A Journey of Transition: Becoming a Professional Permaculture Designer - Part 3 by Dan French Photo © Craig Mackintosh This time, in Part 3 of this series discussing my journey towards becoming a professional permaculture designer, I will be talking about marketing, knock-backs and my progress since the last article. Part 2 of this series focused on two large issues facing many of us trying to build our own business, commitment and confidence. Momentum is your friend in life, particularly when starting a business, as it takes constant effort, and not only in one area. It’s a long road and it can get both frustrating and disillusioning, especially prior to getting a job through the door. On this point, spending time thinking about how you are going to respond to a phone or email enquiry is highly important as this is where you can impact a potential client’s decision about whether they will proceed with you or look somewhere else. This is what I am concentrating on at the moment. One final discussion point before signing off. I hope this helps.
Permaculture - PermaWiki Permaculture is a design system which aims to create sustainable human habitats by following nature's patterns. The word 'permaculture', coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s, is derived as a contraction of permanent agriculture, or permanent culture. The idea of permaculture is considered among the most significant innovations developed by Australians in the century since Australian federation [1]. I guess I would know more about permaculture than most people, and I can't define it. ... Nevertheless, today permaculture can best be described as an ethical design system applicable to food production and land use, as well as community building. Origins Edit In the mid 1970s, two Australians, Dr. The term permaculture initially meant "permanent agriculture" but this was quickly expanded to also stand for "permanent culture" as it was seen that social aspects were an integral part of a truly sustainable system. Influences Edit The work of Howard T. Core values
A Journey of Transition: Becoming a Professional Permaculture Designer - Part 2 - PermacultureNews.org OK, here we go, the second installment of this series regarding my journey to become a professional permaculture designer. In my last article I touched on who I am, what I am doing and why, and discussed some general topics which included defining my services, networking and, on a very general level, the importance of examining price structures for services. As a result, I was contacted by a nice guy by the name of Scott Mann who runs a great podcast series called The Permaculture Podcast. It turned out we had a lot in common. He had also travelled the road of becoming a professional designer, and although he ended in a different stream of permaculture, the process he undertook led him to the path he is now on, that being sharing important permaculture information from various experts to a global audience. A job, I might add, that he’s doing very well! Commitment. Commitment is a course of action. When starting anything afresh, building confidence plays an important part.
GAIA CREATIONS: Urban Permaculture Project -2 years in progress My husband and I have been actively working on an urban 2/3 acre permaculture project for 2 years this month. We began the design and subsequent installation at a residence in October of 2009 and it continues in multiple phases today. As we complete the swimming pool to aquaculture pond conversion and reflect upon our progress thus far we would like to share our experiences -the trials, corrections and successes made along the way and to basically let more people know about this Mediterranean climate permaculture project. One thing to note about our ability to share this project: we will not be able to give tours to the local public. Respecting our Clients wish for privacy is very important to us so we will not be naming our Clients or where it is located. Below is a short list of what the project entails (including the mind map above), a tiny synopsis of what we've done so far as well as a few photos of the pool to pond conversion. POOL to POND CONVERSION -a sample of photos
A Journey of Transition: Becoming a Professional Permaculture Designer - PermacultureNews.org by Dan French Photo © Craig Mackintosh Like the title suggests, I’m going to write a few articles about my journey to becoming a professional permaculture designer… if you don’t mind? I’m doing this for a few reasons: to help me articulate and formalize what it is I’m doing; to tell others who might be interested in doing the same about my ups and downs; to gain exposure and fast track my development as a designer; and perhaps, on some sadistic level, to just put a bit more pressure on myself. I grew up in the Adelaide hills, on the top of the ridge where the elements are in full swing, alongside a national park. During my previous professional lives, I spent many moments wondering what it would be like to break the shackles of endless corporate procedures, boring reporting and restriction of action by various legislative approaches. Just like a religion, it seems permaculture is expressed in many forms. Ok, enough gas-bagging.
How to make an outdoor brick oven from recycled materials My husband had wanted to build a pizza oven ever since he saw one at River Cottage, so we decided we would build one in as part of the permaculture design for the garden. The garden isn't very big and the position it is in, is really the only place it could go. We had a plan from the internet but it was pretty useless, so we built it in the room available to us. The garden is about Earthcare, growing our own food and lessening our footprint on the earth, and it also touches on Peoplecare and Fairshare but the pizza oven is different, it is reaching all the ethics so deeply. The 'how to' bit We started with a load of old brick from the old garden wall, some old decking and breeze blocks and cement and plaster. Filling in the base Building the entrance and wall The wall being built We had some smoke escaping from the roof, so we had some tweaking to do. A layer of chicken wire was then placed on top so the render would have something to stick to. Costings Further resources
Sowing Seeds in the Desert: Natural Farming, Global Restoration & Ultimate Food Security Masanobu Fukuoka's first book, The One-Straw Revolution, introduced natural farming, a nature-integrated practice similar to 'original' permaculture, to a world where the environmental movement had just begun. As this plant pathologist-turned-farmer-philosopher journeyed around the world as a result of the popularity of his book and ideas, Fukuoka was shocked at the environmental degradation and desertification he saw. Sowing Seeds in the Desert, his final book, is his plan to set a 'Second Genesis' in motion: a green revolution led by vegetables, grasses, and trees. Natural farming isn't just another 'method' but rather a way of thinking and living that goes beyond even organic farming. Fukuoka examines science, economics, politics and medicine, arguing that humanity's quest for knowledge and wealth only increases the divide between ourselves and nature, resulting in illness, unhappiness and a deeply damaged planet. This review first appeared in Permaculture magazine issue 75
James Wong's Homegrown Revolution: Amazon.co.uk: James Wong: Books If you want to grow something different or even discover what's edible amongst the plants that might already be in your garden, then I thoroughly recommend this book. It's easy to read and is well laid out. I found some of the photos had an annoying lack of depth of field, sometimes leaving the front of a plant out of focus, and would like to have seen some sort of legend for the full page illustrations. I found the Latin names a little difficult to read in that font, which is annoying because I would want to make sure I had the correct plant. I bought James Wong's book at a talk he gave last night at Writtle College as part of the "Edible Essex" campaign, part of the Rural Community Council of Essex and sponsored by the Big Lottery Local Food Scheme and Essex County Council. To a certain extent, James was preaching to the semi-converted in me. I haven't read every word yet, but I've had a good skim through and I'm delighted with this book. Dahlias. Wasabi.
How to Grow Perennial Vegetables This is the latest offering from the prolific and encyclopedic Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust in Devon where he has tested a huge number of plants of all kinds in his two acre forest garden, established 20 years ago. For a low maintenance, food producing design, such as a forest garden, perennial vegetables can provide an ideal understorey or ground cover accompaniment to a top storey of fruit and nut trees – and Martin has proved that there are a great many such plants available for all niches. The book's design is elegantly straightforward with the first quarter covering the practical issues involved, such as: the reasons for growing perennial veg; how to design them into a garden, and how to grow and look after them. The rest of the book looks at many perennials that can be used productively. As well as vegetables, also included are grains, tubers, aquatic plants and some vegetatively edible trees. Further resources Plants and recipes to bridge the hungry gap
James Wong's Homegrown Revolution Blog