Cultivate a more regenerative, resilient and abundant life
Making it Real
Empowering you to live a more sustainable lifestyle, with permaculture and garden design that meets your human needs, while enhancing ecosystem health.
Create a vision, be inspired, take action.
Whether you’re here to build the garden of your dreams, learn more about regenerative landscaping, gain food security or become a permaculturist yourself, we’re here to make it real for you.
We are here to facilitate a conversation between what you need and what the landscape needs, so you can cultivate an environment that works for you and strengthens your land. We give you and your community the tools and experience you need to create practical, achievable projects to enhance ecosystem health and build resilient, regenerative and abundant lives.
“Savour Soil visited us on a number of occasions, taking observations of the property, our lifestyle, and asking many questions. Most importantly, they listened to our dreams and goals and also took into account our limitations, particularly as we are time-poor, and provided a report that will help us create a garden that will feed our family and look after itself in an energy-efficient way.
So the overall outcome was a property report that will help us achieve our goals and break them down so they are not as overwhelming. Savour Soil’s knowledge has provided us with a 25-year plan of growing our own food, educating our children and enjoying our property. They have been so approachable and eager to answer our questions and design our garden our way. We wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Savour Soil for anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding of permaculture, or anyone seeking holistic advice on how best to feed their own family from their garden.”
– Megan and Jacob
One-on-One Permaculture Consultations
Bring Permaculture to your home
Savour Soil works with you, one-on-one, to bring you further along the permaculture journey, with practical advice for transforming your land into an abundant and resilient ecosystem for generations to come.
In-person visits across South East Queensland and online consultations are available.
Custom Garden Design
Design a Garden You’ll Love
ExNihilo Gardens will help create something from nothing in your own backyard, by combining food-producing plants alongside ornamental plants for aesthetically pleasing designs. Enjoy the freshness and flavour of home-grown fruits and veggies no matter the size or style of your garden.
Hands-on Permaculture Courses & Garden Workshops
Create a Permaculture Vision
Savour Soil aims to create a diverse, interactive, hands-on and exciting learning environment through our fun permaculture courses and garden workshops held throughout the year.
Our courses are based on dynamic processes and activities, immersing participants in their own permaculture journey, helping you make your permaculture dreams real.
“A huge thank you for your time and knowledge today, and for your patience answering our many questions. It was just so inspiring. Greg and I both said afterwards that your fee was one of the best uses of our money – ever!”
– Helen & Greg
Create a Permaculture Vision & Take Action
Hands-on permaculture courses and garden workshops
Savour Soil aims to create a diverse, interactive, hands-on and exciting learning environment through our fun permaculture courses and garden workshops held throughout the year.
Our courses are based on dynamic processes and activities, immersing participants in their own permaculture journey, helping you make your permaculture dreams real.
We are always updating and adding new courses and workshops so check back regularly for more.
Or join our mailing list to always be kept up to date on what’s happening at Savour Soil.
Permaculture Design Course online
The Savour Soil Permaculture Design Course online is committed to turning you into a better designer for your life. The learning outcomes for this course have been built around the design framework to achieve this goal. Come delve into Holistic Decision Making, Permaculture Design and Keyline Design as an ordering framework to not only read our landscapes but design for a transformative future.
“I first encountered Savour Soil around five years ago, when I was getting more involved with my readings around Permaculture. I first enrolled in the ‘Permaculture Primer – An Introduction to Permaculture Course and realized that this was answering a lot of the questions that I had in my mind. Since then I have completed many courses with Michael and he has become a good friend and mentor.
I really do appreciate the time and effort that Savour Soil puts into planning and implementing their courses. They are well structured with well-researched information and experience rich.
I would recommend the services and educational courses offered by Savour Soil. I have always come away highly energised and motivated from his workshops!”
– John Mitchell
During this course you will:
- Take part in presentations, slideshows, site tours, exercises, games, facilitated group discussions and other learning strategies.
- See permaculture in action.
- Build skills with hands-on classes, practical activities and implementations.
- Learn from professionals – designers, community organisers who are living the process of design, not just teaching about it. We live in the systems we create, continually receiving insights and feedback to deepen our understanding of natural and designed systems.
- Learn about and use ecological design processes, which has you create a vision, learn to comprehend the landscape and use the scale of permanence to catalogue data and develop a design. This process will give you a step by step approach to applying the design principles of permaculture.
- Get the attention you need. More time for questions, conversations, and personal attention from the educators, to dive deeper into a subject or discuss personal projects you are working on
- Design from day one and all through the course rather than just an end exercise.
- Connect with others and build community.
- Devote four months to study and live permaculture. We like to take our time going over the course material, with plenty of time for hands-on activities, group process and design, building community and fun.
- Receive continued support after the course.
- Receive discounts on future courses and the possibility of earning credit by referring future permaculture design course students.
Limited to 40 participants
Cost: Full Price: $500+GST, Deposit $300
If you would like us to facilitate a Permaculture Design Course for your organisation or community, please get in touch. We believe in applying what we know to your local context for the best possible results.
Gain the confidence you need to tackle your own designs with
the Savour Soil Permaculture Design Course
WHAT IS INCLUDED IN YOUR COURSE FEE?
- 16 weeks of dynamic facilitation.
- Massive amount of online resources.
- online modules to help support extra learning,
- Appropriate Permaculture Text Book,
- Permaculture Design Companion template (value $200)
- Tote bag
- Community and a sense of FUN!
Or join our mailing list to always be kept up to date on what’s happening at Savour Soil.
Serious Backyard Abundance
TBA
Do you want to grow incredibly abundant fruit & vegetables in your backyard?
In this workshop, we will explore the mysteries of the garden. Plants were grown for many purposes—Food, Fibre, Fertility, Insectary, Nectary, Climate, Flowers, Privacy, etc.
We’ll discuss the intensive soil preparation for close planting and continuous cropping, and the growth and care of fruits and vegetables & orchard ecosystem. You will gain invaluable knowledge on the establishment, as well as the ongoing maintenance of a thriving backyard system. We will demystify the necessary art everybody should know about the workings abundant backyard from soil biology to health management. This is something anyone with space and desire can do – given knowledge and a commitment to observe the teachings from natural systems. We will be spending time on the design for productivity as well and experience of place—some call it edible landscaping and production for much or all of the year.
An abundant grower knows that producing fruit is not about manipulating nature but more importantly, fostering nature.
Join us for 3 days of hands-on knowledge, tips and tricks on how to grow genuinely incredible backyard fruit & veggies using serious backyard techniques.
This class is divided between classroom and time in the garden.
You will leave this course with a competent working knowledge of how to begin the journey to improve your veggie garden, as well as seeds, planners and lots of resources.
in this course you will learn:
- Vegetable garden design, and placement
- Plants and seasons
- Soil relationships
- Nutrient cycling for the backyard – worms, compost, compost teas
- Applying strategies for a healthy soil in a backyard context
- Garden Ferments – Witchy brews to improve garden health
- Raising great seedlings
- Preparing garden beds for planting
- Develop garden to-do lists + crop rotations for serious backyard abundance.
TBA on where, dates and times
Food Forests with Michael Wardle
Saturday | 30th September 2023 – Northey Street Farm
10am – 11.30am
Join us at the Farm for this short but informative workshop on food forests!
A food forest is a diverse planting of edible and useful perennials that mimic patterns and relationships. Food forests are considered to have from three to seven layers, with a canopy of tall nut or fruit trees, several layers of smaller trees and shrubs, and an understory of beneficial ground covers.
This workshop will take you through the successional process of designing your own food forest.
Where: Northey Street City Farm
Dates: Saturday, 30th September 2023
Times: 10am- 11.30am
The Basics Of Bees
Saturday 30th September 2023 12.30pm-2pm
Join us at the Farm as we talk bees in this exciting & affordable new workshop format!
Come and learn the hard and fast of what it takes to manage bees, how important they are to our gardens, the joys and some hard lessons learned in beekeeping.
We will be talking from experience, exploring equipment, and we will look at the management required to steward bees.
Come along & get buzzed with us!
Where: Northey Street City Farm
Dates: Saturday 30th September
Times: 12.30pm – 2pm
Planning For Abundance
Saturday, 14th October 2023 – Northey Street Farm
10am to 11.30am
Join us at the Farm for this short but informative workshop on planning for abundance in your garden!
Come learn how we can, through simple planning and design, maximise what we are growing in our space so that we can not only save time in the management, but know what to do when, and plan for the why.
Where: Northey Street City Farm
Dates: Saturday, 14th October 2023
Times: 10am- 11.30am
Permaculture Design Workshop using Inkscape:
Creating Sustainable Landscapes Digitally
Online
4 Sundays | 29th October, 5th, 12th and 19th November 2023
6pm to 7pm
Join us for an engaging and informative workshop on the art of permaculture design using the versatile vector graphics software Inkscape. Permaculture is a holistic approach to designing ecosystems that are sustainable, regenerative, and harmonious with nature.
This online workshop will explore applying permaculture design principles to digitally create functional and beautiful landscapes, harnessing Inkscape’s creative tools.
During this workshop, participants will learn the fundamental concepts of permaculture design and how to translate these ideas into visal representations using Inkscape.
Where: Online
Dates: 29th October, 5th,12th and 19th November – Sundays
Times: 6pm- 7pm
Cost: $100 + GST
Fundamentals of Food Forestry
Online
6 Fridays | 27th October, 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th November & 1st December
6pm to 9pm
Online
WEEK 1:
The Fundamentals of Food Forestry
Assessment of Landscape Through a Permaculture Lens
Food Forest Visioning & Goal Setting
Mapping of the Site
Water Flow, Soil Preparation and potential Earthworks
Site Succession
The Canopy Layers: Nut, Timber, Fruit trees & Animals
Planting Patterns, Succession Planning
The Middle Layers: Small Trees, Shrubs, Vines
Soil Builders & Nitrogen Fixers
The Ground Layers: Herbaceous Perennials, Herbs, Pollinator Plants.
Interplanting Annuals
Integrating Small Animals
Implementation & Management
Dates: Friday 27th – 1st December
Times: 6pm to 9pm
Cost: $300 plus GST
Each session will be recorded for the participants.
Introduction to Permaculture
Sat-Sun | 25th & 26th November 2023 – Northey Street Farm
9am to 4pm
Join us for two days to learn the basics of permaculture design!
This course tackles how to grow food, build houses and create communities, and minimize environmental impact at the same time. It aims to inspire and empower you to use permaculture design in your everyday life.
Permaculture principles are being constantly developed and refined by people throughout the world, and the course evolves with that learning.
Over the two days you will learn the history, various definitions, design process, ethics, principles, other design tools and case studies from a range of applications.
This course will cover:
℘ What is Permaculture?
℘ Permaculture Ethics and Design Principles
℘ Soil Basics
℘ Composting for beginners
℘ Food Production (forest gardens and garden farming)
℘ Basic Design Framework
℘ Integrated Animal Systems
℘ Social Permaculture
What you get…
℘ 2 days of dynamic facilitation and on-ground learning.
℘ Practical examples of permaculture in action
℘ Design and gardening strategies to apply in both your inner & physical landscape.
See you there!
Where: Northey Street City Farm
Dates: Saturday & Sunday 25th, 26th November 2023
Times: 9am to 4pm each day
Fundamentals of Food Forestry online
TBA
A food forest is a diverse planting of edible and useful perennials that mimic patterns and relationships. Food forests are considered to have from three to seven layers, with a canopy of tall nut or fruit trees, several layers of smaller trees and shrubs, and an understory of beneficial ground covers. These multi-layered spaces allow you to fit a wide range of annual and perennials in a small area. Creating symbiotic relationships between elements produces a high yield of food and resources over the long term with minimal inputs. Food forests can be performing many ecological functions. They are considered one of the most regenerative and resilient production systems for a changing world.
This course will take you through the successional process of designing your own food forest. Each week, we will have three hours of learning and resources and videos to continue our education throughout the week. The class is limited to engage in group discussions and receiving support on your individual designs. People of all levels of experience are welcome. It is suggested that you have a few additional hours each week to work on your own design and some homework to get the most out of the course.
You will leave the course with the fundamentals of food forestry, a food forest design, as well as a guide for how to implement it.
Course Overview:
WEEK 1:
- The Fundamentals of Food Forestry
- Assessment of Landscape Through a Permaculture Lens
- Food Forest Visioning & Goal Setting
WEEK 2:
- Mapping of the Site
- Water Flow, Soil Preparation and potential Earthworks
- Site Succession
WEEK 3:
- The Canopy Layers: Nut, Timber, Fruit trees & Animals
- Planting Patterns, Succession Planning
WEEK 4:
- The Middle Layers: Small Trees, Shrubs, Vines
- Soil Builders & Nitrogen Fixers
WEEK 5:
- The Ground Layers: Herbaceous Perennials, Herbs, Pollinator Plants.
- Interplanting Annuals
- Integrating Small Animals
WEEK 6:
- Design Presentations & Feedback
- Breaking Down Your Design into Implementation Phases
- Resources for Continued Learning
Where: TBA
Dates: TBA
Times: TBA
Cost: $300 + GST
Introduction to Garden Ferments – Witchy Brews
TBA
Come join us as we explore how we can increase the resilience and productivity of our gardens by applying what we learn from nature.
Garden fermenting is the process of cultivating local Microorganisms through simple, natural, and affordable methods. Garden fermenting, both aerobic and anaerobic, allows gardeners to create all organic and high-grade living fertilizers for our gardens.
In this course, we will look at where these ideas have come from and how they can be applied. This will include how to make some of the ferments and how to apply them.
This class is designed to enable anyone to become a microbial gardener.
Michael has been applying these ferments in his gardens for over 12 years and talks from experience on not only how we can create these ferments, but how we can use them also for maximum affect.
Where: TBC
Compost for soil regeneration –
Half day workshop
TBC
Where: TBC
Dates: TBC
Times: TBC
We have always been flexible in our workshop models and if you would like us to facilitate a workshop for your organisation or community, please get in touch!
“The course is by far the best I have ever done and I have qualifications coming out of my ears. You are a sensitive and thoughtful instructor/facilitator and each session is a bloody work of art in terms of design, resourcing, and experiential learning (and 2 of my quals are in education). The venues, especially your home provide a beautiful backdrop, demonstration of principles, and mix of social and quiet spaces for contemplation (ie sneaking into the greenhouse and nicking a tomato)”
-Rowena, 2019
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