permaculture

[yarrow@sfo.com]

I have seen a small example of remote group design consults on the 
old gardenweb's Garden Design forum (I don't know if it's still 
working, because it's become so bloated with ads that it's difficult 
to access). People would send a photo of, say, a front yard to the 
forum and ask for design suggestions. Replies ranged from simple 
plant suggestions to photoshopped redesigns. Some of the suggestions 
were quite detailed. Occasionally someone would send in a plot plan 
(or a link to it). Because the purpose of the forum was to discuss 
landscape design, quite a few designers participated, though they 
rarely spent time offering detailed suggestions.

Ultimately, though, I got a sense that most people who asked for 
advice would do better to hire a local designer. Even when the advice 
was good, it seemed its main purpose was to help the person ask 
better questions. That's partly because someone who has not seen the 
site and spends 10 minutes or an hour thinking about the site, based 
on a photo and a short description, simply cannot offer the same 
level of design as someone who has been to the site and has 
concentrated for several hours, working out design alternatives. 
(It's not as reckless as a senator/physician offering a diagnosis on 
a patient he has never met or examined as a PR photo op, though.)

A remote group design consult could be useful, I think, if the person 
asking had pretty much worked out the design and had a few specific 
questions.

As far as a one-to-one paid consult, my main concern would be 
developing an accurate site map. Videos and other 2D representations 
can go only so far. Half an hour on the site, and I could see the 
views, solar aspect, slope, drainage, etc. I could notice where weeds 
were growing, what they were, how healthy they looked. I'd get a 
sense of how the site fit into the surrounding landscape, and get a 
sense of the spirit of the place.

If anyone has successfully done a site map without visiting the site, 
I'd be curious to learn how it was done.



At 8:00 PM -0500 1/13/07, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
....If I needed a landscape design for my yard or a permaculture 
design for my homestead
> food production system I could seek the appropriate person(s) in the 
> system and propose exchanges of goods for services.

> ....The Web end of things could be a combined website, blog and 
> wiki, maybe even webforum and/or mailing list.
>
> Could this be set up and would it work?