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The Permaculture Vine

The Permaculture Vine

Di: Cormac - The Permaculture Vine
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We interview permaculture designers, practitioners and educators on how they discovered permaculture, and how they are doing in their permaculture careers and businesses.

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Episodi
  • From PDC to Practice: Learning Permaculture by Doing It!

    From PDC to Practice: Learning Permaculture by Doing It!
    Oct 3 2026
    In episode 131 of The Permaculture Vine Podcast, host Cormac Harkin was joined by Lindsay Brandon of Permaculture Canada and Armagarden, and Harry Sealy, who is making the transition from environmental consultancy into permaculture.The conversation covered what a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) involves, Lindsay’s approach to delivering her own PDC, choosing between different courses, using a property as the basis for a PDC design, and what happens when a design begins to be implemented on the ground. The discussion also moved into ongoing education, current projects and the role of Indigenous and local knowledge.Who’s at the TableLindsay Brandon joined from her school bus in an off-grid community in Golden, British Columbia, Canada. She is with Permaculture Canada and Armagarden and is currently developing a Permaculture Design Certification course, while living seasonally on the property and planning further work in Canada and Central America.Harry Sealy is based on the southwest coast of Ireland, around 400–500 metres from the Atlantic. His career has largely been in environmental consultancy and environmental impact assessment, including work in Ireland, the UK and the Middle East. After completing an online PDC with Geoff Lawton, he is now working on four acres near the coast that he hopes to develop as a permaculture demonstration site.What a Permaculture Design Course CoversThe conversation began with what a PDC actually is and how Lindsay and Harry experienced their own courses.Lindsay described her PDC as a change in how she looked at land. The course brought together weather, geography, history, water movement, species, compaction and other observations of a site. She had already been involved in gardening, but found that the PDC extended beyond gardening into the relationships between different elements of a system.That included looking at how the people using a property interact with the land, what they need from it and how the different elements can be connected.Harry came to his PDC from a different background. He had already spent around 25 years working in environmental consultancy and initially expected much of the course material to be familiar. He said the patterning section in particular changed how he looked at the subject.He also discussed the accessibility of PDCs. In his experience, the course did not require a particular educational or professional background and introduced concepts from the beginning before building on them.The discussion also covered the range of subjects within permaculture. Lindsay noted that people can develop particular interests in areas such as soil, climate or topography rather than expecting to specialise in everything.Lindsay’s PDCLindsay has been developing her own courses over several years. Her current plan begins with a basic Permaculture Design Certification, followed by an advanced designers course for people who want to take the work further and learn how to design and present projects digitally.The first PDC is planned as an online course running once a week on Wednesday evenings from mid-November to mid-February. Lindsay described this first version as a pilot programme that will help develop later in-person courses in Golden, British Columbia, and Mexico.One aim is to have participants from different climates involved rather than focusing entirely on a single climatic region. The course will therefore include discussion of different implementation practices in cold and tropical climates.Students will develop a design throughout the course. Each week’s topic feeds into homework and the final project rather than leaving the complete design until the end.After the main course, Lindsay plans to include additional question-and-answer and design mentoring sessions. Students will then have time to finalise their designs before presenting their projects at the end of March.The planned in-person versions will contain the same underlying material but allow more practical work. Lindsay discussed possibilities including earthworks, earthen building, ponds, food forests and working with the animals and existing infrastructure available at the locations.Choosing a PDCWith many different PDCs now available, Harry asked how somebody new to permaculture could decide which course to take.Lindsay suggested researching both the organisation and the people delivering the course. She discussed looking at their existing work, videos and other material, as well as contacting them directly where possible.Communication was part of that consideration. She suggested seeing whether prospective students can speak with the people involved through email, a phone conversation, Zoom or another form of direct contact.Cormac compared this with his own experience completing Geoff Lawton’s online PDC as part of a much larger group. He liked having the course information released progressively, giving time to work through the volume of material, but said that if he ...
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    1 ora e 4 min
  • 130. Food Forest Design, AI Systems and Off-Grid Communities

    130. Food Forest Design, AI Systems and Off-Grid Communities
    Sep 26 2026
    In episode 130 of The Permaculture Vine Podcast, host Cormac Harkin was joined by Travis Holzem, returning to the podcast after previously appearing in episode 88.The conversation covered Travis’s work with Food Forest Design Minnesota, the development of the Food Forest Design Network, his use of AI and automation within a food forest design business, and plans for Sovereign Acres, a proposed off-grid community in Minnesota.Who’s at the TableTravis Holzem is based in Minnesota and described himself as a former founder of Food Forest Abundance. After leaving that company, he started Food Forest Design Minnesota and has been developing a market for food forest designs and installations in the state. He is also developing the Food Forest Design Network and working on plans for Sovereign Acres.Cormac Harkin hosts The Permaculture Vine Podcast. During the conversation, Cormac drew on his own experience designing properties, including the time involved in researching sites and plants, and discussed his own use of AI for tasks such as turning podcast transcripts into articles.Rebuilding After Losing Access to Social MediaTravis began by describing what had happened to his business over the previous year. He said he lost access for around three months to services connected to Facebook, including Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, WhatsApp and his Facebook pages.He estimated that this removed around 75% of his lead generation. It also affected existing projects because he had been using Facebook Marketplace to connect with vendors supplying trees and other materials for installations.When he eventually regained access, his advertising account was gone and he had also lost a Facebook group with around 25,000 members. Travis said the experience led him to make changes to his business and build systems that would be less dependent on the same platforms.He also described a more recent incident on TikTok, where a live video was stopped after automated moderation appeared to interpret him sitting in a stationary car as driving while livestreaming. In that case, Travis said he contacted TikTok through its feedback system and regained access to live video within a few days.Building the Food Forest Design NetworkThe conversation then moved to the Food Forest Design Network.Travis described it as a nationwide network intended to connect food forest designers and installers with customers while also providing training, technology and business infrastructure.Food Forest Design Minnesota is the owner of the network, and Travis described his existing Minnesota business as the model he is using to develop the wider system.Part of the network is aimed at people who want to start a food forest design and installation business but do not yet have the business infrastructure in place. Travis said the system includes training alongside a website, customer relationship management system and lead-generation tools.His aim is to provide members with much of the infrastructure required to operate the business rather than requiring each designer to build those systems independently.AI and Business AdministrationA substantial part of the discussion focused on Travis’s use of AI within his business.He explained that installing food forests can mean spending eight, nine or ten hours working on a property before returning home to emails, telephone calls, direct messages and other administrative work.To reduce that workload, he has developed AI systems to handle parts of the lead-follow-up process. He described systems that can respond through voice, text, email and social media messages and continue following up with potential clients over an extended period.Cormac distinguished this kind of administrative use from some other uses of AI that he does not particularly like. The discussion also covered AI agents more generally, with Cormac describing them as systems trained to perform particular functions and pass information between different stages of a workflow.One example discussed was podcast production, where one agent could transcribe an episode and another could use that transcript to produce an article.An AI-Assisted Food Forest Design ProcessTravis has also been developing an AI-assisted food forest design system.He said the system begins by gathering information from the client about the property and what they want from it. Questions can cover what they want to grow, existing structures, utilities and issues such as standing water.That information can then be combined with property data including soil type, wind patterns, snowfall, rainfall and elevation. Travis said the system can also gather topographical information and use photographs supplied by the client.A further stage uses the collected information to help assemble the design, including plant choices appropriate to the location and combinations of plants within guilds.Cormac compared this with his own design experience, saying that the fastest he had completed a ...
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    50 min
  • 129. From Oil to Soil and Interdependence

    129. From Oil to Soil and Interdependence
    Sep 18 2026
    🌿 Interested in learning herbalism?Ecoversity’s 100-Hour Herbalism Program is a 6-month online programme covering herbal medicine, plant knowledge, medicine making and practical herbal skills, with live classes, recorded lessons and lifetime access to the course material.👉 Find out more and enrol here:https://www.goinflektion.com/299ZXDG6/4WNR4Z/?uid=721💰 Use code VINE at checkout for an additional 10% discount.This is an affiliate link. If you enrol through it, The Permaculture Vine may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.Jon Sedore joins Cormac Harkin to discuss discovering permaculture in Alberta, growing food and composting, leaving corporate work, hempcrete, the Interdependence Works Summit, local economies and building stronger connections between people and communities.In episode 129 of The Permaculture Vine Podcast, host Cormac Harkin was joined by Jon Sedore to talk about his route from the oil and gas industry into permaculture, growing food, composting, community involvement and hempcrete.The conversation also covered the Interdependence Works Summit that Jon is helping to organise, its five pillars, disagreement and political division, local economies, community participation, shared resources and some of the projects Jon hopes to develop after the summit.Who’s at the TableJon Sedore lives in Alberta, Canada. He spent much of his working life in business, including oil and gas and logistics, before leaving his corporate job in 2022. He first became involved with permaculture in 2018 and has since spent time growing food, composting, learning about herbalism, working with community projects and building with hempcrete.Cormac Harkin hosts The Permaculture Vine Podcast. In this conversation, he shared examples from his own gardening and composting, discussed community and political division in Northern Ireland, and talked about his planned contribution to the Interdependence Works Summit around global conversations and local action.Discovering PermacultureJon’s introduction to permaculture came through his partner at the time, who had become interested in gardening and began exploring permaculture. Jon said that before this he had never gardened and had given little thought to where his food came from.He joined her in taking a Permaculture Design Course through Verge Permaculture in Calgary. Jon described the course as changing his perspective, particularly around design, inputs and how different elements can work together.One concept that remained particularly prominent for him was stacking functions. He described continuing to apply the idea of having something perform more than one function, including when thinking about people working together.Growing Food and Learning About SoilAfter completing the course around the beginning of 2020, Jon started growing food in Calgary. He was living in a small urban property where he created two raised beds and an in-ground bed, growing crops including tomatoes and beans.He also joined a community garden. His growing interest in soil led him to take responsibility for its three-bin composting system, giving him more practical experience with compost and soil.Cormac discussed his own approach to composting, including cold compost, hot compost and using material from a chicken deep-bedding system. The conversation focused on the practical process of combining different materials and producing compost for the garden.Leaving Corporate WorkJon left his corporate job in 2022. He explained that although the job provided good pay and benefits, he had become uncomfortable exchanging his time for work that was ultimately contributing to somebody else’s creation.He did not leave with a plan to immediately establish a permaculture design business. Instead, he wanted practical experience.Jon spent time WWOOFing and visiting farms to see how other people approached organic farming. He moved from Calgary to British Columbia and later Saskatchewan, where he lived beside a lake in the boreal forest and learned more about mushrooms.He eventually returned to Alberta and settled in a small town.Community Work at the ArboretumAfter moving to Trochu, Jon became involved with the Trochu Arboretum, a long-established tree garden in the town. He joined the society and later became chair of its board.He described trying to introduce permaculture knowledge into the way the organisation operated and bringing facilitators into the community.The surrounding area includes conventional agriculture and ranching, and Jon discussed engaging younger people with different ideas around plants, soil and growing. Much of this work was voluntary.Building with HempcreteAnother major part of Jon’s recent work has been hempcrete.Jon and his partner Kat, who is a herbalist, have spent considerable time working with hemp. He described hempcrete as using hemp hurd mixed with lime and water to produce a building material.They have built three of their own buildings ...
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    1 ora e 10 min
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