In this video I consult for Nicholas and his family about moving forward and taking the next steps to getting his hands in the dirt and moving forward with starting to enjoy life, not over think, and growing their own resources.
If you have questions about permaculture consulting and or design, contact me through our contact page.
~Nicholas Burtner
Nicholas: So I’m going on another consult today. This is an interesting one. I’ve got a student who can no longer attend classes for prior reasons and has reached out hey, my parents really need the tools of permaculture at their suburban homestead. Here we are. Winter is setting in and it’s one of the best times to start planting and really get things moving. Let’s go over there. Let’s check it out and let’s see what kind of goodness we can bestow.
All right so I just made over to Nicholas’ house here and you can see it’s definitely suburbia. Chances are most likely this neighborhood has an HOA. If your neighborhood has an HOA this might be a good opportunity to watch this particular consulting video because we might do something called Mullet Permaculture. Business in the front party in the back.
Cindy: nice to meet you, Cindy.
Nicholas: Cindy, good to meet you as well so basically green this place up potentially, is there an HOA?
Cindy: there is.
Nicholas: yes, okay so definitely that is how I figured. We definitely need to do something that was within the HOA rules here, make some suggestions, bring in some more light and do something that is probably low maintenance.
Man: yes.
Nicholas: let’s take a look around here and see what we can pull off that is totally legal without getting caught. How does that sound?
Man: that’s right.
Cindy: that sounds good.
Nicholas: I’m just kidding. All right so made it out to the backyard and after talking with the family and kind of realizing that we’re definitely in the Mullet Permaculture scenario with an HOA so really what is going to be happening out here is in this backyard. What we did is we kind of, just a rough layout with some sticks that we have found of some pathway gardens because the most efficient that you can have is a garden that you have to walk through.
We did a little hands on exercise. Got down and figured out how we’re going to lay this out. That is part of this consulting is one on one coaching, really taking the time so somebody can learn this and take off on their own so you’re not holding anybody back from growing into their own sustainable life.
You have very limited because this is basically your family’s property. You have very limited experience doing any kind of growing your own food right?
Man: right.
Nicholas: I think it’s probably good to bring that up because there’s going to be a lot of people who are on the same boat. I mean our society doesn’t, it doesn’t reward creating our own resources. It rewards being part of the system.
Man2: consuming.
Man: yes, doubt actually.
Nicholas: consuming, definitely. As far as being somebody who not coming from a place where you know, your family put a lot of attention on creating resources like what is the next step that you think for you after we have come here, we kind of figured out a way how to put something like this together. What do you feel like is the next step?
Man: getting started with this. Like you say, more education but I mean like really I mean that is going to be a part of it.
Man2: doing it will be education enough.
Man: yes, exactly.
Nicholas: with this being December and in a few months we’ll be able to start many some starts and flats, maybe make a compost over…
Man: yes and actually that totally figures where it’s like okay, I guess the next step would be kind of building a sifter like we talked about and just sort of getting some of those things prepared. That is the thing. I guess I have been looking for that flash of insight where it’s like okay like this you know what I’m saying? It’s sort of in a way it’s like I want to have an answer and so it’s like…
Nicholas: it’s very much like martial arts. There’s really no shortcuts but the deal about this is none of this is difficult. I mean did anything that we laid out today like was this difficult?
Man: no. I mean grand scheme.
Nicholas: and the same thing with compost, it’s actually not difficult either. It’s not difficult putting some potting mix in a little flat and putting some seeds in it and just watering them. Do you know what I mean? This is actually so simple it’s embarrassing.
Man: I guess it’s a fair statement.
Nicholas: and to do what we do is we come from such an educated background where we’re utilizing that I was going to say critical thinking but we definitely dont use a lot of critical thinking but we’re utilizing our brain in a such a way where we’re thinking that you know code and this and that that we just forget that simple things are profound and that is how we can like basically provide a lot of our own resources like really simple stuff and to not over think it, not overanalyze.
Man2: this can be a great exercise.
Nicholas: I think the next step for you is definitely going to be figuring out exactly how you want this to look if you want to move with this, pulling up the grasses, laying down the mulches and then that can be like over the next few months but also at that same time inside the house bringing in that potting mix, putting some seeds in there. Just starting to get some sprouts going so you could pull those sprouts out there into the garden.
We do a little consultation recap of today. Our consultation process has multiple steps. You could do a consultation without a design and design being the next step. Both of those and the steps afterwards have multiple layers within them but today we just did a consultation which is all that was asked for.
I think a good lesson can be learned here. Nicholas isn’t the only one of us who feel like there are so many options and like maybe a little bit unprepared. Our status quo is all about making money for consumerism and not focused at all on resource creation. We definitely did a little bit of hands on today, planted some mental seeds and put some things in a diagram or a layout on the ground, some pathway gardens in which I’ll show you in just a second.
When I left Nicholas was smiling and I think he had a good starting point and some steps to do what’s next. If you find yourself in the same boat I’d highly recommend not only finding yourself somebody you can maybe apprentice under or learn from under but definitely getting a permaculture design course, getting the theory and then taking some skilling up courses where you can get your hands in the dirt and start to really know.
If somewhere around you they have apprenticeships or farm school or like that it would be totally worth your time and your investment. We’ll see you on the next one.
