Making Permaculture Stronger

For some years I've been itching to get permaculture designer, teacher and author Looby Macnamara on the show and that dream has finally come true. Not only that, we had such a lovely chat we've already booked in a second conversation, where Looby will take us through what she calls her permaculture design web. Find out more about Looby's books and other work at her personal website here. Looby - image source Find out about Looby's colleague in cultural emergence, Jon Young, at his website here. And here is an image of Looby's permaculture design web that I am excited to explore in our next chat. Here's vid of Looby introducing Cultural Emergence https://youtu.be/bAAFfL4gQaE Enjoy the episode, leave a comment, and catch you in episode 60!

I recently enjoyed the first of what I hope will be many lovely conversations with Takota Coen about permaculture's potential. Takota is co-author of the new design process book Building Your Permaculture Property. In Takota's words, we "talk about how a lack of a living, adaptive process is holding permaculture back from reaching its fullest potential, and what we can all do about it." Here's the youtube version, here's Takota's podcast where this chat was originally shared, and you can learn more about what I'm calling Living Design Process here. Enjoy and please do leave a comment sharing what you make of the stuff we explore! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIJvfkdsxQA Dan and Takota mid-chat

Greetings all. In this episode I get to ask my friend and colleague Michael Wardle from Savour Soil Permaculture all kinds of questions about the history and current state of his work as a professional permaculture designer and educator. Lots of great perspectives and hard-earned learnings in this one - I look forward to seeing what you make of it in the comments! Michael with one of his teachers :-). You can check out Michael's facebook page here and his website here, including his design consultancy offerings and a section with a bunch of edible gardening tips here. Michael also has a youtube channel with videos such as this one dropping thick and fast: https://youtu.be/gtGLoHXqRwQ

Hey all. So I had the urge to surf along a little in the wake of the last episode, and reflect further on Carol Sanford's Seven First Principles of Regeneration. Thus, in this episode I reflect on, unpack and further explore what Carol shared about the seven first principles and how they are enriching my own development. My intention for the episode was: I am continuing to explore Carol Sanford's Seven First Principles of Regeneration...in a way that supports listeners (and myself!) to better grasp and go experiment with them...so that we realising together, any value they can bring to our lives, projects and the Making Permaculture Stronger journey. Hope you enjoy and I look forward to hearing what you make of all this in the comments :-). Further Reading, Watching, and Listening on Carol Sanford's Seven First Principles of Regeneration If, like me, you're itching to dive deeper, I found this most helpful series of blog posts (and a separate series of short videos) where Carol clarifies: T

In this episode pioneering regenerative thinker Carol Sanford rejoins me to share a living systems framework she calls The Seven First Principles of Regeneration. Sketch by Dan based on Carol's description Resources to Deepen Learning My first chat with Carol (also see these follow up words from Carol)My second chat with Carol where she shares her four levels of paradigmCarol's websiteThe Deep Pacific Change Agent Community (That Dan is part of)A series of articles in which Carol applies the Seven First Principles to educationCarol going through the principles in a different way on her Business Second Opinion PodcastCarol's book The Regenerative Life in which she goes through the seven first principlesWholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm Carol Sanford. A few transcribed lines from the episode Thanks to MPS patron Jon Buttery for pulling some comments that stood out for him from the chat (with approx times): 13:36 – "I don’t want you to be disappointed that after a year you have

Welcome back to Part Two of a conversation with permaculture co-originator David Holmgren. In which David continues sharing significant milestones from his many decades as a practicing permaculture designer. Thanks to this project's wonderful patrons, I was once again able to have the audio professionally transcribed. The text below then received significant edits for clarity from patron Jon Buttery (thanks Jon!), myself, and most importantly David. Thanks also to David for kindly sharing relevant photos that help bring the text to life. Don't miss Part One if you haven't yet heard/read it, and given the quality of thinking David shares in this continuation, I hope you'll leave a comment. I anticipate a follow up conversation with David exploring questions and reflections from your comments, so please make the most of the opportunity. Finally, given this conversation again touches on the core skill of reading landscape, please check out and consider supporting the documentary film David, myself, and

I'm thrilled in this episode to share the first part of a two-part interview in which David Holmgren shares his journey with permaculture design process over the decades. Scroll down to access the full transcript of this conversation, with huge thanks to David for sharing the historical photographs which really bring the story to life. Note that in collaboration with David I had also previously created a downloadable PDF showing the timeline of David's design process journey that might provide a helpful supporting reference. Finally, be sure to check out the brand new Reading Landscape with David Holmgren documentary project website which is so closely related to this episode. The Full Interview Transcript (Edited for flow and readability) Dan Palmer (DP):Welcome to the next episode of the Making Permaculture Stronger podcast. I'm super excited today. I've travelled about half an hour up the road and I'm sitting at a permaculture demonstration property and home called Melliodora. Sitting ne

Such a deep honour to have my dear friend and very first ever podcast guest Rosemary ('Rowe') Morrow from the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute back on the show (after being my very first ever guest!) sharing her permaculture journey over four decades this week. Some of the topics you'll hear in this truly wonderful chat are Rowe's: new in-progress bookthoughts on the adequacies and inadequacies of permaculture issue with most permaculture being taught to middle class westernerswork in refugee camps and other largely invisible margins which are rapidly growingthoughts on designing yourself into your place vs designing yourself out of overseas places you workchapter on a permaculture approach to the oceansthoughts on decolonisation and re-indigenisingthoughts on the essence of permaculture Please note after our chat Rowe asked if I would please share this link about supporting a permaculture project addressing the Humanitarian Crisis after the burning of the Moria Camp on the island of Lesbos.

Continuing our recent focus, this episode shares a lively chat with my friend and fellow decision-making innovator Javan Bernakevitch. For several years we've been catching up regularly to talk shop and explore what's alive for us with respect to our shared interest in values-based or holistic decision making. This time we hit record to explore the difference between procedures with steps and processes with principles. How clear are you on the difference? Take a listen to find out! Find more episodes on Holistic Decision Making hereLearn more about Javan's excellent work here and watch his Facing Fire film hereFind out more about my online courses in Holistic Decision Making hereCheck this link in a week or so to learn more about the David Holmgren Reading Landscape Documentary projectCheck out the site of April-Sampson Kelly (whose voice makes an all-too-brief appearance) hereBecome a patron of Making Permaculture Stronger here to access powerful permaculture design resources and enable the creation of m

This episode is the continuation and completion of the last episode where I started an interactive rolling review of a holistic context for a permaculture design business. Here we follow through and finish the first pass of Porvenir Design's Holistic Context with owner-directors Scott Gallant and Sam Kenworthy. To tie in with our current focus, by the way, I have created an online course on Holistic Decision Making starting September 4th, 2020. This course will educate and resource participants to develop their own holistic contexts and start making decisions aligned with that context. There is also the opportunity to attend a PDC with Porvenir Design in either 2020 or 2021. If you are interested in this topic you might also want to listen to my introduction to Holistic Decision Making in episode 40 and my recent interview with Allan Savory. You can also catch up on my prior conversation with Scott on the practical and professional realities of a more living design process in episode 41 and ep

This interview will show you what working on a holistic context looks like and how you could do this for yourself, your family, or your permaculture project or enterprise. Scott Gallant and Sam Kenworthy from Porvenir Design in Central America have recently created a holistic context for their business. In this episode I review it with them and support them to evolve it further. Here you'll get a better feel for applying what we learned from Allan Savory in the previous episode on Permaculture and Holistic Management. The whole Holistic Context idea comes from Allan. If you are interested in this topic you might want to listen to my introduction to Holistic Decision Making in episode 40. You can also catch up on my prior conversation with Scott on the practical and professional realities of a more living design process in episode 41 and episode 42. In conjunction with this episode, I have also created an online course on Holistic Decision Making starting August 19, 2020. This course will educate and res

In this very special episode, I enjoy an in-depth conversation with Allan Savory, originator of Holistic Management, President of the Savory Institute and Director of the Africa Centre for Holistic Management. While Allan is best known for his work on holistic planned grazing, I was especially excited to dive into the decision making framework at holistic management's core and its implications for permaculture. This is our conversation at a glance. How we start the process of managing holistically when commencing new projectsMoving from reductionist to holistic management is moving from a reactive to a proactive orientationThe process of defining what important isThe relationship between holistic management and permacultureAddressing complexity with a holistic frameworkBeyond thinking holistically to managing holisticallyThe challenge with making holistic management stickThe paradigm shifts required to manage complexityThe individual leadership to inspire and the institutional scale of holistic managem

In this episode I catch up with Simon Marshall after our prior conversation about where he wanted to take his permaculture design practice back in Episodes 37 and 38. It is quite amazing how much of what he was aspiring toward then has manifested itself in the meantime, and along the way we discuss: The complexities of permaculture process and project facilitation when many stakeholders are involvedThe challenge of breaking the centre of gravity of design projects out of an arrest disorder paradigm towards regenerating lifeThe idea of mental energies at the vital, automatic, sensitive and conscious levels (ah la Carol Sanford)Using inner aims to become conscious and transform process outcomesMuch else! I also reflect a little on the wild times we're in at the start and share a project update at the end. To summarise the update: Allan Savory will be our next guest, followed in the subsequent episode by a review of Scott and Sam from Porvenir design's holistic contextSeveral interviews with David Holmg

In this episode my good friend Javan Kerby Bernakevitch from All Points Design in Canada interviews me about the various projects I am and have been part of, including permablitz, Very Edible Gardens, Holistic Decision Making, Living Design Process, and of course this one - Making Permaculture Stronger. Initially recorded for Javan's youtube channel, thanks Javan for permission to share it here too.

This episode is a conversation with Emma Morris from Aotearoa New Zealand who fills us in on the last several chapters of her learning journey around regenerative education practices. It's a great chat and I can't wait to hear how the learning centre project Emma is involved in unfolds from here. You can find an introductory overview of the project here, and sign up for the project newsletter here. The Learning Framework Emma and colleagues have arrived at. Close-up of the middle section Another awesome project graphic I found - love it!

The idea for this this episode came to me about 20 minutes before I hit record. I share a second pass on a reflection process I'd just finished applying to Making Permaculture Stronger. It is all based on stuff from Carol Sanford's The Regenerative Life book, a series of free morning meetings she recently ran, and stuff I've learned by being part of one of her Seed Communities. I'd be tickled if you'd drop me a line letting me know how this episode landed for you. Oh yes, if you're curious how I got started with Carol Sanford's stuff, it all started with this unforgettably disruptive experience right here.

Photo from http://lierlouandthevillage.org/ With thanks to Anna Lenna for a second great chat - check out our first chat here. Here is Anna Lena's summary of our exchange from here: Dan, founder of Living Design Process from Australia and I are speaking about empty houses in the countryside and how performance art speaks to spontaneous design processes.In our conversation we are strolling through the landscapes of our recent experiences and touch on the conundrum of empty yet unavailable houses in Balaguier and the question how to enliven rural abandoned areas. Could some of these empty places host young people who are drawn to bring life and land-based experiments to the countryside? Especially in times of confinement, many summer house owners cannot come – how to begin a dialogue with house owners that could host other activities in their empty places?Dan shares how many of the people he works with are asking deep fundamental questions as part of the Covid time. Questions rise anew, like: “What am

Scott Gallant The second half of my initial conversation with Scott Gallant from Porvenir Design where Scott asks me questions about my facilitatory approach to professional design consultancy work. Enjoy and if you missed episode 41 I'd recommend checking that out first. Also a heads up that in my next chat with Scott we'll be reviewing Porvenir Design's Holistic Context you can check out in advance here.

I was delighted when Scott Gallant from Porvenir Design emailed me earlier in the year: Hi Dan,I wanted to reach out and introduce myself after having (finally!) stumbled upon the MPS project. I just wrapped up listening to the Phase 2 podcast and I am all in!A quick jot about myself, my name is Scott Gallant and I am a permaculture designer and educator based in Costa Rica. I've been deep in this field for 10 years, 8 of which were spent managing a farm and building out my curriculum at a well regarded site called Rancho Mastatal. In the last few years I've been full time in the design/install business here in Latin America with my firm, Porvenir Design. Tropical agroforestry and permaculture education are really my burgeoning areas of expertise. I've had the chance to lead or co-teach 14 PDCs and countless short courses, and have been fortunate enough to be interviewed for a number of podcasts over the last few years. I set this scene to let you know that I am all in, although I resonate deeply with your

VEG's context Hey all so today I share a little bit about holistic decision making - the whole-oriented decision making practice I have adapted and evolved from Allan Savory's Holistic Management decision making framework. I've had a bunch of folk requesting more info about this lately and I'm feeling it very relevant to this historical moment when many of us are making big decisions about the shape of our lives and enterprises moving out of the first wave of coronavirus. Hope is helpful - happy to share more on this in due course if so and I'm also running a free two-hour webinar about this stuff on May 30, 2020 you can learn about here. You can find more info here and there is a series of articles a bunch of people have found helpful here. Here's our family context which I refer to along with VEG's context above. Here's an old vid where Adam and I talk about the impact of this stuff on our business (during a workshop we had Darren Doherty come and run for us): https://vimeo.com/868506