I was born and raised on the space coast of Florida. This is a very special place, a barrier island with nearly 40 miles of coastline along the Atlantic ocean on one side and the Indian river lagoon on the other. I grew up fishing, surfing and sailing these waters and I've always had a desire to be in nature. This area was once a pristine paradise with the IRL being called the most biologically diverse estuary in North America. Sadly this environment is in trouble these days due to increased development and pollution. It will take the cooperation of the local residents to turn this pollution around and permaculture is a step in the right direction.

I first heard of permaculture through a friend of mine who moved to California to get his pdc and look for better job opportunities. I didn't know what permaculture was really about at the time and I all but forgot about the term for awhile. Around the same time I had just found out that our food supply was largely GMOs and I began to research them heavily. I was disgusted by this reality so I started to do some organic growing in my backyard with tomatoes, brussel sprouts, spinach, melons and beans. Then one day my friends showed me a dvd they had come across called Establishing a food forest with Geoff Lawton and I instantly knew that I wanted to learn more. Shortly after watching that video, four of my friends and I were all certified in permaculture design.

In late 2012 I built a small garden in a site with coarse sand and a mild slope about 100 yards from the ocean. The first thing I did was berm the sand up around the perimeter of the garden so that the rainwater would not run off to lower ground. Next step was to build the lasagna layers of mulch for which I used sargassum, banana psuedostems, coconut husks, bolivian sunflower, coffee grounds, manure and Christmas trees. The garden was quite slow to get started but it is thriving now and is starting to produce quite a bit of food. My plans for the near future include building more gardens and producing enough food for markets as well as teaching permaculture workshops.