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If you’ve been following permaculture in Calgary, then you’ve probably been hearing about Permablitz – the transformation of lawns into productive, abundant landscapes. You may be [...]

This last weekend our Spring PDC class spent a whole day learning about all aspects of water including grey water, black water, rain water, and storm water. We learned how to put all of these [...]

  Who wouldn’t want to eat fresh, organic, local food that’s free? Simon Chauvette and Tejaswinee Jhunjhunwala discuss Landshare, an initiative originating in the UK that [...]

Today the Mustard Seed Design Group, Prospect PDD Services and members of the Mustard Seed got together in the Mustard Seed art room to build wetpots for the rooftop garden that will be installed [...]

This article was written by Jessica Kavanaugh “Building community, growing hope, supporting change” is the mission of the Mustard Seed, a non-profit Calgary organization that works to help the [...]

Today, cities face substantial barriers to effective water management due to the sheer extent of non-permeable surfaces such as pavement and concrete. During rain events, the main function of [...]

Well this past week-end we kicked off the start of Spring in a big way: Saturday and Sunday were the first two days of our Calgary Permaculture Design Course, Saturday was Seedy Saturday and [...]

Following my recent blog post on the Do-It-Yourself Vermipod, I've been receiving a ton of questions from folks who [...]

I just stumbled across this great podcast interview that was done by Mark Connoley-Mendoza as part of his “Meet Your Farmer’s Market” series back in July 2010. Thought this [...]

We live and garden on an urban lot in Calgary, Canada, located on the 51st parallel north and approximately 80 km east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. This northern climate presents [...]

Please join us in welcoming the newest addition to Verge Permaculture – Rowen Avis. Born at home on December 27th, 2010 at 9:30 pm, Rowen surprised his parents by arriving two weeks early. [...]

Well we had an absolute blast teaching the Calgary part time PDC this year and it is hard to believe that it is over! During the course we designed the Mustard Seed rooftop garden, surveyed and [...]

The first week-end of December Rob was invited "down south" to Lethbridge, Alberta to teach an introductory course on permaculture design to 16 students in partnership with Southern [...]

Everyone knows that you can’t finish a permaculture design course without a wrap-up party and talent show! Our first Design Course in Calgary was no exception to this rule – and our [...]

The Mustard Seed is a non profit charitable organization that helps Calgary’s less fortunate. They have recently had their rooftop patio renovated and are interested in the design and [...]

Last week-end we hosted our first annual potluck for all of our past (& present) (& some future) permaculture design students. It was a great event and really fun to re-connect with about [...]

For some time now I’ve been anxious to get a worm composting system for our kitchen scraps to turn our “waste” into a valuable resource – soil! Inspired by some pretty neat worm systems [...]

About a month ago we managed to convince our friend Ashley Lubyk to teach a Cob Oven workshop in our backyard.  We quickly found twelve eager participants, spent a few days collecting materials [...]

Fun of summer camp meets four year course on healing degraded landscapes... this is the Gull Lake Permaculture Design Course, and here are photos from our 2010 course.

Largely popularized by the 2008 documentary movie, Garbage Warrior, an Earthship is an earth-sheltered, passive solar home built from – well, trash (basically, car tires and cans). Inventor [...]

Thanks to the great group of people who joined us for a wonderful time this past week-end learning about the edible and medicinal qualities of wild plants. Big thank-you also to Master [...]

Having started my engineering career in the oil and gas industry my first experience with large earth moving machines was relatively negative. Whenever I had to employ them it was to bring down a [...]

Why Permaculture Design? Peak Oil, loss of diversity, species extinction, conspiracy, oil spills, food insecurity …. the problems that we face seem to increase both in size and complexity [...]

Last week-end we were invited up to Edmonton to teach a course at the UofA Campus Saint-Jean. It was a small, but very engaged class and we thoroughly enjoyed teaching and meeting more [...]

This is part two of a four part series about two Canadian permaculture enthusiasts and their three month journey exploring, visiting and learning about the what’s going on in the [...]

What is the difference between soil and dirt? Soil is alive. Dirt is dead. A single teaspoon of soil can contain billions of microscopic bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. A handful of the [...]

Rob & I were invited out to Mountain Waters Retreat, in the beautiful Kootenay Valley, to teach a Permaculture Design Certificate Course to nine students.  We are having a wonderful time and [...]

We just completed another fantastic week-end course and permablitz and have unleashed 15 new permaculture students in Alberta (& one in Brazil!). Here are some photos of the week-end and [...]

This is part one of a four part series about Rob & Michelle’s three month journey exploring, visiting and learning about the what’s going on in the permaculture scene in [...]

(This article on composting toilets was written by our friend, co-conspirator and travel buddy, Lindsay Dailey) In a world where less than 1% of the planet’s fresh water is available for human [...]

Living in Canada makes staying warm in winter an interesting challenge. In such a cold climate I have long wondered how to continue to keep humans warm (care of people) without bringing down [...]

 History has shown time and time again that civilizations have risen and fallen based on the quantity and health of their topsoil. Since food is the basis of civilization and topsoil is the basis [...]

In August 2008, my wife Michelle and I returned to Calgary, Canada, after spending one year travelling abroad in search of sustainability solutions. With backgrounds in mechanical engineering, [...]

Another food forest installation in Calgary – yipee! The group of students from our Springtime Introduction to Permaculture class taught through Clean Calgary got together one beautiful [...]

Wildcrafting is the fusion between an indigenous survival skill and modern botany. Southern Alberta boasts hundreds of wild edible and medicinal plants right outside our front door that we all [...]

  Throughout the last year Michelle and I have been researching green building methods. So far we have visited and helped build strawbale houses, spent time in an underground concrete building in [...]

I saw things in Cairo that I thought were only true in the movies. This whirlwind trip has been a real eye opener for me, an enormous culture shock and I have come to [...]

The change to Combined Heat and Power (CHP) in Denmark created a decentralized heat and power structure that gradually can be transitioned entirely to renewable energy. By establishing local [...]

I recently embarked on a short, unexpected adventure to the ancient country of Egypt. The Folkecenter received a contract to teach a course in Cairo to a group of manufacturing companies looking [...]

Rob and I were very happy to host Robs parents, Jon and Thea, for a few days here at the Folkecenter at the end of October. Keen to expose them to some of the neat things that we have [...]

Plant Oil Processing The Folkecenter has a demonstration lab which contains all of the equipment to press, filter and test vegetable oil for engine use. As Europe has pioneered the use of [...]

One of the reasons that Michelle and I found the Folkecenter was because of plant oil. Just over a year ago, Michelle and I converted our VW Westfalia van to run on used vegetable oil, usually [...]

As most of Robs friends and family know Rob has three loves in his life:

1. 1) his wife, of course
2. 2) good beer
3. 3) Renewable Energy

I was sitting around on a Saturday Morning this weekend tired of looking at a computer screen so Melissa and I decided to go for a bike ride over to the Folkecenter Wave Energy test site. [...]

The Biodome is a large dome located here at the Folkecenter that combines a hydroponic greenhouse with an aquaculture system. It utilizes an integrated approach to water and nutrient reuse, [...]

[Rob recently connected with Katrin Klingenberg, the Director of Ecological Construction Laboratory in Illinois and one of the founding members of Passive House Institute US. She had some great [...]

In this blog, we discuss that because the World is so dependant on oil society needs to start moving in the direction of other energy sources immediately to offset future economic, social and [...]

Rob and I attended the Husum Wind Energy Conference on September 18th. The largest wind industry trade show in the world is held every second year in Northern Germany in a small town [...]

The Nordic Folkecenter (NFC) is full of wind turbines, some big, some small and even more that don’t work. There is a Test Field with platforms and foundations for testing of electricity [...]

Here at the Folkecenter there are numerous vehicles running on alternative fuels. Pure Plant Oil (PPO) There is a rape seed refinery here where they have the ability to press and filter rape seed [...]