Please stop looking for “the ideal permaculture demonstration site”; you are there!

If I had a dime for every time some person touring around the country or the world has contacted DBPG asking us to tell them “where the permaculture demonstration sites in Florida” are … well let’s just say I’d be paying for my morning cup of coffee in dimes, which would be OK w the minimart guy because they are perennially low on change!

When people would contact me with this request, I used to feel like a deer in headlights and a sorry excuse for a bioregional / permaculture portal.

Now I simply apologize, tell them I can’t help them because it doesn’t exist. There ARE many wonderful *examples of permaculture design principles and ethics* here in Florida but I don’t want any of them getting turned into “The Ideal One” in people’s minds, because it’s not a correct understanding of what permaculture is about.

People keep envisioning some utopian rural farm. Agrarian paradise. Like that’s all there is to permaculture.

The idea of some “ideal right-way permaculture demonstration site” is itself a noxious artifact straight from colonizer culture AKA white supremacy culture. Stress-inducing, pressure-inducing, perfectionistic.

Probably the first step in a permaculture design life, even before site observation, is to #decolonize our minds

We need more people to simply start applying the permaculture design principles and ethics in their home neighborhoods/regions. Apply them in their homes, schools, churches, workplaces, apartment complexes, organizations, business plans, life plans … Whatever that looks like moment to moment, in all its messy glory.

On that note I offer a condensed “permaculture basic training” that’s designed to get you started right here right now — wherever you are, whatever mix of skills and personality characteristics and tangible assets you have available to you or not, and break free of that eternal perfectionism disease that is one of the hallmarks of capitalist/industrialist/colonizer culture.

I offer a one-hour, three-hour, and one-full-day options. Prices are sliding-scale, pay what you can — starting at $25; some trade/barter also accepted. Contact me to join a class or have your own! 512-619-5363 phone/text; jnazak at yahoo dot com email

Note to anyone considering taking a full Permaculture Design Certificate course: My mini workshops will help you get the most out of your full PDC investment as well. I work cooperatively with two permaculture design colleagues who have been teaching PDCs for years.

Cheers, and I look forward to giving you personalized guidance via my mini condensed workshops. You can participate wherever you are, as I utilize eco-friendly, freely available, low-bandwidth technologies for education and communication. (On that note you might appreciate the permaculture-design concept of “appropriate technology.” I know I do! It’s one of my favorites.)

P.S. The 15 characteristics of #whitesupremacyculture include perfectionism, sense of urgency, and other attributes you will recognize because we have been taught to believe they are “just human nature.”