We began this course series of classes exploring what permaculture is and its promise. Rafter Sass Ferguson’s article described the facets of the permaculture movement and how it fits in within multiple academic disciplines.

Throughout the course you are encouraged to think big and dream up your ideal site. Your final design needs to be inspired by these ideas.

As we finish the program I would like to offer a few well-written pieces to prepare you for the hard work ahead in post design/implementation/evaluation phases. The permaculture movement and our society as a whole needs more on-the-ground, functioning examples of permaculture design.

This course’s heavy focus on assessment and design tries to be more focused on science, evidence, and contextual observations in the hope that more students will create realistic examples of permaculture’s potential.

These articles highlight some myths or misconceptions that can lead to failure. Failure is fine if you can recover and adapt. Learning how experienced permaculture designers identify problems of permaculture’s perception and practice can lead to your success in the long term.

• Grayson, Russ. 2019. “The 11 Shortcomings Of Permaculture.” Medium. https://web.archive.org/web/20200328135027/ https://medium.com/permaculture-3-0/the-11-shortcomings-of-permaculture-da421bd5ea9d.
• Stone, Curtis. 2018. “What Permaculture Got Wrong — Dispelling Five Common Myths.” Medium. https://web.archive.org/web/20200328133920/ https://medium.com/@urbanfarmercstone/what-permaculture-got-wrong-dispelling-five-common-myths-e904d570db70.
• Owen, Ann. 2014. “The Trouble With Permaculture - Resilience.” Resilience. https://web.archive.org/web/20200328144712/ https://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-01-23/the-trouble-with-permaculture/.