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From Blank Slate to Abundance

HOW TO DESIGN A PERMACULTURE FARM THAT PRODUCES AN ABUNDANCE OF FOOD, REGENERATES THE LAND AND BUILDS SELF-SUFFICIENCY

(Without endlessly searching the Internet, feeling overwhelmed and getting stuck in analysis paralysis)

Are you currently staring at your bare land, overwhelmed by the endless possibilities? Feeling stuck on step 0: where do you even start?

You’ve heard about all these cool permaculture features: swales, ponds, keyline, food forests…You’ve seen all the videos, read all the books and articles about all these permaculture farms working in harmony with nature, stacking functions, producing an abundance of food with almost no work…

And now you’re wondering how to create that permaculture abundance on your own land…

Well, as you know, (and as everyone is going to tell you) fundamentally, everything in permaculture starts with a good land design and a plan. Without it you can’t really know how to start setting up your farm and what to put and where. Essentially, you don’t know how your farm will look and operate!

So it seems like all you need to do is put your permaculture designer hat on and design your property with permaculture principles in mind.

Easier said than done, right?

Permaculture design is this mysterious concept that everyone keeps talking about but it’s hard to convey. Hey, it’s a complex science, as many would like you to believe.

PUZZLED BY PERMACULTURE DESIGN? NO WONDER!

There are more than a million resources on permaculture design on the Internet. A simple Google search reveals about 14 million results pointing to a huge variety of pages, forums, articles, videos, podcasts…

There are 275 books on Amazon that are related to the topic of permaculture design, from Zen and the Art of Permaculture Design to A Designers Manual, but even the holy bible of permaculture design, Bill Mollison’s A Designers Manual can easily overwhelm you with information, as anyone who’s read it and lived to tell the tale can confirm.

Then there are PDCs, sometimes months long, involving thousands of dollars of investment, which frequently transform lives but just as often leave you in the dark when it comes to the exact design process.

So it’s not like the information on permaculture design is not out there, it’s just that there is too much information, it can quickly get costly, and it’s not structured in a way that makes the design process easy to follow.

With all the glut of vague information available, it’s easy to get stuck and then feel frustrated by the lack of progress and lost time.

And time is something we can’t afford to lose…

THE WORLD IS CHANGING AT AN ACCELERATED PACE, HERE IS WHY YOU NEED TO START PLANNING YOUR FARM RIGHT TODAY

 

The world’s population is growing unstoppably, urbanization, global industrialization, and ever-increasing consumption are inevitably causing more deforestation, the loss of fertile soils and the destruction of ecosystems.It’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the global food production that we’re all dependent upon…

 

The increasing levels of CO2 emissions are leading to more greenhouse gases, more global warming and more climate change. Currently, our best-case scenario for the foreseeable future involves an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events. At worst, however, we are facing the massive migration of climate refugees, food shortages and food price spikes…

 

Just in the next 15-20 years, the demand for energy will rise by around 50%. Unless we find a real and sustainable substitute for cheap oil in the near future, we’ll experience repercussions that will influence every aspect of our daily life – Is this good or bad? Depends on how prepared you’ll be for the coming years…

 

Currently, we are living the midst of the largest economic bubble in history. Over the last few decades, our global economy has seen slowly increasing debt burdens, and is creating larger and larger debt repayments. Since the last Financial Crisis of 2008, things have only got worse, and now we’re at the tipping point. It’s not a matter of whether the bubble will burst, it’s only a matter of when and with what economic consequences it will have for us ordinary people.

The time to start preparing and planning was yesterday, but…

THE DANGERS OF A RECKLESS FARM DESIGN

When faced with this complex task of designing your property, most people tend to either avoid it or wing it on their own…

In both cases, without a well-thought-out plan you’re just hoping for the best but probably unknowingly sentencing yourself to years of unnecessary hard manual labor, stress and uncertainty and money down the drain.

You see, on a permaculture farm you need to have all these different farm elements working in harmony together, you need to have dedicated growing zones, fencing enclosing these zones and following roads, roads following water lines, water lines following geography…Yep, ensuring that these elements work in synergy sounds complex, all right!

The reality is, without taking the time to properly design your farm, you could be planting things in the wrong location and then watching them die, putting the roads on the wrong spot and then pouring away money maintaining them year after year, doing swales to sink the water when the soil was already oversaturated…

This can quickly add up to tens of thousands of dollars spent in vain, irreversibly lost time and even broken relationships. Scary… and all you want is to do the right thing for yourself, your family and the environment.

HOW I TURNED MY PROBLEM INTO A SOLUTION AND CAME UP WITH AN EASY DESIGN PROCESS THAT WORKS

Hi, I’m William Horvath, a permaculture designer, farmer and creator of Permaculture Apprentice.

I’ve worked with hundreds of people seeking to start a permaculture farm and live a permaculture lifestyle, going from analysis paralysis, struggling with practical steps of designing a permaculture farm to creating a masterplan of a fully functioning farm that produces an abundance of food, regenerates the land and builds self-sufficiency.

I’ve long dreamed of having my permaculture farm and creating my own permaculture paradise.

A few years ago, I decided to leave my engineering job and take over my grandparents’ farm. This was an amazing opportunity, only – as many of you have also experienced – it turned out not to be as easy as I hoped. I was suddenly overwhelmed by what to do first and how to set things up correctly.

What I was missing was a plan with a clear set of goals…

Not long after, I decided to take a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) and, although this was a fantastic experience and helped me to start thinking in the right direction, I was actually hoping to get a step-by-step process for creating a design for my farm, yet instead all I got was vague guidelines. I felt out of my depth…

So, I dove into the permaculture literature, and read many books and countless blog posts. I listened to innumerable permaculture podcasts covering all aspects of permaculture design. Since I started my website, I’ve consulted with experts in the field and learned from them about permaculture design and their methodology.

Many of the permaculture gurus, such as David Holmgren, Mark Shepard and Stefan Sobkowiak, were happy to share information with me about how they organized and designed their farms, and today I share that wisdom with my students.

All of the research I’ve conducted has led me to develop a simple process that I used to design and plan the layout of my farm. I finally had something I could follow where I wouldn’t be lost in endless procrastination, constantly thinking about what my next step should be…

Now, with a sound and workable plan in my hands, I know that I’ll avoid making mistakes that will make my life more difficult later on and I can finally relax, knowing that, whatever I plant or build, it will endure for many years to come.

When I first opened PermacultureApprentice.com, I was blown away that I hadn’t discovered it earlier! William’s ability to distill the teachings and experimentation of the permaculture greats has allowed a new generation of regenerative farmers and designers to take permaculture to the next level. Working with William is a joy, because he brings a lighthearted curiosity to his core focus: helping you succeed.”

Pete Widin

Professional permaculture designer, Artisan Environments, LLC

Williams content is a “go to” resource for anyone wanting to build freedom for themselves by establishing their own self reliant systems. In my opinion, he is overly generous with his all inclusive, hands on, step by step instructional material. Any contribution whether it be time, money and/or energy for his information will certainly yield 10-100Xs your investment.que.

Justin Rhodes

Film producer, author and teacher, Abundant Permaculture

HERE’s HOW I CAN HELP YOU

You will no longer have to spend your days watching YouTube videos, reading articles or philosophical permaculture books, navigating the sea of complexity, hunting down simple instructions on how to design your land but instead you’ll be working on your permaculture masterplan and know exactly what design steps to take.

You will no longer be anxiously staring at that blank canvas, stuck in trying to decide what to do first. Instead, you’ll finally start executing your plan bit by bit, day by day and making progress towards your goal of healing the Earth, producing an abundance of food, leaving a legacy for your kids and feeling at ease and optimistic about what the future holds.

You will no longer feel like a permaculture amateur, not confident in your knowledge, afraid to implement any significant changes to your land, feeling small and insignificant compared to more established growers. Instead, you’ll be knowledgeable and confident enough to put your plan into action, manage your farm, and share your wisdom with others, and contribute to the growing permaculture movement…

I have a simple system that will help you achieve all of that!

INTRODUCING THE PERMACULTURE FARM DESIGN COURSE

THE SIMPLEST, EASIEST WAY TO DESIGN YOUR PERMACULTURE FARM WITHOUT SPENDING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AND LOSING YEARS OF YOUR LIFE ON INTERNET RESEARCH

If you can spare only an hour a day for the next two weeks, I can help you create a design for your permaculture farm so that you can finally make a start on converting your land into a permaculture abundance.

This online course is the culmination of my research into permaculture farm design. To create the material I’ve dissected many permaculture books, videos and study notes from workshops, and systematically laid down the entire design process.

I’ve packaged together everything you need to know about permaculture farm design so you can start planning your property with confidence today. The best thing is, you can achieve this without having to invest thousands of dollars on a PDC, 16-week live coaching, a permaculture consultant or endlessly searching the Internet and winging it on your own.

It’s like A Designer’s Manual but with simple easy-to-follow instructions that clearly lay down the nuts and bolts of the design process so anyone can understand it, regardless of their level of design experience. Even if you have never designed anything in your life, even if you’re just starting out in permaculture, this course will help you to come up with a permaculture design for your farm.

Once you’re in the program, you’ll receive specific and simple actionable material with practical advice guiding you through the entire design process, so you won’t feel overwhelmed. With a plan in hand you’ll finally be ready to move from analysis paralysis to getting your hands dirty creating the permaculture paradise you’ve always dreamed about.

How Permaculture Farm Design Course Works:

The course is broken down into four modules with nine video lessons (each around 20 minutes), all of which you will receive immediate access to once you join.

With its systematic and clear two and a half hours of video material, the Permaculture Farm Design Course is designed to be simple and focused – the easiest way to design your permaculture farm.

Each video lesson also has a workbook and detailed step-by-step tutorials where key concepts from the video lessons are explained, with clear and easy-to-follow design instructions.

You will be able to download and print the workbooks and tutorials if you wish and use them for your study.

Lesson 1. Defining your Context

Your Roadmap to Creating a Permaculture Farm that saves you Time, Energy and Money

  • A simplified ‘Holistic Management’ framework to quickly assess your potential and resources
  • How to identify your vision and goals for the property so that you can speed up the design process
  • Identifying time and cost constraints for the project so that you can skip the unimportant design elements

LESSON 2. Initial Site Research

Getting the Key Information about your Site so you can Start Planning the Right Way

  • The most important things you need to know about getting started with the design project
  • How and where to find relevant information about your site online without wasting time on endless Internet research
  • The essential aspects to understanding the regional context of your site’s location

Lesson 3. Developing a Base Map

Preparing the Crucial Base Template on which you’ll Create your Design and Map your Observations

  • The two basic components of a base map and the easiest way to find them
  • How to create a simple base map based on your level of expertise (from using free online tools to performing DIY survey of your site)
  • Detailed step-by-step tutorials on developing a base map for free in Google Maps, Google Earth and graphic design software

Lesson 4. Reading the Landscape

Understanding Patterns in the Landscape so you can Unlock the Potential of your Land

  • The seven critical landscape elements you need to be aware of
  • How to read the landscape and perform the initial site observations without feeling lost in the field
  • The most important things you need to know about performing a site survey (water, microclimate, soils, slope, aspect, wildlife…)

Lesson 5. Understanding your Site

Putting Everything Together and Identifying how Nature can do the Work for you

  • How to analyze the topography so that you can understand your site’s terrain
  • How to perform a sector and microclimate analysis so that you can make better design decisions
  • The simple five-step method to determining the size and extent of your watershed so that you can plan your water systems correctly.)

Lesson 6. Smart Water Design

Developing Effective and Extreme Weatherproof Water Systems that Boost the Overall Resilience of your Farm

  • The three-step process of planning your water harvesting system to sustain your needs
  • How to identify keypoints and design keypoint dams
  • How to capture, store and distribute water using harvesting drains, water tanks and irrigation pipes can plan your water systems correctly.)

Lesson 7. Setting up Infrastructure Elements the Right Way

Figuring out where to put your House, Roads and Fences so you don’t end up making Costly Mistakes

  • Principles and best practices of positioning your farm roads that will help you avoid endless maintenance
  • The #1 location for your house that will optimize all potential energy flows
  • How to subdivide your property with fencing so that you can create distinctive and enclosed growing zones

Lesson 8. Designing Living Systems

Creating a Healthy Farm Ecosystem that produces an Abundance of Food and Resources with Less Work

  • How to use permaculture zones to organize your growing environment so that you save time, energy and money
  • The simple zone framework for determining planting areas for gardens, food forests, orchards, and farm forestry
  • How to integrate animals and decide on which types of livestock are best suited for your site

Lesson 9. DETAILED DESIGN

How to Create an Integrated Farm with a Self-Sufficient Homestead, Low-Maintenance Food Forests and Productive Annual Gardens

  • How to link all the complex elements together and create an integrated permaculture farm
  • The best way to organize the homestead area with the accompanying infrastructure
  • The precise details of creating food forests with swales, permaculture orchards and farm forestry systems

Permaculture Farm Design Case Study and Additional Resources

I’m committed to helping you better understand the practical side of permaculture farm design. That’s why, in all the lessons, you’ll be following a design example that was made specifically for this purpose.

Each step of the design process is graphically illustrated and detailed with an accompanying explanation so you can better understand how to apply this knowledge to your individual situation.

Moreover, in addition to all the videos, workbooks and design examples for each lesson, I’ve prepared a list of books and web resources that you can study in depth in your own time.

These tailor-made resources are arranged in accordance with the course structure to ensure a simple, easy-to-follow process for the design steps.

BONUS 1: Type 1 Design Errors to Avoid at All Cost

Certain design mistakes will torment you every day of your life. They are enormously expensive and practically impossible to undo once they are implemented on your site.

You’ll want to avoid these at all cost, as these are the type 1 errors, the fundamental design flaws that make everything else built on top flawed or ineffective.

Luckily these are very easy to avoid if you know what they are. I’ve listed eight most common and most expensive ones so you can avoid them and thus free up years of your life on something more productive.

If there is one piece of paper that can save you literally millions of dollars over the lifetime of your farm and make you live longer, this is it!

BONUS 2: Video Training on Design Implementation

Wondering how to implement your design once you’re done planning? How can you start setting up your farm?

In this video tutorial, I will walk you through the implementation steps from planning the earthworks to improving the soil.

Not all tasks and not all design elements are created equal, and knowing what to prioritize first will save you a tremendous amount of money, energy and time.

BONUS 3: One-year Pocket Implementation Plan

In this pocket-sized spreadsheet, I will outline the most practical order of steps you should be taking and provide you with a one-year plan with all the essential implementation stages and steps.

With the yearly plan you’ll know WHAT to do and WHEN to do it.

JOIN THE COURSE TODAY FOR ONLY $USD197

Videos

Nine video lessons detailing precisely:

  • How do determine your goals and vision
  • How to analyze and assess your site
  • How to develop a whole farm layout: water systems, infrastructure, living systems
  • How to create a detailed design proposal

h

Workbooks, resources and a case study

To help you with the design process each lesson has:

  • graphically illustrated design example made specifically for this purpose
  • comprehensive workbook with the design instructions 
  • list of additional resources to consolidate your learning

Bonus:

As a special bonus you’ll get:

  •  List of type 1 design errors to avoid at all cost
  • Video training on design implementation explaining implementation stages and steps
  • One-year pocket implementation plan, a pocket sized spreadsheet for your reference when implementing on the site

 $USD397

one - time payment

 $USD95

5 monthly installments

You can try out Food Forest Guilds Course (risk-free) for 30 days.

The promise of this course is simple, it will help you design your permaculture farm. You can join the program and try it for yourself. If it doesn’t help you in 30 days I want you to email me (support@permacultureapprentice.com), show me that you did the work and I’ll give you all your money back. No questions asked.

What if your land was different? imagine if…

…instead of that bare hay field, old overgrazed pastures, abused and eroded barren soil, you’ll have food forests and orchards positively teeming with life…

…instead of your land being decimated by drought, floods and the changing climate you’ll have a network of ponds, dams, tanks and irrigation pipes, all supporting your food forest… making your property a haven of natural beauty which others can only dream about…

…instead of your non-existent or inefficient infrastructure that cannot support your farm development, you’ll have a system of roads, fences and structures that actually saves you money, time and energy.

This course can help you get there. After following these simple step-by-step instructions, you’ll have the know-how for how to design the permaculture farm you’ve always wanted. You’ll be confident in your plan and knowledgeable enough to put it into action.

There’ll be no more wondering about what you should be doing next and whether you’re on the right track. Now you can start managing your farm, contributing to the healing the Earth and providing for her needs.

frequently asked questions

Q. How does Permaculture Farm Design Course fit in with other Permaculture Apprentice Courses?
A. This is a course that’s focused on creating a masterplan. It shows you how to plan the overall layout of your farm. The PFDC works beautifully when combined with the Creating Food Forest Guilds course, which goes into the details of specifically designing the food forest growing area.

Q. Why should I take the Permaculture Farm Design Course?
A. I believe that the best way of creating a better future for ourselves, our families and the future generations is to be active and help regenerate the landscape today. By transforming your land into a productive permaculture farm you’re not just helping with that important goal but you’re also providing for your own needs and putting yourself into a more self-sufficient and resilient position, no matter what the future holds.

Q. Who is this course designed for?
A. This course offers you guidelines regarding how the design process works. When I built the course, I had two types of people in mind: someone who was going through a PDC and needed a framework for their final design work and someone who wants to start a permaculture farm and create a design but feels overwhelmed with where to start (regardless of whether or not they have a PDC).

Q. Do I need any previous experience?
A. It definitely helps if you already have some understanding of permaculture principles or you’re currently going through a PDC, but even without these, you can still follow the system and go through the process of creating an initial design for your farm. This is an online course. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection capable of streaming course videos on your browser. For designing your guilds, you’ll need a pen and paper or, alternatively, you can use computer software.

Q. What size of land do I need to take the PFDC?
A. This course is NOT intended for backyard permaculture projects. Although there are lessons that would still help you design smaller permaculture sites, to get the full value from the course your land would need to be at least bigger than two acres.

Q. What do I need to take part in this course?

A. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection capable of streaming course videos on your browser. For your design work, you can use computer software or make hand-drawn designs, whatever works best for you. I’ll give you instructions on how to create a design, but how you do it is entirely your decision.

Q. I can’t draw, is this for me?

A. As I said, this course will give you a design framework; you’ll learn how to define your goals and vision, what information to collect about your site, how to create a basemap, and how to assess your landscape, and then you’ll move on to creating your design. If you can’t draw on computer by using software tools, print out your basemap and draw freehand on top of the printed map.

Q. How much time will I need to study?

A. The PFDC is packed with two and a half hours of video material. I’ve distilled this course down to just the essentials you need to know to design your permaculture farm. I’ve done the research so you don’t have to waste time, so it’s a shortcut to learning and creating the design. Moreover, this is a self-paced course so you can take it as quickly or as slowly as you want it,  it’s totally up to you. You’ll receive lifetime access to the material, so there is no time limit.

Q. Will I get a Permaculture Design Certificate?

A. You will not be certified, nor is this course a substitute for a Permaculture Design Certificate in any shape or form. This course simply gives you some invaluable supplementary advice, and an actionable framework you can follow while creating your design, whether you have a PDC or not.

Q. I’m in the tropics, will this work in my climate?
Since I live in a temperate climate, I can’t talk much about what would work well in the tropics. The design framework and the principles that I teach would still apply, but you would probably need to find additional advice that’s geared more towards your climate.

Q. What if I get stuck or don't understand something, will you help me?
Of course, you get priority access to me and can send me your questions via email and I’ll answer them within one working day. If something is not clear it’s my duty to help you understand it!

Q. What if this doesn’t work for me?
Then you can ask for a refund. You have 30 days to try the course and, if you’re not satisfied, I’ll give you a 100% refund. The only thing I will ask you is to let me know how I can make the course better.

HERE’s WHAT MY STUDENTS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE COURSE

If you have never heard of me or the Permaculture Farm Design Course, then please read some of the success stories below.

All of these people were struggling with the design, and overwhelmed with the information, some of them even had multiple PDCs, but the course helped them to put everything into structured manageable steps and take action.

I have done other courses in permaculture and have experienced information overload at times with no idea which foot to put before the other to get started with my own farm. William’s course gave me a step by step action plan but above all in a logical uncomplicated language that I can follow and I don’t feel lost!

Brian Casey

Student

Your course is by far the BEST I mean the VERY BEST!! I have ever taken. I have taken 4 PDC courses and yours made much more sense to me. It was the glue that brought everything together. If I had not taken the other courses it would have been fine. Yours gave me everything that I was looking for in a way I can understand and work. You have uniquely combined ALL learning styles in one fast easy simple fully packed course.

Danelle Downer

Student

After taking two PDC’s that were amazing and life-changing, I felt overwhelmed and intimidated with all of the information. While I understood most of the concepts, when it came down to actually applying them, I had no clue where or how to start. William’s course breaks everything down in layman’s terms and gives a clear step by step process that will give you the confidence to take action.

Stephanie Madeline

I’ve been collecting lots of information recently and the reason I took your course is because it already became a mess in my head 🙂 And from what I saw the course is exactly what I was looking for – a more systematic, step-by-step guide.

Stefan Vutov

WHO PERMACULTURE FARM DESIGN COURSE IS NOT FOR

This is not for you if…

You live in a city and don’t own any land.

You believe that climate change and environmental destruction are not real.

You think there is no need and no hurry to regenerate the human-impacted landscape.

You are not willing to spend at least an hour a day for the next two weeks to create a design for your farm

However, if you are someone who has some acreage to work with, is genuinely concerned about the future of our planet, wants to provide for their family’s needs while doing the right thing for the Earth, and  wants to FINALLY stop endlessly researching permaculture design, save $1000 and take advice from someone who went through all of it and knows what works…

Well, then you are in the right place at JUST the right time.

GET INSTANT, LIFETIME ACCESS TO THE COURSE FOR ONLY $USD197 

Videos

Nine video lessons detailing precisely:

  • How do determine your goals and vision
  • How to analyze and assess your site
  • How to develop a whole farm layout: water systems, infrastructure, living systems
  • How to create a detailed design proposal

h

Workbooks, resources and a case study

To help you with the design process each lesson has:

  • graphically illustrated design example made specifically for this purpose
  • comprehensive workbook with the design instructions 
  • list of additional resources to consolidate your learning

Bonus:

As a special bonus you’ll get:

  •  List of type 1 design errors to avoid at all cost
  • Video training on design implementation explaining implementation stages and steps
  • One-year pocket implementation plan, a pocket sized spreadsheet for your reference when implementing on the site

 $USD397

one - time payment

 $USD95

5 monthly installments

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