Mission
To manifest cultural repair by maintaining a connection to nature and nurturing that connection in others as well as establishing healthy relationships in community.
To design functional ecosystems for farmers, homesteaders, communities and other land holders or groups, that are modeled after nature, conserve resources, increase productivity, regenerate land, and lead to increased resilience
To develop and share tools that empower people to be creative and solution oriented.
To expand awareness of appropriate technology and encourage use of more ecological built environments.
To offer the most innovative courses, by practice based instructors, to accelerate the global adoption of environmentally sound, healthy and productive systems.
Skills
- Permaculture: Design, Instruction,Consultation, and Implementation
- Edible Forest Gardens: Design, Instruction, Consultation, Implementation
- Natural Building: Site Analysis, Design, Materials, Instruction, Implementation
- Regenerative Earthworks: Design, Layout, Instruction, Implementation
- Edible landscaping: Design, Consultation, and Installation
- Agroforestry: Design, Consultation, Installation
- Restoration Agriculture: Design, Instruction,Implementation
- Rainwater Harvesting: Design, Instruction, Implementation
- Keyline Design Design, Consultation, Subsoiling
- Soil Fertility Thermophilic Compost/Teas, Re-mineralization, Soil Food Web
- Bamboo Agroforestry Species selection, design, Implementation, instruction
- Integrated Greenhouse Design, Layout, Planning
- Mycological Services Design, Consultation, Remediation, Instruction
- Irrigation Systems Drip irrigation, Swales, Fertigation
- Holistic Management Consulting, Support
- Organic Farming Design and Implementatioin
- Curriculum Development
- Deep Nature Connection and 8 Shields Mentoring
Lead instructor and curriculum developer. Included: 5th Annual Earthworks Course Fertility Farming Course Agroforestry Course Lead Instructor and curriculum developer. Lead instructor and curriculum developer. Lead instructor and curriculum developer. Included: 4th Annual Earthworks Course Fertility Farming Course Agroforestry Course Lead instructor and curriculum developer. Lead instructor and curriculum developer. Included a 4 day cob workshop and an earthen oven workshop. Lead instructor and curriculum developer. Lead Instructor and curriculum developer: Introduction to Permaculture, Permaculture Garden Design & Soil Fertility, Edible Forest Gardens Demystified and Rainwater Harvesting. Lead Instructor and curriculum developer. A course integrating our 3rd annual earthworks course with agroforestry, edible forest gardens, nursery management, soil building and animal systems. Part of our Permaculture Practitioner Training. Lead instructor and curriculum developer. 14 day residential course held at Trout Lily Farm in western North Carolina, with a focus on small farms, homesteads and deep nature connection. Lead instructor and curriculum developer. Weekend course introducing Permaculture ethics and principles, held at Little House Nashville. Lead instructor. Annual weekend format PDC. Lead Instructor and curriculum developer. Lead Instructor and curriculum developer. Lecture, design and installation of food forest during course. Advanced Permaculture Course, lead instructor and curriculum developer. Lead instructor and curriculum development. Lead instructor and curriculum developer. Lead instructor Lead instructor and curriculum developer. Trevecca University, Lead Instructor Advanced permaculture course, curriculum developer and lead instructor. Lead Instructor Full 14 Day Permaculture Design Course put on by the Kula Collective hosted at Seven Springs Yoga Retreat Center. Co-taught with Jennifer Albanese and Ryan Rising of the Permaculture Action Network. Permaculture teacher training instructor with Dave Jacke for this 9 day advanced permaculture course. Co-instructor with Dave Jacke Lead instructor for straw-clay slip cabin construction. Instructor with Wayne Weiseman of The Permaculture Project, Richard Flatau of Cordwood Construction Resources, and Deanne Bednar of Straw Bale Studio Maya Mountain Research Farm, Costa Rica, Lead Instructor Permaculture, forest gardens, natural building, and homesteading skills, lead instructor Co-taught a natural building course at Koinonia Community with Wayne Weiseman of The Permaculture Project. Lead instructor with Frank Michael of Mushroom People. North Alabama Permaculture Institute Nashville, TN course Lead instructor in permaculture, natural building and agroforestry Lead Instructor at The Farm School weekend workshop. Lead instructor with Matt English, Adam Turtle, Greg Landua, Albert Bates and Jennifer English in Hohenwald, TN Earthworks for Water Catchment, Erosion Control & Clear Cut Remediation & Forest Gardening & Orchard Remediation Co-taught with Matthew English, Greg Landua and Rick Valley Lead Instructor Various natural building techniques taught. Student teacher Student teacher with Greg Ramsey, Albert Bates, Goodheart Brown, Diana Leaf Christian, Matthew English One of the main instructors co-teaching with Matthew and Jennifer English, Andrew Goodheart Brown, Albert Bates, Valerie Sietz and Scott Horton. Lead instructor for Introduction Course held on our Florida homestead. I began teaching permaculture immediately after receiving my design certificate in 2004, after three years of practicing and self-study and short courses on permaculture. 2 days of educational workshops including presentations by Joel Salatin 10 day course led by Darren Doherty, organized by Spiral Ridge Permaculture. Basic primitive and wilderness survival skills with James Gibson and Darryl Patton. Attended various farming workshops and presentations at the conference. 5 day pond building workshop with Darren Doherty Cultivation, Gardening, Mycoremediation, Medicinal Use and Permaculture of Fungi with Tradd Cotter. Hosted by Spiral Ridge Permaculture in 2015 & 2016 Additional training in deep nature connection, storytelling, primitive skills, curriculum development, mentorship training in the 8 shields model. 3 day Holistic Management course with Owen Hablutzel, hosted by Spiral Ridge Permaculture. 3 day course with Owen Hablutzel, including Keyline Plow demonstration with Spiral Ridge’s Keyline plow, hosted by Spiral Ridge Permaculture. 5 day course with Kirk Gadzia on Holistic Management in New Mexico. Deep nature connection, primitive skills and mentorship training in the 8 shields model. Organized, participated in, and donated use of my keyline plow during, this course with Darren Doherty. Teacher training course taught by Dave Jacke. 9 day forest garden course hosted by our business, Spiral Ridge Permaculture. Edible Forest Gardens with Eric Toensmeir, Soil Food Web with Dr. Elaine Ingham Instructor: David Delvechio Instructor: Warren Brush Further explored natural building techniques and the style of Sun Ray Kelley, a professional natural builder, whose style combines organic architecture, cob, and round pole timber frame. Instructor: Frank Michaels of Mushroom people. Instructor: Matthew English, bamboo artisan Attended conference with a variety of sustainable farming class offerings. Natural Building hands-on course using straw bale, round pole timber frame, earthbag, cob, adobe brick, straw/clay slip, plasters, living roofs and more. Instructors: Howard and Katey Sweitzer of Ecoville Architects, Matthew English, and Albert Bates. Completed apprenticeship and received an Ecovillage Design Certificate from instructors: Albert Bates, Diana Leaf Christian, Andrew Goodheart Brown, & Greg Ramsey of Village Habitat Instructors: David Blume, Joel Salatin, Mark Shephard, Bob Theis, and Larry Korn Instructors: Charles and Julia Yelton Three cob courses covering an introduction to cob building, foundations, walls, Rumford stoves, earthen ovens, plasters. Gave a talk, titled, Permaculture Farming: A Perennial Agriculture Focus on Permaculture design and edible forest gardens at nursery in Alabama. Talk on Permaculture Interviewed for two articles: “How to drought proof your land” in 2015 and “How to build a pond or lake on your property” in 2016 Presented a talk titled, “Redesigning Agriculture as if the Future Mattered.” Permaculture homesteading interview for podcast. Meet & greet talk on Permaculture. Interviewed for an article on Permaculture pig farming for Acres magazine, April 2015 2 Part podcast featuring 8 of the leading permaculture design course instructors, including Cliff Davis, on “What is a PDC?” 1/2 day workshop presentation titled, “Permaculture Principles for Farm and Garden” at the 2014 Mississippi Food Summit & Agricultural Revival. Rural Studio is an undergraduate program of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at Auburn University. They are developing a Rural Studio Farm and Greenhouse project for which I give guest lectures on permaculture and review student’s project proposals. Permaculture Homesteading – Enjoying Life being a Realist, not an Idealist Gave a lecture on Permaculture and how we can regenerate land, facilitate healing and grow in community and resilience by way of design. Presented an introduction to permaculture during a festival. Interviewed on the topic “What is Permaculture,” for podcast. Presented at the Food Summit. Featured in the summer 2013 issue of Local Table, A Guide To Food and Farming in Middle Tennessee Presented a piece on permaculture in schools for an audience of educators implementing or starting school gardens. PDC graduate writes a review of her experience taking a course at Spiral Ridge. See the article on Spiral Ridge here. Podcast interview on natural building with Scott Mann. Interview on the importance of permaculture design in healing land, self and communities. Presented a webinar on natrual building, organized by George Mason Sustainability Initiative Episode 131, interview for podcast. Topics discussed include our farm and how we are using permaculture to restore degraded land, challenges faced by those wanting to implement permaculture and more. C-Realm interviews Dave Jacke and I, together in episode 278. An interview with KMO on ETC voices, precursor to the C-Realm. Permaculture and regenerative farming educator and curriculum developer. Joined Wayne Weiseman’s design team to collaborate on various projects in the southeast United States. Professional design firm specializing in regenerative farming, permaculture, holistic management and keyline design for farms, homesteads, ecovillages, communities, schools, and retreat centers. Homestead farm specializing in organic plant starts and useful plant nursery. Also a distributor for organic farm and garden supplies. Pastured pig operation is also being initiated. Managed natural building construction, design and implementation of organic gardens, bamboo groves, and animal systems. Apprenticeship coordinator and lead instructor for various permaculture projects and classes. Bamboo research, cultivation and landscaping Permaculture Gardener/Instructor, Natural Builder/Instructor and Apprenticeship Coordinator/Instructor Owner of Treecology, offering tree care and landscaping services, specializing in native and edible plants. Learned tropical permaculture design and farming techniques, fruit production, nursery maintenance , off-grid, low energy living, milpa management Interned at a organic cut flower, vegetable and blueberry farm. Farming style was influenced by Fukuoka. Apprentice organic farmer at the oldest US intentional community. Learned crop rotation, soil building, compost making, etc. Land steward at a retreat center. Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Bachelor of Science in Political Science
Cliff Davis
Lead Instructor for 8 part mini series introducing
* Permaculture * Ecological Gardening & Soil Food Web * Water in the Landscape * Edible Forest Gardens * 4 Season Gardening * Backyard Mushroom Farming * Animals in the Landscape * Aquaculture
Lead instructor with Kevin Guenther and Matthew English and guests