What is Permaculture Design?

Permaculture = a new regenerative culture.

Permaculture Design = the tools that we can use to get there.

Explore my Permaculture Diploma Portfolio here

Explore my professional development portfolio here

A Brief History of Permaculture

In a world of increasingly serious and complex meta-crisis it can feel impossible to move forward in a way that feels meaningful and beneficial in terms of the challenges that we currently face.

Permaculture Design is a response to this feeling and to this moment in time. It is a regenerative focused practice that aims to help us create ways of living and being that are in harmonious connection with our shared planet – the complex living system that we all rely upon for life. It is a practice centred around restorative care of people and planet which asks “how we may be able to live in ways which start to create liveable futures for generations to come?”

The idea of Permaculture is that the answers to the challenges that we face are to be found all around in nature’s incredible abundance and diversity.

What we now know as Permaculture Design was started in the 1970s in Australia by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It was initially focused upon an integrated systems approach to sustainable living, based around growing perennial foodcrops. It was also a response to the question “how do we live with the least effort for the optimum effect?” – the same difficult question asked of us today.

Of course it must be noted that this idea is not a new thing! Instead it is realisation and rediscovery by industrialised societies of a way of being used all over the world by indigenous cultures. It started with food growing as this is so central to our lives, connected to every aspect of how society is built. When we consider how to grow healthy food sooner or later we notice that we can’t have it without good soil, clean water, clean air…etc…most of which we can’t have unless we heal our broken relationship with the living world.

Permaculture has now evolved into something much broader – it now embraces all aspects of how we live and how we will build a liveable future that will last for generations.

My Permaculture Work

My Permaculture practice is central to my day-to-day life and manifests itself through: living and doing, learning and growing, and sharing and connecting, whilst also embracing the unexpected.

I do this by:

• Developing and facilitating permaculture courses – particularly courses focused upon arts, creativity and permaculture, and upon the use of permaculture as a tool for change within communities.
• Supporting people to complete their Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design as a diploma tutor.
• Developing and facilitating creative community projects which use permaculture design to develop and grow regenerative cultures.
• I work with organisations to explore ways of working which bring a new ethical basis to projects and creative practice, particularly in relation to ecology, natural systems and regenerative cultures.