Podcasts about making permaculture stronger

This particular episode has been painful to edit. I've been sitting on it for over a year. Just before I was going to share it with you in 2022, Dan Palmer passed away aged 47.It has taken me this long to pluck up the courage to revisit our conversation - and it is now with love and respect for my dear friend Dan that I release this conversation. This week his film Reading Landscape is also going live - sharing the observational design practices of permaculture founder David Holmgren.Dan and I shared a love of permaculture, living systems design. I felt we were kind of kindred spirits and I really valued how deeply and intensely he cared about the world and humanity - how he was not only full of ideas but he got out and made so many happen!Dan launched Permablitz in Melbourne, co-created the permaculture design and education business Very Edible Garden, and was an avid permaculture design teacher.He hosted a podcast (which I joined him on) called Making Permaculture Stronger and I loved listening to his exploration of permaculture in relation to Holistic Decision Making and what he described as a Living Design Process.I miss Dan. I wish he was still with us. I hope you enjoy tuning into our conversation.Support the showThis podcast is an initiative of the Permaculture Education Institute.Our way of sharing our love for this planet and for life, is by teaching permaculture teachers who are locally adapting this around the world - finding ways to apply the planet care ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. We host global conversations and learning communities on 6 continents. We teach permaculture teachers, host permaculture courses, host Our Permaculture Life YouTube, and offer free monthly film club and masterclass. We broadcast from a solar powered studio in the midst of a permaculture ecovillage food forest on beautiful Gubbi Gubbi country. I acknowledge this is and always will be Aboriginal land, pay my respects to elders past and present, and extend my respect to indigenous cultures and knowledge systems across the planet. You can also watch Sense-Making in a Changing World on youtube.SUBSCRIBE for notification of each new episode. Please leave us a 5 star REVIEW - it really it does help the bots find and myceliate this show.

GoFundMe: Support for Dan Palmer's Family CW: Death, Grief, and Loss It is with a heavy heart that I share the tragic news that Dan Palmer, of Making Permaculture Stronger, passed away suddenly in the first week of August, 2022. Dan was an activist, designer, permaculture practitioner, and teacher. He was also the driving force behind numerous events and organizations including permablitz, Very Edible Gardens, Holistic Decision Making, the still-in-progress film Reading the Landscape, and his blog and podcast. I knew Dan half as well as I would have liked, but am thankful for the many long hours we spent in conversation over the years, separated by half the world, asking what we could do to make one another, and by extension permaculture, stronger. My thoughts are with his partner, children, and other loved ones. If you are someone who prays, I ask you to offer words into the universe for those who are hurting. You can also use the link above to donate to a GoFundMe for his family during this time of transition. 

Sometimes I find myself inside a dialogue that deeply meets me where I am and lifts me up to a place with more clarity, more vitality, and more possibility. This episode with Pamela Mang was one of these. Pamela is long-term friend and colleague of past guests Carol Sanford, Joel Glanzberg, Ben Haggard, and Bill Reed. She has been working in the space of regenerative design, resourcing and development for many decades. Co-founder of Regenesis Group, she is co-author (with Ben) of the 2016 book Regenerative Design and Development. She is also part of the faculty that runs The Regenerative Practitioner (TRP) programme. In this dialogue Pamela helps me grok the tetrad of regenerative development that Regenesis works from in relation to my own work on Living Design Process. From this paper which in turn sourced it from Regenesis group. https://youtu.be/UJdnMghawTY Upcoming TRPs in NZ and AU Enrolments for the next Australian programme for TRP are open July 15th - August 19, 2022 and the programme commences on September 7th, 2022. Contact me if you'd like to be connected to Drika, Alana or Lara who are the AU co-hosts. Enrolments for the next New Zealand programme are open July 15th - August 13th and the programme commences on September 2nd, 2022. I am considering enrolling myself so I may see you on the course. Contact me if you'd like to be connected to Lucy-Mary who is the NZ liaison. Quotable Quotes Now for a few things Pamela said that I was moved to write down here: Design should be a vitalising process. It creates new vitality, new energies that can source different orders of health, different orders of understanding and so onPamela Mang Pamela Mang The secret about these frameworks is that they don't replace intuition. They hone itPamela Mang Living Design Process Find out more about the Living Design Process Pamela was resourcing me to look at through the tetrad framework here – the next online course of Living Design Process kicks off August 6th 2022 (why not complete before your TRP and make this a year of next-level learning!). Support the Making Permaculture Stronger Book Project This episode also marks the launch of a crowdfunding campaign to fund the creation of the Making Permaculture Stronger book – here's the video and here's a link to the campaign page. Support us and feel the good vibes that follow :-). https://youtu.be/1O8KY_Rb-2U

It was an honour to connect in this episode with Daniel Christian Wahl to explore what it means to align with life's regenerative impulse. Here's Daniel's book Designing Regenerative Cultures, his Medium Blog and here's his wonderful youtube series Voices of the Regeneration. Early on Daniel mentions Christopher Alexander's Challenge to Permaculture. A few times he mentions Henri Bortoft's book The Wholeness of Nature. Daniel Christian Wahl Enjoy, thanks to Daniel for visiting Making Permaculture Stronger, and thanks to our mutual friend Clinton Callahan for connecting us.

On March 17, 2022, at 85 years of age, Christopher Alexander passed away peacefully in his home in West Sussex, England. This post celebrates his life, and for me, personally, the sheer magnitude his work has had on the course of my life, including Making Permaculture Stronger as a project. If any of you have been touched by this project, then you have been indirectly impacted by Alexander's life-long quest toward life, beauty and wholeness. Find out about who Alexander was here and here and here and here. Learn about Alexander's direct influence on my (Dan Palmer's) work, and on this very project here and here. A Poem Thank you to Ann Medlock, a past client (and hence collaborator) of Alexander's, for permission to share these photos and this poem here: Alexander sculpts a building out of air and wisdom waving his hands squinting his eyes to see what only he and God can see in this clearing on the bluff. Listening to something we cannot hear, he brings into being a house so solid, silent and calm, so embracing, consoling and inevitable, that it draws in and restores every open soul that finds its way here. And many do. Pilgrims who have heard, who've seen a photograph, who sense that here there is something mysterious, rare, perhaps even inspired. On a clear blue afternoon we sit at a long table in the sun, the house embracing this garden and all of us who bask here amid the calendulas and ferns. Feasting on tabouli and cold birds, we talk of poetry and paintings, of terraces in Tuscany and homemade wine, of our work, our passions, our quests. We are friends, gathered here by the grace that emanates from this holy place. At Christmas, the clan assembles. The tree, dressed in familiar ornaments, touches the coffered ceiling and sends the scent of balsam to mingle with fire, roast and cakes. Thick walls hold out the cold, the wind, and every danger of the world we know. Comets cut across the high windows as we are drawn in and held fast, together, blessed by the house that Alexander made, while listening to God. Three Examples of Directly Alexander-Inspired Design Processes https://vimeo.com/456075580/0e4846f331 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2k35m_Q9xg&ab_channel=MakingPermacultureStronger https://youtu.be/l8lffVxj7DI Some Quotes Here I share a selection of some of my favourite quotes from Alexander's many books. The Timeless Way of Building (1979) You are alive when you are wholehearted, true to yourself, true to your own inner forces, and able to act freely according to the nature of the situations you are in.[...] To be happy, and to be alive, in this sense, are almost the same. Of course, if you are alive, you are not always happy in the sense of feeling pleasant; experiences of joy are balanced by experiences of sorrow. But the experiences are all deeply felt; and above all, you are whole; and conscious of being real.To be alive, in this sense, is not a matter of suppressing some forces or tendencies, at the expense of others; it is a state of being in which all forces which arise in you can find expression; you live in balance among the forces which arise in you; you are unique as the pattern of forces which arises is unique; you are at peace, since there are no disturbances created by underground forces which have no outlet, at one with yourself and your surroundings.This state cannot be reached merely by inner work.There is a myth, sometimes widespread, that you need do only inner work, in order to be alive like this; that you are entirely responsible for your problems; and that to cure yourself, you need only change yourself. This teaching has some value, since it is so easy to imagine that your problems are caused by "others." But it is a one-sided and mistaken view which also maintains the arrogance of the belief that the individual is self-s...

In this episode it is my great pleasure to welcome Carol Sanford back to explore her brand new book Indirect Work. To support and celebrate the book's launch, Carol has offered a giveaway offer exclusively for listeners of Making Permaculture Stronger. If you listen to and then share this episode on your website or any of your social media channels (such as sharing from the Making Permaculture Stronger facebook page), and then let me know about it, you go into the draw to access: A free copy of Indirect Work posted to your doorA free ticket to a 90-minute Q&A on Indirect Work with Carol 10am PT, May 2, 2022 ($200 value)The link to download a pdf Self-Assessment for Regenerative Integrity. $100 value There are also a bunch of different offers for buying different numbers of books here on Carol's site. Now, a little taste of what this book is all about. Carol explains that: indirect work is building the capacity in people to consistently think at higher levels in order to create innovations for advancing specific contexts and streams of activity. This capacity allows us to become instruments for the regeneration and evolution of the living systems within which we are nested—to become effective change agents.Carol Sanford Here are a few of my favourite passages in the book. For example, every time we try to solve a problem, dividing it into its components to understand it better, seeking to figure out its causes in order to address them, we fall under the spell of classical mechanics. Every time we translate something into a replicable (and therefore scalable) procedure or recipe, we've stepped into a machine universe. This is so pervasive in Western and now global culture that it becomes invisible to us. It can be very difficult to get our minds to shake off this continually reinforced pattern in order to question our fundamental shared beliefs about how the universe works. Earlier I said that this book was addressed to well-intentioned people who seek to make the world a better place through the instruments that are available to them, such as business, social activism, or creation of policies and institutions. I also said that most of these efforts are likely to be compromised or fail because they still operate from an old paradigm, within which the world is assembled from discrete pieces, each playing its part in a cosmic machine. Our machine-based metaphors are so pervasive that we hardly notice them: input, output, feedback, leverage, rewiring, reprogramming, metrics, ideal state, and on and on.A living or regenerative paradigm has a very different character and uses correspondingly different metaphors. It starts with an image of the living, dynamic, and unfolding universe, in which each entity is endowed with the spark of life and an innate capacity for growth and evolution with regard to how it expresses itself. Working from this paradigm, one doesn't attempt to push the world and its inhabitants to an ideal state—that would be coercive and life denying. Rather, one encourages and enables living beings to discover and express their innate potential as contributors to living communities. For those of us who truly want to transform the world, it is the regenerative paradigm that will enable us to do so.This confronts us with an important question. Are the underlying beliefs, assumptions, patterns, and language that characterize my culture derived from a machine or a living systems paradigm? And if I want to cultivate a living systems culture, what must I do I to help with the shift? (note - Carol answers this question in our conversation!) Consciousness is the necessary antidote to our overwhelming tendency to engage in automatic habits of thought and behavior. In its absence, these habits extend to the most general reaches of our collective understanding of the universe, itself, conceived of by Western Europeans in the time of the Renaissance as a giant clockwork.

In this episode I re-release an interview Millie Haughey recently did with me for her own podcast which is called Unplugged, Tapped In. We explore the idea that most of us are trapped in the all-pervasive cage of mechanical worldview without even realising it and what becomes possible when the cage is seen and the door out is located. This will be a theme of some upcoming writing and solo episodes also. In the intro I mention Millie's interview with my dear friend and long-term Making Permaculture Stronger collaborator James Andrews. I also mention this episode in which I interviewed the founder of Possibility Management Clinton Callahan (or see as youtube here). During the chat I mention Carol Sanford a fair bit too.

In this episode I share a lovely dialogue with Bill Houghton, a long-term follower and supporter of Making Permaculture Stronger who recently reached out to connect. I love his opener: "I'm just intrigued as hell to know where you're going man!" Enjoy, and know I am so appreciating the richness of your comments and messages as we navigate this journey together. Bill Houghton

After listening to this entire recording, enter Matrix Code: NC-RADIO.04 (1 matrix point)  in your free account at StartOver.xyz Game. Login here: https://login.startover.xyz Discussion between Dan Palmer, author of Making Permaculture Stronger and Clinton Callahan, author of Directing the Power of Conscious Feelings and Radiant Joy Brilliant Love and originator of Possibility Management. More info about the collaboration between permaculture and possibility management at https://makingpermaculturestronger.net/ and http://innerpermaculture.strikingly.com/

Making Permaculture Stronger's core focus is regenerating permaculture design process together. By this, I mean the deep and hard work of a) honing in on permaculture's essential core, and b) sourcing and developing design process understandings from, and in alignment with, that place. A necessary aspect of this work is developing new material (ideas, metaphors, diagrams, examples, practices etc). An equally necessary aspect is making space for this new material by finding and letting go of material that does not align or belong. I believe this work is like an acupuncture point essential to the development of permaculture's radical, needed and enormous potential. I also believe that this work, which is ours, as permaculturalists, to do, has barely begun. This series of three blog posts and corresponding podcast episodes is a heart-felt invitation into this kind of work. Where I want to be clear for you, and in within myself, that I am not writing this stuff as any kind of expert or person-with-the-answers. While I have a couple of tentative conclusions and perspectives, I mainly have a wealth of questions and a passionate commitment to create and hold spaces inside of which this kind of work can happen. So, let the experiment begin. This series was prompted by the appearance of an exciting new book into the literature of permaculture design. Its title is Building your Permaculture Property, its authors permaculture teachers and designers Rob Avis, Michelle Avis, and Takota Coen (who is also a commercial farmer). The book lays out a clear and comprehensive approach to permaculture design process. A process the authors have developed over decades of combined practical experience, both personal and professional. I celebrate the existence of this book and all the hard-won learning that has gone into it. Furthermore, I believe this book is a profound contribution to exactly the kind of work I have just been describing.1 It is also true that when I initially flipped through it, I felt some big feelings. Feelings that are informing and energising my effort to write these posts. Feelings that part of my current experiment involves me sharing openly here. I felt JOY in the sheer existence of this heart-felt, earnest attempt to advance the clarity and rigour of permaculture design. This work is so needed and such a gaping hole in permaculture that these three wonderful humans have done their very best to help fill. I am still feeling really happy about this as I am at the obvious extent of collaboration between the authors whose different strengths flow into and make the book so much better than any one of them could have made it.I felt ANGER to note a disconnect between the presentation of design process in the book and the design process developments and dialogues I have been involved in though Making Permaculture Stronger. From my perspective seemingly fertile opportunities for cross-pollination have not happened, where, to come to the point, the book includes much material that I have poured a lot of my life-force into arguing does not belong in, or do justice to, permaculture's design process potential.2 While this anger has since mostly receded, it is still there also.I felt SAD to reflect on the resulting prognosis for permaculture's evolution, if there are not established systems for pooling and collaboratively crash-testing and co-developing our mutual advances. If every design process book lays out its own take largely in isolation from a larger field of collaborative development.I felt AFRAID, considering my impression of the disconnect, how I might channel these feelings toward engaging with the authors about their work in a positive, constructive way. Afraid of how gaps I perceive between our perspectives might be bridged without bridges being burned! I feel this fear still.Finally, I felt a different kind of ANGER in seeing what seemed to me to be a profusion of superficial endorseme...

Dan Palmer joins Mikey Densham to chat about the potential for permaculture in the market garden, the psychology of design, principles of holistic management, defining regenerative, and more! Mentioned in the show... Making Permaculture Stronger Holistic Decision Making Reading Landscape w/ David Holmgren Find full notes, past episodes, and more at No-Till Growers Special thanks to our sponsors Curly's Ag and Active Vista for helping the series possible. If you're in AUS/NZ, definately check them out and show them you appreciate it, too. Support our work on Patreon or No-Till Growers. It allows us to pay our creators--like Mikey--for their time and energy while keeping it free for everyone to learn from and enjoy. As always, y'all rock.    

   Next season kicks off on Monday 11th October - until then, enjoy having these humans of wonder back in your ears!ARCHIVE 2 of 4Dan Palmer is co-founder of Permablitz, Landed, Holistic Decision Making, Making Permaculture Stronger and Very Edible Gardens. He has a PhD in systems thinking and contagious levels of enthusiasm for supporting the journeys of others. He recently moved with his wife and two daughters back to New Zealand.We hear Dan's thoughts on consciously shaping a vibrant and beautiful life, getting paid for your passion, how to be vulnerable and cut to the chase (rather than participating in superficial BS), the deception of ideas, the illusion of separation from the natural world and why to ask better questions.SHOW NOTESAway from reductionist thinking and towards a holistic framework. Discovering holistic management and the influence of Allan Savory.How to uncover the deeper intention beneath the goal or dream.What are the core ingredients of a fulfilling life?How linear thinking sustains our industrialised society.Why you can't just ‘join your life back up' to create a whole - you need to go right back to the DNA of your values and beliefs.How to tap into deep harmony and coherence.Why life can't be like a knitted jumper. “Deciding your way” towards the life you want.Why self work isn't selfish - it's a precursor to genuine altruism.Honouring the need for financial security in a world that hinges on money.An uncompromising approach to making profit from your passion.Having hard conversations vs. modern ‘communities' that stroke our egos.Why Dan's excited to be alive at this time in history. Sending positive ripples into space and time. The gnarly question of how to instil hope, buoyancy and knowledge in your kids. Approaching each day as a living whole. Our obligation to contribute to the beauty of the universe. How we've been hijacked by the idea that the world is a machine. How to lead with feeling and back up with thinking.“The intellect is too crude a net to catch the whole” - Christopher AlexanderWhy we don't need to “reconnect” with nature - we have never been separate. How to relax back into underlying non-separateness.Understanding “life sheds” rather than arbitrary borders.Why advice and “answers” can disempower people.How can we ask better questions?  LINKS YOU'LL LOVEMaking Permaculture Stronger PermablitzLandedHolistic Decision MakingVery Edible GardensAllan SavoryBrian GoodwinCharles EisensteinSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futuresteading)Buy the Book! Futuresteading - Live like tomorrow mattersSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futuresteading)

In a world first for this project, this episode shares one of last year's sessions with the Making Permaculture Stronger Developmental Community. Huge thanks to Han Kortekaas, Ronella Gomez, Nicholas Franz, Zola Rose, Barry Gibson, Jon Buttery, Arthur Buitelaar, Dan Milne, Byron Birss & Joel Mortimer for co-creating this with me and for their gracious permission to share here. Here are some of us during a more recent session. Learn more about the Making Permaculture Stronger Developmental Community here. Below is the section on systems thinking in the book Practical Permaculture by Jessi Bloom & Dave Boehnlein (p. 18) that is mentioned during this episode. This section is viewable as a free preview at google books. Similarly, you can also check out page 20 of Toby Hemenway's The Permaculture City here if you like. From Practical Permaculture by Jessi Bloom & Dave Boehnlein

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast Browse the Archives. In today's interview, Dan Palmer of Making Permaculture Stronger, and David Holmgren continue their conversation about David's design journey. In this episode they discuss founding Holmgren Design in the 1980s, David's work as a professional designer and how that influenced his thoughts on permaculture over time, and the ideas that lead to his authoring Permaculture Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability and RetroSuburbia. Throughout, they share more about how David's knowledge and understanding of reading the landscape developed.  

In today's interview, Dan Palmer of Making Permaculture Stronger, and David Holmgren continue their conversation about David's design journey. In this episode they discuss founding Holmgren Design in the 1980s, David's work as a professional designer and how that influenced his thoughts on permaculture over time, and the ideas that lead to his authoring Permaculture […] The post David Holmgren’s Design Journey (Part 2) appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast Browse the Archives. In today's interview, the first in a two-part series, my friend and colleague Dan Palmer of Making Permaculture Stronger, gives me a sense of vicarious joy to share with you, as he's done something that's on my list of dream podcast experiences. Dan sits down face-to-face with David Holmgren at Melliodora and together they have a conversation about the early history of permaculture. From David's lips to our ears we hear the first-hand account of his days at university, meeting Bill Mollison and their initial work together, to the impact of David's second permaculture mentor Haikai Tane.

In today's interview, the first in a two-part series, my friend and colleague Dan Palmer of Making Permaculture Stronger, gives me a sense of vicarious joy to share with you, as he's done something that's on my list of dream podcast experiences. Dan sits down face-to-face with David Holmgren at Melliodora and together they have […] The post David Holmgren’s Design Journey (Part 1) appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.

Dan and Takota 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. Dan Palmer is a design educator, author and podcaster living in NZ. As well as helping run a permaculture design firm called Very Edible Gardens, Dan is a co-developer of a holistic decision making and living design process. Find out more about Dan's work at https://makingpermaculturestronger.net ▶️ Buy my book https://www.mypermacultureproperty.com ▶️ Buy topographical maps and more at https://www.contourmapgenerator.com ▶️ Find out more about my farm and consulting at https://www.coenfarm.ca Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/building-your-permaculture-property/donations

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: The history and practice of regeneration (or see this video introducing first principles)Identifying and working with wholes not parts (or see video here)Essence (or singularity) (or see video here)Potential (not problems) (or see video here)Development (video only)Nestedness (or see video here)Nodal intervention (or see video here)Fields (video only) Here's a quote I really liked from the essence post: Looking to existence, writing down our observations or collecting facts, will not reveal singularity. In order to sniff out essence, we must become trackers and look for it in the same way that native peoples follow the traces of animals who have passed by. Essence becomes apparent in the patterns that are specific to a person, those that reveal how they engage with the world, their purpose in life, the unique value they create as the result of their endeavors. The same is true for the essence of any natural system, community, or organization.Carol Sanford Finally, Here's a 20m video (with poor quality audio but worth it) of Carol talking about what regeneration is. She gets into the Seven First Principles about 10 minutes in.

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 next to me is David Holmgren. David Holmgren (DH): Good to welcome you here. DP: I'm very excited to be here with this microphone between us and to have this opportunity to have you share the story of your journey with permaculture design process over the decades. David and Dan co-teaching in 2018 DH: Yeah, and that's something we've worked on together in courses: our personal journeys with that. Certainly through those courses, working together has elicited and uncovered different aspects of me understanding my own journey. Childhood DH: Thinking about design process through the lens of childhood experiences, I was always a constructor/builder, making cubbies, constructing things and yet never had any family role models for that. My father wasn't particularly practical with tools, and yet I was always in whatever workshop there was in our suburban home as a young child. So making things, imagining things which don't exist, and then bringing them to life was definitely part of my childhood experience. I don't know, particularly, why in my last years of high school I had some vague notion that I might enrol in West Australian University in architecture. But I left to travel around Australia instead because I was hitchhiking mad in 1973. And in that process, I came across a lot of different ideas to do with the counter culture and alternative ways of living. Studying Environmental Design in Tasmania Most significantly, I came across a course in Tasmania in Hobart called Environmental Design and I met some of the enrolled students. I'd realised by that stage that I was not cut out to do any sort of conventional university course. I was too radical and free in my thinking and wasn't wanting to be constrained within any discipline or accounting for things through exam processes. DP: What age were you? DH: I was 18 at that time, and this course in Environmental Design really attracted me. Undergraduate students, who were doing the generalist degree in environmental design, were sometimes working on projects with postgraduate students who were specialising in architecture, landscape architecture or urban planning at the post graduate level. Mt Nelson campus where Environmental Design School was part of the Tas College of Advanced Education 1970-80 There was no fixed curriculum. There was no fixed timetable. Half the staff budget was for visiting lecturers and outside professionals. There was a self assessment process at the end of each semester, which then led to a major study at the end of the three year generalist degree. There was the same self assessment process for the postgraduate level. So you got up to the finishing line, and then had to show your results, and that was to a panel that included outside professionals that you had a say in choosing. DP: Suitably radical. DH: I believe it was the most radical experiment in tertiary education in Australia's history.

Dan Palmer is co-founder of Permablitz, Landed, Holistic Decision Making, Making Permaculture Stronger and Very Edible Gardens. He has a PhD in systems thinking and contagious levels of enthusiasm for supporting the journeys of others. He currently lives with his wife and two daughters in a small home in Castlemaine, Victoria.We hear Dan’s thoughts on consciously shaping a vibrant and beautiful life, getting paid for your passion, how to be vulnerable and cut to the chase (rather than participating in superficial BS), the deception of ideas, the illusion of separation from the natural world and why to ask better questions. SHOW NOTESHow Dan moved away from reductionist thinking and towards a holistic framework. Discovering holistic management and the influence of Allan Savory.How to uncover the deeper intention beneath the goal or dream.What are the core ingredients of a fulfilling life?How linear thinking sustains our industrialised society.Why you can’t just ‘join your life back up’ to create a whole - you need to go right back to the DNA of your values and beliefs.How to tap into deep harmony and coherence.Why life can’t be like a knitted jumper. “Deciding your way” towards the life you want.Why self work isn’t selfish - it’s a precursor to genuine altruism.Honouring the need for financial security in a world that hinges on money.An uncompromising approach to making profit from your passion.From hobby to Patreon; a by-donation model of asking for financial support. How to avoid fake bullshit conversations and go deeper. Having hard conversations vs. modern ‘communities’ that stroke our egos.Why Dan’s excited to be alive at this time in history. Sending positive ripples into space and time.How to enjoy the ride and make peace with everything you can’t change. The gnarly question of how to instil hope, buoyancy and knowledge in your kids. The ritual of ‘roses and thorns’ at dinner time.Why to se the 'shape' of your life. Waking up and approaching each day as a living whole that you can make as vibrant and alive as possible - versus a to-do list of frenzied actions. Our obligation to contribute to the beauty of the universe. How we’ve been hijacked by the idea that the world is a machine. How to lead with feeling and back up with thinking.“The intellect is too crude a net to catch the whole” - Christopher AlexanderWhy we don’t need to “reconnect” with nature - we have never been separate. How to relax back into underlying non-separateness.Understanding “life sheds” rather than arbitrary borders.Why advice and “answers” can disempower people.How can we ask better questions? LINKS YOU’LL LOVEMaking Permaculture Stronger PermablitzLandedHolistic Decision MakingVery Edible GardensAllan SavoryBrian GoodwinCharles EisensteinSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futuresteading)

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 more content like this I hope you enjoy our holistic decision making shop talk, bless all you fathers out there (it is father's day in my part of the world), and catch you in the next episode.

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast Today's interview was originally recorded by the Australian podcaster Dan Palmer for an episode of his excellent, Making Permaculture Stronger. I've known Dan since before he started his show and as I recall it was at 1 or 2 AM on the East Coast of the United States when we connected over Skype several years ago to talk about his plans for starting a new podcast with a deep focus on the design process as it applies to permaculture, and what we can learn from experts within and without the community. As my focus over the years has been on the breadth of what it means to practice permaculture, and not the specifics of design, I shared with Dan my thoughts on how to develop an interview style and choosing how much to prepare for those conversations ahead of time. How to find your narrative voice and make decisions early on that establish your on-air presentation. After a rather enjoyable chat that ended as I could stay awake no longer and he needed to head to his evening meal, I've continued to follow Dan's show over the years and find my own inspiration in him taking on the vital subject of design. With this admiration, I jumped at the opportunity when he recently reached out to ask if I'd want to share an interview he'd recorded with the founder of Holistic Management. Needing little introduction, the Zimbabwean ecologist Allan Savory has spent decades developing and refining how we can manage complexity in the environment, on our farms, and in our lives. In a forward-thinking approach that walks us backward from the vision of how we want our world, land, or life to be, we can then look well beyond the moment and see where we want to go and how to get there This is, of course, a simplified explanation of a fascinating and deep system for managing a wide range of issues, but which has roots in fighting desertification and reversing climate change. You can find more about Allan and his work at Savory.global Dan's website and podcast are at makingpermaculturestronger.net. You can read Dan's original show notes at: https://makingpermaculturestronger.net/permaculture-holistic-management/ Leaving this interview what Allan said about our ability to manage complexity stuck in my mind, and so I immediately picked up a copy of the audiobook of Holistic Management, Third Edition, A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment. What stood out both in the book and from this conversation is how Allan turns the language of complexity around so that we do not have to name what we face, but rather focus on the desired outcomes of our holistic context while allowing us to quickly grasp what we need to do to achieve that end. Along the way we have checks to see whether or not what we're doing is correct for reaching that long-term holistic context. Why this stood out to me was that in my graduate program years ago, we used to break complex situations down into two main categories: issues and problems. Issues were the overarching conditions leading to detrimental effects which cannot be directly addressed through a simple on-the-ground action or small policy change. Problems were individual pieces we could create a plan or policy around and thus change. The issues we found drove what problems we could solve, thus ameliorating the impacts of the larger issues. Work on enough problems, the theory went, and eventually, you'd solve the issue. As I understand what Allan's doing, Holistic Management takes all of that, wraps it up in one process, and allows us to continuously work on both the issues and problems in parallel. Though I know there's much more to the method than my words here express, there exists a tangible power behind Holistic Management to achieve a beautiful, bountiful world where we've afforested the deserts and reversed climate change. But, those are just my thoughts at the moment. What are yours? Leave a comment in the show notes, or send me an email: The Permaculture Podcast A few updates and announcements: One of those, as we approach the 10th anniversary of the podcast, is the annual Summer to Fall fundraiser. My goal for this fundraiser is two-fold. The first is to upgrade the computer where I edit the show. The second is to invest in some video equipment to record video interviews and site tours once the world recovers from COVID. To go along with the fundraiser, for anyone donating $50 or more (please include postage, international listeners), if you include your address in the notes for your donation, I'll send you a USB drive with every currently available interview, monologue, and discussion from the first decade of The Permaculture Podcast. That includes the first show from 2010 all the way up to the 10th-anniversary episode out on October 10th of this year. Also, I'm here to help you find the resources necessary to bring your vision of permaculture into the world. You can now schedule a one-on-one consultation with me, or a more casual, meandering conversation if you prefer, at calendly.com/permaculture. Finally, there are more voices in the world doing amazing work than I could ever have the possibility to record an interview with, so if you've ever thought, “I'd love to hear an interview with a member of my community on The Permaculture Podcast,” now's the opportunity. I'd like to teach you how to record a conversation and send it to me to share on the show. You don't need to edit or produce the interview, I'll take care of all that. I'm also particularly interested in stories recorded by women and young people and from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. If you're interested, let me know. Send an email to: The Permaculture Podcast with the subject, “My Community” and pitch me the story you'd like to share. Until the next time, spend each day managing complexity, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.

Today’s interview was originally recorded by the Australian podcaster Dan Palmer for an episode of his excellent, Making Permaculture Stronger. I’ve known Dan since before he started his show and as I recall it was at 1 or 2 AM on the East Coast of the United States when we connected over Skype several years […] The post Managing Complexity | Holistic Management with Allan Savory appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.

Thought leader, speaker and innovator, Carol Sanford, joins the show this week. We discuss indigenous thinking, metaphor, and her latest book, The Regenerative Life: Transform Any Organization, Our Society, and Your Destiny. A fascinating and eye-opening discussion. Show Notes The Regenerative Life: Transform Any Organization, Our Society, and Your Destiny. Carol's website. Carol's articles on Medium. Carol's first appearance on Making Permaculture Stronger. Carol's second appearance on Making Permaculture Stronger.

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.

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.

That's right, the February 2020 issue of Permaculture Design Magazine features an article by my good self on the topic of generative transformation (and the below chart). Adapted from a series of past posts here on Making Permaculture Stronger, editor Rhonda Baird invited a contribution and this topic felt like a natural fit with the episode's focus on emergent design. I can't wait to get my hands on the whole issue and if you feel the same way go order a copy here or subscribe and support their great service to the permaculture community. As a prelude to this project picking itself back up again after an unexpectedly long summer hibernation (on the surface at least!), I share both a PDF of the article as it appeared in the mag and I've recorded a podcast episode where I read the article out for your listening pleasure. I also include Rhonda Baird's excellent opening comments from the issue's editorial: Emergent design was one of the leading takeaways for me from our issue exploring Design Process (Permaculture Design #108). Most teachers, according to my understanding, approach the design process as a static, linear one which requires the designer to see and know all things from original principles—implementing them with flawless perfection. The resulting imprint of our imagination onto reality might make Plato proud, but it probably doesn’t happen very often in reality. Recognizing and valuing the fluid, responsive, and messy reality of design and implementation is crucially important. Perhaps it is so important because it requires us to be humble and question our assumptions. But recognizing this messy reality also helps students and clients proceed by accepting there will be valuable mo- ments for feedback and by making adjustments along the way. Adaptability and imaginative response are wonderful foundations for survival and sustainability. More to the point, emergent design allows us to find the growing edge of complex systems and respond ap- propriately. We talk about the concept of “the edge is where the action is.” Permaculturists know the capacity to identify and engage that edge in our rapidly changing world is essential to our success in pushing systems in a positive, life-affirming direction. The more experience we have in design and implementation, the more intuitive our processes become so that design takes less time and realizes more success. How can we work together to ensure others recognize the value of this work? Rhonda Baird - opening words of editorial for issue #115 of the Permaculture Design Magazine Enjoy and catch you very soon with much sharing about the emerging intentions this project will be generatively transforming itself toward in the coming months :-).

In our first ever conversation, Ben Haggard of Regenesis Group shares his history with and perspective on permaculture. This episode catalysed waves of reflection that are blowing my mind. Yes, I was struck with the profound clarity and depth of what Ben shared. Then the sheer resonance of the relevance to exactly where Making Permaculture Stronger is at - well that pretty much knocked me off my seat. You could say I'm still climbing back up off the floor :-). I don't know about you, dear listener/reader, but I have the real sense that this conversation is itself a nodal intervention in Making Permaculture Stronger's ongoing evolution. It is like I can feel the energy shifting and growing and generatively transforming throughout my entire being and hence the being of this project. New levels of Will are awakening. I mean I use the terms potential and development (who doesn't) and before this chat I would have said I had a fairly clear, coherent grasp on what they are. Not any more. I was almost dazzled by the clarity Ben gives these terms in a way that resonates deep in my bones. Then, when he spoke about the idea of permaculture's originating impulse, well, game over. Let me pen a few reflections on each. Potential After decades of experience and reflection in collaboration with a tight-knit community of practice, Ben has reached a fascinating perspective on what potential is. As I understand him, he sees the potential (or the possible contribution) of something as existing in the tension between that thing's deep, enduring, inherent character and the ever-changing reality of the context in which it is nested and in particular what this context calls for in this particular "historical and evolutionary moment." To identify the potential of a farm, a garden, a person, a family, a business, an organisation, a blog project, we need to ask: what is the unique character of this being? thenwhat is currently called for in the immediate, local, and greater wholes it is nested within?, andwhat could happen here that would harmonise these two things? Which brings us to... Development Clearly, potential often remains latent. For Ben, development is then the practice of actually revealing and manifesting the potential inherent in something, which involves removing anything in the way and becoming more and more relevant and valuable to context. Originating Impulse When Ben first mentioned this phrase late in our chat, I knew immediately it was going to inform my very next steps with Making Permaculture Stronger. So take this as a sneak preview where I'd invite you to start sitting in the space of this all-important question: what was permaculture's originating impulse? Please don't rush - take your time with this - there will be space to chime in with what arises for you very soon. One thing here I'd invite if you come across any sound bites or text that speaks of this originating impulse to you, especially if from the early days of permaculture, please send it through to me and I may well include it in the upcoming post. Other Notable Threads what Ben said about permaculture's usual initiation/conversion experiences and how these can make it very difficult to bring the ideas into one's existing ways of working I think was well worth further exploration. I mention it here as a reminder to come back to this in future as appropriate. Any thoughts?This idea of the word place as a rare world in English in that it includes people, landscape etc etc...the idea that if you can be with a person or other living entity as it is, you are taking it as whole (as opposed to our default pattern of fragmenting things by paying attention to their various attributes) Links to Stuff Ben is involved in Visit Regenesis Group here.Learn about the Regenerative Practitioner Training here.Learn about the book Ben wrote with Pamela Mang here (Regenerative Development & Design: A Framework for Evolving ...

So what does my recent discussion of the problem with solving problems look like in relation to the trunk in the Permaculture Tree diagram? Well, the way I have come to see it is that the whole trunk is itself an imposition. What, wait, what? I believe the whole above-ground part of the permaculture tree has been growing from a grafted-on collection of design process understandings that were imported from outside.25 Imported from places like industrial design, engineering, architecture & landscape architecture.26 Because the scion wood and the rootstock were not a compatible match, the graft never really properly took. Indeed, as a result of it being there at all, the latent energy around permaculture generating its own process possibilities has either remained dormant in the roots, or been overruled by the DNA of the grafted-on material. You see where I am going with this. I don't want to continue trying to patch up a trunk that in so many ways is a distraction from the work I'm here to participate in. I don't want to be pulling apart layer upon layer of imported design process understandings that shoot permaculture in the foot by dishonouring its very essence.27 I want to dive deep into permaculture's beautiful foundations and then to help grow and tend and realise fit-for-purpose design process understandings directly. Without distraction! What this means for me is... The Tree is Coming Down I am cutting the permaculture tree down. Consciously. Carefully. Lovingly. As a personal thought experiment, I'm cutting it down. Just below the place where the foreign design process understandings were imported and grafted on. To create a fresh surface from which all kinds of wild regrowth can spring forth. I am talking about the development of design process understandings that stem from permaculture's own roots. From permaculture's own DNA.28 I’m talking about consciously coppicing the permaculture tree, take three. To be clear, none of the tree is removed from the site after the coppicing operation. Yes, it will fall to the ground and it will remain there, branches, twigs, leaves. Hot compost the most diseased material, tuck the rest in around the stump. Where as fresh growth bursts forth, anything relevant breaks down and is reabsorbed and assimilated into the living tissue of the re-growing tree. Just think, the fungi are going to have a field day and there will be mushrooms by the plenty. In other words, nothing is lost. I would like to think the babies will gurgle in contented gratitude to be free of the bath water. This is when the real work begins. The work of tending to the new shoots. Watching them closely, nourishing them while delicate and young. As they grow, selectively removing weaker stems and shaping up those that remain for optimal health and form. Making Permaculture Stronger - Phase Two I declare Phase Two of Making Permaculture Stronger open. Phase Two is all about tapping into permaculture’s essence, its potential, then co-articulating from scratch design and creation process understandings that resonate with and actualise this potential every step of the way. Where those of us drawn to this work respectfully converse and collaborate in the hard, honest, yet immensely rewarding work of co-crafting, co-creating something fresh. Something authentic. Something alive. Something worthy of what Bill and David gifted the world in co-originating the permaculture concept. To me, this is one way of tapping the part of permaculture’s essence that Bill Mollison manifested when he talked about having lost heart in protesting and fighting against what he didn’t want. He retreated into the bush and when he came back he was a different person. He was intensely focused not on what he didn’t want, but on what he did want. He focused his fire and he took permaculture to the world, igniting a global movement.

Note: This post may not make much sense unless you read (or listen to) the previous post first. What I've been doing... As reviewed in the last post, I have spent more than three-and-a-half years attempting to help strengthen permaculture's weakest links, or, in other words, solve permaculture's biggest problems. In this approach, success is tacitly defined as the degree to which the weak link or problem is made to go away.40 The Problem with Solving Problems Phase Two of Making Permaculture Stronger starts with my realisation that focusing on problems, even if the problems are getting solved, does not and cannot solve the problem that the whole approach of solving problems is itself, well, problematic.41 Joel Glanzberg has summarised the situation perfectly: We are so accustomed to machines and the mechanical world of Newtonian Physics that we can barely think about how to address the problems of a living world. We try to fix them as we would an old truck: We identify the bad part that is to blame for the problem and repair, replace, or remove it. This is our general approach to everything from medicine to foreign policy to justice. We try to get tumors, dictators and other “bad guys” to reform or we simply replace them. Then, we are continually surprised when new tumors, symptoms, or bad guys promptly arise to take their place. Changing the manifestation of living systems without shifting the underlying causal patterns will always be an uphill battle and often takes us in the wrong direction, like super-gluing the cracks in a hatching eggshell. As has Carol Sanford (in this article): When you start well-intended efforts by identifying a “problem,” you are trapped into thinking that you have to fix it. This leads you on a search for the causes and results in efforts to try out many solutions. It pulls all of your energy toward an endless effort that is based on the mindset that got people into the rut in the first place. Einstein warned us about that. Hmmm. This is exactly the sense in which I have been trying to 'solve permaculture's problems.' Oh well, it's not like nothing good has come from this approach (and yet it is time for a fundamental change of direction)... Now I do not think all this effort has been a waste. Absolutely not! I have learned a heap that has really boosted my ability to serve as a permaculture design process facilitator. I know this is also true for permaculture colleagues around the world. Almost weekly someone reaches out with gratitude for how this project has inspired and supported them to deepen their own design process understandings and practices. Nonetheless, I’m clear it's time Making Permaculture Stronger explicitly extracts itself from the business of dabbling in problems. Where I spend countless hours focusing on aspects of permaculture that I don't even like. On weak links. On problems. Problems that worry me. Problems that demoralise me. Problems that as best I can tell are getting in the way of permaculture's ability to evolve toward deeper and fuller expressions of its potential. I'm glad for everything this effort has created and I want to make a clean break from the whole mentality. It is time for something different. Thankfully there is an alternative that resonates so deeply it brings shivers to my spine. Regenerating from the Core Having spelled out the futility of the problem-solving mentality, Carol Sanford brilliantly illuminates an alternative approach: Okay! Okay! So what do we do? As crazy as it sounds, we skip over what exists. We act as though the problem doesn’t matter. This sounds harsh, even cruel, but consider: within regenerative processes, problems are not useful information. Nature doesn’t care that rat populations are exploding in the suburban countryside. Regeneration in this instance occurs when this niche within the ecosystem is filled by returning populations of foxes and owls.

Making Permaculture Stronger is about to cross a pivotal threshold in its evolution as a project. Let me explain... This project launched three and a half years ago with the intention to be... ...a space where permaculture practitioners come together with a spirit of strengthening the design system aspect of permaculture by clarifying its weaknesses and coordinating efforts to address them. ...where... The best way I know of strengthening something is to identify weak links and then to direct energy toward making them less weak. An early requirement for the project was to create a framework for thinking about all the different aspects of permaculture. Some way of holding the whole so that weak links could be honed in on and strengthened... Permaculture Tree (take three) Remember this? I sure do. I still find it helpful way of mapping out how all permaculture's different aspects sit in relation to one another. I introduced my original illustration here and what follows is a new (draft) version beautifully illustrated by my friend and permaculture illustrator Brenna Quinlan. Note - the arrows leaving and entering the tree represent permaculture bringing foundational understandings in from outside and creating solutions that go out to become part of other approaches or the culture in general (as isolated things) To recap the main idea: permaculture has general foundational aspects that are universal in their relevance (roots)permaculture has specific solutions (design configurations, strategies, and techniques) that are appropriate in some situations and not in others (limbs, branches and leaves)the only thing that can get you from the foundations to the appropriate solutions for a given situation is sound design process (trunk) I can't resist sharing two further aspects of the tree before I move on, given I just rediscovered Brenna's lovely sketches of them. First, here's a view from above where you might recognise something familiar. Second, the cyclic patterns of movement I'm using the tree to highlight are an instance of the pattern Bill Mollison called the core model.73 Brenna Quinlan's sketches of two additional aspects of the Permaculture Tree (Take Three) The Original Plan Having created the original tree diagram, I hatched a cunning plan for the future of Making Permaculture Stronger. I was going to complete, and indeed have completed, a few inquiries myself. Each was to start with something permaculture seemed to have got wrong in terms of design process and end with some better alternative to it. I went so far as to prepare the below plan. I was going to put this out there once I had the ball rolling (as in about now). A diagram to set the parameters to invite others to come play this same game over and over. Together we were going to remedy permaculture's issues, one strengthened weak link at a time.. My early masterplan for Making Permaculture Stronger Why I started with the Trunk I spent a few posts explaining why I chose to start my weak-link work in the region of the tree's trunk, as in design process. I described the apparent lack of a deep, coherent, shared, widely used understanding of sound design process in permaculture as a foundational weak link. Foundational in the sense that all sorts of other littler weak links flowed from it. Foundational in the sense of a Type One Error. Here is how I originally diagramed it, noting that "the image I get is of a huge oak tree teetering on a feeble little stem": The First Two Inquiries (and where they led me) I then started the first of two epic, in-depth inquiries where I honed in on problematic aspects of the shared understandings of permaculture design process that were available in the literature. In that sense I identified design process as a weak link then went looking for little weak links within the big weak link that were presumably making the big weak link weak!

Making Permaculture Stronger is about to cross a pivotal threshold in its evolution as a project. Let me explain... This project launched three and a half years ago with the intention to be... ...a space where permaculture practitioners come together with a spirit of strengthening the design system aspect of permaculture by clarifying its weaknesses and coordinating efforts to address them. ...where... The best way I know of strengthening something is to identify weak links and then to direct energy toward making them less weak. An early requirement for the project was to create a framework for thinking about all the different aspects of permaculture. Some way of holding the whole so that weak links could be honed in on and strengthened... Permaculture Tree (take three) Remember this? I sure do. I still find it helpful way of mapping out how all permaculture's different aspects sit in relation to one another. I introduced my original illustration here and what follows is a new (draft) version beautifully illustrated by my friend and permaculture illustrator Brenna Quinlan. Note - the arrows leaving and entering the tree represent permaculture bringing foundational understandings in from outside and creating solutions that go out to become part of other approaches or the culture in general (as isolated things) To recap the main idea: permaculture has general foundational aspects that are universal in their relevance (roots)permaculture has specific solutions (design configurations, strategies, and techniques) that are appropriate in some situations and not in others (limbs, branches and leaves)the only thing that can get you from the foundations to the appropriate solutions for a given situation is sound design process (trunk) I can't resist sharing two further aspects of the tree before I move on, given I just rediscovered Brenna's lovely sketches of them. First, here's a view from above where you might recognise something familiar. Second, the cyclic patterns of movement I'm using the tree to highlight are an instance of the pattern Bill Mollison called the core model.49 Brenna Quinlan's sketches of two additional aspects of the Permaculture Tree (Take Three) The Original Plan Having created the original tree diagram, I hatched a cunning plan for the future of Making Permaculture Stronger. I was going to complete, and indeed have completed, a few inquiries myself. Each was to start with something permaculture seemed to have got wrong in terms of design process and end with some better alternative to it. I went so far as to prepare the below plan. I was going to put this out there once I had the ball rolling (as in about now). A diagram to set the parameters to invite others to come play this same game over and over. Together we were going to remedy permaculture's issues, one strengthened weak link at a time.. My early masterplan for Making Permaculture Stronger Why I started with the Trunk I spent a few posts explaining why I chose to start my weak-link work in the region of the tree's trunk, as in design process. I described the apparent lack of a deep, coherent, shared, widely used understanding of sound design process in permaculture as a foundational weak link. Foundational in the sense that all sorts of other littler weak links flowed from it. Foundational in the sense of a Type One Error. Here is how I originally diagramed it, noting that "the image I get is of a huge oak tree teetering on a feeble little stem": The First Two Inquiries (and where they led me) I then started the first of two epic, in-depth inquiries where I honed in on problematic aspects of the shared understandings of permaculture design process that were available in the literature. In that sense I identified design process as a weak link then went looking for little weak links within the big weak link that were presumably making the big weak link weak!

I'm sure you'll enjoy this rich, deep yet lively second conversation with Jason Gerhardt (first chat was here). Jason directs the USA's Permaculture Institute and Real Earth Design. As it turns out we continue exploring the ordering framework I introduced in Episode 24. Here's the framework diagram, slightly updated thanks to a suggestion from Bill Reed. Or download as pdf here. Oh yeah I also mention this recent recreate of Making Permaculture Stronger's purpose that Joel Glanzberg helped me with and that uses the pattern I explored with Bill Reed here: MPS inspires creative exploration and dialogue around permaculture design in a way that develops our ability to think and act creatively as and with community to effect the large scale systemic change we need. Oh yeah Jason mention this amazing white paper on the four levels of Regenerative Agriculture by Ethan Roland Soloviev & Gregory Landua. I can't believe I haven't read this yet. Do check it out if you've not seen it and leave a comment telling me what you make of it. I also mentioned the Permaculture Home Garden by Linda Woodrow.

I'm excited to share here the beginnings of a (Carol Sanford inspired) framework in my second conversation with perma-powerhouse Meg McGowan (the first was here). It is a framework I feel is going to inform much of Making Permaculture Stronger's evolution moving forward. Here is a preliminary sketch laying it out as a starting point to crash test and improve together (or download as pdf file here). Huge thanks to Meg for taking the time to help me share and start developing it. Oh yes in this episode I also share my brand new project Designing for Life that will be developing in conversation with Making Permaculture Stronger moving forward. Exciting times my friends, exciting times! Visit Meg's blog here, the interview on the other podcast she mentioned here (episode three), her pyramid of wisdom here (note: compare with this). You can also go listen to the mentioned chats with Carol Sanford and Joel Glanzberg and Bill Reed by clicking on their names (where you'll find further links to their sites and work). Finally, if you would consider supporting Making Permaculture Stronger financially, then visit our support page and mega-thanks in advance for what you are making possible in terms of supporting and fast-tracking the evolution of permaculture's wildly exciting potential in the world.

Hey all. In this episode I share my second conversation with Bill Reed from Regenesis Group and the Regenerative Practitioner Seminar (our first chat is here). It is a conversation I highly recommend in which we look in detail at several aspects of how the rubber hits the road in the regenerative development or living systems approach Bill works with. I also get a bunch of things off my chest at the start around bumping this whole conversation up a notch and inviting your input into where and how Making Permaculture Stronger evolves from here. Hope to hear from you (whether via a few bucks via our patreon page and/or your reflections and suggestions in the comments below or through the contact page). I have to say all this focus on the likes of Bill and Joel Glanzberg and Carol Sanford is starting to rub off on me. I have noticed that the language I use is on the move, the thoughts I think are on the move, and even my entire understanding of what the heck Making Permaculture Stronger is and could be about are on the move! Heed this warning my friends: these people are dangerous radicals who consciously mess with minds. As Bill says, they see what they do as a mental technology that is intended to frustrate and destabilise you out of your automatic patterns. Bill mentions this article by Jonah Lehrer in the New Yorker, I mention possibility management, and you can find out more about Regenesis Group here and Carol Sanford here. Example Purpose Statements including Function, Being, and Will As promised, here are the function, being, and will based purpose statements Bill shared: The Yestermorrow design / build school's purpose is to learn together through shared inquiry and hand-on experience the ways of making human habitat... (function)...in a way that expands our understanding of who we are and how to live in beneficial interrelationship with the earth and each other... (being)...so that we all can thrive in a world with limited resources and unlimited potential (will) and I’m going to take raw ingredients and transform them into a meal for my family… (function)…in a way that we sit down with our children and share our love for each other, or at least our daily events around the table… (being)…so that our children have the psychological wellbeing and nourishment to grow into responsible adults (will) As a recap the function aspect is about what are we doing and transforming? The being aspect is how do we want to be and what do we need to become to do this? Or as Joel Glanzberg has put it to me, what are the capacities to Be you are aiming to develop during this task? The will aspect is what is the larger field we wish to shift or positively impact? As Bill put it this is like asking what is the purpose of the purpose? Keep in mind also, if you can handle it at this stage (I barely can!) that Bill talked about paying attention to the so called three lines of work at function, then again at being, then again at will. The three lines of work are the immediate whole you are working with (might be you, or your school garden), the proximate whole (might be your team, or the school community) and the greater whole that you envisage being able to positively impact through your work (might be the farm, or the community the school is nested within). Here's a preliminary attempt I made at an upgraded purpose statement for Making Permaculture Stronger:55 Making Permaculture Stronger exists to hold a unique space for intelligent, collegial, and rigorous inquiry and dialogue into the subject of permaculture design process... (function)...in a way that respectfully honors permaculture’s incredible depth and value and openly explores ways its potential might be more fully and rapidly developed... (being)...so that it continues to thrive, grow and evolve in its ability to contribute positively to humanity and the earth (will) After some reflections on this from Joel Glanzberg (thanks Joel!),

The creation of this episode was an incredible experience. Carol is shockingly sharp, disruptive beyond belief, and an absolute thrill to be in a conversation with. This episode is dripping with rich insights into regenerative and living systems thinking and I know you're going to love it. Here is Carol's personal website. Here is an article Carol wrote about potential that has informed the future direction of Making Permaculture Stronger. Here is a link to a page with info about Carol's books. Her latest book is called The Regenerative Human and will be released March 2020. She asked me to mention that she is still looking for people to be involved in the action-learning project she discussed in our chat. See the details of being involved in this here. Here's is Carol's podcast Business Second Opinion. This episode goes through Seven Principles of Regeneration and is is well worth a listen. Here are the Deep Pacific online workshops. Carol asked me to "Let your listeners know they are welcome. All recorded. No beginning or end. You begin when you Step on the Mat, like I learned in Aikido, and practice with all levels of experience." I (Dan) am signing up so maybe I'll see you there. Here is Regenesis Group that was mentioned. For the interest of folk in the vicinity of Victoria, Australia, Regenesis member Joel Glanzberg will be running a one-day workshop on Regenerative Design in Melbourne July 2019. Finally, here's the conversation as a video: https://youtu.be/ENzPrjNrZV8

It is my great honour to share this opening conversation with Jason Gerhardt who directs both the Permaculture Institute and Regenerative Design company Real Earth Design. Jason recently contributed this guest post to Making Permaculture Stronger, this post shared a snippet from our conversation in the comments of the current inquiry and this one included a diagram sharing the history of Jason's permaculture design process signature. In the closing comments to this episode I mention an experiment I'm currently conducting where I want to find out if the universe in general, and perhaps even you in particular, feel moved to give this project a tiny drip of financial support to unleash unimaginably exciting new levels of blog, podcast, video and book action. Only if you'd like, you can read more about this here.

Darren J. Doherty in a misty paddock with some cows In this episode you get to be a fly on the wall during a farm consultancy conducted by renowned farm planner and Regrarian Darren J. Doherty. I'm sure I don't need to spell out the resonance between Darren's comments about why he no longer does master plans and the current Making Permaculture Stronger inquiry (where I refer to master planning as fabricating). Thanks to Darren for his support on jobs like this as well as his kind permission to share his words here.

This week we welcome to the show permaculture designer and theorist, Dan Palmer. Dan is the host of the podcast, Making Permaculture Stronger, where he facilitates fascinating discussions on what’s right and what’s wrong with permaculture and where it might be headed next. And the tl;dr is that what’s wrong with permaculture is, in the main, what’s wrong with everything else. So we have a great discussion on the theory of design in general, the shortcomings of western categorisations and their dualist implications and, somewhat improbably, merging with a chicken. It’s a truly fantastic chat. Enjoy. Show Notes Making Permaculture Stronger Living Design Process

In this episode I speak with Morag Gamble from Our Permaculture Life, the Permaculture Education Institute, and her very active youtube channel. I'm still getting to know Morag after meeting her recently at the fourteenth Australasian Permaculture Convergence. Morag attended sessions I lead on both Making Permaculture Stronger and Living Design Process and afterward we had the best conversation about it all. But I didn't realise how on the same page we were, and how much longer Morag had been on that page, and just how much I have to learn from her about it, until we recorded this chat. Enjoy, and huge gratitude to Morag for taking the time, and being who she is, and doing all the incredible stuff she's doing toward lifting up and growing and sharing what is great about permaculture. Here are the people, books, links etc Morag refers to in this episode. Fritjof Capra The Reenchantment of the World by Morris Berman Victor Papenek Helena Norberg-Hodge Vandana Shiva Christopher Day (Author of Places of the Soul) Schumacher College Patrick Whitefield Jan Gehl Nick Rose Sustain book Developing Citizen Designers (book) Our Permaculture Life Oh yes, and here's a happy snap of Morag and I taken just last week at Food Connect in Brisbane: ...and I finish with a lovely youtube masterclass where Morag shares five steps to getting started with permaculture design: 

In this episode I speak with Morag Gamble from Our Permaculture Life, the Permaculture Education Institute, and her very active youtube channel. I'm still getting to know Morag after meeting her recently at the fourteenth Australasian Permaculture Convergence. Morag attended sessions I lead on both Making Permaculture Stronger and Living Design Process and afterward we had the best conversation about it all. But I didn't realise how on the same page we were, and how much longer Morag had been on that page, and just how much I have to learn from her about it, until we recorded this chat. Enjoy, and huge gratitude to Morag for taking the time, and being who she is, and doing all the incredible stuff she's doing toward lifting up and growing and sharing what is great about permaculture. Here are the people, books, links etc Morag refers to in this episode. Fritjof Capra The Reenchantment of the World by Morris Berman Victor Papenek Helena Norberg-Hodge Vandana Shiva Christopher Day (Author of Places of the Soul) Schumacher College Patrick Whitefield Jan Gehl Nick Rose Sustain book Developing Citizen Designers (book) Our Permaculture Life Oh yes, and here's a happy snap of Morag and I taken just last week at Food Connect in Brisbane: ...and I finish with a lovely youtube masterclass where Morag shares five steps to getting started with permaculture design: 

In this episode I speak with permaculture elder Joel Glanzberg from Pattern Mind, Regenesis Group and the Tracking Project. Early in the conversation, Joel refers to his 30 Years Greening the Desert project which you can learn about in this clip:  We also refer to Joel's Open Letter and Plea to the Permaculture Movement. Here is a more recent article in which Joel writes beautifully about the necessary transformation toward life at a world-view level. Here's a poignant excerpt: Holding my baby son one night as he slept, I thought about how I would make his body. Having built things all my life, this seemed simple. I would begin by framing him up, joining his bones together using his muscles, tendons and ligaments. Then I'd run his arteries and veins, his nervous system, install all of his organs, sheath him in skin, fill him with blood, a bit of food and water and start him up, maybe with a spark from jumper cables. Of course he was made nothing like this, but this Frankensteinian thought experiment revealed my own mind's mechanicalness and the difference between how we think about and make things and how the living world creates. Everything we make is conceived and constructed before it begins to carry out the processes for which it was designed. Our cars, homes, businesses, schools, programs are all structured before they run. Like my son's body—all of our bodies for that matter—all living structures are built by doing what they have been created to do. His body was made by metabolizing nutrients, water and oxygen and moving around, just as it is today. The river was not dug and then filled with water. The river running made the river. The branching scaffold of the tree was not built before it carried water and nutrients up into the sky and sugars back down into the roots. The tree built its body by adding layer after layer of carbon taken from the sky through photosynthesizing, from the moment it put out leaves into the air and roots into the earth. Finally, and with particular relevance to some of the places Making Permaculture Stronger will soon be heading as a project, I recommend watching this too, where Joel speaks alongside several of his colleagues at Regenesis Group: 

In this episode I speak with permaculture elder Joel Glanzberg from Pattern Mind, Regenesis Group and the Tracking Project. Early in the conversation, Joel refers to his 30 Years Greening the Desert project which you can learn about in this clip:  We also refer to Joel's Open Letter and Plea to the Permaculture Movement. Here is a more recent article in which Joel writes beautifully about the necessary transformation toward life at a world-view level. Here's a poignant excerpt: Holding my baby son one night as he slept, I thought about how I would make his body. Having built things all my life, this seemed simple. I would begin by framing him up, joining his bones together using his muscles, tendons and ligaments. Then I’d run his arteries and veins, his nervous system, install all of his organs, sheath him in skin, fill him with blood, a bit of food and water and start him up, maybe with a spark from jumper cables. Of course he was made nothing like this, but this Frankensteinian thought experiment revealed my own mind’s mechanicalness and the difference between how we think about and make things and how the living world creates. Everything we make is conceived and constructed before it begins to carry out the processes for which it was designed. Our cars, homes, businesses, schools, programs are all structured before they run. Like my son’s body—all of our bodies for that matter—all living structures are built by doing what they have been created to do. His body was made by metabolizing nutrients, water and oxygen and moving around, just as it is today. The river was not dug and then filled with water. The river running made the river. The branching scaffold of the tree was not built before it carried water and nutrients up into the sky and sugars back down into the roots. The tree built its body by adding layer after layer of carbon taken from the sky through photosynthesizing, from the moment it put out leaves into the air and roots into the earth. Finally, and with particular relevance to some of the places Making Permaculture Stronger will soon be heading as a project, I recommend watching this too, where Joel speaks alongside several of his colleagues at Regenesis Group: 

This episode is a recording of a session during a four-day workshop that was run last week by David Holmgren from Holmgren Design and Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger. The workshop was entitled Advanced Permaculture Planning and Design Process, and this episode shares the story of Dan's personal journey with permaculture design process, to which David responds with something of his own story. Here is a photo of Dan sharing his story... ...and David responding... Huge thanks to Keri Chiveralls for coming and for taking and sharing all three photos, Bec Lowe and Brenna Quinlan for supporting David and Dan during the course (and for Brenna's amazing illustrations), Su Dennet for feeding everyone, and the other participants for coming along and making it all possible and for integrating their beautiful energies into the mix of this emerging conversation whose time has come around (once again): Andrew, Anitra, Annaliese, Anne, Ben, Daryl, Delldint, Delvin, Franky, Gavin, Jazmyn, Jenny, Ken, Kim, Ko, Linnet, Lukas, Michae,l Michelle, Pierre, Sean, Stacey, Ugo, Venetia, Wayne & Willow Brenna Quinlan's brilliant pictorial summary of Dan's talk (which was then condensed into this summary of the whole day): The course group: Finally, for anyone who might be interested, there is a detailed six-post report of the 2017 version of this workshop here, and future iterations of this course will be listed here.

This episode is a recording of a session during a four-day workshop that was run last week by David Holmgren from Holmgren Design and Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger. The workshop was entitled Advanced Permaculture Planning and Design Process, and this episode shares the story of Dan's personal journey with permaculture design process, to which David responds with something of his own story. Here is a photo of Dan sharing his story... ...and David responding... Huge thanks to Keri Chiveralls for coming and for taking and sharing all three photos, Bec Lowe and Brenna Quinlan for supporting David and Dan during the course (and for Brenna's amazing illustrations), Su Dennet for feeding everyone, and the other participants for coming along and making it all possible and for integrating their beautiful energies into the mix of this emerging conversation whose time has come around (once again): Andrew, Anitra, Annaliese, Anne, Ben, Daryl, Delldint, Delvin, Franky, Gavin, Jazmyn, Jenny, Ken, Kim, Ko, Linnet, Lukas, Michae,l Michelle, Pierre, Sean, Stacey, Ugo, Venetia, Wayne & Willow Brenna Quinlan's brilliant pictorial summary of Dan's talk (which was then condensed into this summary of the whole day): The course group: Finally, for anyone who might be interested, there is a detailed six-post report of the 2017 version of this workshop here, and future iterations of this course will be listed here.

In this episode Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger speaks with Jascha Rohr from the Institute for Participatory Design which is based in Oldenburg, Germany. With his partner Sonja Hörster, Jascha has created a fascinating and powerful way of framing design process they call the Field Process Model. The Field Process Model brings together inspiration from Bill Mollison's core model and Christopher Alexander's generative process against the philosophical backdrop of field theory (rather than the systems thinking backdrop permaculture usually stems from). Here it is sketched at a high level in two dimensions (get your head around this first, where reading this article is highly recommended)... ...here in more detail in three dimensions (or of course four if you include the movement or dance through time): Here are field process model originators Jascha and Sonja during the recording, which happened on February 20, 2018. The red squiggle indicates a certain four-volume set of books, the second volume of which just happened to also be sitting just behind Dan...

In this episode Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger speaks with Jascha Rohr from the Institute for Participatory Design which is based in Oldenburg, Germany. With his partner Sonja Hörster, Jascha has created a fascinating and powerful way of framing design process they call the Field Process Model. The Field Process Model brings together inspiration from Bill Mollison's core model and Christopher Alexander's generative process against the philosophical backdrop of field theory (rather than the systems thinking backdrop permaculture usually stems from). Here it is sketched at a high level in two dimensions (get your head around this first, where reading this article is highly recommended)... ...here in more detail in three dimensions (or of course four if you include the movement or dance through time): Here are field process model originators Jascha and Sonja during the recording, which happened on February 20, 2018. The red squiggle indicates a certain four-volume set of books, the second volume of which just happened to also be sitting just behind Dan...

In this episode Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger enjoys a rich conversation with his friend and permaculture colleague Hannah Moloney from Good Life Permaculture in Hobart. Hannah and Dan explore: How Hannah got into all this Hannah's journey working as a professional permaculture designer The permaculture design process Hannah uses The tension between providing a service people are willing to pay for and honouring sound process at the same time Much more Here are some of Hannah's design diagrams (more here): Her and Anton and their daughter Frida's beeuitiful pink home on a hill (more here): and Dan, Hannah, Anton (and young Frida) in 2015... and 2016...

In this episode Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger enjoys a rich conversation with his friend and permaculture colleague Hannah Moloney from Good Life Permaculture in Hobart. Hannah and Dan explore: How Hannah got into all this Hannah's journey working as a professional permaculture designer The permaculture design process Hannah uses The tension between providing a service people are willing to pay for and honouring sound process at the same time Much more Here are some of Hannah's design diagrams (more here): Her and Anton and their daughter Frida's beeuitiful pink home on a hill (more here): and Dan, Hannah, Anton (and young Frida) in 2015... and 2016...

In this episode Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger enjoys a wide-ranging conversation with Darren J. Doherty from Regrarians.org. Darren and Dan explore: Darren's 25-year journey with design process including: how he got started key influences along the way key realisations along the way The Regrarians Works Pattern and the Regrarians Platform The current state and trajectory of permaculture including why good people so often seem to leave The relationship of Darren and the Regrarians approach to permaculture much else, including the new 10 week REX® Online Farm Planning Program (that Dan is looking forward to participating in as a student) We really hope you enjoy the episode, and please do leave a comment sharing any feedback or reflections below... Dan and Darren recording this episode last week in Bendigo, Australia Oh yes, one more thing - during the closing comments at the episode's end, Dan refers to this video clip: https://vimeo.com/128967954

In this episode Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger enjoys a wide-ranging conversation with Darren J. Doherty from Regrarians.org. Darren and Dan explore: Darren's 25-year journey with design process including: how he got started key influences along the way key realisations along the way The Regrarians Works Pattern and the Regrarians Platform The current state and trajectory of permaculture including why good people so often seem to leave The relationship of Darren and the Regrarians approach to permaculture much else, including the new 10 week REX® Online Farm Planning Program (that Dan is looking forward to participating in as a student) We really hope you enjoy the episode, and please do leave a comment sharing any feedback or reflections below... Dan and Darren recording this episode last week in Bendigo, Australia Oh yes, one more thing - during the closing comments at the episode's end, Dan refers to this video clip: https://vimeo.com/128967954

In this podcast Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger chats with Rosemary Morrow about permaculture design process.

In this podcast Dan Palmer from Making Permaculture Stronger chats with Rosemary Morrow about permaculture design process.