Our goal is to help as many people as possible to establish permaculture gardens on their properties to grow, harvest, process, store and enjoy as much nutritious home-grown food as possible. Everything we offer starts with a free initial consultation. The full list of services we offer includes:
- Onsite and remote consultations
- Permaculture design
- Landscape installation services (selected areas only)
- Education and training
- Soil fertility analysis and amendment recommendations
- Water analysis and treatment systems design
- Property selection and evaluation
- Whole farm and community design and development
Onsite Consultations
Within the US Midwest, Calgary, AB and north Texas areas (and further if needed) we’re prepared to travel to provide you with an onsite consultation. We’ll prepare a quote for you at the time to cover travel costs and our onsite consulting fee ($1,000 per day, minimum six hours). During an onsite consultation we’ll help you scope out your land for the best options for food forest and permaculture garden installation, assess aspects of the site including water, other utilities, access and structures and then advise on suitable options for plants that can be grown within your climate. As an option, during the site visit we can take water and soil samples for analysis and comprehensive reporting. Various options exist for analysis and reporting and are described further below.
You’ll also receive a follow-up report within 10 business days of our visit to recap our findings and advise on further options. Make your booking here for starting the conversation about a detailed consultation.
Permaculture Design
- A scaled design plan with electronic and hard copy laminated prints
- A detailed plant list showing plant names, quantities, and benefits/uses of each plant
- Online video consultation with your designer before, during and after the design preparation
- Additional educational resources to help you along your gardening journey
- Ongoing support services for when you need our help for up to 18 months after you’ve received your design (additional consultation can purchased after that)
Our design service prices are based on the design area, not the property area, and do not include site visits, soil or water analysis:
- For design area <1/2 acre, $3,000
- For 1/2 acre to 2 acres, $7,000
- For 2 acres to 5 acres, $11,000
- For > 5 acres, we’ll prepare a customized proposal after an initial consultation
Make your booking here for an initial free consultation to discuss your design needs.
Installation Services
Our normal service coverage area is lower Michigan, northern Ohio and northern Indiana. With consideration of additional travel and accommodation costs, we will provide services to the Michigan Upper Peninsula, all of Ohio, all of Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
Upon completion of a design we will provide a proposal that translates your design into a cost estimate for labor, plants and materials. Our installation services can be offered with several levels of participation:
- Turnkey – where we purchase all materials and plants and do 100% of the installation work. We literally do everything so you can watch and enjoy!
- Joint Participation – we work together in the provision of labor for the installation and decide who purchases the plants and materials.
- DIY – you do everything without our participation, including the option of picking your own landscape contractor.
- DIY Plus – where you purchase all plants and materials and supply your own labor (or your contractor performs these tasks), with us providing support (either onsite or remotely).
In locations where we can’t provide our services we’ll be happy to help you locate a landscaper and provide them with our expectations for completing a permaculture landscape installation, so they can provide you their cost estimate and services.
Set up an initial consultation with us here if you want to learn more about our installation capabilities.
Phone and Video (Remote) Consultations
In situations where you don’t need a design or installation services, we’re very happy to offer you a paid online or phone consultation to provide you with detailed support for your farm or garden project at a level of detail that goes beyond the initial free consultation. A single consultation will be $300 and will include the following activities:
- Based on your contact form submission or the initial free consultation, we’ll provide you with a brief written proposal by email for the scope of the online consultation. You can also provide a list of questions in advance that enables our pre-call research to be effective and then maximizes the efficiency of the call.
- A 1-hour consultation call
- A follow-up email outlining the main aspects of the call and providing additional recommendations
If you wish to have multiple hours of consultations we can offer a discounted hourly rate depending on the number of hours you wish to purchase. These longer term consulting options can suit situations where you want to have advice from us as you move forward with your own design/install project with us guiding your steps along the way, or after we’ve completed a design and installation for you and to provide ongoing support on a seasonal basis.
Make an appointment with us to discuss our paid consultation services.
Education and Training
We offer a number of education and training services:
- A range of free online resources on our website
- A number of short courses that cab be purchased at our online subscription site (link coming soon)
- An online Permaculture Design Consultant (PDC) certification course (coming in Fall 2024)
- In-person intensive PDC and installer training (also coming in Fall 2024)
- Business and design training to graduates of other PDC courses who want to start their own consultancy (or join ours!)
If you’d like to know more about our education and training services, book an initial consultation here.
Soil Fertility Analysis and Amendment
Successful regenerative agriculture depends on having the best soil. But if your soil hasn’t yet been fully regenerated, we offer the following services to help you achieve this:
- Independent laboratory analysis of soil samples for typical plant nutrients
- A short review report of the lab analysis with recommendations on natural fertilizers and soil amendments to improve fertility
- An option of a more detailed analytical report with long term soil amendment and fertility management report (with ongoing analysis to show trends in your soil quality)
- Further detailed consultations with our soil fertility experts
- Assistance in sourcing suitable soil amendments in your area and qualifying these to be suitable for use on your property
If you’d like to know more about our soil fertility services, book an initial consultation here.
Water Analysis and Treatment
Whether you have municipal, well or surface water available as your water supply, it’s important to know what’s in your water and how it can affect your health and your gardens. With a background of over 30 years in water treatment as a chemical engineer, Graham Towerton offers the following comprehensive consultation services to help you understand and improve your water quality:
- Independent US EPA certified laboratory analysis of water samples for contaminants including heavy metals, pesticides, treatment by-products and other toxins
- A short review report of the lab analysis to outline compliance with US EPA drinking water quality standards and other more stringent standards related to minimizing toxicity in drinking water
- An option of a detailed water treatment proposal detailing the equipment requirements for removal of any identified harmful toxins
- Assistance in sourcing suitable water treatment equipment providers and installers in your area
If you’d like to know more about our water testing and treatment services, book an initial consultation here.
Property Selection and Evaluations
If you’re about to embark on a relocation or purchase of your first property and you have in mind the idea to create a sustainable permaculture paradise on your new property, allow us to help you make a good choice. We offer the following services for property selection and evaluation:
- Initial consultation with you to understand your property needs and location preferences
- Property searches and short listing of properties that meet your criteria and our guidelines
- For your preferred property, a review of climate, water, soil and other factors that could affect your long term permaculture goals
- Optional site visit, walk-around, video and photo report of observations
- Optional soil fertility testing
- Optional water sampling and testing
- Written property evaluation
If you’d like to know more about our property selection services, book an initial consultation here.
Whole Farm and Community Design
Permaculture can be applied to properties small and large. For those who are blessed with an abundance of land, we’re able to provide you with a design that covers your entire property and creates a true sustainable homestead. Or, for those who wish to create a sustainable community or retreat, we’re also able to help with this. This larger design can incorporate many different aspects and applications of permaculture principles including:
- Renewable energy (wind, solar, hydroelectric and other methods)
- Water systems management (rainwater catchment, swales, streams, ponds and dams, greywater re-use)
- Design of access including roads and pathways through the landscape
- Pasture design and management for rotational grazing with multiple livestock types
- Design of structures needed on the homestead including sheds, barns, residential dwellings and animal shelters; and using alternative construction materials (e.g. strawbale, adobe, rammed earth, earthships, hempcrete)
- Design of cropping areas and food forests for feeding many families or commercial scale production
To start the ball rolling on these large scale projects, book an initial consultation here.