Permaculture Principles in Market Gardening

In this presentation, I will look at each principle in the context of three different market gardens in Finland and the UK. Each one of these plots integrated annual vegetables, perennial crops, infrastructure and, sometimes, animals to maximise yields, support biodiversity, minimise soil disturbance, improve soil health and build resilient, sustainable livelihoods.

We will discuss how to leverage biodiversity, and biological and ecological interactions, to allow us to use fewer external inputs, and create the synergies that help plants deal better with environmental challenges, e.g. drought, because their soil environment - the microbes that they’re associated with - has been altered in such a way that they are better equipped. These are stronger, more robust and, most importantly, more sustainable solutions.