Transcription
Buckle up, folks, because we're about to dive deep and learn how to decode the secret patterns of nature that are surrounding you at all times. Because when you look to nature, you see mountains, rivers, trees, clouds, animals, and they may seem like unrelated and separate forms, but there is an underlying pattern that connects it all. And it all starts with an apple core. This is the beginning. And this form is called the core model. The core model is considered a master pattern. That's the basis for understanding how natural systems work.
I'm going to explain this starting with a tree. Now imagine the entire lifetime of a tree. It begins with the germination of a seed. And that event is like a detonation of energy sending branches to the sky and roots underground. The branches grow in a fractal branching pattern which means that as you go from the trunk to the outer branches, the same pattern of branching repeats its smaller scales. And we find the same fractal pattern in the root system where big roots branch into smaller and smaller roots until there are just root hairs at the tip. So the tree grows and grows until it dies and breaks down and eventually returns back into the soil. So imagine for a minute that the tree is not just a static form that you see when you look at it in a moment, but try and visualize its whole lifetime. And you'll see that the tree is really an event which happens from seed to death.
And within that tree, there's movement through its vascular system. The roots bring minerals and water up from the earth to form the leaves and branches. And then the leaves send sugars from the canopy down to be stored in the roots. But the sugars and minerals do not just travel up the tree in a straight line. There are streamlines made by the xyllemin phe in the vascular system where the minerals actually travel from one side of the roots to the opposite side of the canopy. And the same goes for sugars traveling down. When we look from the side view, the streamline of these nutrient flows forms this pattern. But you have to imagine this three-dimensionally and not just flat like my drawing because this nutrient flow is not flat and two-dimensional. The minerals, water, and sugars actually travel in a spiral around the tree. Here's a top-down view that shows a pathway that nutrients take to get from the roots to the crown, spiraling around the trunk. This is not just a single pathway, but when you imagine all of the nutrients and water moving in this fashion, it means that the entire tree is actually a spiral.
Look, I am not just making all this up. This is from the permaculture designers manual, which is the Bible of permaculture, written by permaculture's founder, Bill Mollis. And here on page 73, he takes a deep dive into all of this. I'm just scratching the surface and giving you a tiny bit, but there's lots more in this book. Anyway, let's get back to spirals. Bill describes the tree as a slowm moving vortex, like a tornado or a whirlpole moving in both directions, but moving so slowly that we can't perceive the movement. But have you ever seen a tree that's visibly growing in a spiral? Well, now you understand why it looks like that.
The tree also has an enormous surface area of leaves and branches in its canopy that collects dust and particles that settle from the atmosphere. It's like a giant net for everything around. Pollen, bug skeletons, bird droppings, mushroom spores, seeds, soil particles, you name it. And then when it rains, all of that material is washed down to the ground, guided down the tree by the branches and dripping to the ground at the canopy's edge. So the tree itself is collecting all that material and depositing it into its own root zone where it enters the soil and becomes nutrients for its own growth. The leaves fall from the tree and also break down into the soil. So the tree is recycling its own biomass from the canopy into the soil and then back into the tree. This is represented by the taurus pattern where we see the slowm moving vortex of the tree is dynamically accumulating and recycling nutrients and minerals. Is your mind blown yet by how genius trees in nature are?
Well, now we're going to look at the tree from a completely different perspective because the tree is the same form as the watershed. Now, let's replace the treere's canopy with the mountain range. Just like a tree collects dew and rain and snow in its canopy, a mountain collects rain and snow and dust, but just on a way bigger scale. When rain and snow melt flows down a mountain, the water moves through the landscape in the same pattern as the trees branches. Small springs and streams combined to make larger creeks which combine into rivers. Rivers converge with each other and some of them end up in a lake. But for those that find their way to the sea, they spread out into an estuary. Water travels slowly through the estuary and then the fresh river water is dispersed out into the ocean. You can see now that the tree pattern is the same pattern of how water flows through a landscape from mountains to estuary and into the ocean. Just like the branches of a tree have a fractal pattern, the branch pattern of streams in a watershed is also a fractal pattern. The same form of branching exists in whatever scale you look at it in.
So when we take this watershed pattern and we place it in a sequence, we have an undulation between the forces of concentration and dispersion. The concentration is when water is flowing down through canyons, creeks, washes, waddies and picking up speed and picking up particles of soil and organic matter into the water. But then at a certain point the pattern of the water flow changes and water goes from concentrating its energy to dispersing its energy. When water is moving fast it can cause erosion and pick up a lot of soil materials and then eventually it hits flatter ground and slows again and the soil settles out of the water as deposition. And this process goes back and forth scouring soil and deepening the river channel in one bend and then settling out that soil in the next bend. This pulse between the forces of concentration and dispersion, erosion and deposition scouring and settling. This is the nature of water and land. And this is where the core model becomes a map of the whole landscape. In fact, the entire land mass of the planet is made up of interlocking core model watersheds. That's the big secret. That's the invisible pattern that everybody on the planet lives within.
Once you realize that the tree pattern is the watershed pattern and that the earth's land mass is made up of a matrix of interwoven watersheds, then you realize that the core model is a map that you can use to understand where a site that you're designing is positioned within the landscape and what the dominant forces are that you need to pay attention to. Are you in a location where soil is depositing and water is moving slowly? Are you in a place with a bad erosion potential? Are you high or low in the watershed? And what does that tell you about your soil, availability of water, wildlife, and your farming or gardening potential? In the permaculture system, we use this information as the foundation to design a life that actually works harmoniously with natural patterns. And that's exactly where Bill Mollis went with all of this when he founded permaculture. So, I will never stop reading this book, and I'm going to link to this book down below. And what I just showed you here is just the tiniest tip of the iceberg of what you'll find here.
Now, when you take our online permaculture design courses through Oregon State University, you learn how to apply this information to the actual design of a permaculture site. Are you ready to transform deserts, create lush backyards, and feed communities? In my almost 30 years as a permaculture designer traveling the world, I've put everything I learned into Oregon State University's online permaculture design course or PDC. The PDC and PDC Pro are the ultimate way to begin mastering permaculture. Me and my team guide you through over 20 assignments with more than 100 hours of top quality video lectures and resources, all focused on developing your own property or project. Throughout the course, you'll get personalized feedback from a dedicated instructor in a small group setting. People are always asking me, "How can I be part of the solution?" This is your starting point. Check the link below for upcoming courses and join us in creating a better world for everyone. See you in class.