Agroforestry
The association of trees, shrubs, crops and sometimes livestock within a single system.
Glossary
Essential definitions
The living vocabulary of permaculture, explained simply, with concrete examples.
A
Allelopathy
The chemical influence of one plant on its neighbours, positive or negative.
B
Banker plant
A plant that sustains beneficial insects near the crop; by extension, in amateur gardening, a trap plant that attracts pests.
Beneficials
A living creature that helps crops, above all by keeping pests in check: predators and parasitoids, their natural enemies.
Biochar
A porous plant charcoal used as a durable soil amendment.
Bioregionalism
Thinking about a territory from its watersheds, soils, climates and local cultures.
Bokashi
Scraps or organic materials fermented with an inoculum of microorganisms: a kitchen bucket, or a farm amendment.
Botanical families
The gardener's most powerful shortcut: know the family, and you already know a good part of the behaviour.
Buzz pollination
The thoracic vibration of a bumblebee that releases the pollen of certain flowers with poricidal anthers.
C
Climate resilience
Strategies to adapt the garden to drought, excess water and extremes.
Crop rotation
Rotating vegetable families over several beds to limit soil pests and diseases and balance crop needs.
F
Farmers' seeds
Reproducible varieties, selected locally by gardeners.
Fermented plant extract (purin)
A fermented plant maceration, used mainly as a liquid fertiliser.
G
Green manure
A plant sown to improve the soil: nitrogen fixation, organic matter, cover.
Greenhouse
A transparent shelter that lets light in, holds on to warmth and keeps out wind and rain: crops are brought forward, extended or protected inside.
Greywater
Wastewater from the shower, the sink or the laundry, usable in the garden.
Guild
A set of plants organised around a central plant (often a fruit tree).
H
Heavy metals in the garden
Lead, cadmium, arsenic and company: what sleeps beneath the garden soil, unseen.
Humus
The part of soil organic matter most transformed by soil organisms, the part that darkens the earth.
K
Keyline design
Hydrological design at the landscape scale, based on the lines of the relief.
L
Layer
A level of vegetation in a forest garden: tall tree, small tree, shrub, herbaceous, ground cover, root, climbing.
Living soil
The network of organisms (bacteria, fungi, worms) that makes the soil fertile.
M
Melliferous (bee-friendly)
Said of a plant whose flowers feed bees and pollinators, with nectar, pollen, or both.
Mulch
A layer of material laid over the soil to keep it permanently covered, instead of leaving the earth bare.
Mycorrhiza
A fungus-root symbiosis that improves the uptake of water and nutrients, present in 85 to 90% of land plants.
N
Nutrient density and trace elements
What a food really provides in vitamins, minerals and trace elements per mouthful, and why the way it is grown matters.
P
Permaculture ethics
The three values that guide every design: caring for the Earth, caring for people, sharing fairly.
Permaculture zones
The spatial organisation of a site according to visit frequency and maintenance intensity, one of the founding tools of permaculture design.
R
Rainwater quality
What falls from the sky has not been pure for a long time: PFAS, microplastics and metals are now found in rain. Good news: rainwater is still better than tap water for the pond, but the idea of a “naturally healthy rainwater” needs updating.
Ramial chipped wood (RCW)
Small-diameter branches, chipped, brought to the soil as mulch or mixed into its surface to feed its life.
Rhizobium
Symbiotic bacteria of legumes that fix nitrogen from the air.
S
Sectors
The external influences that cross the site: sun, winds, water, noise, views, frost.
Social permaculture
Applying permaculture principles to human and collective organisation.
Spontaneous plants (“weeds”)
A plant that grows on its own where it wasn't sown, a neutral word, preferred to “weed”.
Stopping (end-of-season pruning)
At the end of the season, pinch out the top of plants and remove flowers and fruit that are too late, to concentrate strength on the fruit already set.
Swale
A ditch dug dead level, along a contour line, to stop runoff and let it soak into the soil.
Syntropic agriculture
An approach developed by Ernst Götsch: imitating forest dynamics through succession, pruning and abundant biomass.
T
The Three Sisters
The ancestral Native American pairing of corn, bean, squash.