of ecological design. Indeed, some of the practices of permaculture limit its…