The Verge Blog

When you’re just beginning to design your permaculture property, the first question you’re likely to ask is “What to put where?” Should the compost be conveniently close to the house, or near the market garden to catch the waste? Should the chickens be housed near the kitchen garden, or in a [...]

Permaculture gardening offers a holistic approach to managing your property, whether you aim to improve stormwater management, combat drought, or simply enhance ecological health. But how do you get started… quickly, and with limited resources and knowledge? And, what does it mean to [...]

Every so often, someone will come up to us and ask – So what’s so important about permaculture anyway? How is it better than conventional farming? And what’s the deal with a “permaculture lifestyle?” These are the kinds of questions we love to answer! We’ve given the core points on our [...]

An orchard in your backyard – think of it!  A virtual grocery aisle, providing a ready crop of fruit and livestock to provide your family with healthy, nutritious, free food, enough to enjoy in season and put up for the cold months.  This was what our friend and guest instructor, veteran [...]

If you’re looking to cut your landfill waste, undo the effects of erosion, reduce your climate footprint, and fall in love with the regenerative magic of soil, your best first step is a simple one: composting (find out why HERE). But if you’re in an apartment, condo, or townhouse with no land [...]

“Produce No Waste.” This core permaculture principle sounds like a green ideal to reduce pollution, yes? But that’s just the beginning: this principle also reminds us that nature transforms its waste products and dead matter into living soil…and we can, too.  Picture a wild forest: its floor [...]

Cruise through suburbia one spring or fall day, and you’ll see them: rows upon rows of paper bags of leaves, lawn clippings, and yard waste, waiting for municipal pickup. Ironically,  the hard-working homeowners who fill them often follow up with a garden store run for bags upon bags of [...]

Early in the spring of your gardening life, when your herbs and veggies are still small, there’s a certain parent-like charm about trotting around with a watering can or hose, tenderly pouring a life-giving puddle around their little roots.  But as your garden grows and your water bills mount [...]

In our last blog, we looked at how water and soil interact in assuring the success of your permaculture property. In this post, we’re going to take a look at how you can revive the soil ecosystem of a depleted suburban lawn as the first step toward creating your food forest. When we began [...]

It’s been a number of years since we moved from our first homestead in suburban Calgary, but we still love to hear the gasps of awe and admiration as we show its Before and After pictures: from a sparse, dry lawn to a lush, thriving food forest! The After photo of our front yard in […]

If you listen to conventional wisdom, you might begin to think that planting fruit trees on your property is a terrible idea – they’re prone to diseases and pests, and demand endless spraying and coddling just to produce a tiny harvest!  But there’s one thing that conventional wisdom doesn’t [...]

“Food forest” – “forest garden” – “agroforestry” – if you grew up seeing farms with single-crop fields stretching away into the distance, these terms may provoke some cognitive dissonance. Just imagine: forest bathing in green-filtered sunlight, feeling stress melt away as you listen to [...]

Work is a Failure in Design – it’s a motto I use again and again, and it’s especially true when you look at composting. The common problems that gardeners struggle with are usually red flags, signalling problems in design. Let’s take a look at some of the ways a little strategic planning can [...]

(A Quick Summary of Rob Avis’ in-depth article on Mainframe Design, published in Permaculture Magazine)  When you’re face to face with your new property, how can you set priorities in beginning your permaculture design? What’s most important, and how do you determine what comes next? These [...]

Imagine a garden where every plant, insect, and drop of water plays a vital role in a vibrant ecosystem. This is the heart of an epic permaculture garden, a space that transcends traditional gardening to become a symphony of nature. Here, you’re not just a gardener; you’re an [...]

Verge Permaculture, a leading provider of practical and useful educational courses for permaculture design and sustainability, has announced its merger with 5th World, a renowned consulting firm specializing in land regeneration, renewable energy greenhouse design, and construction, and [...]

One of the fascinating concepts in biology is the microbial infallibility hypothesis. In his 1951 textbook, British microbiologist Ernest Gale put forward a hypothesis which stated: “If there is energy to be gained from a compound, a microorganism will figure out how to extract it and [...]

If there was ever a time to add Permaculture to your property, it is now: whether you plan to buy a new piece, rural or urban, and transform it, or to redesign the property you have.  The last three years have begun to show the follies of globalization, just-in-time shipping and inventory [...]

In my last post, we saw how a century-long trend of hyper-specialization has led us to where we are today, which has come with many benefits and tradeoffs. One of those tradeoffs is a false sense of security.  In this post and the next, we will look at some of the many hidden risks in […]

In my last post, we looked at the hidden risks in one crucial system of human civilization – energy – and how those risks could undermine the entire house of cards within a decade or two. In this post, we’ll be looking at four of the other critical systems of our society – food, [...]

By Kate Fulmore Happy, healthy chickens, cows, and sheep – flavorful, nutritious eggs – fertile soil – with benefits like these, we’ve wanted to adopt Joel Salatin’s amazing methods for pasture-raised eggs for a while now. And we’ve just completed the construction of our [...]

When the Problem Becomes the Solution When Jill invited Rob to come on the podcast, she thought they would be talking about food forests and garden design. Little did she know they would be diving into: guilt around existence, how to use problems as a roadmap to solutions, and strategies for [...]

When your farm is located, like ours, in a zone 3B spot challenged by wind, drought, erosion, and cold, protecting the soil and collecting water become major concerns. And so we’ve settled on the intensive hay-mulching method developed by Ruth Stout, and the experiment is paying off! We’ve [...]