Methods of Design & Patterns

Rob Avis recently had the chance to chat with Kamea Chayne from Green Dreamer Podcast about the poor condition of our soils and the solutions to address this problem, how we can eat a truly [...]

How did Verge Permaculture begin? What is the order of operations in permaculture design if you want to prevent flooding and water scarcity ? How does a rainwater harvesting system mimic the [...]

We are thrilled to announce that we just signed another book deal with New Society Publishers, "Building Your Adaptive Habitat".

Some exciting news from Verge grad Christina Goodvin (Check out her profile HERE)—She was just selected as a finalist in the Permaculture Institute of North America’s (PINA) 2019 design contest, [...]

This week, I want to go over a case study in rainwater harvesting design. This example is special to me because it’s about how we partnered with my mother-in-law to transform her property into a [...]

This week, I want to go over a case study in rainwater harvesting design. This example is special to me because it’s about how we partnered with my mother-in-law to transform her property into a [...]

This week, I want to go over a case study in rainwater harvesting design. This example is special to me because it’s about how we partnered with my mother-in-law to transform her property into a [...]

This week, I want to go over a case study in rainwater harvesting design. This example is special to me because it’s about how we partnered with my mother-in-law to transform her property into a [...]

This week, I want to go over a case study in rainwater harvesting design. This example is special to me because it’s about how we partnered with my mother-in-law to transform her property into a [...]

This week, I want to go over a case study in rainwater harvesting design. This example is special to me because it’s about how we partnered with my mother-in-law to transform her property into a [...]

Welcome to Part 2 of this series on how you can design your own greenhouse that can extend the planting season, enhance growing conditions, and provide a cheery space for those dark winter days. [...]

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 [...]

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 wicking [...]

Until recently, going to google maps, to get a birds eye view of a location was the default option for many Permaculture Practitioners and Consultants, but the main limitation was it could not be [...]

  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 [...]

  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 [...]

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, [...]

Coppicing has always been interesting to me as a wood production system (fuel, timber) because it uses trees that can be cut perpetually. In other words, the tree is cut and grows back. This is [...]

In this video Rob showcases one of the major water harvesting feature – an underground rainwater cistern – on Rob and Michelle’s urban home property. This rain tank is unique because [...]

A step-by-step account of installing an underground rain tank in our backyard for additional rainwater harvesting storage.

For the last four years, I have been dreaming of retrofitting a small town with a group of like-minded individuals with a diverse set of skills. I talk a lot about this in my courses, and it [...]

For the past 5 years I have been consulting in permaculture, which is the design and integration of: renewable energy systems low energy buildings food system design – both annual and [...]

Ecological destruction and environmental degradation are merely symptoms of a more profound structural economic problem endemic to industrialization and consumerism. As can readily be observed, [...]

For the last couple of years, I have recognized that transitioning our culture from one that looks at the planet as an endless mine and ecological destruction as a just another externality to one [...]

Identifying the Formative System The consultancy that I performed was in Central Alberta on the Red Deer River, which delineates the badlands from the grasslands. You can see in the photo that [...]

This past weekend I did a consultancy of a property that illustrates the power of understanding how water moves through a property and the consequences of getting it wrong. What is interesting is [...]

Recently, I was in Invermere again and I visited a friend’s house with a unique take on solar air heating. He has coined his invention the Solar Coffin. This device heats air up to well [...]

This spring, Verge converged with Big Sky Permaculture and 7 apprentices (most of them past students) at the Invermere Community Greenhouse site, to do a design blitz. We had three days to [...]

Below I have put together a video about a tool that every designer should be familiar with. It is called a solar pathfinder. I use this tool in almost every consultancy that I do and it not only [...]

Last weekend both Jordan and I had an amazing opportunity to be part of Rob Avis of Verge Permaculture’s Design Team, participating in an applied Design Practicum at the Groundswell [...]

Ashley Lubyk and Heather Noakes show that creating beautiful and sustainable human habitat is possible through the passionate work of their natural building education and consulting company, Dirt [...]

We have had the solar thermal system installed now for almost six months and it has performed flawlessly. Moreover our gas bills have never been so low, in fact most months we are paying more in [...]

Over the past few years, our goal has been to slowly retrofit our 25 year old house into a little urban permaculture homestead. Most recently, we brought in Simple Solar to install a solar hot [...]

Permaculturists everywhere are crazy about their compost teas and extracts. They have turned building compost tea brewers into a science and concocting the perfect tea recipe into an art. We [...]

Spring has sprung and there is much to be done at the Verge Headquarters - planting and transplanting, installing a drip irrigation system, amending the soil for a new growing year and plenty [...]

For the last three years we have been working hard to convert our Calgary inner city home into a thriving permaculture project complete with a front yard food forest, water-harvesting features, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

  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 [...]

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 [...]