[Seedgeeks] hemenway on seed cycles

[Nick Routledge]

Dropped a note on Toby H. asking if he had any ideas around incorporating
the seed cycle into the permaculture model. His reply, attached.

n.

--

--- Toby Hemenway <hemenway at jeffnet.org> wrote:

> Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 09:07:34 -0700
> Subject: Re: quickie intel question
> From: Toby Hemenway <hemenway at jeffnet.org>
> To: Nick Routledge <fellowservant at yahoo.com>
> 
> 
> > Do ya got any solid thoughts or know of anyone
> > who might around the topic of incorporating the seed cycle into the
> > permaculture model?
> 
> Hmm. . . Solid thoughts? How about some vaporous hand waving?
> 
> Actually, the seed cycle is a nice metaphor for a whole slew of Pc
> principles, and embodies much of what Pc is about. For starters, it is a
> cycle, not a linear chain, and thus exemplifies what Pc is trying to
> communicate. I often contrast the conventional-ag linear model of
> "producer
> to consumer," which is a defective ecology, to the
> "producer-consumer-decomposer" cycle that brings recycling of nutrients
> into
> the picture. But the seed cycle might be even nicer, as it offers a
> "growth
> to completion, and rebirth" picture. Any design project starts as a seed
> or
> idea, with perhaps the written design plan being analogous to the seed's
> DNA--it's a symbol but not the product itself. And any ecological
> design,
> particularly one involving plants, will grow and change, so the designer
> must account for and understand this process of maturing (you need to
> remember that small trees will get big, sunny spots will get shady,
> etc).
> Then when the project matures, that mature and now-successful design can
> be
> replicated with variations (analogous to genetic diversity) in other
> places--the "grow by chunking" approach. And the rebirth aspect is a
> fertile
> playground for any number of new-age ruminations.
> 
> The maturity aspect also reminds me of the assessment phase of good
> design.
> Unlike conventional design, where the architect walks away when the
> building
> is done, Pc requires post-completion assessment, and this is similar to
> what
> happens when a mature plant has to function in its environment--only the
> "fit" get to have offspring. So in a sense the Pc design process looks a
> lot
> like the seed cycle. I'm sure that with a little more thought I could
> Procrusteanize even more aspects of the seed cycle into a Pc model.
> 
> I also remember that, when asking students for examples of the Pc
> principle,
> "make the least change for the greatest effect," one answer was "Plant a
> seed."
> 
> T. 
> 
> 



		
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