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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 [...]

Part 7: Sara Haney and Chrissy Begus   Sara Haney and Chrissy Begus are piecing together the puzzle of sustainability through their education company Puzzle Permaculture, which currently [...]

Verge’s Grads in Action Series: Part 4 – Juli & Jeff Gillies Juli and Jeff Gillies are demonstrating a wide array of permaculture homesteading techniques on their 5 acre parcel [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Fun of summer camp meets four year course on healing degraded landscapes... this is the Gull Lake Permaculture Design Course, and here are photos from our 2010 course.

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 [...]

What is the difference between soil and dirt? Soil is alive. Dirt is dead. A single teaspoon of soil can contain billions of microscopic bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. A handful of 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 [...]

 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, [...]

Another food forest installation in Calgary – yipee! The group of students from our Springtime Introduction to Permaculture class taught through Clean Calgary got together one beautiful [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

“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 [...]

This course is designed for beginners and experienced gardeners alike who are interested in creating their own forest garden. It is suitable for those with varied motivations, including [...]

Graham Bell lives and works in the Scottish Borders with his wife wife Nancy where he raised two children, Ruby and Sandy. Over the last 30+ years he has built a legendary forest garden that [...]

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 [...]

My name is Ian Griebel, and I operate a 2,300 acre ranch with my wife Dana Blume and my two wild little boys Cohen and Fynn. I’m the third generation farming this land, but have only been doing [...]

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 “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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

(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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Michelle, Rowan and I were driving home from a vacation in the mountains when we passed by a swale on a farmer’s field in the middle of Alberta cattle country. Naturally, it piqued my [...]

Luke is our outgoing intern and the 2011 Contest Winner for the Sunnyside Garden Centre Writing Competition: "How is gardening a form of artwork, and how does gardening build [...]