The Case for Permaculture:

This is the foundational material from Bill’s 3-hour “Introduction to Permaculture”  seminar.

Bill holds two PDC Certificates and two Advanced Permaculture Training Certificates (one in design, the other in teaching).  He is cofounder of Midwest Permaculture with his wife Becky and has taught at over 30 PDC courses.

“Listening to Bill was like a breath of fresh air. I knew that there had to be a way out of the energy and societal challenges before us, and now I see it. Very inspiring and hopeful…!”
                                                             Webinar Student

Larry is a soil biologist, an ecological landscaper, and is the translator/editor of one of the most influential books to touch the lives of scores of natural farmers,  The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka.

As a young man, Larry spent five years in Japan, two of those with the author, Masanobu Fukuoka, on his farm in southern Japan.  He lived in one of the mud-walled huts in Mr. Fukuoka’s orchard and performed farm chores with the other workers and students, learning all he could about Masanobu’s unique form of farming. 

Pictured below: Larry in a barley field with Masanobu Fukuoka

When Larry returned to the states he promised Masanobu Fukuoka that he would do all he could to see that his book, The One-Straw Revolution, was translated from Japanese into English and then published.  

This is a fascinating story that Larry shares during this intimate webinar with many slides and much detail.  We end up hearing stories about Robert Rodale, Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, Bill Mollison, Gary Snyder and more.

Becky, Bill and Milton make up the lead teaching team for Midwest Permaculture’s trainings and design courses. 

All three hold advanced permaculture training certificates in teaching permaculture. 

Honest, insightful, knowledgeable and inspiring is how students describe their combined teaching styles.

Click here to learn more about each…

Your Backyard Farmers
Portland, Oregon

Learn many of the details about how these two farmers (who had little money and no land) were able to set up 53 “mini-farms” and earn a great income.

Donna and Robyn are the first we’ve heard of who run their farming operation from other peoples back yards. And they don’t rent peoples back yards, they charge the homeowners yearly to have much of their own family’s food grown for them right in their own backyards.  

Robyn and Donna visit each home once a week, attending to all that is necessary in the vegetable garden, leaving a full basket of produce on the residents doorstep when the little farm starts producing.

How is this permaculture?  Learn how they turn wastes into resources, minimize work, increase yields, and improve every environment.

Uncommon Ground Restaurant – Chicago

Helen and her husband Michael had been restaurateurs for almost 2 decades. In 2007 they decided to open a second location for their successful restaurant and chose a building on the far North Side of Chicago because of the large-flat roof. Helen wanted to grow at least some of the food and herbs that they serve to their customers.

At some point they decided to become organically certified and in the process they became the first certified organic rooftop ‘farm’ in the United States.

A very inspiring story.

Marcus de la fleur and wife Cathy Haibach, didn’t stop with just rain barrels to capture the bountiful rainwater falling on the suburban home they lived in.

They also incorporate: bio-swales… porous pavements… rain gardens… a green roof… a cistern… and gravel grass.

Marcus de la fleur is a Registered Landscape Architect and owner of the design and consulting firm de la fleur LLC in Chicago, IL.  He received his degree from the School of Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, and obtained his Masters in Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield, also in the UK.

In the webinar, Marcus takes us for an intimate journey through this website that documents the work that he and Cathy did on this very-suburban home.