The first permaculture design course in Ontario was taught in 1993. Twenty-seven years later, many people are practicing permaculture, though without much formal structure or local opportunity to connect with others. While we have grown our technical skills and knowledge base tremendously, we have more to do to truly work well together across generations and cultures, across allegiances, and with the land and projects we steward.
In January 2018, a group of 19 people participated in a Permaculture Meetup at the Guelph Organic Conference. We did a quick inventory of the Meetup participants and started documenting their projects and endeavours. We tracked curious questions. We explored how practitioners and students of permaculture could benefit from more local opportunities to:
learn about & be involved in projects,
mentor & be mentored,
meet up & share.
The Meetup group identified a strong interest in aligning with our allies who—while not identifying as permaculturalists—are living, working, and creating regeneratively and holistically. We know we have much to learn and share as we consider what permaculture can do as a broader and more integrated practice in our various regions and communities.
A group of us drafted this webpage and a first “good enough” survey to take a step in honouring the need to learn about and better connect with other people who are activated and growing in a community(ies) of practice. As the first round of surveys came in, we built a Permaculture in Ontario map that we first shared publicly at the Guelph Organic Conference in January 2019. We’re now seeking updates and new entries for the map.
We’re also moving into a collaborative design process next, to consider how we can contribute to building a more informed, integrated, healthy, and diverse network of people and projects. Ultimately, we’ll contribute what we can to creating a regenerative and more permanent culture.
- Tell us about you and what you’re up to using the survey below. Share images of project elements, designs, activities, etc.
- Check out the map!
- Tell other people about the survey and map.
About the Survey
The survey aims to collect data (stories, photos, and locations of projects and people) to learn from and to be shared with others. We seek permission to use the data that we collect:
- In public presentations and writing about permaculture projects for educational purposes
- To move towards building a public online database of permaculture projects and community members, and
- To support the growth of a bioregional and/or an Ontario-based network.
Note: We’ve learned that you can’t save and come back later on this platform. We recommend that you submit your text in one go and if you need to come back to submit photos, just tell us your name/email again, add your photos, and mark an “x” through the remaining required fields. Thank you!