Healthy forests maintain, fertilize, and renew themselves naturally.

Ecosystem design involves replicating the structure and function of natural ecosystems in food and medicine-producing environments. This is achieved by creating guilds of plants, typically in the form of polycultures. Successful polycultures combine valuable plants to minimize competition, increase yields and reduce the gardener’s workload and external inputs such as water and fertilizer. The most exciting and challenging aspect of garden design is polyculture design, which follows a step-by-step process. This training program explores the detailed ecological theories and practical design techniques behind polyculture design through a series of exercises. Participants will observe, evaluate, and redesign perennial polycultures at The Living Centre.

• A Forest Gardener’s Tool Kit

• The Seven-Story Garden: Vegetation Layer

• Design Processes 1: Overview, Goals, and Assessments

• Design Processes 2: The Design Phase

• Natural Patterns in the Garden

• An Intimate Way of Guild-Building

• The Polycultural Elements of Forest Gardening

• Designing Plant Guilds and Perennial Polyculture

• Management, Maintenance, and Co-evolution

• Blueprinting Your Polyculture

“We only invented the word organic because we made things inorganic.
We only invented the word natural because we made things unnatural.
We only invented the word permaculture because we made agriculture.”
~Khang Kijarro Nguyen