I am new to the
permaculture world, and am in information overload. Processing will continue apace, and I feel need is greater than processing ability. My immediate goal is to replace our small vegetable garden (old beds are falling apart and poorly located) and be more self-sufficient instead of just supplementing our summer meals.
I am hoping to get recommendations for designers familiar with the Willamette Valley that can help steer me around major mistakes. Possibly doing design detail all the way down to individual plant selection and location if we are a good fit. I'm located an hour SW of Portland, OR.
I have looked for
local designers, but what I have found seems to be:
- Landscape architects with a
PDC under their belt to say they did, but with little apparent utilization of that training
- Designers whose largest
experience is a 1/4 acre suburban backyard
- Designers far
enough away it would be a distance advisor. I'm not opposed to a remote consult, but I feel like an in person meet and site walk is likely valuable.
I live on 60 acres that is a horse facility. Most of the property is geared towards either riding/stable facilities (5 acres), pasture for horse turnout (15 acres),
hay fields for additional horse
feed (30 acres) or oak forest (8 acres). Although I’m sure there are
permaculture aspects I could work with to better the overall property, my immediate goals and desired timing are to plan out the ~2 acre area around the house to allow for:
- vegetable garden beds
- small livestock (ducks and/or
rabbits)
- aquaponics
-
Greenhouse to lengthen growing season and possible over winter some aquaponics
-
Root cellar
- storage
pond for
irrigation
- swimming
pond
I don’t want to start placing stuff without thought put into it, especially with the larger pond earthworks. My thoughts are gut feels without basis in design or experience. I'm all for diving in and trying in general, that is how I learn most skills. However, right now I don't have the time and so want to offload much of the design work and capitalize on someone else’s experience, so that when I do have the time later this summer I can put it into implementation.