Building Your Permaculture Property

Rob Avis, PEng, is co-owner and operator of Adaptive Habitat, a leading-edge property design firm for resilient homes, acreages, and farms, and Verge Permaculture, a globally recognized award-winning education business described by Geoff Lawton as "one of North America's premier permaculture design and education companies." Co-author of Essential Rainwater Harvesting, Rob has been professionally involved in project management, ecological design, and sustainable technologies since 2005. He lives in Alberta, Canada. Takota Coen is a permaculture educator and co-owner of Coen Farm—an award-winning 250-acre permaculture farm that produces nutrient-dense raw-milk-fed pork, grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, forest garden berries, and herbal teas. Takota is a second-generation organic farmer and holds two Permaculture Design Certificates from the Permaculture Research Institute, two Holistic Management Certificates from Holistic Management International, and a Red Seal Journeyman Certificate for Carpentry. He lives near Edmonton, Alberta. Michelle Avis, PEng, is co-owner and operator of Adaptive Habitat, a leading-edge property design firm for resilient homes, acreages, and farms, and Verge Permaculture, a globally recognized award-winning education business described by Geoff Lawton as "one of North America's premier permaculture design and education companies." Co-author of Essential Rainwater Harvesting, Michelle has over a decade of experience in project management, ecological design, and sustainable technologies. She lives in Alberta, Canada.

"As well as being a valuable tool for individuals in their permaculture journeys, Building Your Permaculture Property represents another step towards permaculture being recognized beyond its widespread misconception of being simply a fashionable form of organic gardening. It highlights the need for permaculture design thinking in creating resilient, regenerative, landscapes and communities. Through this work, Rob, Michelle, and Takota make a valuable contribution to the ongoing evolution of permaculture thinking and action."— David Holmgren, permaculture co-originator"A book to take the reader from thinking into action, Building Your Permaculture Property offers an excellent addition to permaculture theory and provides a key resource for all designers. By confronting and working through real, thorny, and often invisible human and landscape problems — a terrain in which they have earned their share of cuts and bruises — the authors slice through the Gordian knot that stops most people from realizing their home and nature visions through a powerful design system. Their vibrant and positive attitude yoked to psychological insight harnesses clean language and a keen focus on process to cut a neat furrow of systematic thinking through the complexity of living systems assessment, design, and management. Offering a window on digital design tools, clever illustrations, and examples from the demanding world of cold prairie farming, the authors have created a well-marked pathway for the advanced learner to reach professional outcomes."— Peter Bane, executive director, Permaculture Institute of North America, author, The Permaculture Handbook "A life well-lived includes leaving the land better than we found it. This fivestep design manual jumpstarts that journey to a foregone conclusion, laying out a thoughtful process for making permaculture principles your own. Every farm, every ranch, and every homestead benefit from thinking deeper about how human intent engages with the places we're blessed to call home. Restoring integrity to degraded ground is our primal mission now as a species. Restoring diversity means planting many more trees. Restoring ecological posterity begins with listening to the heart of the mother... and then reading this book."— Michael Phillips, Holistic Orchard Network, author, The Holistic Orchard "A fresh, integrative, and holistic perspective on how to orientate oneself to the process of establishing your dreams and visions on the land. Designing and managing a farm that can build soil, create amazing food products, and sustain the farmer financially is possible anywhere; and yet it is the clarity of our context and decision-making and our attitudinal responses to design and management that largely underlie success. If you are dreaming of starting out on the land, this book will be a useful companion that will help you clarify your own approach to success, and help you navigate complexity with confidence."— Richard Perkins, author, Regenerative Agriculture, owner, Ridgedale Farm AB and Making Small Farms Work AB"If you are serious about designing a permaculture property, this book has to be in your toolkit. The authors offer an accessible and current guide to the complexity of good design based on years of practical experience."— Morag Gamble, Permaculture Education Institute"Rob, Michelle, and Takota have put a pair of glasses on something that is often blurry in permaculture design: process. Their step-by-step process from beginning to end is exceptionally useful, along with Takota's story which proves the process through a case study of a well-functioning, finely-tuned permaculture farm. Interwoven with a good amount of philosophy and detail, Building Your Permaculture Property is a needed read for anyone who is serious about developing their property through a permaculture design."— Nicholas Burtner, founder and director, The School of Permaculture

• Foreword by Geoff LawtonPrefaceIntroduction The Problem with Permaculture You Need a Process (Not a Prescription) About This Book and the Companion Website Your Very First Practice: Get an Accountability PartnerStep 0: Inspect Your Paradigm The Gorilla in the Room The Upward and Downward Spirals Takota's Story: The Coen Permaculture Farm Upward Spiral Practices for Step 0: Inspect Your ParadigmStep 1: Clarify Your Vision, Values, and Resources What Do You Have? What Is Right? Takota's Story: Two Paths to the Same Cliff What Do You Want? Walking Through a Field of Landmines Blinded by a Scarf Be Careful What You Wish For Practices for Step 1: Clarify Takota's Story: Buckets of Well-beingStep 2: Diagnose Your Resources for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Takota's Story: Don't Skip Your Diagnosis! A Watershed of Information Takota's Story: Growing Up a CarpenterTwo Stages of Diagnosis Black Swans Takota's Story: Black Swan Dam The Value of Digital Mapping and Open Data Practices for Step 2: DiagnoseStep 3: Design Your Resources to Meet Your Vision and Values Why Design? What Design Is Not Takota's Story: To Swale or Subsoil? Form, Timing, Placement, and Scale Takota's Story: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Creating a Permaculture Design Practices for Step 3: DesignStep 4: Implement the Right Design That Will Most Improve Your Weakest Resource What Is Your Birdshot? What Is Your Slug? Pull the Trigger Good, Bad, and Ugly Decisions Takota's Story: The Bazooka Approach Practices for Step 4: Implement Takota's Story: My Best Advice for Solving Any ProblemStep 5: Monitor Your Resources for Indicators of Well-being or Suffering The Push and Pull of Life Monitoring Your Resources Takota's Story: Monitoring for Mastitis Takota's Story: Building My Own Permaculture Property Takota's Story: An Ecosystem Disguised as a Farm Practices for Step 5: Monitor The Solution to a Sisyphean Task Putting It All Together Your Very Last Practice: Your Permaculture Property PlannerAfterword: The Land Needs Us to Live Differently HereGlossary Notes Index About the Authors About New Society Publishers