The permaculture principle that I'm reviewing this month is Use Edges and Value the Marginal. This is an ironic principle, because permaculture itself is marginal, on the edge, not mainstream, so if you're using permaculture, you're probably already in the right frame of mind to apply this principle! one of our dams... notice the perfect edge! When I think of this principle, I immediately picture the edges between a dam and pasture, or between forest and pasture, but that is a simplistic interpretation of this principle. By marginal, David means both "things on the edge" and "things that are not valued". An example in the book is wild foods, which we often forget can be useful. The idea is that things on the edge are more dynamic because of the cross-over of two systems. Some examples of edge and marginal aspects from our farm life: Our farm itself was marginal (not valued) because of all the trees, but we see value as firewood, fence post...