Permaculture Vision & Values

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Welcome to “How Permaculture Changed My Life”, our blog series featuring personal stories from Verge grads speaking on how permaculture shaped their careers and their lives. This time we’re [...]

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 [...]

Looking for an ideal pioneer species for your cold climate permaculture food forest? I highly recommend seabuckthorn, a plant that grows quickly, fixes nitrogen into the ground, and produces [...]

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 [...]

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 “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 [...]

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 [...]

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 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 three-part [...]

Tim Wickstrom is a 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 three-part [...]

Tim Wickstrom is a 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 three-part [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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:  [...]

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:  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Over the last few years, I have been formulating my opinion on how to approach investing and what do to with extra cash. And I can’t believe how many people have told me in the last few [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Evonne Smulders brings a youthful, inspired, and change-making spirit to her home town of Black Diamond, AB, and beyond… all the while embodying and sharing her truly “Sage” [...]

Josh Baker demonstrates a beautiful and functional approach to urban permaculture design at his home in Calgary, AB, incorporating many unique landscaping elements including a young food forest, [...]

This book review was written by Michelle Avis

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, [...]

This blog was contributed by current PDC student, Vanessa Hanel. Weekend #1: Getting Started & Compost Piles After waiting for what seems like forever, attending various courses and talks, [...]

Joshua McWilliam is a past student and is currently working on a novel called “Mr Permaculture”. This article is an excerpt from his book.  “Move them a stack at a time, then you [...]

This article was written by Verge Permaculture Sidekick, Alex Judd.    I feel immensely lucky to have participated in Verge’s Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) in Nelson this year. [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

 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, [...]

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 [...]