Why Permaculturists Get Stuck | The Journey of a Permaculturist

[@StefanSobkowiak]

Well summarized Rob on the journey that most students go through. Nice.

[@allanparker20]

Well put Rob. I spend a lot of time telling people that they have lots of time and not to let their enthusiasm overrule the necessity of a desired outcome. In fact , as per usual after and during consultations I am subject to a borage of question and suggestions and I find myself repeating this phrase " you have lots of time" before I answer. It's rewarding to deal with such eager individuals and I worry a lot about them going down a troublesome path once I leave. As for me , this can be a difficult endeavor. Permaculture is still not a readily accepted ideal and it can be long durations between meaningful interactions with clients. However , even a brief consultation or serious inquiries from associates is enough to reignite my interest and resolve to persevere. I love doing this and witnessing the dramatic positive changes I can bring to peoples designs and how it can enrich their lives. Thanks for the pep talk.

[@tracy419]

Seems to me one of the most important things to remember is nothing has to remain permanent. Just get in there and get started. If it doesn't work, chop it down and let it become soil for what comes next. Endless training to get ready to get started just gives more excuses for not getting started. I did this for years reading and watching about permaculture until one day I just got started turning my lawn into a mini food forest. It's not much, and unfortunately because I don't own the land, it won't get to be much more, but I learned that if something doesn't work I can simply remove it and replace it. It isn't, nor does it need to be, perfect and permanent the first time. Strangely enough just 2 days ago something called syntropic agriculture or farming popped up in my feed after years of watching permaculture videos and it probably explains what I mean a bit better than I can. It's more about intensive rows than, say, food forests, but the idea is similar. Anyway, it seems silly to tell people to take yet another class when the basic information is out there and available for everyone. Just get started. Especially if you own your own land.

[@creativeminds3220]

Thank you Rob ❤

[@reganmoran]

10 years building my project here in Quebec and still going it alone. And still trying to get clients. People up here in cottage country mostly want lawns.

[@cupbowlspoonforkknif]

Life is a marathon not a race. You overestimate what you can do in a year but underestimate what you can do in a decade. My advice to the newbies is to pick one or two pieces of Permaculture and become an expert in them. That is the fastest way to bring value to other people which means money which means you can do it for a living. Who would you hire to paint 100 units of a condo tower, a handyman who does a little of everything or a painter who specialized for 20 years? Obviously the painter. The many topics are so vast you could spend your whole life on just one.

[@guymarquardt1618]

Rob, what are you doing in Denver. I live here and would love to meet up with you.

[@erschaffenswert]

I like this motivation-speech =) Thank you!

[@reganmoran]

Correction. I have wealthy clientsu in my gardening business who appreciate permaculture they just believe that it’s too much trouble. But whenever someone sees my food forest they want it. Because its paradise

[@TheOneSpurs]

I passed my PDC. How can you become a consultant? How long should it take to provide a client a design?

[@tracy419]

Maybe get to work implementing what you've learned first? There are more than enough people out there telling people how to do it while not having actually done it on their own first. It's giving permaculture a bad name.

[@TheOneSpurs]

@@tracy419 True, although implementing isn't cheap.. espcially if you don't have your own land

[@tracy419]

@@TheOneSpurs no doubt about it, I don't have land either and run into this problem with scaling in my yard. We hope to get a chunk of land soon and my worry was cost setting things up. Check out a video I ran across yesterday from a channel called Byron grows from about 6 months ago. I'll edit this comment with the video name, and post a separate comment with the link in case the link isn't allowed. (Creating agroforestry nursery systems) He gives great advice on how to get plants very cheaply which may help you if you ever get your own chunk of land.

[@TheOneSpurs]

@@tracy419 Thanks for the advice, will check out the video. I did purchase some land but its only half an acre .. and after putting a boundary around it, I'm broke haha.. Farming is a long long term project. Heart wants to farm but brain knows capital is key .

[@tracy419]

@@TheOneSpurs are you going to document your journey? I'd love to see how things go for you. The system in that video is supposed to be geared more towards production than the normal permaculture based food forest system, so maybe it will help? So far I'm not finding a lot of examples of this system being used where I live in Oregon, but if we get land (I only have a tiny yard wrapped around my house) I'll definitely be implementing the overall concepts. Good luck🙂

[@BrunoBGarcia79]

you, geoff lawton, Paul Wheaton, the late Toby Hemengay all have an engineering and science background I guess that mindset helps a lot

[@chantallachance4905]

And Charles Dowding in England

[@cupbowlspoonforkknif]

Perhaps but the qualification also helps sell your services and helps you charge a living wage. Joe blow off the street can't make a living from Permaculture very quickly if ever. So maybe there's a survivor bias.

[@BrunoBGarcia79]

@@cupbowlspoonforkknif i do tend to agree, my biggest motivation to start my phD was getting pissed at my co-workers ( researchers) for not taking my expertise seriously