International Permaculture Day Date in the current year: May 5, 2024

Permaculture is a design system that is implemented to create socially, economically and ecologically sustainable settlements that mimic nature as closely as possible to minimize their impact on the environment. It consists of a set of design and ethical principles, characteristics, and practices freely available to individuals, communities, and organizations around the globe.

The history of permaculture can be traced back to J. Russell Smith’s 1929 book Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture, in which he proposed to plant fruit and nut trees as food crops that could restore the health of soils affected by deforestation and erosion. However, it wasn’t until the second half of the 20th century that permaculture as we know it today truly began to take shape.

The theory and practice of permaculture were developed by two Australian scientists and educators from Tasmania, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. They met in 1974 and started working on developing stable and sustainable agricultural systems that would mitigate the effects of industrial agriculture methods on Tasmania’s soils. Mollison and Holmgren first made their ideas public in their 1978 book Permaculture One.

The term “permaculture” originally meant “permanent agriculture” but was later adjusted to stand for “permanent culture” to incorporate the system’s social aspects. Permaculture uses a “natural” approach to land management and settlement design that mimics natural ecosystems and encourages individuals, communities and organizations to react to changes around them by using solutions inspired by nature.

Since permaculture was invented by two Australians, it is not surprising that International Permaculture Day originated in Australia as well. On May 1, 2011, Australian permaculture enthusiasts celebrated the first National Permaculture Day. The next year, the holiday went international; International Permaculture Day has been observed every first Sunday in May ever since and has spread to more than 35 countries.

Permaculture practitioners from all over the world celebrate the holiday with open houses, farms and gardens, community gardening events, garden makeovers (permablitzes), educational workshops, talks, permaculture design courses, seed exchange events, film screenings, and other events and activities that allow people to learn more about permaculture and experience it first-hand.

You can join the celebration by attending an International Permaculture Day event near you or even organizing an event of your own, watching a documentary about permaculture and the effect of human activities on our planet, planting a tree or starting a garden, and spreading awareness on social media with the hashtags #InternatonalPermacultureDay and #PermacultureDay.