Permaculture Design Solutions

International • Local • Small Scale • Large Scale

 Consultation, Design, Installation, Teaching.

The Catskills, N.E Pennsylvania and beyond. 

STONEWORK: (PATIOS, WALLS, PONDS, FIRE-PITS, OVENS)
Rural and urban garden design, and installation using stone and other available natural materials.  Samples of some of our urban installations. www.stoneandgarden.net

LANDSCAPE AND BUILDING LOCATION AND DESIGN
Land survey. Aspect and placement.  Optimize solar gain, water use, cold protection, windbreaks, insulation, solar hot water, greenhouses for warmth and food, wood stoves, wood lots, straw bale and other natural building techniques.

FOOD FORESTS AND VEGETABLES
Permaculture design utilizes a wide variety of food trees and plants (polyculture) maximizing production.

WATER HARVESTING
Permaculture utilizes abundant available rainwater for household use and designs filtration, storage and gray water systems.
Swales (ditches on contour) recharge aquifers mitigate floods, and provide riparian buffers while irrigating your garden.
Dams, ponds wetlands and pools provide drought protection, food, birds and beauty and organic manure for your property.
Use gray domestic water on your garden. Compost toilets and reed beds offer cheaper alternatives to conventional sewage treatment.

BIO-REMEDIATION
Erosion control, invasive plant control
and utilization, green-manure cropping, detoxification of soil, wet land management, water quality improvement.

SOIL, COMPOST, AND WORMS
Permaculture rebuilds soil by enhancing natural systems. Good compost is the backbone of organics and a healthy, long-lasting garden. Sheet mulching techniques build soil, retard weeds, insulate plants and permit no-till gardening. Use discarded newspaper, cardboard, manure and straw/hay mulch. Vermiculture. Worms eat garbage excreting castings, one of the richest and most valuable organic fertilizers.

URBAN APPLICATIONS
Apply permaculture solutions in urban situations for small-scale food production and community gardening, greenhouses, water harvesting, passive and active solar technology, and energy conservation.

ROOFTOP GARDENING
Use roof space to grow food, collect water, insulate, save energy.

GREENHOUSES
A greenhouse on the southern exposure of your home combined with solar mass, retains heat, warms your home, and saves energy. You can also grow a garden in a greenhouse for year-round food and flowers.

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
Learn about the rapidly growing movement of people building their own communities and eco-villages.

TEACHING AND WORKSHOPS
Study with Hancock Permaculture Center in the Catskills or contact us to run your own course and workshops at your location. We will help  coordinate, manage and provide teaching curriculum and instructors. www.hancockpermaculture.org

Hancock Permaculture Center teaches the world-recognized 72-hour Permaculture Design Certificate course accepted by a growing number of universities. The course covers sustainable living systems for a wide variety of landscapes and climates, including the application of permaculture to food production, home design and construction, energy conservation and generation and it explores economic and legal strategies that support permaculture solutions.

LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS: Presentations by PDS include: Bronx Community College: Implementing Efficient & Renewable Energy Systems in the Urban Environment. Hartwick College: Introduction to Permaculture, Oneonta, NY. Manhattan: Urban Sustainability and Permaculture: An all day seminar with Toby Hemenway author, “Gaia’s Garden”. Catskills Tour: Toward Sustainability. All-day seminars in five locations with Albert Bates. Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition.

PDS HAS WORKED WITH:
Sullivan County Community College Loch Sheldrake, Hartwick College, Onenta NY, Discovery Center, Liberty, NY, Epworth Methodist Camp, High Falls NY, Ithaca Eco Village, Ithaca, New York Open Center, Eco-Energy Associates, and other clients in the public and private sectors.