Romania
PaLS gGmbH − Permakulturpark am Lebensgarten Steyerberg
The Permaculture Park at Steyerberg Life Garden (PaLS gGmbH) – located in Northern Germany between Hanover and Bremen – operates according to permaculture principles in a combined system of market garden and agroforestry elements. Its produce is marketed as part of a community-supported agriculture scheme. The project was founded by permaculture pioneer Prof. Dr. Declan Kennedy, who lives in the immediate vicinity and still supports the further development with advice and assistance.
The team of experienced gardeners and volunteers from Germany and abroad grow mainly organic vegetables, herbs, fruit and nuts as well as their own seeds on an area of around 2 hectares. The harvest is available for members to collect each week from the specially built, naturally cooled earth cellar. The team has also started producing phytoponic compost substrate for refinement into biocyclic humus soil.
Since September 2024, PaLS gGmbH has been certified according to the Biocyclic Vegan Standard.
The permaculture park was established in 2003 on a previously conventionally farmed area of extremely poor sandy soil. After years of soil improvement measures, the vegetable garden with agroforestry elements was established in 2009 and is embedded in a 6.5-hectare site that has been impressively restored to its natural state.
PaLS gGmbH sees itself not only as an agricultural operation but also as a place of experimentation and teaching with the aim of promoting the transformation towards economically and ecologically sustainable agriculture. In addition to the climate resilience of vegetable cultivation, the focus is on projects for particularly sustainable water management, the regeneration of soil life and humus build-up in the cultivated soil – as well as the conversion of the approx. 4 ha pine forest belonging to the farm into a healthy, climate-resilient mixed forest.
PaLS gGmbH will continue to expand its existing range of seminars on these topics in 2025. The Steyerberg Life Garden, which is directly adjacent to the property, offers ideal conditions for this.
Due to this combination of factors, the International Biocyclic Humus Soil Alliance has named the permaculture park at Lebensgarten Steyerberg a “lighthouse project” for the dissemination of Biocyclic Humus Soil in Germany.
Photos © Kerstin Anders, PaLS gGmbH
