Permaculture.biz News
2008-06-28 : New Planning Method |
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G'day, We have started to offer an exciting new planning method that might be of interest. It is outlined here as an excerpt from a recent email to a new client of ours: "...I have developed a method more recently of planning that dramatically reduces the cost of my planning/design services....I 1st used this method in California last year on a 400 acre beef property north of Sacramento. What it entails is doing a site assessment (as normal) and then developing a range of standard treatments for the various landscape scenarios that occur across a property. I used this method for the 3rd time last weekend on a 1200 acre beef property here in Victoria. I went up there for 2 days. We drove all over the place on the 1st day to get familiar with the farm, then that night we put a basic farm plan or 'Concept Plan' (fencing layouts/paddock plans, water systems, tree lines, laneways etc. etc.) together on the computer using MapInfo and then the next day we designed the various treatments: for example we developed a standard treatment for the creek lines, another for smaller drainage lines, another for shelter/timber belts, timber plantations, laneways etc. etc. Each of these treatments was hand draughted and has a technical drawings (cross section & plan view) of the design layout of each of these, plus the steps to establishment and the costs per hectare or km as necessary. So now the landowner has the 'skeleton' of the farm plan, and the steps toward its development all developed in the two days when we are together without any seemingly superfluous reports etc which cost a lot more and we have both been involved in the thinking and rationalisation behind the treatments/plan development.... So their account came to $2400 - $110/hour for my time and then some travel money included in this. I think that for your place we could be looking at something similar to that with a bit more for travel. My thoughts are that we could be looking at about $3000 for that kind of consultancy. To do a full farm plan with all the bells and whistles would be a lot more than that. Quite frankly I prefer this model of planning now as it minimises the use of me and keeps me in the field doing stuff rather than at the computer....in addition I prefer it too because my clients will be able to spend the savings on developing their farm which is kinda what we all want to have happen isn't it!...." Hooroo, Darren |
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2008-04-16 : 1st Milkwood Permaculture PDC & KDC |
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G'day, Just got home from Milkwood Permaculture's 1st PDC & KDC....with 15 & 26 attendees respectively...not bad numbers for some of their 1st offerings. The KDC went really well with most of the participants being bona fide "Solar Economists"...It was my 1st chance to give the KDC a run in Australia and looking at the feedback this successful course has struck a cord.... My 25th PDC as a teacher also went well...the designs of the students only exemplifying the need to have more than one design exercise on a PDC. Too often PDC's (including mine in the past) have not done enough work on building up design skills and it is clear that given the opportunity and feedback people respond very well. You can see the results of this effort in the course image gallery at: http://picasaweb.google.com/permaculture.biz/MilkwoodPermaculturePDCApril2008. Thanks to Nick Ritar & Kirsten Bradley of Milkwood Permaculture for all of their 1st class work in organisation and feeding us so very, very well. And also to Karl & June Ritar of Kirwin for making their facilities available and for being such generous and engaging hosts. Hooroo, Darren J. Doherty |
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2008-04-01 : 'Dalpura' Practical Workshop Series |
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G'day, I have been involved with the design & development of George & Maree Howson's 140 acre property 'Dalpura' (near Geelong/Angelsea in Victoria, Australia) since 1996. After years of talking about it we are now starting to run practical hand's on workshops at this venue which is still under development. We put our first forests in back in 1998 and these are already being harvested for various purposes including some Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata) which is now in George & Maree's new kitchen in Williamstown after only 8 years of age!. We have lots of successes and a few mistakes to share as you always should..... The first workshop will be a 3 day Keyline Design Course - this will be theory and practical with plenty of field work involved given the on-going nature of our Keyline-inspired works across the property - many of which are unique and beyond P.A. Yeomans initial intentions!. The 2nd course a week later will have us design and construct a 25KL (25,000 litre) Ferrocement Tank. Some local bricklayers and I built 4 of these at my Mars Inc. project in Viet Nam in 2005 and I am looking forward to building a few of these at Dalpura and elsewhere (including our own place!). They are dead easy and very durable and beautiful structures when built by hand. Steel and Plastic tanks are great but they don't catch their own water and they won't last as long. Building your own means you can add art to the whole contruction. Really looking forward to this so we can catch the winter rains off the new workshop/machinery shed.. The 3rd workshop in this series is inspired by a conversation David Holmgren (www.holmgren.com.au) and I had years ago about doing some Permaculture-inspired Silviculture workshops up at Fryers Forest. Hopefully we'll be able to pin David down to do this workshop. In any case we have plenty of great examples with so many different layouts and over 120 species to play with. My great mate & long time colleague Dave Griffiths will be on hand for this and the Keyline course. Dave started out with me back in the 90's as a ground preparation/tree planting contractor and took over all of our clients in 2002 after Lisa and I had our 3rd child (Zane) and needed to change gears. Dave has gone from strength to strength and I don't a any better hands-on, 'best bet', no crap professional tree project practitioner than Dave....his many projects are clear testement to the quality of his understanding, experience and insight. We'll be doing a lot of management in the field and demonstrating everything from ground prep to farm milling....will be a very good workshop as will the others. Great thing is we'll be doing the work even if you don't turn up! Let's hope you do as they'll be well worth your while: we are sure of that.. Hooroo, Darren J. Doherty |
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2008-03-31 : Milkwood Permaculture Courses |
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G'day, Just finished my 1st Keyline Design Course here at Milkwood Permaculture outside of Mudgee in Central NSW. We had about 25 people come along with a good mixture of primary producers plus a few Permaculturalists & Land Management consultants. The ground was a bit dry for plowing though we did manage to do some work down in the olive groves. I will need to bring a hydraulic stump-jump type plow back here for the next similar event in the Spring of 2008. Well done Kirsten & Nick for their organisation & work in pulling this course off. Hooroo, Darren J. Doherty |
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2008-03-05 : Milkwood Permaculture Mudgee, Courses |
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Following our recent return to Australia from a year of touring the world we will be teaching at Milkwood Permaculture's farm outside of Mudgee in NSW, Australia. For more details go to www.milkwoodpermaculture.com.au |
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2007-08-29 : 2nd USA Keyline & Permaculture Tour |
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G'day from Killmullen Farm in County Wicklow, Ireland where we are based at the moment...Following the success of our April-June 2007 round of Keyline Design and Permaculture Design Certificate Courses we have been invited back to North America to give an expanded list of courses and design consultancies starting in New York from September 2007 (see our calendar for more details and spaces for more courses/consultancies). Hope to see you on this tour! Hooroo, Darren Doherty |
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2007-08-30 : New Photolog |
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Please go to our new photolog and design portfolio at picasaweb.google.com/permaculture.biz where there are over a thousand images and plans from our work over the years. |
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2007-05-08 : Keyline Design Course in New York |
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The folks at the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute are hosting us for a 6 day intensive Keyline Design Course from 18-23 June 2007 at their Ithaca campus. For more information contact the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute or check out our education pages for the curriculum. |
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2007-05-07 : World Tour Update (from Goleta, CA) |
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The Keyline Design Courses (KDC) we held in Southern California (thru Santa Barbara Permaculture Network) were a great success. We were really pleased with the attendances and the quality and diversity of the participants. We are now planning to do return KDC's in the Santa Barbara region in the fall of 2007 and then again in early spring in 2008...so look out for these dates. We are also planning another KDC in northern California with The Regenerative Design Institute around Spring 2007, along with similar events in Texas and hopefully in Kansas, Vermont and Wisconsin. The venerated Yeomans Keyline Plow arrived in Long Beach in late April 3 weeks late but thanks to the persistant and great efforts of Wesley Roe (SBPC) it was released just in time for use on the 5th day of our 6 day KDC here in Goleta at Orella Ranch (right on Highway 101 between El Capitan & Refugio State Beaches. We had a fun session putting the whole machine together and then commissioning it on the beautiful slopes Orella has to offer. Thanks go to Wes but also to Allan Yeomans and the Yeomans Plow Company for generously supplying this plow for our use on our US courses. |
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2007-03-27 : Photos from Patagonia |
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A few photos from the Permaculture Design Certificate course last October at the Estancia Ranquilco in Argentina. See the photos |
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2007-03-20 : World Tour in Progress |
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From New Zealand to Argentina, then on to the United States and Europe, Permaculture Design Certificate Courses and Keyline Design Courses are being offered in all kinds of climates and areas. Check out the Education pages for details. |
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