Welcome Aranya, author of Permaculture Design - a step by step guide

This week Aranya will be joining us to answer questions and join in discussions about permaculture design.



There are up to four copies of his book Permaculture Design: a step-by-step guide up for grabs.

The book is also available to buy on kindle, from amazon.co.uk, or direct from author

There is a staff review available here.

From now through til Friday, any posts in this forum, ie the permaculture forum, could be selected to win.

To win, you must use a name that follows our naming policy and you must have your email set up in Paul's daily-ish email..

The winner will be notified by email and must respond within 24 hours with their snail mail address.

Aranya's website is aranyagardens.co.uk.

Posts in this thread won't count, but please feel free to say hi to Aranya and make him feel at home!

Hi Everyone!

Great to be here and looking forward to some good questions.

Taylor Maxson,
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Hi Aranya, I just ordered your book a couple of days ago, so it's due to arrive any minute....looking forward to having you here to answer questions, what a treat!

Chris George
3rdAcreFarm / Scottsdale, AZ

my wife and i are reading gaias garden and regular listeners to pauls podcast. we'd love to learn more of how to save the world thru permaculture.

Welcome Aranya,

Congratulations on the book - it sounds very promising! I'm dying to check out the preview on Amazon, but I'm on a really slow connection and paying by the megabyte for the rest of the week so alas it'll have to wait.

I just want to say thanks for offering to give away four books! I think that this podcast, the youtube, the forum is creating a lot of really positive momentum.

Hi. I'm new to permaculture, and most of the knowledge I have comes from Paul's podcasts. I got the book Paul recommends for beginners (Square-foot Gardening), which is not yet permaculture, and I find the information there so repetitive that it's taking me forever to get to anything new. I've been saving to get some more books. I'd love to get Aranya's. I'll get to it eventually.

Congrats on the book! Sounds like I could really learn a lot from it... Living in and being committed to an urban area and lifestyle brings unique challenges to the design and implementation of permaculture. I suspect Aranya will shed some light for me!

Welcome and thanks for your participation here Araña! (I like jokes!)

And this must be taken as a joke too:

Claire and Ivan, I don't mind that your place is WET, I agree with having more to learn for WARM places, but especially DRY ones!

Aranya - I am glad you wrote your book. And I am glad it was highlighted here. I would never have found it, let alone look for it. But I am working on a diy project now. I have been rewatching my Geoff Lawton DVDs hoping to come up with a step-by-step process. But it was not working out. Then your book comes to my attention via Permies. And this is exactally what I needed. Thanks for posting sample pages on your site. That helped me make up my mind. So my order should be working working its way to you from "The Rest of The World" as I write this. Once again affirming that 'when the student is ready, the teacher will come'!

Liz Gardener,
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Christian McMahon,
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brad rowland,
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Mary McCrimmon,
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Dig Gashinsky,
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Elizabeth L'Abate,
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Claire Beaumont,
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Ivan Mayes,
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Janet Kenworthy,
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I've split a load of questions out to their own threads - posts in this thread don't qualify for the promotion!

Also, don't forget that to win, you must use a name that follows our naming policy and you must have your email set up in Paul's daily-ish email..

Awesome. I just purchased some books on this subject.

Aranya,
Thank you for publishing a step-by-step guide. As a student of various aspects of permaculture, hit and miss when I have time, and applying the principles to whatever I have laying around in my backyard because that's what I have and I'm trying to make something out of nothing game be it a permaculture style creation or not....run-on sentence....it will be nice to have an organized approach to start from the ground-up. Which is what I'd like to do eventually.....working on finding land now. Anyways, looking forward to listening, Sarah

Thanks everyone for the great feedback - I'm doing my best to work my way through all the questions, but may not manage them all - apologies in advance if I don't get to yours.

What I've tried to do with the book is provide a pattern that can be followed wherever you are. It places all the tools and techniques into the design process without repeating a lot of the detailed information on specifics that's available in lots of other books. It doesn't include specifics for different climates - that's what the Designer's Manual and other fine books are for, it simply guides you through a process that makes sense of it all.

If you're having fun trying to access the Amazon preview, you can have a look at some sample pages on my website too here:
http://www.aranyagardens.co.uk/downloads/Step-by-step%20Guide%20to%20Permaculture%20Design%20samples.pdf

Great to see the book launched your side of the Atlantic anyway!

Thanks for being here, Aranya. Liked your video. I just completed my PDC and can see that your book will be a great resource until designing becomes easy. I figure it is like learning to swim. First, it takes a lot of effort and thinking and the breath just doesn't want to flow, and suddenly, it is easy. Anyway, I am hoping!!!

Looking forward to reading the book!
Is it available in the kobo epub format?

Sounds like a helpful book. Looking forward to reading it!

Hi Marianne,

Yes, that's a good analogy, at first it seems like you'll never remember it all and then you suddenly find yourself explaining it to others and being impressed by what you just said!

Tayce, I don't know much about ebook formats, but I haven't heard about it being available as an epub yet - it's a question better aimed at my publisher:
http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/ebooks.html

Their website says "At the moment, most of our eBooks are available in pdf download form - perfect for viewing on your desktop, laptop or tablet computer, or iPad. Within the next few months we will be releasing versions of these books that are specially adapted for viewing on dedicated eBook reader devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader. If you would like to be informed when these versions become available, simply click on the title in which you are interested and follow the instructions to have us contact you."

Maybe that helps?

Howdy and Congrats on the Book...does it cover 'Financial Permaculture' at all?

Plant and Flourish

Hi Lance,

For that I would refer you to 'Sacred Economics' by Charles Eisenstein, he's my favourite writer on this subject and has a lot of important ideas to share.

I am especially interested in this subject though because it's essentially why we are trashing our beautiful planet.

We need to remember that real wealth is to be found in life, and seeds especially.

I wish you every sucess with you book and i look forward to buying it and studying it. I believe that we are in times of change, we have to change . Gandhi said Change
We must be the change we wish to see in the world . He is right, Permaculture is a way of taking design and nature in working harmony that fullfills our needs we have to treat it with respect what god has given in nature to us. Aranya thank you for you contribution to this cause and wish you every success in your futuer endeavours.

Kay Cousins,
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tayce wilson wrote:Looking forward to reading the book!
Is it available in the kobo epub format?

Yes it is! Here's the link.

James Driscoll,
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I'm excited to read the book! I've been wanting more books to come out to see everyone's perspectives on the ideas that may seem narrow at times. I am interested in forming an alternative college later and would need to plan a lot into the layout design. Better start reading up on it now!

Thanks for writing!

Welcome Aranya! I'm very excited about your book. I feel like it exactly fills the gap I've been experiencing after completing my PDC! I'm looking for more practical information because my husband and I own a green homebuilding company in Canada (www.mandalahomes.com), most of our clients are out-of-the-box thinking folks needing advise and support for the land around their new home. We also just finished building the first Energy Star home in B.C. (!) and we have an acre and a half of land to work/play on. My 2 most pressing questions are- 1) ways to deal with BUTTERCUP and 2) SAND- cool ideas and uses for? (I'm planting sedum on living roofs with it and making pathways...any other interesting and fun ideas?) Thanks! Rachel

Welcome Aranya!
I always look for more information. We are developing 13 acres of Permaculture in SW Ontario (Mostly by trial and error) but cannot find enough design info. specifically in the micro planning and guild building. I hope the step by steps are another awesome tool for us Permie pioneers.

Can I just remind everyone who's hoping to win a copy of Aranya's book that to win, you must use a name that follows our naming policy and you must have your email set up in Paul's daily-ish email..

Paul's really strict about this and won't award a prize to anyone with a fake-looking name or whose email isn't on the list. You have to reply within 24 hours of being notified too so keep an eye on your email!

Sorry for the delay - been doing that tour thing.

I ran the random post picker thing, and it came back with a lot of posts by Aranya.

Okay, I picked a really good post, and .... the email is not in the daily-ish email. Disqualified. Bummer.

I picked another and ... email qualifies!

Congratulations to John Polk!

Congrats John!