We now arrive at the Gather section, the place where I will gather all ten of my designs for a final short overall review of each to help me understand where they have guided me on my learning pathway.

From these conclusions, I intend to gain an insight into why I signed up for this diploma in applied permaculture design.

As this is also a design within a design review, I would also like to highlight any future actions that need to be taken that would value from having a design with a schedule of implementation and a maintenance plan set up for them, or not as the case may be.

More importantly, I want to take this “Gather” section as a time to look back over my past designs and enjoy the journey of getting to this point.     

The Allotment Design

Framework; Patrick Whitfield's framework

This was a very important design for me, it was my very first implementation of a permaculture design created at a time when I knew far too much about what permaculture design was about. It was a good learning curve that came to serve me very well when I came to designing the gardens for my new home.

At this point in my design journey, as mentioned I had read and listened to far too much on permaculture and lacked the practical experience of both designing and growing. The result was lots of wasted energy and time along with throwing around far too many seeds that never grew. It was a very fast learning curve for me and helped me to realise that everything you read, or watch may not apply to your site and environment.

My main problem was that I didn’t understand how important it was to design with a framework. I had read Patrick Whitfield's books and thought I understood how to use his framework. As my design skills have progressed throughout this diploma, this first design was mostly based on what other people had done which led me directly to how it should finally look once complete. I also lacked the understanding of where and when I should be using the design tools.

With these first few designs, it’s noticeable how little time I gave to immersing myself in the permaculture principles and ethics. To summarise I was in box-ticking mode.

Buying a House Design

Framework; Patrick Whitfield's framework

Another early design in my portfolio when I didn’t know what I was doing, lots of crazy thoughts going on mixed with the chance of buying a house or more to the point, getting a garden. This was a design I started to formulate and the next thing I knew I was about to go and look at a house to buy. It was a very much on-the-fly kind of design that was over before I had enough time to fully grasp what I was doing but another good example of a lack of knowledge of permaculture design.

With this design you can again see that I had not grasped how to use a framework or the importance of design tools. I lacked the understanding of how to view the design through the lens of the permaculture principles and ethics.

That said I did go and view the house with my list of permaculture-inspired questions mostly referring to the gardens and, in the end, after much work, I’ve transformed those gardens into excellent examples of what can be done with permaculture design.

The Forest Garden Design

Framework; Patrick Whitfield's framework

After lessons learnt from my first attempt at a forest garden design at the allotment, I went into this design with a much better grasp of what was not going to work very well. I still did not have a great sense of how to get the maximum value out of a permaculture design and was still designing from what I expected a design should look like.

The permaculture frameworks and design tools were still very confusing to me. I’m not sure if this was because I had read, listened to and watched so much on permaculture all of which never spent much time on the actual process of developing a design, from the framework and design tools side of things, but instead tended to focus on the physical implementation of designs.

In all, I still lacked the understanding of what a permaculture design should involve, and only knew what the result needed to be.

Kitchen Garden Design

Framework; Patrick Whitfield's framework

This is the other half of my allotment design that just didn’t work in a forest garden design. You will read or watch videos of people growing everything in one system, most of the time these people are in optimal growing environments, tropical or other such places around the world. Here in the north of England, a different approach is needed if you want to eat lettuce leaves. I’ve found that in a forest garden overnight any soft leaf plants tend to disappear as if by magic.

This design was in development at the same time as the forest garden design, so all the failings of that design presented themselves in this design regarding the permaculture frameworks and design tools. I was also still not fully grasping how to use the permaculture principles in a design along with the permaculture ethics.

In summary, these first four designs were my experimental designs. With each design, I learned a little more about the design process, but nothing had clicked yet in how everything fitted together in a design.

Kitchen Garden Reloaded

Framework: PRIME

This is my first real permaculture design when things started to finally click for me. As mentioned, I have struggled with the academic side of designs not grasping the permaculture frameworks or design tools and how they fit into each design. This design marked a turning point for me in my design process.

I think the PRIME framework helped me a lot in getting my head around how a permaculture design can flow moving from one section to the next. I also spent quite a bit of time thinking about the principles for this design but was still caught in the trap of what those have said that came before me on their meanings.

Perhaps still not fully grasping the design process, this design did help me move my focus away from starting with a final design in my mind and working backwards to building up a design from each section of a framework gathering ideas as I progressed and then developing the final design.  

The result of this design would be the largest physical implementation of a design in my portfolio and has turned out to be my showcase design of a small space garden that has other permaculture designs layered into it.  

Soil Fertility Design

Framework: PRIME

With this design, I started to become more confident in how a design should be written up and what tools would add value to the design process. I was able to work through each section of the design building up what I was learning and using the design tools to develop the final solutions. I also allowed myself to let go of preconceived ideas that other permaculture designers used for the principles and used them to help with gathering my thoughts and ideas together. For the permaculture ethics, I also did the same, this gave me more freedom in my thinking and made the design process more fun to do.

Water Harvesting Design

Framework: PRIME

This was the first design that I can say I enjoyed writing up and working on at the same time. A very simple goal of a design but very helpful from a confidence-building design perspective. Both the principles and ethics are now becoming very vocal in my designs. Slowly I feel I’m improving with the frameworks and design tools.

As with the soil fertility design, this was a design that had been waiting to be worked on once both the garden designs had been completed. Having a good foundation (the gardens) to fit these designs in helped me to focus on the immediate problem solution for the designs. This made me appreciate that having multiple designs for one site is both easier to work on and adds more value than just having one large design incorporating everything that lacks the necessary focus for some of the different elements.      

Noticeable in this design was a thirst to learn much more about how the exploitation of water has changed our landscapes as well as our lives. This was probably due to having a simple goal that allowed my research to focus on one area. Of all my designs this was the most inspiring design. 

Richmond Permaculture Network

Framework: CEAP

This is a design that I’ve tried to work on many times over the years of my diploma pathway only to keep failing. To finally get to the point where I understand the permaculture design process, I was able to take a framework new to me and use it to build my design. This marked another milestone in my permaculture design process ability and once again helped to build my overall design confidence.

In this design, I also let go of the need to have a complete design to present in my portfolio. I’ve put a fair amount of work into this design to get it to the point I submitted it for review, but to continue working on it will involve much more focus than I can allow whilst also working on this diploma. I’ve added further implementations to other designs but with this design, the next phase will be the main part of the design. Thankfully, I now have the confidence to present what I have done so far along with a plan of action making this a design that will continue to grow. It will also become a future permaculture project after the completion of the diploma.      

This is also the design that has sparked some interest from a friend I met whilst working in my back garden who is very keen to help set up the local permaculture network with me.

Forage Design

Framework: FORAGE

For this design, I took the plunge and used a permaculture design framework that I developed myself. I could only do this due to feeling much more confident with the permaculture design process, a sure sign that the past six years working on my diploma have started to pay off.

The permaculture principles and ethics are now playing a major role in my design process. Allowing myself the time to contemplate each principle and ethic for what it means to me concerning the design I’m working on adds much more value than just using them as a box-ticking exercise as I did in my earlier designs.

This is also a personal design looking at improving my mental health and one that I’ve been researching throughout my diploma but never thought would get included due to having difficulty fitting it into a framework that would allow me to do it justice. It’s also the first design I went into without knowing how the outcome of the final design would turn out.

This will be my most important design because I’ve gained so many insights into my life by finally adding all my thoughts into a permaculture design framework, the results of which may sound obvious but until allowing myself the time to work on this design remained hidden to me.

Learning Pathway

Framework: FORAGE

Like the forage design, I used the same framework to wrap around my learning pathway. I didn’t just want my pathway to be just a telling of the things I’ve done; I also needed this design to tell me why the heck I signed up for the diploma in the first place. This has been a fun design to work through, and a great way to conclude my six years working on the diploma.

As with my last few designs, I now enjoy using the principles as key parts of my design process to gain insights that otherwise, I would have missed. I seem to have also bonded with a few design tools which I feel comfortable and confident in using.

PMI is a brainstorming, decision making and critical thinking tool. It is used to encourage the examination of ideas, concepts, and experiences from more than one perspective. I’m using this design tool here to help summarise the pluses, the minuses, and the interesting aspects of my diploma journey.

When I put together my allotment design, I thought I knew all there was to know about permaculture, how wrong was I? As I write this in July 2022, I have a good understanding of what needs to go into a permaculture design. I have a greater appreciation of the permaculture ethics and principles. I am still inspired by permaculture even after all the hours, months, and years of writing up these ten designs. I do not know what permaculture means to anybody else, but I know what it means to me and with that knowledge, I feel confident to use it for what it is, a design tool for designing whole systems.

The statement I came up with in the focus section of this design was “To complete the diploma and comprehend why we do the things we do.” Completing the diploma is in sight and something I’m ready for now. This year has been quite intense devoting all my spare time to the diploma including holidays from work to write up designs. It has been the “why we do the things we do” that has played on my mind lately when I’ve started to look back on my permaculture learning pathway and came to the realisation that I had no goal in mind when I signed up for this diploma. I just knew it was something that I was to do.

The diploma in applied permaculture design has provided me with what is written on the box. I’m able to apply the permaculture design process to different problems and arrive at sustainable solutions. The timing of me taking the diploma came at a time in my life that involved the most change both physically with me buying my first house, and mentally with Justin dying. I will never know how my life would have turned out during this period if I was not doing the diploma, all I know is that the diploma has added great value in helping me design my gardens and supported me with my mental health during this period.  

This is my final design solution for this diploma and it’s a simple one.

I focus on “being in the here and now.”

To expound upon this a little more, throughout this diploma I’ve gone from one design to the next and spent very little time looking back at past designs. I’ve now got five key designs all of which overlap with each other and all six are to be the foundation for my permaculture learning pathway post diploma completion.

The six designs are

• Forage Garden Design
• Kitchen Garden Reloaded Design
• Soil Fertility Design
• Water Harvesting Design
• Richmond Permaculture Network
• Forage Design

Forage Garden Design – I’m looking forward to having the time to sit in this garden and enjoy all the hard work I’ve put into it. I’m looking forward to having the time to observe where I can make improvements, my thoughts are towards a larger wildlife pond, but all in due course. I need to be present in this garden, I need to be in the here and now to listen to the garden and then follow that same voice which guided me throughout my permaculture journey so far.

Kitchen Garden Reloaded Design – The past few months whilst writing these final few designs I sat in this garden at my new table and chairs, and it has been wonderful. I never quite managed to find the time to devote to the plants this year as I intended to, but I’ve still got most of the summer ahead of me to change that. As with the forage garden, I need to allow time to be in the here and now, to permit the garden to speak to me. 

Soil Fertility Design – Another design that has got put on the back burner this year due to working on other designs. I’ve got so many ideas still to pursue in this design, I’m looking forward to being able to do all the things I want to try. I want to be in the here and now listening to the plants and observing what their requirements are.   

Water Harvesting Design – Rain has now become my new companion; I’m looking for it all the time. I want to develop this design; it is the one design that has triggered a fascination that I wish to develop. Not only would I like to be in the here and now experiencing the relationship of rain on my gardens but also in my local landscape. I’m in love with water.   

Richmond Permaculture Network – I feel this is my reciprocity permaculture design. Permaculture has provided me with so much these past six years, now I shall share permaculture with others. For this to happen the voice that has told me to take the diploma has once again spoken to me. Thankfully all I have been asked to do is to be in the here and now. If I do this, good things will come. 

The Forage Design – By far my most important design for my well-being. I’m already around 56 species of birds into my year-long birdwatch, I’m walking many more miles in the beautiful countryside around Richmond, and I’ve started to look at fishing tackle for next year's trout season.  Most of all this design is about being in the here and now. 

“To complete the diploma and comprehend why we do the things we do.”

I’m not far from completing the diploma now so I’ll say this part is accomplished.

Comprehending why we do the things we do; is no longer important to me; I know now that all that is important is being in the here and now.

The whole of my diploma was to arrive at this simple realisation, yes that same realisation that countless people will no doubt tell me they could have told me that, without having to waste six years of my life figuring it out. Are these people correct? To themselves, they are, though I may differ in opinion myself.

These past six years have given me a foundation to allow this to happen. As I write these final few words, mushroom season is about upon these lands, so it’s now time to mooch about the woods looking for mushrooms and spotting birds.