- Design 5: Plant database for Iso-orvokkiniitty
I am presenting my Design 5 as a video. I published the first 42 minutes version on 22.1.2023. Based on the discussions with my mentor I tweaked it into the 2nd version with more reflection about the design process and publish to on 1.3.2023. The length of the video doubled but I am running it in YouTube at 15% extra speed so now it is just less than an hour. […]
- Design 3: Caring for Bees
This is the third design in my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design Portfolio. Again I published it before it was final – feel free to comment. First published 3.5.2022 (there will be an edit log in the end of the article). There are quite a few changes in content and structure after we went through the design with my tutor in June. My aim is to finalise the design in […]
- Design 2: Buildings and Energy systems
I am publishing this article on 10.2.2022 but as usual it is not final. I have written the Vision, Needs, Observations of the current situation, Evaluated how it works and possibilities to tweak. I have decided on a tweak but need to reflect on other possible routes to take. So here I need a pause, and I will probably leave this design for a while. This article is building heavily […]
- House
I published this article first in Finnish on iso-orvokkiniitty.fi on 4.1.2021. Here I used Google Translate for translation which worked surprisingly well (you could actually use Google translate to read our Finnish articles and mostly make sense of them). I have corrected obvious translation errors and done small updates but basically the text is as the original text. In the summer and autumn of 2013, the decision matured for us […]
- Design 1: Water and making ponds
I am starting to write this on 8.6.2021 as the first actual design in my Diploma work at Iso-orvokkiniitty. In this design I am combining Water (a main system) and Planning Area PA-7: The Pond (a main planning area) and whatever other ponds we plan, into the same design. So I will proceed with the OBREDIMET process. I am publishing this design here on my Diploma web-site for the first […]
- My Permaculture Design Pathway
My path to the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design (DPA) Content Background The Design Framework Vision My Permaculture Design Matrix Yeomans’ Keyline Scale of Permanence Planetary Boundaries Permaculture Ethics Permaculture Design Principles The way forward: the sub-designs The Permaculture Pathway Background I have done my PDC course in France at Le Ferme du Bec Hellouine in August and September 2014. I have reported about the course in Finnish in our blog […]
- Vision and Purpose 1.
Family meeting in 2014 (post first written 11.6.2021) In March 2014 we gathered together at our home in Espoo with our kids. We had found Iso-orvokkiniitty in February and had decided to buy it if possible. We wanted to know what our children thought about it and what ideas or wishes they might have. We made a mind-map together which you can see on the right. The mind-map consists mainly […]
- EVALUATION AND SITE ANALYSIS 4: THE MAIN ELEMENTS AND SYSTEMS
Prelude This article will be a little different because I think I need to tell what I planned to do and started doing but didn’t finalise. Maybe this chapter is not really a part of the design but it is a part of my design path. Anyway I am publishing it now on 5.5.2021 but I am pretty sure I will come back to it for editing. In the previous […]
- EVALUATION AND SITE ANALYSIS 3: PLANNING AREAS
If you have read through the previous 3 articles about the site (see above) and 60 DEGREES NORTH, 23 EAST you should have a pretty good picture of where we are and what has happened so far (until January 2021). In this article I will analyse the site from one more perspective: what are the different planning areas we should look at either as a part of the master design […]
- Evaluation and site analysis 2: Zones
In most cases you will see that zones come before sectors in permaculture design. I felt more comfortable doing it the other way round as sectors are purely observations and zones already include an element of design and they relate directly to what we are doing in our site rather than what natural forces are at play. Still describing zones in a site is in the first stage about observation […]
- Evaluation and site analysis 1: Sectors
In my first PD article I described our natural geographic situation so it would be easier for the reader to understand where we are, from a natural, geographic and climatic point of view. In the second article I tried to describe ”where we came from” i.e. the historical background of the place and region. In this third article I am still in observation mode with sectors and after that will follow zones. […]
- Iso-orvokkiniitty: the site
This article is part of Erkki’s Permaculture Diploma Portfolio. Part of it was written already in 2015 when I first started writing our permaculture design. Of course a lot has happened after that and I have updated it to today’s situation. In my first PD article I described our natural geographic situation so it would be easier for the reader to understand where we are from a natural, geographic and […]
- Diploma Diary
I am keeping this diary – which I started on 12.1.2020 – as a web-site page instead of a blog posting. It is open for anyone to read if interested in my Permaculture Diploma path. As such it is an appendix to my DPA Mainpage and quite “deep” in the web-site. No need for it to jump up on social media. I am writing it backwards so if you want […]
- Karjalohja: the location and connecting to history
Karjalohja Karjalohja, where Iso-orvokkiniitty is located, is situated in the western Uusimaa region 85 km west of Helsinki, south of the main E18 motorway between Helsinki and Turku. From Iso-orvokkiniitty it is 70 minutes drive to Helsinki. The closest town and the municipality to which Karjalohja belongs is Lohja to the east which has a population of 47000. The former Karjalohja municipality (merged to Lohja in 2013) has roughly 1500 inhabitants […]
- 60 degrees North, 23 East
Our coordinates at Iso-orvokkiniitty in Karjalohja are lat 60° 13.985′ lon 23° 41.966’. So we are in South-West Finland 85 km west from Helsinki. 60° North is pretty north if you look at the world map. Apart from Helsinki and southern Finland, other places that are roughly at 60° North are Stockholm (59°), Oslo (59°), St Petersburg (60°) and Anchorage (61°). However if you would travel around the world on the 60° latitude […]
- Erkki: Courses, workshops and study trips relevant to permaculture
=> Courses, workshops, visits attended = receiving <= Courses, workshops, visits given = sharing (“with Erkki” means he was the main teacher) 2014 => I have done my PDC in France at Le Ferme du Bec Hellouine in August and September 2014. I have reported about the course in Finnish in our blog at that time (pre-course, 1st week, 2nd week). 2015 => 7.3.2015: Keynote speech (Expo West, Anaheim) by Paul Stamets […]