Agroforestry & Sustainable Farming

Homesteading is a dream for many but becomes a reality for only a select few. In recent years, I’ve seen an increase in the number of people referring to themselves as future homesteaders, or revealing that their number one goal is to start a homestead, hobby farm, or smallholding of their own. Goal setting isContinue reading “Homesteading: From Dream to Reality”

This is an early part of the concept work for a recent project that I have been working on – for a luxury villa project with steep terraces on the Amalfi Coast. This Villa is envisioned as more than a landscaped estate. It is conceived as a living Mediterranean landscape, one that restores, nourishes, andContinue reading “Regenerative Luxury Landscape Design for an Amalfi Coast Villa”

This recent regenerative farm masterplan integrates ecological restoration, sustainable agriculture, water harvesting, and community education within a productive landscape system. The objective of the project is to create a resilient land management model that combines food production, livestock systems, agroforestry, and community facilities while improving soil health, biodiversity, and water retention. A structured, site-specific designContinue reading “Nigeria Permaculture Design: Water First Regenerative Design”

This permaculture masterplan proposes a resilient, climate-appropriate land system for this 1-hectare desert site in central Saudi Arabia. The plan integrates water harvesting earthworks, windbreak establishment, drought-tolerant native tree systems, rotational grazing paddocks, and intensive food production areas supported by stored rainwater (underground cisterns) and greywater reuse. The design is specifically adapted to the harshContinue reading “Saudi Arabia – Desert Permaculture”

A forest garden should do more than grow food. It should also reduce your workload over time while improving the land. In this guide, we break down the key forest garden design goals that create a low-maintenance, high-function system built for long-term resilience. As a designer, I focus on two core outcomes when designing forestContinue reading “Forest Garden Design Goals: How to Build a Low-Maintenance, High-Function System”

Contemporary farming faces a huge range of challenges. The urgent need to protect the soil, decarbonise, reduce pollution in all its forms, protect the wildlife on which we depend, adapt to our changing climate, and create more resilient agricultural systems means that radical solutions are required. Agroforestry provides many of the sustainable solutions we seek.Continue reading “An Introduction to Agroforestry”

This regenerative landscape design case study outlines my comprehensive permaculture plan for a riverside property close to Coimbra, in Portugal. The design aims to regenerate degraded areas, enhance food security, diversify land use, and create a resilient, ecologically rich landscape that supports both productive agriculture and long-term environmental stewardship. The project site features gently slopingContinue reading “Portugal Permaculture Design”

The design above is my initial regenerative farm plan for a property in the Margaret River Region of Southwestern Australia. The Margaret River region in South-West Western Australia has a mild, maritime-moderated Mediterranean climate, defined by warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Summer temperatures are warm but rarely extreme due to constant ocean influence,Continue reading “Southwestern Australia Agroforestry Design”

The permaculture landscape design above is one that I created as an initial concept design for a client located in USDA Zone 8b, in Texas. The property is in a part of Texas which is a transition zone, where fertile prairie soils gradually shift to sandy, oak-dominated uplands. It is located at the intersection ofContinue reading “Texas Permaculture Design”

It has been a while since I have added new designs to this website – but it has been a busy summer, and autumn so far has kept me very busy too – both in work and on my own property. But now that our bumper apple harvest processing period is coming to an end,Continue reading “Off-grid Irish Homestead Design”

This is my design for a client in Yorkshire, in collaboration with a client excited to be taking the first steps towards a more self-reliant and resilient way of life on this small plot of land. Like many of my clients, this one wanted some reassurance that they were on the right track, and someContinue reading “Yorkshire Permaculture Design”

Another sustainable landscape design from late last year, for a client in South Carolina, explores a range of exciting ideas, including sacred geometry, mandala gardens, herb spirals, forest gardens and other forms of agroforestry, while also focussing on family and ensuring a high-quality family life. Zone 1: Zone one focusses around two loci – theContinue reading “South Carolina Permaculture – Sustainable Landscape Design”

This design for a site of approximately 44 acres, 33 of which are currently plantation woodland, is one that I created that I created towards the end of last year as part of my work as a regenerative landscape designer and permaculture consultant. I provided site landscape plans to guide the formation of a sustainable,Continue reading “North Carolina Permaculture Design”

Here you can see my holistic permaculture design for a site of approximately 2.5 acres in the California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. This is a regenerative landscape project, that ties into my work with regenerative systems design. It is located within an area where blue oak woodland predominates but the site itself has beenContinue reading “Regenerating Native Oak Woodland: Holistic Permaculture Design”

This is the initial part of a design for a commercial farm in Vietnam, where the owner wishes to implement agroforestry and permaculture principles to improve carbon sequestration and sustainability on site, and boost biodiversity, while also earning an income as a viable business. Slow, Steady Solutions for Sustainable Transition A work in progress, thisContinue reading “Commercial Agroforestry – Vietnam Permaculture Design”

Montana is a varied state with diverse eco-regions, incorporating parts of the Rockies, of course, as well as some of the Wyoming Basin and portions of the Northern Great Plains. This regenerative rural property design is for a client based towards the south-west of the state, in a mesic montane area where small fragments ofContinue reading “Case Study: Montana Permaculture Design”

This is my regenerative landscape design for a client in the Western Cross Timbers bioregion of Texas who primarily reached out for help with their water management plans for the area around their home. Permaculture Water Management As you can see from the plan above, the design incorporates many water-management features commonly found in permacultureContinue reading “Case Study: Texas Permaculture”

There are many ways to diversify income streams on a farm and many ways to obtain an income from a piece of land. This case study shows my preliminary concept design for a portion of a property in Georgia where the clients wish to develop a commercial flower farm, expanding an existing business. Diverse FlowerContinue reading “Case Study: Flower Farm Initial Concept Design”

A family in the Czech Republic requested this landscape design for a portion of their property in order to grow as much of their own food as possible. They wish to create a pleasing place where their family of four with two young boys can spend plenty of time, relaxing, playing and foraging. They alsoContinue reading “Case Study: Czech Republic Permaculture Plan”

This is my permaculture masterplan for a site of approximately 2,500 sq m on Cabilao Island, in the Philippines. The design aims to maximise food production while also providing each of the elements desired by the client, responding to the strengths, opportunities, challenges and weaknesses of the specific site and delivering plenty of options forContinue reading “Case Study: Philippines Permaculture Plan”

Often in permaculture design, we encounter issues with water. In many areas and on many specific sites, a shortage of water is the challenge. But on occasion, we may find that the challenge we need to address is not too little water, but too much. In some regions, we are not faced with increasing droughtContinue reading “Case Study: Scotland Permaculture Design for Flooding Mitigation”

This case study is a large-scale sustainable agricultural project of 25,000 ha in Angola. Of course, this gives only a broad overview of my initial masterplan for this site. This large farm operating according to permaculture principles can serve as a test site for agricultural progress and food security in countries where the potential ofContinue reading “Case Study: Large Scale Agricultural Design, Permaculture in Angola”

Happy new year! I hope that everyone has had a good start to 2024 and is ready to dive headlong into a new year of possibilities and a new growing season. For my first post of the year, I wanted to share this exciting concept design for a dryland permaculture design project in Arizona whichContinue reading “Case Study: Dryland Permaculture Design”

This is the preliminary permaculture masterplan for a farmstead in Illinois. the design aims to synthesise the ideas of the client with the demands of the site and to allow them to make the most of the property – recently purchased – that has been somewhat neglected in recent years.  The client, a hobby farmer andContinue reading “Case Study: Illinois Permaculture Design”

I have been a little remiss in updating case studies to this site recently, but this is not because nothing has been going on but rather because there has been so much! Finding time to share what I have been doing has been a challenge, but I do still want to make sure that IContinue reading “Case Study: Scottish Forest Garden”

This is the permaculture landscape design for a project I am working on for a client in Turkey, who is planning to convert the barn on this piece of land, and create a homestead with a forest garden and vines. The primary concern was to create water systems to retain water on the property whileContinue reading “Case Study: Collaborative Permaculture Plan – Turkey”

This project is an example of the work I undertake through my Regenerative Farm Design & Agricultural Consultancy Business, for a new food producing garden and agroforestry area of approximately 4 acres, on a smallholding of around 7 acres in south west Scotland, where the primary goal is to provide a substantial proportion of theContinue reading “Case Study: Scotland Agroforestry”

This case study is an initial concept plan for a permaculture landscape design in India’s Tamil Nadu region. The goal for this design is to create a syntropic food forest or agroforestry system on this site. To facilitate creation and water management, the main portion of the planting zone will be laid out in aContinue reading “Case Study: India Permaculture Syntropic Agroforestry”

This project is an example of the work I undertake through my Regenerative Farm Design & Agricultural Consultancy services. If you’re planning a farm, estate or smallholding, I can help you avoid common pitfalls and make the most of your property. This site of around 2 acres is located in the Provence region of France,Continue reading “Case Study: Mediterranean Permaculture Concept Plan”

This is my regenerative landscape design for a site of around 3 acres in Mississippi. The design aims to maximise food production while also providing for the needs of those who live on site and providing attractive and useful family space. The design is, of course, tailored to the client, the site, and the localContinue reading “Case Study: Mississippi Permaculture Concept Plan”