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Unprecedented wildfires, floods, and droughts – Climate change (or as George Monbiot prefers, climate breakdown) is no longer a topic solely for environmentalists and ecologists; it has entered [...]

This month, we had the chance to chat with John Hemmerle, owner of Our Land Organics, a Cincinnati-based ecological landscape company and a 2017 graduate of the Regenerative Business Mentorship [...]

Welcome to “How Permaculture Changed My Life”, our ongoing blog series that features personal stories from students speaking on how permaculture shaped their careers and their lives. [...]

Welcome to “How Permaculture Changed My Life”, our blog series that features personal stories from students speaking on how permaculture shaped their careers and their lives. This [...]

As I mentioned in part 1 of this blog series, a living larder can be defined as living floral or faunal food sources that humans can harvest when needed. There are three types of living larders: [...]

On our way back home from a consultancy, Takota Coen and I were talking about how brilliant permaculture is at solving problems, specifically when it comes to food security. After some productive [...]

Welcome to “How Permaculture Changed My Life”, our blog series that features personal stories from students speaking on how permaculture shaped their careers and their lives. This [...]

Last time, I posed the following questions: 1) What are the hidden black swans associated with relegating all food production to robotics? 2) Is food production important enough that we should [...]

I thought it would be a good time to kick off 2018 with a piece looking at the future and the brave new world of autonomous farming. But in order to look forward, let’s think like historians and [...]

Welcome to “How Permaculture Changed My Life”, our blog series featuring personal stories from past students speaking about how permaculture changed the direction of their outlooks [...]

Last time, I spoke about the need to look at climate models with less bias, emotion, and anxiety so that we can derive insightful and constructive actions from them. (You can read the first part [...]

Recently, I attended a community meeting where we spoke about looming climate shifts. As part of the evening, we watched a presentation by Stuart Scott from Columbia University on the future of [...]

Welcome to “How Permaculture Changed My Life”, a new blog series featuring personal stories from past students speaking about how permaculture changed the direction of their outlooks [...]

Welcome to the final episode in the podcast series, 6 Base Principles for Starting, Running, and Improving a Successful Business. You can listen to Part 1,  Part 2, and Part 3 to get up to speed, [...]

Welcome to latest episode in the podcast series, 6 Base Principles for Starting, Running, and Improving a Successful Business. You can listen to Part 1 and Part 2 to get up to speed, but you can [...]

Some of you may remember a conversation Javan and I had a few months back about the 6 principles for starting, running, and improving a successful business. The podcast below continues that [...]

Rob here. I’m back with Javan speaking with Diego Footer over at Creative Destruction, this time on the marketing of small farms from a city dweller’s perspective. An intro: [...]

Welcome to “How Permaculture Changed My Life”, a new blog series featuring personal stories from past students speaking about how permaculture changed the direction of their outlooks [...]

Welcome to “How Permaculture Changed My Life”, a new blog series featuring personal stories from past students speaking about how permaculture changed the direction of their outlooks [...]

Welcome to the 3 part of this blogging series on Permaculture consulting (Check out Part 1 & 2 Here). In this latest post, I’m going to offer the advice I wished I had when I was starting [...]

Last post, I spent some time dispelling the 3 main myths around permaculture consulting. (You can read it here). This time, we’ll delve into 4 reasons why a business in the regenerative field [...]

Rob here. I’ve been consulting in the permaculture world for close to a decade now. Before that, I consulted in the oil and gas industry for another five, so suffice it to say I’ve been around [...]

Javan and I recently chatted with Diego Footer from Creative Destruction on his Voices of Change podcast series, featuring “honest, hard conversations about farming, business, and life with [...]

Here is Part 2 of my chat with Diego Footer from Creative Destruction and his Voices of Change podcast series, featuring “honest, hard conversations about farming, business, and life with [...]

Lorinda Peel is a herbalist-in-training and a former Verge grad. We’re happy to feature her guest blog, first published over at Reforged Ironworks, a company that crafts hand-forged tools [...]

Over the years, Javan Bernakevitch and I have taught a lot of Permaculture Design Courses (~60 combined) and have encouraged many of our students to start businesses that fix the planet, the food [...]

I had a chance to chat once again with Diego Footer from Creative Destruction, formally known as Permaculture Voices, on his podcast series featuring “honest, hard conversations about [...]

Here is part 1 and part 2 of the Land as Insurance series. In an attempt to understand how to create insurance for my family around food, water, energy, and money, I came up with the idea of [...]

Last time, we talked about predictable risk that falls within a Gaussian distribution. But not all risk follows this pattern; some risks are rare and catastrophic and can only be explained in [...]

This is a three-part series based on an idea I recently had around the subjects of farming, black swans, and creating a product that can help insure against risk. In this first article I’ll [...]

As you can imagine I think a lot about design. If you ask Michelle I think a lot about everything. I think she thinks of me as an opportunity firehose that is constantly spraying her with ideas, [...]

Tim Wickstrom is a former Verge grad who has started his own forge business to make permaculture and garden hand tools (Check out his Alumni Profile here). Here is the final piece of his [...]

Recently I had a chance to chat with Diego Footer from Creative Destruction, formally known as Permaculture Voices, on a podcast series featuring “honest, hard conversations about farming, [...]

Tim Wickstrom is a former Verge grad who has started his own forge business to make permaculture and garden hand tools (Check out his Alumni Profile here). Here is the second piece of his [...]

Tim Wickstrom is a former Verge grad who has started his own forge business to make permaculture and garden hand tools (Check out his Alumni Profile here). Here is the first piece of his [...]

Verge Grad Profile: Josh Hellawell Founder, Synergy Permaculture Inc. and Synergy Urban Farms Graduated from Verge PDC in 2014 Expertise: Urban Farming, Composting Josh’s Story Agriculture is in [...]

As an engineer and permaculture designer living in a cold-climate, I am particularly fascinated with the interplay between thermodynamics and design and with capturing “waste” energy [...]

In this third video on urban swales, I explain why the level is a key tool in permaculture design and demonstrate its use to ensure that our swales work as intended: Check out Part 1 and 2 of our [...]

This second video in the urban swales series looks at permaculture design with water as the primary consideration. Here I work on redirecting water passively from roofs and topsoil overflow areas [...]

Last year, we did a series of videos looking at the swale systems on our property and demonstration site. Part one looks at how we’ve combined the featuress of a Hügelkultur system, a [...]

Verge Grad Profile: Brent Smith & Nadine Brooks  Founders, Paper Street Permaculture Graduated from Verge in 2014 Brent & Nadine’s Expertise: Ecological analysis, drylands permaculture, [...]

Verge Grad Profile: Shannon Dyck Co-founder, Radiance Cohousing Environmental Coordinator, City of Saskatoon Designer, Prairie Habitat Garden Restoration Project, University of Saskatchewan [...]

Verge Grad Profile Adrian Buckley, Co-Founder, reGenerate Design, Ltd. Adrian’s Expertise: Design consulting, construction, and teaching services. Specializing in food forest design, schoolyard [...]

Check out the other posts in the Building Enduring Assets Series: Building Enduring Assets: An Introduction Building Enduring Assets: Debt Management An enduring asset is one that maintains or [...]

Members of The Agrihood Project, Verge grads Anaya Lea, Andrea Rocchio, and Rob McWilliam are part of a group of Calgarians seeking a more connected and rewarding rural life. Their dream: To [...]

Verge Grad Profile Rene Michalak, 2009 PDC Grad Principal, Phoenix Fire Consulting Project Lead, ReThink Red Deer Education Chair, American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association Expertise: [...]

Verge Grad Profile Sven Stave, Farmer, Field to Fork Premium Pastured Poultry Graduated from Calgary PDC in 2014 Expertise: Holistic livestock management, pastured poultry production Sven’s Story [...]

For part 1 of the Building Enduring Assets series, click HERE. One of the keys to building enduring assets is smart debt management. Debt can be a tool, but beyond a certain point it can turn [...]

Recently Hilliard MacBeth, director of wealth management at Richardson GMP in Edmonton, put his reputation on the line by stating that Canada is a a housing bubble set to burst in the next few [...]

 Hi everyone, Rob here with a quick update. Through our activities with Verge & our consulting company, Adaptive Habitat,  we are continually immersed in exciting projects & opportunities [...]

In one of my past blog posts, Investing Like An Ecosystem, I wrote about strategies that promote resilience and anti-fragility. One of the key areas of investment involved asking yourself one [...]

Verge Grad Profile Rebecca (b) Smith, Canadian delegate for Terra Madre Giovani (We Feed the Planet) Graduated Spring 2015 B’s Story Coming from a university background in ethnobotany (the [...]

It’s a few months late in coming, but we’re delighted to announce that Verge Permaculture was selected for the 24th Annual Emerald Foundation Award for demonstrating “a significant ongoing [...]

by guest author, Ashley Lubyk Thermal Mass Defined When it comes to building an energy efficient home the discussion often rests on how much insulation should be in the walls, in the ceiling, [...]

Hey Everyone… (our July 18th field trip was such a success that we are doing it again…. updated details below! Note that where the last tour was restricted to Permaculture Calgary members, [...]

Guest Author’s Note: My name is Ashley Lubyk. I’ve been running  Dirt Craft Natural Building  for the last five years, and have had the great pleasure to work with Verge in many [...]

Verge Grad Profile: Ted Bahr, Founder, Prairie Sage Permaculture Graduated from Calgary PDC in 2011 Ted’s Expertise:  Permaculture drafting and design, tour management and facilitation, wild [...]

  New to Lyme disease? Need to get caught up on the series? Quick! Go check out parts one and two! Now that you have an idea of why Lyme disease is spreading and a few things you can do to [...]

Verge Grad Profile Carmen Lamoureux, Founder, URBANFARM Permaculture Project. (Now Urban Farm School) Graduated from PDC in Calgary 2013. Carmen’s Expertise: Soils, Silviculture, Forestry, [...]

  To get caught up and find out why Lyme disease is spreading like oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico, check out Part I. We’ll all wait for you. We’re nice. So, reason number three why Lyme [...]

Hey there, Good Reader, I’m Justin T. Thurn, guest author and graduate of Verge Permaculture’s PDC.  Man, it seems like Lyme disease is everywhere these days, doesn’t it? Even [...]

Hey Everyone,  This summer, we won’t be around Calgary much. We have taken a contract position with the Groundswell Network Society, in Invermere, BC, to act as their Resident Permaculture [...]

Verge Grad Profile:  Jeremy Zoller, Owner, Sunshine Earth Works Graduated from 2013 PDC in Calgary Jeremy’s Expertise: Permaculture Design, Landscape Construction, Earth Repair Jeremy’s Story:  [...]

Attention farmers: Joel is back!   Our friends at Milkwood are hosting a series of live, in-depth, 90 minute online sessions with Joel Salatin where he’ll dive into the nuts and bolts [...]

Join us for a beautiful and info-packed video tour of our permaculture homestead! This is a 3-part series where we explain and explore our: – thriving food forest complete with fruit trees, [...]

Verge Grad: Tim Wickstrom, Calgary PDC graduate, 2013. Tim’s Expertise: Founder of Edible Earthscapes. Specializes in permaculture design, vermicompost, food production, water harvesting, and [...]

Verge Grad Profile: Jodi McKee & Eric Fontenot, Nelson 2012 Verge PDC Jodi & Eric’s Expertise: Co-Owners of Urban Homesteading Store, based in Stoney Plain, AB Jodi & Eric’s Story:  [...]

Jan 31st – Cabin Fever!   Cabin Fever 2015, is the second annual event to promote awareness of permaculture, build community capacities, attract new members and raise funds to support the [...]

Verge Grad Profile: Karla Cox Graduated from the Verge PDC in 2011 (Nelson, BC) Lives in Cochrane, AB Karla’s Expertise: Water management Educational workshops Composting Vermiculture Vertical [...]

After posting a bit about what permaculture is, I want to dispel some common misconceptions and tell you what it’s not: 1. Permaculture’s Not Just Gardening   One thing I hear often is [...]

Hi everyone, We want to wish you a lovely holiday season filled with good food, friends and family. And… We’ve got three big announcements to make! (And a few little scheduling changes [...]

Verge Grad Profile: Mike Dorion Graduated from the Verge PDC in 2011 (Nelson, BC) Mike’s Expertise: Compost Teas/Extracts, Soil Building/Soil Biology, Composting/Vermicomposting [...]

What is permaculture? For those of you who’ve only heard of the term in passing, and ever for you seasoned “permies” who struggle to explain this exciting (and sometimes [...]

Last week, I gave you my top 7 tips for designing a passive solar greenhouse. But once you’ve got the greenhouse in place, how do you manage it to get the most out of it? After 5 years of [...]

Hey Calgary! After five very cozy years operating out of our home office, we’re ready to spread our roots. We’re seeking a small, shared office space in inner city Calgary, primarily [...]

 I’m sitting at my computer this morning with my cup of coffee, watching a video called “Soil Carbon Cowboys” and getting inspired. Here, take a look: Like many technophiles, I often get swept [...]

I want to take the time today to address a question many ask: How do we eat beyond organic for less than the costs of eating conventional? First off, let’s define what “beyond organic” means. [...]

After looking at lists of bad building design choices, I’ve gathered together top 11 promising appropriate technologies I’ve seen in use for residential and commercial buildings. For those [...]

Authors note: Hi! My name is Kenton Zerbin and I started my permaculture journey with Rob Avis and Verge Permaculture almost 4 years ago.  I went from Verge PDC grad, to Australia to Intern with [...]

Over the past 10 years I’ve seen a lot of mistakes in home design in both urban and rural properties. Over the next few blog posts, I want to look at some of those blunders and point to [...]

What is a Rocket Mass Heater, you ask? A while back, the team from Green Energy Futures (which includes our past PDC grad Duncan Kinney) came down to Calgary to film a workshop we co-hosted and [...]

When Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunities Arrive, We Believe in Sharing Them… …And thanks to a surprise visitor, we’ve got the perfect opportunity to share! Presenting Geoff [...]

Growing Good Business Video Series Part 3: So Many Opportunities, Where Do You Start? In 2007 we first watched – and were completely awestruck by – Geoff Lawton’s “Greening the [...]

Hey Folks, There’s not much better motivation to finish up some projects around our site than have Geoff Lawton call and tell us that he is going to stop in to do some filming. So needless [...]

Growing Good Business Video Series Part 2: Hindsight is 20/20 – What The Permaculture Experts Learned the Hard Way In 2007 we first watched – and were completely awestruck by – [...]

We travelled to the Permaculture Voices conference in Temecula, CA this past March to interview successful permaculture designers, teachers, farmers and business owners and get their top tips! [...]

Recently Michelle, Rowan, Naomi and I embarked on a cross-country train trip to attend a family reunion in the eastern townships of Quebec. With a little extra time left over after the [...]

  Are you hesitating at the doorway to a permaculture career?  We’ve got the experts’ tips to get you started… Presenting… The Growing Good Business Video Series! [...]

 Check out the past articles in the Permaculture Business series:  Part 1: Tips from the Pros Part 2: On Opportunities Part 3: Barriers and Challenges “What would you have done [...]

Nestled in southeast Calgary is one of the city’s original thriving permaculture projects – our home! And now we are offering an exclusive opportunity to learn all about it…online in our new [...]

(Find Part 1, Tips from the Pros here and Part 2, Opportunities and Niches here)  A Personal Take on Barriers to Success As with any career or business, there are barriers to achieving success. [...]

(Find Part 1, Tips from the Pros here)  Opportunity is about seeing things differently What is amazing about permaculture are the number of solutions that are contained within the design system. [...]

  We had the pleasure of meeting Mark Lakeman from the Portland City Repair Project in 2010 when he was last in Calgary. His presentation on artistic and ecologically-insipired placemaking [...]

I’ve been running Verge Permaculture for five years now, and before that worked as an engineer in the oil and gas industry. Starting a business was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I didn’t [...]

Can the human race build an environmentally sustainable culture? Can we disprove the myth that humans are inherently destructive? At the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, 18 others [...]

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