What’s better for your homestead dreams?
DIY, or hire a permaculture designer?
Here’s how to pick your path
Designing your homestead is exciting, but can also be rather overwhelming. Many face the dilemma if they should DIY or hire a permaculture designer for the process. Once you’ve found your property, whether it’s a small urban lot or several acres of countryside, the big question becomes: where do you begin?
Where do you put everything? Is the orchard better uphill or downhill? Should the chicken coop be near the garden or separately? How do you work with slopes, drainage, or shade? How do you manage to water everything sufficiently? And most importantly, how does everything link together in this complex ecological system you’re planning to become a part of?
Permaculture gives us a framework for answering those questions. And when it comes to actually creating a plan, you have two main choices.
There’s no right or wrong…
A) Hire a professional permaculture designer to guide the process.
B) Take the DIY route and become your own designer.
„Traditional agriculture was labour intensive, industrial agriculture is energy intensive, and permaculture-designed systems are information and design intensive.”
David Holmgren
For the visionaries who want expert guidance to bring ideas to life:
Hire a Permaculture Designer
Teamwork approach
Sometimes, bringing in a professional is the best investment you can make for your homestead. Designers are trained to read landscapes, identify hidden opportunities, and spot potential problems before they become headaches. If you don’t have the time, money or energy capacity for doing it all by yourself, if it seems too complex or overwhelming to even start, or if you want to make sure that the plan is well-thought-out, hiring a professional permaculture designer will be worth it for you.
If you’re someone who doesn’t want to spend years with preparations, and just want to have an ready-to-use, productive and lush land to enjoy over the coming years, it’s a great choice to reach out to a designer to get things rolling.
A good designer acts as a facilitator, listening to your dreams while grounding them in the realities of your land. The result is a plan that saves you time, money, and frustration. A plan, that shows you the clear path how your vision can be reality in the most optimal way. If this is what you seek, then the answer to “DIY or hire a permaculture designer”, is the latter.
Hiring a permaculture designer
Benefits
- Efficiency. A designer accelerates the process and helps you avoid beginner’s mistakes. They will show you the most efficient timeline and methods of implementation, so you don’t have to work redundantly.
- Clarity. They turn your vision into a concrete, phased plan that feels manageable. They oversee the complexity and understand the big picture, so they will know exactly how it’s feasible to fit your vision into the environment, by working with nature no against it.
- Problem-solving. Complex sites with steep slopes, drainage issues, or poor soils benefit from expert guidance, as they already have a pool of tried and tested solutions to apply in each scenario, tailored to your specific case. They will turn your problems into solutions, so the landscaping will feel effortless.
- Peace of mind. By hiring a trusted permaculture designer, you know your plan is rooted in years of experience and training. You can trust that you’ll end up with high-quality results.
Hiring a permaculture designer
Challenges
- Cost. Professional design services can be a significant investment. Some charge per hour, some per m2, but either case, expect a price that reflects not only the time and effort spent on the design, but also the depth of scientific and ecological knowledge they must apply to each unique property, which carries real value.
- Fit matters. Not every designer aligns with your communication style or goals. Some designers focus purely on ecological function, while others also weave in aesthetics. Some are more technical, others more nature-focused. And while some stay involved through implementation, others provide only the design. Hiring a designer who doesn’t match your goals can result in disappointment.
- Less direct learning. You gain less trial-and-error experience compared to designing yourself. Many designers include some amount of education as part of their services, but this may not be suitable for everyone.
Steps to start
Working with a designer
01
Clarify your needs
Do you want a full master plan, just a planting design, or a consultation?
02
Do your homework
Look for designers with permaculture certification and relevant experience.
03
Define the scope
Make sure it’s clear whether they’ll deliver a plan only, or also manage installation.
04
Find your match
Make sure you and your designer have the same values, and that they match your goals and vision well. We’re here for support, let’s chat!
05
Communicate clearly
Share your goals, budget, and expectations up front to avoid surprises.
06
Commit, and be available.
Don’t forget, that the better you are as partners, the more tailored the design can be.
Let’s start working together now!
For the curious minds and self-starters, who love to learn by doing:
Become your own designer
DIY Approach
Many homesteaders are natural DIY-ers. If you grew up in in a similar environent, you may already know how to garden, raise animals, or preserve food. The challenge is weaving all these pieces together into a cohesive system. Let’s not forget, when working with ecosystems, seeing the big picture is essential, although the complexity of it might be intimidating.
Even if you’re a newbie to this lifestyle, maybe you prefer to learn by experimenting yourself, and you don’t mind investing time and energy into this journey. I have seen inspiring examples of people who chose this path, transitioning to practicing permaculture from a whole other profession, and now, after years of trial and error, they truly became pros.
If all this sounds exciting to you, then the answer to the question “DIY or hire a permaculture designer”, is diy.
DIY permaculture design
Benefits
- It can be cost-effective. If you do it well alone, you can save money by skipping consultation and design fees. Keep in mind, that the fixing of implemented mistakes might cost more than the initial help itself, so make sure you are well-prepared and confident!
- Hands-on learning. Designing your land yourself teaches you skills that last a lifetime, and you will be an expert problem-solver. You’ll get to become a “professional amateur” on a wide-range of talents, from knowing botany, through running machinery, to understanding community dynamics, and this can be hella exciting to some people.
- Creative freedom. Every decision is yours, and you have the liberty to change it up frequently, experiment, try new ideas, and adjust as you go. This long-term project can grow with you, and become your very personal art piece, with Nature as your medium.
DIY permaculture design
Challenges
- Steeper learning curve. Reading landscapes and designing efficient layouts takes time. If you have no previous experience with environmental or landscaping work, understanding the complexity of natural processes in depth might take some effort.
- Potential mistakes. Poor placement of water features, gardens, or infrastructure can be costly to fix later. Although listening to feedbacks of a system and adapting to changing conditions is an important part of every permaculture design no matter how well-thought-out, it’s the matter of how grave this adjustment will need to be.
- Slower progress. It may take years of trial and error before your system runs smoothly. If you have no time to spare, and you have a deadline until which you want to have a productive and established garden, DIY might not be the most optimal for you.
Steps to start
a DIY permaculture design
01
Observe
Spend time watching how sun, shade, wind, and water move across your property. Most suggest to follow-along a one-year cycle, to see how the summer heat and drought, and the winter frost and precipitation specifically affects the land.
02
Map
Sketch your land and mark features like structures, slopes, paths, trees, and drainage. Here are the maps you should always make for a permaculture design.
03
Clarify goals
Decide whether you want to work towards mostly food production, a retreat space, or you name it. Make it specific, collect pictures for inspiration.
04
Learn permaculture principles
Books, courses, and practice will guide your design thinking. Make sure you know both the general core theory of permaculture, and also the more specifically related skills to your vision. Start here!
05
Make the plan
Draw your ideas on a map, come up with specific plant and animal species you wish to have, map out how everything interacts, make a schedule for implementation, plan ahead for budget and work-phases.
06
Work in stages
Start small with high-use areas like gardens, compost, or any urgent repairs before tackling larger projects. Then, work from birds-eye view to bugs-eye view: establish the larger vegetation and finally get into the details and small adjustments.
Let’s see…
Which Path Is Best for You?
A summary
So, what shall it be: DIY or hire a permaculture designer? The decision isn’t about right or wrong, it’s about what fits your situation.
Choose DIY if you currently have more time than money, enjoy hands-on learning, and want to build your design skills over the long term.
Choose a designer if you’d rather invest money to save time, want to avoid costly mistakes, or if your property presents challenges you don’t feel ready to solve on your own.
Some homesteaders actually blend the two approaches: hiring a designer for a consultation or master plan, then taking over the implementation and ongoing tweaks themselves. Teamwork can also mean hosting community events, where volunteers help out in exchange of knowledge and experience. Each option works – all I wish for you is to get started! 😉
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