It couldn’t have been any more a couple of minutes before everybody was to depart. We had all been presented our Permaculture Design Certificates, there were lots of big smiles and hugs. This was when it happened, Marie, a fellow attendee on the PDC asked me a question that would change the direction of my life forever.

Marie: “are you going to take the diploma now?”

Me: “no way”

Marie: “why not, it will be a shame to stop now”

Me: “definitely not.”

And then we all left feeling happy from our time together for two weeks spent on a 60-acre organic farm in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. Life was good.

As the weeks turned into months Marie’s question played on my mind like the drummer playing around the campfire long after most people have gone to bed, and who still considers the night is young and everybody wishes to hear his melodic beats.

The seed had been sown, there was no getting away from it. I still could not find a good enough answer for the reason why I should not take the diploma. Why was I put off so much about the diploma? I wonder, could it be that most people take several years to complete it, others much longer. No, I was not going to sign up for something like that.

So, I signed up. Paid the money and contacted Wilf to see if he would consider taking me on as his permaculture apprentice. It's strange how we often choose to ignore that voice in our head that says, “oh you don’t want to do that”.

The question you may be asking is what changed my mind? To go from a distinct no, to yes. Am I mad?

The idea grew slowly, my reasoning was, that I might as well take the diploma, I would like to use permaculture design so why not do the diploma. This went on for around a year when the strangest of things happened. At work one of our compulsive gamblers had set up a bonus ball lottery, the details aren’t relevant but for a whole one pound a week I become part of the players. Would you believe it I went and won the correct amount to pay for the whole diploma, what are the odds on that?

So that is how I ended up signing up for this permaculture diploma. I would have liked to have said something more inspiring, that I wanted to change the world through permaculture, or that I felt the need to help other people by becoming a permaculture teacher. Nope not me, I just kind of ended up doing it.

This method of signing up for something as in-depth as the diploma didn’t help me very much when it came to defining my permaculture pathway. The first thing I got asked by Wilf after my introduction tutorial was to send him a list of the ten designs I was going to do. Thankfully Wilf also said to not worry too much about these designs, most people never end up doing all the designs they start out with; it's more a way of getting people started.

Wilf Richards: Wilf is my local permaculture teacher who is part of the Abundant Earth cooperative at Durham. His place should be a 40-minute drive from Richmond but for some reason, I still get lost finding it, my record for the longest drive is one hour five minutes. The day before my first tutorial Abundant Earth had an open day and Wilf invited me along. I liked Wilf straight away. Anybody who can wear a woolly hat all day with the sun blazing down has a certain amount of bonkersness going on, this is always a good sign.

Here is the list of the first ten designs I sent to Wilf. I’m pleased to have kept Wilf’s run of being the Nostradamus of “your first ten permaculture designs, probably will change throughout the diploma” intact. Now you know why he wears the hat, to protect his prediction skills.    

I’m pleased they sound so ridiculous now because if I had come up with pretty impressive design ideas and never achieved them this design would not work as well, I feel. 

From the very beginning of my diploma journey, I’ve lacked that focus, that vision of what I want to get out of doing the diploma. Therefore, I’m sharing my journey through the diploma for two reasons. Firstly, I will present a slightly different perspective on why we do the things we do by just telling my story for what it is. Secondly, with the help of a framework, I’m hoping that once I’ve finished this design, I’ll have a better insight into why I did the diploma. 

So, in concluding this first focus section, as with all permaculture designs you start with a problem and find a solution to this problem by using a permaculture framework and design tools. This is what I shall endeavour to do with this design.

My problem is to figure out why I signed up for a diploma in applied permaculture design. Therefore, my goal for this design is.

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