Permaculture

(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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Check out the other posts in the Building Enduring Assets Series: Building Enduring Assets: Part I An Introduction Building Enduring Assets: Part II Debt Management Building Enduring Assets: Part [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I recently had the opportunity to interview my friend Tad Hargrave from Marketing for Hippies in Edmonton, Alberta.  Verge has not only been hosting Tad’s workshops in Calgary, Edmonton and [...]

During the second week of the Verge Internship, interns participated in a bunch of different activities. Several of us worked on preparing small soil blocks for starting seedlings, and  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

[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 [...]