Observation is the bread and butter of Permaculture. Reading the letters, sentences, and paragraphs of the landscape unveils the greater book of the whole. In order to design, the prerequisite is to know what canvas we are designing on and what are the tools and materials that we will work with. Landform, weather, water, vegetation, animals, humans, have all left their “signs” on the land both spatially and temporally. Can we read the signposts along the way?
“Theory, in and of itself, is useless unless it leads us to believe in the interrelation-ship of phenomena.” (Goethe)
“Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.” (Goethe)
“You can observe a lot just by watching.” (Yogi Berra)
“To him that watches, everything is revealed.” (Italian Proverb)
“As a man is, so he sees.” (William Blake)
“Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted & thoughtless labor; & of looking at plants & animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system.” (Bill Mollison)