Colorado Permaculture Design

Hi, I’m Aaron Jerad a permaculture designer and consultant located in Western Colorado.

I am a Colorado native and work at promoting and developing local and regional permaculture projects.

I grew up on an organic apple orchard in the rich agriculture environment of the North Fork Valley. Surrounded by farming, gardening and orchards I sort of took these things for granted and spent years pursuing other interests which include my web design business. It wasn’t until I encountered permaculture design that I felt I had the right tools for really engaging in the land and growing systems.

My permaculture studies have taken me all over the world but I did the majority of my studies in Austraila under the instruction of Geoff Lawton (Permaculture Research Institute), David Holmgren and other teachers including agroforestry expert Peter Marshall at Terra Preta Truffles.

My applied work has centered on my own family farm and other local projects.

If you are interested in permaculture design or consulting for your land or project please look through this site, contact me and check out my post on thinking through the process: Permaculture Design Consultation: an outline of the general process and detailed questionnaire.

Here are some photos of my permaculture design work in Western Colorado:

: Everything is thriving in the container garden.

: The cold frame is designed to fit on any box, for easy seasonal rotation.

: New terraces on the left with cover crops just planted. On the right are older terraces, fully cover cropped with winter rye and vetch.

: Corn where the rye used to be. Rows of rye were turned in to plant the corn. The remainder of the rye straw was used to mulch the corn when it was 1 month old.

: A thick winter rye cover crop which will be cut and used as green manure for a planting of corn.

: Specific usage areas are sketched in and irrigation system is added. The irrigation system has a main line connected from a pump to a tank which then gravity feeds back down to the gardens..