Whether your dream is to run a self-sufficient homestead, produce food or to regenerate a poorly managed landscape, remember that we are active participants in a dance between the forces of nature and the human imagination.
What do I mean by this? I mean that, without you or I, nature can and will take care of itself. The minute we have certain needs and/or wants for a site is the minute we embark on an adventure of responsible decisions and actions, beginning with thoughtful and protracted observation, in all cases.
We seek to collaborate with our resources and add to them, rather than merely use them up. Below you will find some ecological services offered by Permaculture Design Course.
What do I mean by this? I mean that, without you or I, nature can and will take care of itself. The minute we have certain needs and/or wants for a site is the minute we embark on an adventure of responsible decisions and actions, beginning with thoughtful and protracted observation, in all cases.
We seek to collaborate with our resources and add to them, rather than merely use them up. Below you will find some ecological services offered by Permaculture Design Course.
Garden Design
- Site assessment:
- sectors, zones, flows, resource audits.
- Growing food
- Setting goals, coming up with a practical plan for the season
- Focusing on perennial food systems
- Limiting the cultivation space, stacking plants, small-scale intensive systems
- Integrating the garden with the gardener’s lifestyle
- Primarily for spaces within Zones 1-3
- Here, the design is constantly changing in reaction to the feedback from the individual plants based on environmental conditions
LAnd restoration and remediation
- Site assessment:
- geological soil profiles, topography maps, keyline design, native species inventory, wildlife inventory, hydrology studies
- Decisions based time frame and purpose of the remediation:
- mechanical clean-up, soil-building, reforestation, erosion control, and enriching biodiversity using plants, animals, fungi, protists, bacteria and/or archaea.
- Primarily for spaces with Zones 4-5
- Here, the design strategies are more long-term. The feedback is read not through the rate of production, but the results of a follow-up site assessment: moisture retention, biodiversity, erosion patterns, toxicity levels, etc.
Natural Building
- Site assessment:
- Sectors, zones, flows, access, available materials/labor
- Setting a goal and purpose for structures
- Best expressed if the building fills a basic need: kitchen, toilet, housing
- Structures can be located in Zone 1-4, which will have a high influence upon their design.
- Designs for buildings are flexible to the point where one must secure the more general, solid aspects first (such as location, foundation, utilities and access) and allow room to change and improve the details (windows, rooms, walls, flooring, etc.)