FLOWERS & Fibers

GROWING flowers a permaculturey way

I’ve been a designer for a while. First, I was a graphic designer, which was about style and communicating to an audience. Now - as someone who lives on 55-acres - I am place designer. Designing space can be about style, but it can also be about something deeper than that. It can be about approach, regeneration, thoughtfulness.

Insert the principles of permaculture design. They give me the template to how I grow flowers. One principle of permaculture design is that inputs ideally have more than one purpose. Thus, in choosing which flowers to use, I am selecting not only for it’s function in a bouquet, but also the possibility that it could be used for a natural dye pigment or is a native plant ideal for pollinators.

Another principle of permaculture design is to make small and slow changes, adjusting as necessary. Just as there is a Slow Food Movement, there is also a Slow Flower Movement. I find this movement overlaps with the ideas of permaculture, in that it promotes growing local, sustainable, seasonal flowers. And so, as I have slowly grown the size of my flower beds, I have learned which flowers attract the bees, which flowers are suited to this environment, and learned to incorporate more perennials into our garden design,