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Hello fellow permaculturists,

Thank you for subscribing to Permaculture Apprentice.
If youre considering what Geoff Lawton would call crossing the line, making it work financially is likely to
be pretty high on your list of concerns. How will you manage without a salary? How can you live the good
life while still paying the bills?
I wrote this free guide to help people like you make the transition from a 9-5 job to a profitable permaculture farm.
But before we get into the gist of it, I have to congratulate you. Most people will dream about making a living from permaculture, but will never do anything about it. You, on the other hand, have taken action.
By joining the Permaculture Apprentice newsletter, you have taken an important step towards living the
good life.
My goal is to do everything I can to help you make it happen. For many people, starting a farm and making it
profitable is the best way to do it. Thats what this guide is all about.
This e-book is a collection of tips from people who crossed the line successfully; insights from books, interviews, and podcasts. In this FREE PDF, Ill reveal the EXACT strategy they suggest to make a living from
permaculture.
Ill share the 5 year guide to creating a profitable farming enterprise
Starting from No Idea, No Expertise & No Money.
More specifically, in this free e-book, youll learn:
1.What you should be doing before getting into farming
2.How to acquire skills and what to learn first
3.Strategies on finding and buying the land
4 What to focus on first once you have the land
5. Strategies on building an early cashflow and starting a business
And much more.
I hope you enjoy this guide.
William

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www. permacultureapprentice.com

INTROSPECTION AND LIVING FRUGAL

Before committing to this kind of lifestyle, you should first know if you like it or not. There is no better way
to find this out than volunteering and spending some time on a farm. Try joining the WWOOF community
and finding the type of farm that suits you. Once youve done some work on the farm, youll know exactly
what to expect.
Jean-Martin Fortier, the Market Gardener, actually suggests working a whole season on the farm, so you
get the full experience. Heres why a lot of people idealise working on a farm and just dont know how
much work actually goes into running one. By trying it out first, you know exactly what youre getting into
and there are no surprises. You cant move forward before you take this crucial step.
The second thing you should do is decide what makes you happy, with or without having a farm. Sound
silly? Its not. If you think that having a farm will make you happy, think again, because waiting for some
future event to make you happy is a trap many of us fall into. While what makes you happy is subject to your
own personal situation, I can sure tell you what will make you unhappy and depressed: a sense of not having
control over your life.
After a little bit of introspection, its time to put your money where your mouth is as you get to the frugal
part of the equation. This is a five year timeline, so there is no time to waste. You need to save some
serious money and, according to Mark Sheppard, start building your credit score.
Let me explain. When Mark was asked how he bought his 100 acre farm, he replied: by building my credit
score over time and getting a loan from the bank eventually. So, youll need to start building your credit
score and saving as much as you can. How much? Well, it depends on how much you really want your farm.
Jacob Fisker, who wrote the book Early Retirement Extreme, managed to become financially independent
in five years by saving 70% of his income and cutting his expenses.
Im not suggesting you should be that extreme, but if he can become financially independent in five years,
you can sacrifice some of your income for your dream. There are three big categories in a normal household
budget that need to be severely modified to make significant savings. These are housing, transportation and
food. In my experience, paying less for the rent has been the biggest piece of the significant savings cake,
followed by preparing your own meals and using public transport to get around.
Action Steps:
- Find a farm through the WWOOF network and gain hands on farming experience
- Decide what makes you happy, with or without having a farm one day
- Start saving and lowering your costs; learn about finance and build your credit score

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RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND PLANNING

In the second year, its time to learn some essential skills. You can do this by going to workshops and taking
courses or if you want to be even more efficient in acquiring skills and knowledge in a short time, find mentors and learn from them. If you cant find a mentor for free, consider paying them for their time as much as
you would pay for a workshop or a course.
There is so much to learn in the world of permaculture and regenerative agriculture, but timing is more important than just throwing money at the knowledge you might use only later down the line.
Heres what I mean Diego from Permaculture Voices calls this just in time learning. You learn what
you need to when you need to. Dont try to learn everything youre going to do in year 4 or 5 before you
have even started. For starting out its enough to know one of the most useful skills that you can use
straight away: plant propagation.
You dont need a diploma in Earthmoving if you wont use that knowledge immediately. You will, however,
work with a lot of plants and knowing how to propagate them will save you lots of money when starting
out. For example, equipped with that knowledge, you can start a small nursery at your own place tomorrow
by using Mark Shepards 5 gallon bucket or propagation beds. Its incredible how many plants you can grow
in just 10x10 m. How about 1,000? Yep, you can have 1,000 trees waiting to be planted even before you have
your land.
Next, you should define your goals and decide what scale you want to manage; is it a homestead or a farm?
A simple formula that might help you decide is: the bigger the land, the bigger the equipment needed
and the greater the expenses and start-up costs. However, there is more opportunity for making money on
broad acres. The scale will also determine your main source of income and how close to your potential market you should be. In this phase, basic planning and a basic business plan are essential.
When you know what your goals are and what kind of lifestyle you would like, begin searching for the land
tailored to your needs. Geographic location is the most important. It will determine your climate, land shape,
water supply and proximity to potential customers. Ideally it should be 1-2 hours away from where you live.
The idea is to go to the land frequently during the weekends, as there will be a lot of work attached to it in
the transitional period.
Usually, land not considered prime agricultural land will offer a good bargain, as it cheaper but still has a
lot of potential and can be improved by using regenerative agriculture techniques. Here is an example: Cliff
Davis from Spiral Ridge Permaculture bought a clearcut piece of land. He said one of the biggest
challenges was no microorganisms or fungi in the soil. But steadily over time, he regenerated the land.
By improving the land, youre adding value and later on its worth more. Even if you dont start a farm there,
just by planting and regenerating you are already making a return on your investment.
Action Steps:
- Invest in essential skills; find workshops, courses and mentors
- Learn plant propagation and start a small nursery at your current location
- Define your goals and decide what scale you would like to manage
- Find a property: look for an affordable bare plot of land that you can improve and add value to
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BUYING A PROPERTY, OBSERVATION AND

BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE WORKS
Equipped with knowledge and ready to pull the trigger, this is the point of no return. Remember that I suggested you build your credit score and save as much as you can? Well, heres why. Land is expensive and in
this five-year timeline there is simply not enough time to save enough money for the land.
Cheap money, low interest rates and inflation are pushing real estate prices to record highs while our wages
are staying the same. So one thing is clear: if you want to own a piece of land now and not in 20 years, youll
just have to borrow money from the bank. If you have ever wondered how your permaculture idols acquired
their land, guess what? Probably by believing in their success, leveraging with borrowed money and taking calculated risks in the beginning. Im not saying that borrowing from bank or buying on debt is right or
wrong, Im just pointing out what has worked for others. So, basically you either have money or time. Money
saves time and makes things move quicker.
Once you acquire an affordable piece of barren land youll need temporary accommodation, something like
a camper. Depending on your possibilities and preferences, you might want to start out with a lower tech
solution like a yurt or a teepee. That way, youll have a place to stay during your weekend visits and escapes
from the city job. Campers are maybe the more ideal solution as they have basic amenities built in and, being mobile, you can move them as needed throughout the property.
I have seen several different approaches to temporary accommodation. For example Nick and Kirsten from
Milkwood Permaculture used a camper, as did Geoff Lawton. Cliff Davis built a small cabin for his family,
while Jean-Martin Fortier lived for two years in a teepee on his site. So you get the idea, building a house in
this stage is not a priority. It can get very expensive and you will have other, more important, expenses in the
beginning.
During the stays in your temporary accommodation, use this first year to observe the site. Analyse what
grows in your area, experiment and see what performs the best and beats native weeds. Do surveys across
the terrain and develop a basic plan that reflects your context. Make basic access and water works based
on the plan, but resist jumping immediately into big earthworks. Darren Dorothy explains why at this
stage you simply cant tell what is right or wrong without observation. Use this time to test different
designs and get feedback from people. What you should do is focus on building soil. You can do that
simply by growing green manure cover crops. With great soil, you get great plants, and you want to be
prepared for your agro-forestry crops next year.
Action Steps:
- Get a loan from a bank and buy the property
- Put temporary accommodation up, like a camper, small cabin or yurt
- Observe and do surveys; make a basic plan and test out different designs
- Keep to basic access and water works and focus on building soil

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BIG EARTHWORKS AND PLANTING, MAKING BUSINESS PLAN,

TRANSITION YEAR
After a year of observation, you should have an idea about the potential layout of your place, what the patterns are and what some of the possible improvements are. Equipped with the vision of what you want,
its time to do major structural works. Following the Yeomans scale of permanence, you first have to deal
with the water supply situation.
Water is an essential element of any farm, and your water situation will depend on the climate, geography
and geology of your site. Mark Shepard said: No matter where you go and what mineral deficiencies you
have there are plants who adapted to that, but no plant can live without water. Think how you can seep,
spread and soak water into the landscape. This can be done by digging ponds or dams and swales and
through keyline design. Next, you should decide where the access points on your farm should be and where
buildings are going to go. These are fixed structures that you have to position correctly from the start.
During this year, you should plant fruit trees and shrubs as well as agroforestry rows. Let me explain
according to Ben Falk from Whole Systems Design, the best time to plant is after the disturbance. Sepp
Holzer suggests the same thing. Sepp does big earthworks, terraforms the landscape and then spreads his
seed mix all over the disturbed area.
You should already have areas where you improved the soil last year and now, with big earthworks, terraces,
swales and dams, its time to spread seeds around and put plants from your nursery into the ground. Mark
Shepards advice is do all your planting at once, so you maintain everything at the same time. If youve
done well, you should have hundreds or thousands of plants ready for transplanting. In case you need more
plants, follow Marks recommendation: order nursery stock from various nurseries all over the country. That
way you have a lot of genetics to play with. Plant them and use the STUN (sheer total utter neglect)
method. Then, select only the best adapted to your local conditions.
All this work can be done during the weekends and holidays. Of course, you will need good planning and
help from other people. Putting so many plants in the ground in such a short time needs a lot of helping
hands, so be sure you leverage your social capital and return the favour. Finally, amidst all of this youll need
an exit strategy as you prepare to quit your job. This strategy should include plans for your transitional income and cashflow forecasting for the first year without a paycheck.
To put in simpler terms, youll need some sort of a business plan that covers how you can provide yourself
with an early cashflow while your system matures. Start this by doing market research in your area. Then,
based on your insights, test out potential enterprises and try to presell your products. Initial market research
is important because you want to produce things or offer services that people want to buy.
Action Steps:
- Big earthworks focusing on water and access
- All-at-once, extensive planting
- Making a plan for early cashflow solutions and doing market research
- Saying goodbye to the 9-5 till youre 65, making a dying type of living

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EARLY CASHFLOW AND STARTING A BUSINESS

This is the final year, in which you should be 100% engaged in getting your enterprise off the ground. Here is
where it becomes interesting, because you need to propel yourself forward if you want to make a living out
of it. Now, you need to focus on what you can do with the resources you have available. Joel Salatin, who
built multiple business on his farm, recommends the following: Get one enterprise going and well established, run the second by using money from first one and get it well established run a third one and so
on. The idea is to focus on getting one thing right before moving to next one.
Later, when you have multiple enterprises, you can stack them like you stack functions in the food forest. But
in the beginning you need to focus. You might wonder focus on what? What has been proven to work? You
might have all those trees in the ground, but they will not start producing until later.
Here are some of the options for quick income streams and early cashflow that have worked for other people:
Growing Annuals and quick yielding perennials:
One of the quickest things you can grow and sell is annual plants and quick yielding perennials such as
herbs. You can grow these in a market garden style or use an alley cropping system and grow annuals in
between the trees. A market garden is probably the most productive method of growing annuals and
there are a lot of good examples out there such as Market Gardener, Curtis Stone SPIN gardening or the
market gardening example at Milkwood.
Alley cropping, on the other hand, is using the space in-between the trees for strips of annual crops in
rows. The best example here is the work of Mark Sheppard from New Forest Farm.
You can sell the produce through a farmers market and CSA or through e-commerce site like Farewell. In
addition to the market garden, you can try growing seeds and selling them all over the country by
setting up your own e-commerce site.
Raising Animals:
Raising animals is probably the biggest bang for the buck. Grazing sheep, cows, and meat birds amongst the
growing trees is a win-win situation. It controls the weeds and brings the fertiliser to the growing trees. Of
course, after all that mowing and fertilising, you end up with healthy free range animals. Supplement that
with laying hens and youll have another product for the market: free range eggs.
Raising animals is a totally different market than growing plants. You can freeze the meat after harvesting
for later distribution, giving you more time to find customers. Stephan Sobkowiak, from The Permaculture
Orchard, uses his grassy lanes for pasture, as does Mark Shepard, both making profits from the beginning of
the system establishment.
Nursery business:
Having a nursery business should just be an extension of what you should be doing anyways. Putting a lot
of trees in the ground can be expensive, and as I already suggested, the best way is to start even before you
have the land. Propagation is one of the most important skills you can have as a permaculturist and definitely very lucrative one. In the beginning, if you dont have a lot of plants to sell, you can start out by selling
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trees from other nurseries for a commission. Or buying wholesale and selling half of them to cover costs,
while making a profit from the other half.
However, if you want to sell something that makes you unique, try selling something that other nurseries
dont have. Something that is adapted to your local conditions and is proven to perform the best.
Here is how Mark Shepard recommends you should do it:
1. Buy stocks from nurseries all across the country
2. Plant and see what performs the best in your local area some of the plants will thrive on your site
3. Take branches from them and graft on seedling rootstock
4. Grow those trees as nursery and sell to the local area
5.You now have a unique selling proposition
Of course, this sounds simple and there is more to it than meets the eye, but this is the mental framework
you should operate in. Here is an example of a Nursery Bed in Versaland in which Grant starts with
chestnuts. You can literally grow thousands of trees in a nursery bed. The best thing with having a tree
business like this is: if you dont sell your trees one year, you hold onto them and they are worth even more
next year.
Education on the site:
The education revenue model is frequently used during the site establishment phase by many well-known
permaculture sites. It is also the most proven one as there is high demand for education. The only problem
is, in the beginning there wont be many people interested in what you have to teach. But this model has
worked for others and its well worth a try.
If there are people interested, you can offer 3 levels of education. Here is the breakdown from Jack Spirko
of The Survival Podcast, plus some of my suggestions:
1. PDC courses offer the whole thing. What worked for Cliff Davis from Spiral Ridge Permaculture, Milkwood Permaculture and Versaland is bringing other renowned teachers to their site. If you have one of
the better sounding names at your site people will start to give you more credibility.
2. Workshops cover certain techniques within permaculture and regenerative agriculture, such as earthworks, plant propagation, sheet mulching, butchering animals, fermenting and the list goes on and on the
possibilities are endless
3. Location specific education cover something of significance for your local area. While workshops offer
techniques that can be applied anywhere, here you offer something that is location specific. A good
exam-ple is bushfire resilient communities and landscape education events from David Holmgren. Or
grow 50 plants you never heard of in your backyard, cold hardy plants for rocky soils anything location
specific.
The best thing about improving yourself through teaching and developing your site is an opportunity for
doing consulting work later on. Ben Falk from Whole Systems Design said that by developing his site he had
a keystone portfolio property to show off to his clients. We all know it ended well for Bens consulting business.
Be willing to do whatever it takes to make it
This is what Joel Salatin recommends and probably this is the most important tip. If you really want to live
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the good life you have to deserve it. That might mean putting in a lot of hours, making a lot of sacrifices, cutting expenses and taking some odds jobs to earn money on the side. Plan for the first year being very lean
and prepare for that in advance.
The easiest way to make more money is to lower your expenses. Look at your biggest expenses and then try
to minimise those. Start with what you can do easily. In most cases that is going to be cutting the food bill by
growing your own food.
Action Steps:
- Focus on getting one enterprise up and running
- Choose one of the early cashflow models
- Minimise expenses and grow your own food
- Do whatever it takes to make it

IN CONCLUSION
Congratulations, youve now made it to the end of the ultimate guide: From No Idea, No Expertise & No Money to a Successful Permaculture Farm in 5 Years.
If you have any questions regarding the content of this guide, feel free to shoot me an e-mail at william.
[email protected]. Please dont just send me lists of spelling and grammatical mistakes, though. Its just
a waste of your time and mine.
If you liked the guide and know any friends who are considering making the transition to living from farming, why dont you send them the link to this FREE E-BOOK? Theyll thank you for it and youll make my day as
well!
And if someone sent you this PDF and you arent on my list, dont hesitate to go to http://www.permacultureapprentice.com and sign up. Why? Because Ill send you a lot more cool content that you wont get
anywhere else.
Thanks for reading!
William

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