In 2011 Mike Vertrees founded New Grasses Farm in Westmoreland, Tn a 53 acres (21.45 Hectares) of raw land that had only been used as a hunting preserve for the past 50 years. Starting with simple gardening and spending countless hours of research via Youtube, gardening sites and message boards Mike almost immediately stumbled onto permaculture thanks entirely to Jack Spirko.
For the past four years Mike has been a student and practitioner of sustainable farming practices and permaculture originally more in the context of homesteading, and recently in the broad acre design application.
Mike served as a Tenant Farmer on the PermaEthos flagship farm for four months as the initial design framwork, and production systems were installed, He considers the time spent there as invaluable experience where ponds, dams, terraces, kitchen gardens, chickens, rabbits, dairy and beef cows, and pigs were all installed by Mike and partner Jesse Teigmeyer.
Today Mike is back in Tn planning the next phase of New Grasses Farm for the spring of 2015 where he will be joined by a new tenant farmer. He also has started TN Permaculture an educational meet up group for the central TN region, and more locally started Westmoreland First a community outreach organization designed to use Permaculture ethics and principles to build community, businesses, and the local economy.

TnPermaculture

Educational meetup

Elisha's Spring PermaEthos

PermaEthos Flagship farm