Permaculture Apprentice

Permaculture for Regenerative and Self-Reliant Living

  • Home
  • Contact
  • About
  • Resources
  • Courses
  • Blog

How to create a topographic map in 10 minutes without expensive software or mapping skills

by papprentice Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 4 minutes Whenever someone asks me to help them design their site, my inner designer says, “give me a topographic map of your site.” With a topographic map, I can feel the terrain and decipher what’s happening from a distance. I can see what the landscape looks like, how the water moves, where there’s a potential for […]

How to work with nature instead of against it to avoid hard work

by papprentice Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 4 minutes This is a powerful quote, and in this post, I will illustrate with examples from my property how to implement the ‘working with nature’ permaculture principle in practice. Here’s the thing… We spend most of our days on our permaculture properties, working and thinking about what we need to do. There are always plants to […]

The five key features of a permaculture property (and how to design them)

by papprentice Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 10 minutes Do you know what makes a permaculture property so unique? Well, it all comes down to the very heart of permaculture – the permaculture design. In contrast to conventional properties – i.e. homesteads, farms, or farmsteads, in permaculture, there is special emphasis on creating a masterplan for the site. This, when implemented, helps us be […]

How to Create a Food Forest Plant List Using a Permaculture Plant Database

by papprentice Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 5 minutes Sometimes, finding the right plants for your food forest can be frustrating. What types of trees should be in your canopy layer? What N-fixing plant should you use? What types of shrubs will be suitable for your site? In my earlier post, I outlined the ‘habitat mimicry’ approach to selecting plants for your food forest. […]

How to design a Food Forest with Swales layout

by papprentice Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 6 minutes In today’s blog post, I want to showcase the exact design process of creating a layout for a food forest with swales. But before we start with the process, you have to understand one crucial thing about your site: the slope of the land. You see, you can only install swales on gently to moderately […]

How to Choose the Most Suitable Plants for Your Food Forest

by papprentice Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 4 minutes When it comes to growing plants in your food forest you always have two choices: Option 1. Adapt the plants to your site conditions; OR Option 2. Adapt your site conditions to the plants. The option of adapting your site conditions to the plants is definitely one where you’ll need to continuously put extra effort […]

How to prepare for climate extremes – my site observation method

by papprentice Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 5 minutes What now seems normal would have been considered highly abnormal just a few years ago. I live in a continental climate with traditionally cold winters, hot summers and plentiful precipitation that’s equally distributed throughout the year. That probably best describes the weather we used to enjoy. But today the winters are not cold, the summers […]

7 Smartphone Apps That’ll Make You A Better Permaculture Farmer and Designer

by papprentice Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 14 minutes Can you imagine your life as a permaculture farmer without a chainsaw… electric fence… plastic pipe… battery-powered tools…?Or can you imagine your life without being able to Google something when you have a burning question about your chickens, trees, various plant problems…?Well, it wasn’t all that long ago, and some of you can probably remember […]

Next Page »

JOIN OVER 26000 SUBSCRIBERS!

Success! Thanks for subscribing. You'll get an email from me soon.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

RESOURCES

CRISIS GARDENING: GROWING FOOD IN UNCERTAIN TIMES

Find out more about…

Popular Posts

  • How to Make a Living From a 1.5 Acre Market Garden 86 comments
  • Creating a Food Forest – Step by Step Guide 34 comments
  • Here is How You Make a Living From a 4 acre Permaculture Orchard 27 comments
  • Everything You Need to Know About Growing Trees From Seeds 28 comments
  • How to Start a Small Permaculture Nursery and Grow 1000s of Trees by Yourself 24 comments
  • How to Set up a Permaculture Farm in 9 Steps 19 comments
  • How To Design Your Property – The Process Of Permaculture Design Explained 35 comments
  • The Definitive Guide to Building Deep Rich Soils by Imitating Nature 34 comments
  • What Everybody Should Know About Profitable Permaculture Farms 86 comments
  • How to Design Your Perennial Farm and Your Life – Insights from Mark Shepard 30 comments

Recent from the blog

  • How to create a topographic map in 10 minutes without expensive software or mapping skills
  • Thinking of starting a permaculture business? Then read this…
  • The best-known permaculture demonstration site on the planet
  • How much land do you need? (free calculator)
  • How to work with nature instead of against it to avoid hard work
  • The five key features of a permaculture property (and how to design them)
  • How to Create a Food Forest Plant List Using a Permaculture Plant Database
  • How to design a Food Forest with Swales layout
  • Relocation Guide: How to find a like-minded permaculture community in changing times
  • How to perform a remote property assessment in 10 minutes (slope)

Copyright © 2023 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 Twitter
 Facebook
 Reddit
 Telegram
 LinkedIn