Permaculture Design - a Step-by-step Guide to the Process

Have you read some books or done a course and still feel unsure
about how to make use of permaculture in the real world? 

This may be just what you need...

My Permaculture Design Step-by-Step Guide
is now available for pre-order... 

Due for publication at the beginning of March at the retail price of £14.95
Pre-order it now for just £10.95 (plus P+P)*

* £2.00 P+P to all UK mainland addresses. £5.00 to Europe. £8.00 to the Rest of the World.

I've written 'Permaculture Design - a Step-by-Step Guide', to explain how to go about putting a design together. While there are plenty of excellent books already written about permaculture, I hadn't found one that really explained the design process in a step-by-step fashion from start to finish.. This was a gap I initially filled on my design courses with a set of worksheets, which were then tried and tested by 15 groups of design course students over 18 months, before being turned into this guide.

I've written the guide as a practical and portable companion to other permaculture books. While it includes the ethics, principles and philosophies, it places them directly into the context of the design process. It also provides clarity about where different tools and techniques can be effectively applied in the overall scheme of things.

The guide looks at:

  • systems and patterns
  • design frameworks
  • land based design and beyond
  • working as part of a design team
  • site surveying and mapping
  • client interviews
  • working with large client groups
  • identifying functions and setting goals
  • choosing systems and elements
  • placement and integration
  • different design formats
  • implementation and maintenance planning
  • presenting your ideas to clients

If you already have a basic knowledge of permaculture, from either reading another book or attending a course (even just an introductory one), then this guide could be just what you need to build on your prior knowledge* and put it into practical application. 

"Aranya takes you through the process with the same chisel-sharp clarity as he describes the individual design tools."

Patrick Whitefield from his Permaculture Magazine review (reproduced at the foot of this page)

Click on the book to view sample pages as a pdf document.

 


It comes with an option to add a CD of accompanying digital resources

Such as flowcharts, worksheets, high resolution versions of maps etc. These will be available to readers as free downloads from a special page on my website following publication. I'm also offering these resources, plus a few extras, on a CD that can be ordered as part of a package with the book for just £2.00 extra.

Ways to pay...

I've included PayPal buttons below for easy pre-ordering, but I'm also happy to take payments either by cheque (please make it payable to 'Aranya Gardens'), Postal Order, or via direct bank transfer (please ask for details).

Hey! I can even sign it for you if you want...

If so, please let me know if you'd like me to personalise it with your name by entering the details in the PayPal box below.

If you choose a different payment method from PayPal, make sure you send those relevant details. The address for sending cheques/postal orders to is
Spring Cottage, Axmouth, Seaton, Devon EX12 4BE  England

Thank you and enjoy!

PRE-ORDER NOW AT THE SPECIAL PRICE OF JUST £10.95 PLUS P+P

(UK £2.00 (flat rate) / EUROPE £5.00 per book / REST OF WORLD £8.00 per book)

Special notes if buying more than one copy using the PayPal checkout:

* To order multiple unsigned copies, simply click Add to cart up then update the quantity in the PayPal shopping cart.
* To order multiple signed copies, fill in the details and click Add to cart each to time to create a checkout entry for each one.

 

***** POSTING WITHIN THE UK *****

ORDER EXTRA COPIES AND PAY NO MORE POSTAGE INSIDE THE UK
(a flat rate of £2.00 postage is added afterwards)

Design Guide only
(£10.95)

UK orders only - see below for overseas

Design Guide with resources CD
(£12.95)

UK orders only - see below for overseas
Like your copies signed?
Name(s) for personalisation?
Like your copies signed?
Name(s) for personalisation?


EUROPE

***** POSTING TO MAINLAND EUROPE *****
(postage is included in the book pricing, rather than being added afterwards)

With or without resources CD?
Like your copies signed?
Name(s) for personalisation?

REST OF THE WORLD

***** POSTING TO THE REST OF THE WORLD *****
(postage is included in the book pricing, rather than being added afterwards)

With or without resources CD?
Like your copies signed?
Name(s) for personalisation?

* Despite it's straightforward explanation of each stage in the process, this is not an introductory text. So if you are new to permaculture, seek one out first - see here for some suggestions. 


Review by Patrick Whitefield from Permaculture Magazine, Spring 2012 issue

For most people, taking the permaculture design course is a major life event. It opens the door on a new way of looking at the world. It affects you on so many levels that, however well you took notes, inevitably some of what you learnt passes you by. That’s why Aranya wrote this book: so that people could go away from the design courses he teaches and have a reference to the design methods he’s taught them. In effect it’s a toolbox of permaculture design methods.

Some people keep their tools in a higgledy-piggledy pile, chipped, blunt and un-cared-for. Others keep them in perfect order in a neat toolbox, each one in its place, oiled, sharpened and ready to go. Aranya is one of the latter and this book reflects the keen clarity of his mind. Open its pages and you can put your finger right on the design tool you need, from triangulation to the enticingly-named desire lines. It’s all there, described and illustrated, clearly and comprehensively.

But the tool metaphor can be taken too far. Permaculture design is not a random collection of good ideas, it’s a process. It starts with the receptive stage of observing and listening, goes through the creative stage of making design decisions and leads on to implementation on the ground and to reflection on whether the odd tweak here or there might not be appropriate. Aranya takes you through the process with the same chisel-sharp clarity as he describes the individual design tools.

Nor is the design process the whole story by any means. No book is a substitute for taking the course itself. When I wrote the Earth Care Manual it was with a similar motivation to Aranya’s: to provide people with all the information we don’t have time to give in the brief span of a 72 hour course. But neither design tools nor information have the same value as the experience of the course, which centres on actually doing permaculture design with a group of like-minded people under the guidance of your tutor.

So this book provides two useful functions. It’s a useful primer to prepare you for the major life event that is a permaculture design course, giving you many insights into applying the design process. And if you’ve already done the course, it will consolidate and reinforce the many design skills you’ve learned, enabling you to put permaculture into practice on the ground.