Designed Visions - Sustainability through Permaculture - Courses, Design and Consultancy

Pat grew up in the Gloucestershire countryside, with a beautiful garden, an orchard, open fields, streams & ponds around her. The sound of a working mill wheel could be heard day and night. Her love of growing things, trees, water, making fires and building shelters (which always leaked) started early. Over the last twenty years she have been saddened to see whole woodlands cut down and not replaced, and old hedgerows taken out to create fields for large machinery. This and many worldwide catastrophes alarmed her.

Steve has designed, set up and managed a pioneering agroforestry demonstration site, developed a programme of courses in sustainable land use and managed urban tree nurseries in Bristol.

He also spent two years as a manager at Dyfed Permaculture Farm Trust. This project being one of the countries first attempts at broad scale permaculture design.

Gladys is from Holland and has been living in the UK for 13 years. She has a background in Fine Art and environmental education for children. She completed a Permaculture Design Course in Brighton in 2003, and is currently in her fourth year of undertaking the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design. She is a mother of two. Before moving to Frome, Somerset in 2007, she worked for the riverOcean Foundation - an environmental education charity in Brighton.

Debbie is very active in the 'Sustainable Frome' community & initiated the series of permaculture days & design courses now running in the town. She is currently working towards her Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design & has just completed an MSc based upon Action Enquiry as a lifestyle process. Her main interests are alternatives in education, designing for small spaces & non-land based design projects.

Kate came across permaculture only at the beginning of 2008 but had been living and dreaming it for years without knowing it. As a secondary school teacher, the natural progression in her life is to teach permaculture so she did TOT '08 straight after her PDC in Frome and also attended the 2008 Convergence. Kate lives in the New Forest with her partner and cat and is forever on the lookout for a field or woodland to call her own.

Phil was brought up in the countryside & taught to live off nature’s larder. He was taught to respect nature & take only what was needed (Sustainability since the 1950’s). He completed his design course in January 2007 he then went straight on & completed the Tutors course in July 2007 & is currently working towards his Diploma. Since then he has run his own design course & support tutored on several others. He has also run several introduction days. He writes a permaculture feature for an East Devon District Council magazine & is a part of the steering group for Sustainable Seaton. He is also a dowser.

Peter has been immersed in permaculture ever since going to the first Natty Gathering at Brickhurst farm in August 1998, where he did his Permaculture Design Course. He then helped set up the Steward Community Woodland sustainable living project, After a few years of building benders and carrying things up the hill in the rain at the Wood he was further inspired by a design course that ran there to carry on to the Permaculture Diploma, which he started in December 2003 & completed in May 2007.

Alanna has 20 years experience of dowsing and geomancy. She was a founder of the New South Wales Dowsing Society in 1983 and has taught 'probably thousands' of people how to dowse. She practises geomancy professionally and lives in central Victoria. Alanna is the author of 'Dowsing and Healing', 'Divining Earth Spirit', 'Stone Age Farming', a correspondence course (Diploma of Dowsing for Harmony) and publishes a quarterly 'Geomantica' magazine.

Peter is responsible for developing the EconoSpace - a low-cost building concept, that began the day he decided that a mortgage was not for him. From that place, he drifted off into the world of creativity, poverty and freedom. The original prototype EconoSpace was built as an Art Studio, but from that vantage point he imagined that it must be possible to construct a small house that was free of the tyranny of the mortgage. He has since configured various layouts, including ‘living’ versions as per his original idea of creating a small home free of borrowings.

Gary Finch completed his Design Course in April 2005 & is currently working towards his Diploma. He has now support tutored on several introductory weekends & one full design course. His work involves him in helping people in the community & his aim is to become an inspiring influence for those he meets. He is currently retrofitting his urban semi into an eco-home.

Andy Goldring is a long term activist with permaculture in Britain and has been the Development Co-ordinator of the Permaculture Association (Britain) for several years. Previously he served on the Association's Council of Management & later as Chair. His main areas of experience are organisational and administration; using thinking tools & design processes.

Phil began making compost by recycling grass mowings through an elephant. Since those years, caring for the gardens of his local wildlife park in Somerset he has qualified in horticulture, training & education. He discovered the 'P' word in the late 1980's & holds the Certificate in Permaculture Design. Originally inspired by a childhood amongst the plants & gardens of his mother & grandfather, Phil trained at Cannington College, Somerset.

Andy Langford is a former Designed Visions partner and a long term activist with permaculture in Britain and Northern Europe. He worked up the early British permaculture teaching resource (supported by Lea Harrison of Australia and, later, George Sobol), organised and taught design courses and ran significant design projects for Local Government and private clients. Andy is an enthusiast for inclusive learning, decision making and action methods and has facilitated Future Searches, Open Space Technology and Planning for Real events.

Robina is a New Zealander who also identifies herself as a planetary citizen. She is co-founder / resident / trustee of Tui Land Trust & Community and founder / trustee of the Institute for Earthcare Education Aotearoa. She is a state and Steiner-trained primary school teacher, and has a Permaculture Diploma in Trusteeship, Media and Education, and qualifications in Seed Technology.

Neil (known fondly as Huckleberry) is from the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State, USA. For the past 30 years he has been owner of and primary consultant for GREENWORLD, a company specialising in edible and sustainable landuse design in the northwest USA. Huckleberry has taught permaculture design in both North and South America, including community projects in Patagonia, Costa Rica and many states of the USA.