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  • From: yarrow@sfo.com
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] remote design consults, was Re:The Long Emergency and Financial Planning
  • Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 21:38:59 -0800

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?




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