Introduction

Putting Nature to Work

Imagine engaging the free forces of nature to benefit

you and your environment. Water, wind, sunlight,
convection, gravity, and decompositionall of
these energy sources can serve your needs.
By making the right choices when we interact
with nature, we create sustenance in our landscapes
with little effort or work on our part. If we choose
to let rainwater flow aimlessly from our rooftops
and gutters, it will erode centuries of soil from
under our feet. Or we can choose to harness the
potential of rainwater. When we harvest rainwater
in a carefully planned way, we can use it to heat and
cool greenhouses and homes, to spread fertility
through the landscape, to grow fish, to flush toilets,
to clean chicken coops, and to irrigate plants and
mushroom logs. Water has the power to destroy
life or support life. The difference is in the design.
Likewise, sunlight can simply bounce off the landscape in winter, its energy wasted as we burn fossil
fuels to heat our homes and greenhouses. However,
through design we can capture sunlight and use it to
provide free heat in winter and move heat through
buildings. The powers of nature can be wasted or
used to our benefit through intelligent design.
Design can transform waste into a resource. Wood
chips and food waste burden our urban and suburban
waste collection systems. But through careful design
we can combine the waste into active compost piles to
capture heat for homes and greenhouses, while producing a high-quality source of fertility to feed the
soil of farms and gardens. We have the opportunity
h
f

to capture and use the forces of nature to benefit from

every component in our landscape, rather than continuously attempting to mitigate the environmental
damages resulting from poor (or no) design.
The benefits of design are not limited to the
landscape. Properly designed roofs and homes protect and sustain their inhabitants. Sometimes the
first step in practicing good design is recognizing
bad design. For example, an inverted gable roof
resembling a butterfly taking flightfunnels rain,
cold winds, and intense sunlight directly into the
building it should protect. Similarly, the front door
of a traditionally designed home faces the road,
regardless of whether the road lies to the east, west,
north, or south. But if the house lies on a northsouth axis, it inevitably overheats throughout the
summer and remains dark and cold all winter.
Instead, it makes sense to orient a house to face
the winter sun, so that sunlight can enter and heat
the house in winter and the roof will block intense
summer rays. By observing one simple rule, function comes first, we end the futile attempt to swim
upstream and instead float downriver, navigating
any obstacles with agility and ease.
If you are interested in spending less time maintaining your landscape and more time enjoying it,
then this book is for you. If you are concerned about
decreasing your dependence on outside resources,
then this book is for you. If you are curious about how
to inexpensively extend your growing season, then
this book is for you. The process of achieving all three
1

h
f

T he B i o - I n t e g rat e d Fa r m
of these goals is simpleput nature to work through
intelligent design. Thats the basis of bio-integration.

decreasing our energy consumption using passive

solar techniques and greywater systems.
Another life-changing permaculture project
occurred at the Ashevillage Institute in the temperate climate of Ashville, North Carolina. At this
location I directed the design and built the landscape, developing systems to harvest rainwater into
ponds from steep slopes on urban property. This
was my first experience integrating ponds with
greenhouses. Combined with raising chickens,
this system became a sustainable example of food
production in an urban area with difficult terrain.
Finally, the culmination of my experience has
taken place at the Clemson University Student
Organic Farm (SOF) and my current residence in
the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These
locations lie at the cooler northern edge of a humid
subtropical climate that extends west to the middle
of Texas and north along the coast to New Jersey.
Working with students at the Clemson farm, Ive
created permaculture patternsgoverning everything from raising transplants and field design to
freshwater prawn production and composting.
These patterns have simplified the operation of our
125-share subscription farm while reducing our
reliance on outside resources. At my 2-acre homestead, in less time than it takes to mow, Im building
a you-pick fruit farm using permaculture patterns.
The only labor my landscape requires is harvesting,
and the only outside input I buy is a small amount
of chicken feed. By carefully employing gravity,
rainwater harvesting ponds, and poultry systems, I
maximize the power of nature to do the work for me.

In the Beginning
I remember the moment I first realized a plant could
save me money and hours of backbreaking labor.
Someone had planted comfrey under grapevines
at my home. Surprisingly, the vines closest to the
comfrey plants grew faster and produced more fruit.
The comfrey had prevented the growth of weeds and
may have also fertilized the vines by pulling nutrients up from deeper in the soil. A helpful neighbor,
Rain Tenaqiya, author of West Coast Food Forestry,
later informed me that planting comfrey under fruit
trees is a common practice in permaculture.
Immediately intrigued, I began experimenting
with permaculture patterns at our farm in the Santa
Cruz mountains of California. My wife Stephanie
and I had recently been blessed by the birth of our
daughter Sage. With little time and resources, I
found that permaculture offered me a way to spend
time with our growing family and run a nursery
and edible flower operation. I integrated our nursery operation under our fruit trees to capture water
and nutrients, and I reduced inputs by cover cropping and employing no-till farming techniques.
As a result, I saved an enormous amount of time,
money, and energy.
After seven years in this Mediterranean-like
climate, we moved to the East Coasta new canvas
for practicing permaculture. I taught Master Gardener classes as an Extension agent for Clemson
University, and in my off time I established the
Urban Permaculture Institute of the Southeast. In
the mild subtropical coastal climate, I turned acre
of poor sandy soil into a fertile ecosystem. Located
in the heart of town, the institutes no-maintenance,
low-input system supplemented our diets through
aquaculture, chickens, bees, and food forestry while
h
f

A Unifying Principle
Creating new and innovative permaculture patterns
is my passion. Permaculture patterns are replicable
models easily repeated in diverse design settings.
What exactly is permaculture? Permaculture is a
2

h
f

I n t r o d u ct io n

More about Permaculture

The term permaculture is a contraction of the
words permanent and agriculture or permanent and culture. Permaculture encompasses
ethics, principles, and techniques rooted in ecological designs, as well as the practices of ancient
cultures and modern innovators. Permaculture
founder Bill Mollison believes people can
create systems that function as effortlessly as
natural ecosystems, providing food, energy,
shelter, and other needs in a sustainable way.
Permaculture ethics call for care of the
earth, care of people, and setting limits
on population and consumption.1 Many
permaculture teachers also focus on a set of
principles or truths to define the foundation
of permaculture. Though sometimes differing
in details, all the principles and truths aspire
to the final goal of harmony. Here are the
principles of the founders of permaculture.

not. A corollary of this principle is that

everything is a positive resource; it is just
up to us to work out how we may use
it as such.
3. Make the least change for the greatest
possible effect.
4. The yield of a system is theoretically
unlimited. The only limit on the number
of uses of a resource possible within a
system is in the limit of the information
and the imagination of the designer.
5. Everything gardens, or has an effect on
its environment.

David Holmgrens Principles2

1. Observe and interact.

2. Catch and store energy.
3. Obtain a yield.
4. Apply self-regulation, and
accept feedback.
5. Use and value renewable resources
and services.
6. Produce no waste.
7. Design from patterns to details.
8. Integrate rather than segregate.
9. Use small and slow solutions.
10. Use and value diversity.
11. Use edges, and value the marginal.
12. Creatively use and respond to change.

Bill Mollisons Principles

1. Work with nature, rather than against
the natural elements, forces, pressures,
processes, agencies, and evolutions, so
that we assist rather than impede
natural development.
2. The problem is the solution; everything
works both ways. It is only how we see
things that makes them advantageous or

design system based on ethics and principles created by Australian naturalist Bill Mollison and his
informal student David Holmgren. Bill Mollison
presented five guiding principles in his book Permaculture: A Designers Manual. David Holmgren
h
f

uses twelve guiding principles, which he described

in his book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways
Beyond Sustainability. Ben Falk, a designer living in
Vermont, created seventy-two guiding principles
in his 2013 book, The Resilient Farm and Homestead.
3

h
f

T he B i o - I n t e g rat e d Fa r m
In my own work I continuously run into an
underlying rule or directive that, if done properly,
accomplishes most of the other permaculture
principles. I believe its a unifying principle that
underlies the heart of permaculture and all good
ecological designs. In the permaculture community its known as stacking functions.
What is this principle of stacking functions?
Mollison defines permaculture design as a system
of assembling conceptual, material, and strategic
components in a pattern which functions to benefit
life in all its forms. It seeks to provide a sustainable
and secure place for living things on this earth.3
Mollison also states the prime directive of
function and the source for the stacking functions
principle: Every component of a design should
function in many ways. Every essential function
should be supported by many components.4
When we look at the comfrey plant example,
the possible functions are many:

herb spiral pattern, which he created in 1978 as a

kitchen-door design. Containing all the basic culinary herbs, the ascending spiral garden sits 6 feet
wide at its base and rises 3 feet above ground level.
The form creates dry sites for Mediterranean herbs
such as thyme, sage, and rosemary and shaded
areas for herbs such as mint, parsley, chives, and
coriander. Mollisons herb spiral performs the
following functions:

After years of experiencing Mollisons permaculture systems from the inside out, Ive come to the
conclusion that something very special happens
when a component within the design exceeds seven
functions. Once the magic odd number of seven is
breached, the design takes on a life of its own. For
a component to perform seven functions it must be
so connected with the surrounding environment
that it takes on a new autonomous, lifelike quality.
I refer to this quality as bio-integration, to represent the new life born into the design once seven
functions are breached.
I define a component as one part of a larger
design. For example, a greenhouse would be one
component of a farm. Another could be a pond
or a chicken coop. Each component is a simple
pattern within itself but should also connect with
other components in a larger pattern. Sometimes,
however, the construction of one component

1. It creates dry areas on top of the mound.

2. It creates wet areas toward the bottom of
the mound.
3. It creates shaded cool areas on the north side.
4. It creates sunny warm areas on the south side.
5. It increases growing area in a small space.
6. It provides culinary and medicinal herbs and
food for the kitchen.

Building Up to Bio-Integration

1. Prevents potential weeds from invading

2. Accumulates nutrients fertilizing adjacent trees
3. Serves as feed for animals
4. Serves as a natural medicine
5. Serves as a garnish (flowers)

One could also argue that a comfrey plant harvests and filters water while producing oxygen and
supporting wildlife. But it is difficult to quantify
energy savings or place a monetary value on these
functions; therefore I did not include them in the
functional analysis. In addition, aesthetics is never
considered a function. Stacking functions is about
adding more beneficial functions to design components. Every function added conserves energy and
resources. More functions equal more energy and
resources saved.
One famous multifunctional permaculture
pattern is Mollisons original, and much replicated,
h
f

h
f

I n t r o d u ct io n
depends on the construction of another, such as
the greenhouse built on a sloped platform with an
exterior pond. I consider this pattern to be a single
component, since digging the pond builds the
sloped platform.
For example, we could bio-integrate Bill Mollisons herb spiral. Since the herb spiral requires
bringing in soil to make the 3-foot-high mound, we
could harvest the soil from an area adjacent to the
herb spiral to form a pond. The herb spiral harvests
rainwater as the water spirals down the mound and
creates a wet area at the bottom. If we built a small
pond in this wet area on the south side of the spiral,
the new bio-integrated functional analysis would
add the following five functions to the previous six
to create a total of eleven functions:

I often compare bio-integration to an individuals success. One individual may achieve success;
however, it is through connections with others that
he or she becomes successful. Likewise, each component becomes bio-integrated by performing its
own seven functions, but it performs those seven
functions through its connection to other components. In essence, bio-integration forms cohesion
between components by connecting the dots.
After I created the greenhouse systems at
the SOF, Dr. Geoffrey Zehnder, director of the
Sustainable Agriculture Program, said the greenhouses were so different from anything else he
had seen, he thought the technique should have its
own name. We coined the term bio-integration. Ive
seen some farms use the term, and its also used by
the medical industry (with a different definition).
Throughout this book I hope to establish firmly
the definition of bio-integration in relation to farms,
landscapes, and homes.
When I sat down to begin writing this book,
I realized theres a profound difference between
working with nature and working with the written
word. Sometimes its much easier to do something
than to explain how to do it. Thats where Stephanies writing skills came into play. She is not only
an award-winning journalist, but she has lived
alongside me for nearly twenty years watching my
projects evolve. So it was only natural for us to tackle
this endeavor as a team. The book is written primarily from a first-person perspective, and the I refers
to me. The ideas and concepts are my creation; however, the expression of those ideas and concepts was
a collaborative effort between Stephanie and me.
Each chapter in this book explores an advanced,
innovative, bio-integrated pattern. Each of the
patterns exceeds seven functional connections,
and some exceed twenty functional connections.
Chapter 1 begins with an ancient pattern, but most
of the other patterns are my original designs. The

7. The elevated spiral planting bed harvests

rainwater for a pond.
8. The pond on the south side of the herb spiral
reflects light onto the herb spiral during winter.
9. Excess soil from digging the pond provides
soil for the raised mound.
10. The pond attracts toads, frogs, and other
predators of plant pests.
11. The pond moderates the microclimate,
absorbing heat during the day and releasing
heat at night.
Since digging the pond provided the soil to raise
the herb spiral, the components are now considered a single component. For this design to truly
work, it requires water from an additional source
to keep the pond full and combat evaporation.
Therefore, we would need to add one more functional connection, a catchment surface, to increase
the total number of functions to twelve:
12. The pond harvests water from the roof of the
adjacent house.
h
f

h
f

T he B i o - I n t e g rat e d Fa r m
book is divided into two parts: The first part focuses
on component patterns of larger designs, such as a
multifunctional small pond or a multifunctional
composting systembut many chapters overlap, since some patterns share components. To
understand the big picture and how components
fit together, I refer readers to the landscape plan
of the SOF on page 297, my home in Anderson
on page 348, the Urban Permaculture Institute of
the Southeast on page 336, and the Ashevillage
Institute on page 349.
The second part of the book guides the reader
through case studies composed of some new design
components and new combinations of components
mentioned earlier in the book. Its not necessary to
read the book in consecutive order, but readers may
need to cross-refer from one chapter to another.
Cross-references from chapter to chapter throughout
the book will help you find information more easily.
You dont need to have prior knowledge of
permaculture to read and understand this book.

h
f

Ive included in-depth information about how to

design and build the systems; however, I havent
written step-by-step instructions for each project.
Youll need some previous experience with building
projects, managing a greenhouse, and growing
crops to get the most out of this book. Many of the
chapters start with the basics, then move into the
more advanced engineering required for complex
integrations. If you dont understand a topic, simply skip to the next chapter and refer back to the
engineering as needed when youre designing and
building projects.
My hope is that youll be inspired to replicate these patterns, much like the renowned
permaculture herb spiral pattern. I also hope these
bio-integrated patterns inspire new and improved
patterns that will advance the language of permaculture design. Finally, I hope everyone who reads
this book can experience the joy and ease of living
and working in a landscape where all the components are bio-integrated.

h
f