Permaculture design is our love.  We can help you see the potential in your garden, and together develop an elegant plan for turning it into an edible ecosystem.  We've been involved in the design process of something in the order of 200 gardens, and are Melbourne's urban permaculture design specialists.

A permaculture inspired design can save you time, money and resources, while producing a bounty of organic food.  The design process is as much about you as it is the land.  We work with your skills, time, taste and budget.  We then consider the soil type, weather exposure, slopes, plants, water and buildings to produce elegantly functional designs which won't just feed you with minimal effort, they'll save you money and improve the quality of your home by cooling your house in summer and letting light through in winter.

Check out some of our permaculture design testimonials.

We have three levels of design consultancy so you can choose whichever best meets your needs.  You can also start with one, then upgrade during the process if you so desire:

• Preliminary Design Consultancy: $650
  
• Initial Design Consultancy: $1150
  
• Full Design Consultancy: $2950

Note: 20% of the design price is refundable if you hire VEG to help with your design implementation.

Option One: Preliminary Design Consultancy

Option One is a preliminary design consultancy, where you contact us to arrange a suitable time for a consultancy visit.  One or two of us arrive, and after saying hello,  we:

1. Sit down with you, and ideally everyone who lives at the site, to discuss your time, energy and financial budgets, what you would like out of the site (e.g., how much and what kinds of food) and what elements you would like included in the design, which might include:
   • Herb gardens supplying food, flavour, tea and medicine
   • Diverse and productive organic vegetable and fruit gardens
   • Compost bays and worm farms
   • Poultry systems
   • Orchards and food forests
   • Maximum efficiency watering systems including tanks
   • Fertility-enhancing tree, plant and animal systems
   • No-dig and raised garden beds using natural contours to full advantage
   • Beautiful and functional mandala and keyhole gardens
   • Ponds for growing water plants and attracting helpful creatures and birds into your garden
   • Wastewater treatment and utalisation systems (e.g., Greywater mulch pits where biologically filtered grey water irrigates fruit tree crops)
   • Native bird habitat
2. Walk around your property without you, observing and assessing the characteristics of the site (e.g., sun, wind, slope, soil, existing vegetation) in an unbiased way
3. Come up with a concept design and rough pencil sketch based on our site analysis and the design brief
4. Re-walk the site with you, sharing our preliminary concept design and inviting your feedback and any prior design ideas you've had
5. Make a basic computer-rendered design diagram that is to scale and that lays out the basic concept design
6. Send a brief five page follow-up report by email summarising our site analysis, design recommendations, and possible next steps

Our fee for this consultancy, which allows one of us to spend up to four person-hours on site and one hour off site, is $650 inc. GST during weekdays or $750 inc. GST during weekends (payable in advance or during the consultancy visit).  For unusually large or complex sites we might suggest you pay us for an extra hour or two.  To save time, we ask that prior to our arriving you consider and complete a list of the things you would like to include in your design and the time you have each week to maintain the system.

Option Two: Initial Design Consultancy

Option Two is our Initial Design Consultancy, in which two of us spend 4 hours on site and one hour off site generating an accurate, to scale base map and design, including particular kinds of plants, the locations and swing directions of any doors or gates, and generally much more detail.  Instead of a five-page report we deliver a 10-15 page report with as much detail as we can pack in.  Our fee for this consultancy is $1150 inc. GST during weekdays or $1250 inc. GST during weekends.  For unusually large or complex sites we might suggest you pay us for an extra hour or two.  These consultancies are our most popular, and we usually conduct two or three each week.  You can see some examples of our initial design consultancy design diagrams here. Note: Occasionally one of us will spend up to eight hours on site rather than two of us for four hours - let us know if you have a preference either way.

Option Three: Full Design Consultancy

If you choose to proceed to the next step, we can prepare a full set of landscaping plans that are coloured, to scale and accurately detail the placement of the different design elements.  What we deliver typically includes:

• a site analysis diagram, showing slope, winter and summer sun angles and prevailing winds
• a detailed, coloured computer-rendered design diagram
• a separate detailed water and irrigation plan
• a 30+ page design report including:
  
  • site analysis
  • site specific system recommendations
  • plant lists
  • time-stepped implementation guides
  • other relevant information

Essentially the design report is a manual tailored specifically to the permaculture-based transformation of your property.  We are also happy to answer questions and talk you through the implementation of the design over time.  Depending on the time required, our minimum fee for this service is $2950 inc. GST (Most designs don't exceed this price, but larger, more complex or more distant sites will cost more).