We believe that permaculture as a philosophy of design and land management presents the most viable option for us to make a truly sustainable and regenerative society. It offers tangible alternatives to the most problematic aspects of our high-tech globalized society.
Permaculture is a design philosophy that emphasizes mimicry of patterns in nature with a focus on edible ecosystems and resilient human ecologies. The design process is based in agroecology, agroforestry, and indigenous practices, worldview, and lifeways. Practices and techniques associated with permaculture come from all over the world and throughout history. Lifestyle, worldview and cultural components emphasize earth care, people care, fair share and awareness of limits.
Our Vision
We envision a future society that is smaller in scale, ecologically wise, and more focused on provision of essential needs locally. This involves re-making local economies, starting with homesteads that grow perennial crops with trees, shrubs and other perennial plants. Our efforts will spiral upward in fractal ways to affect neighborhoods, villages, towns and nations.
We hope that by seeing the world in a new way our students will go on to act differently in the world. Through these actions in the garden, in business, and everyday life our aim is to make society more sustainable and regenerative one household, one neighborhood, one village, one town at a time.
Facilitation Team
Jesse Watson is a professional landscape and homestead designer practicing the permaculture design process for clients since 2009. He has been active in the social aspect of the permaculture movement for much of that time, organizing events and building institutional capacity with PAN, The Resilience Hub and MOFGA. He helped organize the Northeast Permaculture Convergence, hosted in Maine in 2010 and 2014 with over 400 participants each time. He served on the board of PINE (The Permaculture Institute of the Northeast) and helped transition that organization into its new form PAN (The Permaculture Association of the Northeast). He has helped teach PDCs since 2012 with The Resilience Hub in Unity, Portland and Boston. He designs landscapes, builds houses and practices homesteading and ancestral skills in his own household. You can see more of his work at midcoastpermaculture.com.
Kate Wallace embarked on a PDC with the Resilience Hub in 2013 after many years of growing food and working land. Since then she has designed and installed projects for clients both independently and through the Resilience Hub, where she served as the Programs Director from 2018-2021. She believes in cultivating the synergistic wisdom of groups and the importance of collaborative learning. Kate grows and makes herbal medicines as Brown Bag Herbals and is a gardener, musician, and fermentation enthusiast. In the colder months, she coordinates Merrymeeting Food Council’s Farm Skills Program, a paid training for people to learn the skills needed for farm jobs and how to grow their own food.
Past Guest Instructors Include…
Aaron Parker, Edgewood Nursery
Ivonne Vasquez, Bas Rouge Farm and Forge
Jack Kertesz, MOFGA and Maine Tree Crop Alliance
Jacinda Martinez, Grounded Local
Jim Kovaleski, Grass Fed Market Garden
Mark Krawczyk, Keyline Vermont
Shana Hostetter, Parterre Ecological (formerly of Larkspur Design)
Sherri Mitchell / Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset, Sacred Instructions and Land Peace Foundation
…and more!