Urban Village Designs works with land, people, and organizations as living systems—always in relationship and always evolving.
Through permaculture design, education, consulting and our living lab work parties, we support places in becoming more resilient, abundant, and regenerative over time.

Why Permaculture?

Permaculture is a way of seeing and working with living systems—landscapes, communities, and organizations—so they can become more resilient, abundant, and regenerative over time. Rather than imposing quick fixes or one-size-fits-all solutions, permaculture begins with careful observation: noticing patterns, relationships, and what is already alive in a place.

This approach values diversity, relationship, and long-term care. It asks how elements within a system can support one another—how soil life supports plants, how plants support pollinators, how people support the places they inhabit, and how communities can be designed to care for both human and more-than-human life.

At its heart, permaculture is about working with natural rhythms rather than against them. It offers a framework for tending living systems with care, creativity, and humility—supporting places to grow more resilient through relationship over time.

Native plant installation, leafing out 3 years after being planted.

While our main goal was to create a hospitable environment for birds and bugs, aesthetics and privacy were also extremely important to us. Drake and Lucas and their team wrought an absolutely magical transformation of an urban wasteland into a rich and fascinating environment. Their design was both beautiful and extremely sophisticated in terms of creating healthy habitat. They are passionate and extremely knowledgable about biodiversity, habitat restoration, permaculture, and native plants. It’s unusual to have that sort of scientific/technical expertise combined with great design talent.

-Chris H.

Image featuring client's diverse native plant habitat in Sellwood neighborhood backyard

Begin a Living Systems Partnership

We work best with clients who are ready to invest in thoughtful, long-term care of land and communities.

Most people don’t think of soil as something that could teach us about how we live or work.

But beneath the surface is a living system built on relationships, structure, diversity, and exchange.
When those patterns are intact, the system thrives.
When they break down, everything above it feels the impact.

Over time, we’ve started to notice that these same patterns don’t stay in the soil. They show up in how we organize, collaborate, and relate �— in landscapes, communities, and organizations.

Learning to recognize them changes how you begin to see everything.

#SoilFoodWeb
#LivingSystems
#PermacultureDesign
#SystemsThinking
#RegenerativeDesign

We have an involved design experience that brings our clients into a collaborative decision making process with us.

Through either one time consultations or full permaculture designs that span over time, a big aspect of designing with us is the education that we bring to those who will be stewarding those spaces for the long term.

It’s not enough to just present a design, or install one. Clients who choose permaculture design come with the anticipation they are, or will be, in an engaged relationship with the land—through the changing seasons of both nature and their own lives.

We take into consideration a very holistic understanding of these relationships that consider short and long term participation.

If you’re interested in figuring out best placement of elements and pathways, how they engage, and how more abundant relationships can be nurtured, get in touch about our permaculture consultations or design!

We offer a similar framework for the invisible structures that define communities and organizations, too!

#permaculturedesign #permaculture #livingsystems #ecologicallandscapes #sustainablelandscapes

The food forest is awakening! And integrated forest gardening is happening over here in our living lab.

Today peas are going in under this young, 4-way grafted apple tree.

Anyone else using their fruit tree as a trellis? Or have you in the past? How’d it go?

We’re all about the exploration over here—because hands on experience makes for the best way to accumulate embodied knowledge 🧠

#foodforest #permaculture #permaculturedesign #livingsystems #livinglab

We’ve now hosted two UVD Living Lab Work Parties!

You can read more about these work parties and how they came to be on The Urban Villager Substack publication. Link in bio.

We’ll be hosting our next Living Lab Work Party on Friday 3/27 from 1pm-4pm, with a farm to table meal served afterwards. This next meal will feature cardoons—a relative of the artichoke—straight out of our garden. DM to RSVP!

Thanks to @miakeeler for being our living lab model for this photo 🌿🤩 And for all your hands on help! 💪

#permaculture #permaculturedesign #livingsystems #farmtotabledinner #workparty

Some of the ideas in this post didn’t come from just books, degrees and certification programs— they came from real lived experience.

Years of working closely with landscapes started revealing patterns in how living systems grow and change.

Water finds pathways. Plants form relationships. Diversity strengthens resilience.

But interestingly, we noticed similar patterns as we were running our landscaping business with a team of up to ten staff members.

As time progressed, increased effort went into systems development for our team.

Communication flows. Evolving roles. Responding to challenges with policies and procedures to be trained and implemented.

Systems adapt when they’re healthy — and struggle when relationships break down.

As we progressed, it became hard to ignore that many of the same patterns run through all living systems — landscapes, communities, and organizations.

Learning to recognize those patterns has become central to how we approach design and consulting at Urban Village Designs. That’s exactly why we’re moving away from landscaping and towards greater focus on systems development.

Through pattern recognition and a deep understanding of living systems, we reveal what is already present and guide landscapes, communities, and organizations toward greater resilience.

#LivingSystems
#PermacultureDesign
#EcologicalDesign
#SystemsThinking
RegenerativeDesig

*Rare sighting of our UVD spiral rain garden* (it’s a full blown, lush forest spiral for the majority of the year).

Last weekend’s Living Lab Work Party focused on giving our spiral rain garden some seasonal care.

This rain garden is one of the more experimental features in our landscape. Instead of a typical basin, it follows a spiral form, slowing and spreading water through planted edges. It’s a bit unusual — and that’s intentional. Our landscape functions as a Living Lab, where we explore how regenerative design ideas evolve over time.

Rain gardens help capture stormwater, reduce runoff, recharge soil, and create habitat for plants and soil life. In a climate with heavier rains and longer dry periods, these kinds of water-holding landscapes are becoming increasingly valuable.

Our Living Lab Work Parties are a chance to learn about systems like these by participating in them.

We’ll be gathering again this Friday (3/13) from 1–4pm if you’d like to join us. Come spend some time with the land and help steward this ongoing experiment. DM us to RSVP and get the address.

#RainGarden
#PermacultureDesign
#LivingSystems
#RegenerativeLandscape
#PNWPermaculture

We started our work in landscaping, already experimenting with permaculture and regenerative design.

Over time, working closely with the land kept revealing something deeper. The biggest challenge wasn’t the land itself — it was how landscapes were being imagined. Many systems are still designed like machines to control rather than living systems that can evolve, adapt, and respond to changing conditions.

That realization eventually changed the direction of our work. We’re now focusing more on education and consulting, helping people recognize the patterns that connect landscapes, communities, and organizations as living systems.

Because the same patterns show up in all living systems.

This next chapter of our work will take shape through seasonal workshops, Living Laboratory work parties at our home base, and personalized design consultations — supporting everything from regenerative landscapes to the evolution of communities and organizations.

#LivingSystems
#RegenerativeDesign
#PermacultureDesign
#SystemsThinking
#RegenerativeFuture

UVD Living Laboratory Work Parties are officially underway 🤩

Yesterday we hosted the first of many gatherings on our ¾ acre home base — our UVD Living Laboratory.

These work parties are hands-on days where people come together to tend the land while learning about applied permaculture in an ecological landscape.

Participants can expect to:

🌱 Help create and tend to evolving regenerative systems
👀 See living systems in action and learn how they work
🌳 Explore food forests, rain gardens, compost systems, and animal integrations
🤝 Build community around nature care
🍅 Share food together or take home seasonal harvests

Over the past five years our property has slowly evolved into an interconnected landscape of food forests, rain gardens, compost systems, chickens, pollinator habitat, native and honey bees, and experimental plant guilds — all part of an ongoing conversation between soil, plants, animals, and people.

We’re looking forward to hosting more of these monthly work parties (2 per month in Spring/ Fall, 1 per month in the Summer) and have the opportunity to share all that we’ve been cultivating 🌿

Our next UVD Living Laboratory Work Party is happening Friday, March 13th from 1:00pm-4:00pm as we prep the annual garden and potentially start cleaning up the food forest! (As time and volunteers allow) 🌱 DM to RSVP and get our address.

Thank you to Friday’s volunteers 🙏😁 @miakeeler @westfalljacob and @nikagriff (pictured here! 📸)

#portlandpermaculture #permaculturedesign #pdxvolunteering #permaculture #pdxpermaculture

Hey UVD Community! We’re hosting a work party tomorrow, Friday the 6th and next Friday the 13th at our primary UVD Living Laboratory and HQ. Join us from 1:00pm-4:00pm to tend to the gardens, clean up our spiral rain garden, and potentially build a new bed and line some pathways with logs (likely a bit ambitious—we’ll see what we get to!). We’ll need someone on baby duty too if your thing is less about getting your hands dirty and more about holding a 3 month old 👶

Beer and pizza will be provided for those who join! DM for our address if you want to participate! 🌿

For an update, we’re moving away from taking on new stewardship clients, and toward more design, consulting and education with a variety of new workshops in the forming stage. This move will strengthen UVD’s ability to nurture the permaculture-informed leaders in others, increase resiliency in our local neighborhoods, and position us to be more about community rather than landscaping.

We’ll also be moving toward volunteering our stewardship capacity at the @yamanebosefoodforest 🌱 If you’re interested in helping out, get in touch!

“Diversity is one of the greatest attributes of any system that we can encourage, whether that be in our soil or in our communities. This characteristic of a healthy system brings with it dynamic resilience—when one part fails, other aspects of the system can respond to fill a need, or in permaculture we might say a niche.

In soil, a robust community of bacteria, nematodes, protozoa, mycelium, arthropods (those who shred up organic material and others who prey on those smaller than them), are some of the key players in the very beginning of our food chain.

*Our* food chain. Not just the soil’s food chain. Those tiny insects, in particular the arthropods, go on to feed birds and fish, which larger animals prey upon. Many of us eat upon different parts of this animal food chain.

And these foundational building blocks of living creatures are at the heart of healthy food and medicine. Plant roots live in symbiosis with bacteria, mycelium and protozoa, who break down larger nutrients and make them more bioavailable to the plant. Larger insects process both larger carbon and nitrogen sources that get passed down along the food chain, making those parts a prime contributor to rich compost-y soil.“

Read more on our Substack publication, The Urban Villager! Link in bio.

#soilfoodweb #permaculture #permacultureeducation #permaculturedesign #sustainablelandscapes

Tips for beginning to prep our garden beds and pathways as Spring draws nearer:

🌾 It’s great time to weed! Moist soil loosens easier than when it’s dry. We focus on grasses, false dandelion and thistles where we don’t want them. Get that Himalayan blackberry out, too! Dandelion is a mostly welcome guest, but we pull it up from pathways and anywhere it’s too dense.

🐓 Those fresh leafy greens are most welcome by your flock. It’s one of the reasons why having your chicken run next to the garden is so helpful. Just throw your weeds over the fence and let them have at it!

🥀 Prune back the dead, but leave them on site. Many dried up stalks are home to a plethora of beneficial insects. You can also leave them in place and prune later, but for a more orderly feel, a side pile is the way to go.

🪱 Let roots rot in place. When cutting back old veggies, we leave their roots to rot in place. A whole world of bacteria, mycelium, arthropods and more will gladly make a snack out of those roots—and this next season’s plants will thank you for it!

👶 Hire a baby supervisor. The world is more interesting when you’re experiencing it through the eyes of someone who has only been observing it for less than one season. We all benefit from the beginner’s mind.

More prep coming next week!

#ecologicallandscaping #permaculture #permaculturedesign #stewardship #urbanchicken

I started a Substack specific to regenerative education and permaculture design called, “The Urban Villager.” This is where I’ll be exploring the urban village education I’m curating as we pivot to put more focus on our education offerings in the coming years (stay on the lookout for some upcoming events!).

In this week’s post, “Learning Ecosystems with Bioactive Vivariums,” I explore how these systems provided crucial, foundational knowledge and skill building for me as I have come to understand ecosystems, as well as the intricacies of the soil food web.

It’s my aim with every post at The Urban Villager to include a hand drawn design, both to hold myself accountable to growing my drawing skills and continuing the slow practice in resistance to the uptick in AI images we’re now seeing.

If you have Substack, I hope you follow The Urban Villager! Link in our @urbanvillagedesigns bio.

Image: Made by me @drakey.james and featuring the layers of a bioactive vivarium and one of my resident inhabitants, an Australian White’s Tree Frog.

#permaculture #regenerativeeducation #sustainability #regenerative #substack

Eco lawn —3 seasons in!

While getting established takes a little time, eco lawns are a wonderful addition to the landscape. They offer a diversity of plants, build resilient soil, benefit pollinators, help retain more moisture (which means less irrigation needs) and require less mowing and maintenance than the conventional lawn. Everyone should be making the transition to an ecolawn.

Now is a great time to get yours installed, or begin the conversation for an early Spring install. Because we work with the seasons, these are the only two seasons we do our ecolawn installs, and your landscape with thank you for it!

Get in touch to learn more 🌾🌼☘️🌱

#ecolawns #sustainablelandscaping #ecoscape #ecolawn #greenspaces #ecological #ecologicallandscaping #pdxlandscaping #milwaukielandscaping

Rewinding our yards and minds is a lot of the process toward healthy ecological landscapes, but it’s a hurdle. Why? Because we’ve been marketed landscapes that don’t have anything to do with diverse, multi-functional habitats. Conventional landscapes are all about clean lines and over manicured appearances, touting ornamental species that don’t benefit wildlife or us.

Plus, they rely on hyper-fertilization to make up for the unhealthy soil these practices are contributing to. These unsustainable and superficial values tell us the bugs are bad, so they get sprayed instead of being understood in the context of a functional and robust ecosystem. Soil suffers, plant suffers, animals suffer and we do, too.

There’s a lot we’ve been mis-taught while being sold on goals of the unsustainable yard, and it’s been majorly profited from along the way by big corporations who don’t particularly care about healthy human or more than humans communities. But that’s why we love this work… because we get to help educate and support more informed and eco-conscious cycles— and hopefully better nurture a healthier future for those that come after us.

{not sure who made this infographic… if you know please tell us and we’ll be sure to cite their work!)}

#ecologicallandscape #permaculture #sustainablelandscapes #permaculturedesign #milwaukieor #milwaukiebusiness #ecologicallandscaping #ecoeducation

We’re always working to integrate rather than segregate. Yes, chickens can be destructive to a garden when they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ultimately they’re acting on instinct though—they’re drawn to foraging for fresh greens and insects that, when left in an enclosed urban environment, they tend to lose over time.

When we design landscapes with chickens, we consider this. How do we bring the plants and insects to them? In this run, blackberries and raspberries run along the fence lines. They’re prolific, and offer fresh shoots, leaves and berries at various times throughout the year. We’ve also planted a mulberry tree, which will eventually produce large plump berries of its own, surrounded by comfrey. A fence protects the tree and main parts of the comfrey, but the fast growing comfrey provides a regular snack for chickens walking by, who can pluck out the tips of leaves as they maneuver around it.

All of these options also produce additional protection from the elements and air predators.

When we care for the animals in our landscape, it is important that we consider these additional forms of enrichment. Anyone can buy an animal, but it is a conscious steward who seeks to improve life for all through their on-going care.

#ecologicalstewardship #landsteward #urbanfarm #urbanfarming #permaculture #pdxpermaculture #pdxlandscaper #earthstewardship #urbanflock #urbanchickens #permaculturedesign

Community share win! 🐝 🍯

Last night we were gifted this awesome Warre (pronounced war-ray) hive. This year we’ve been making the transition to natural bee keeping, moving away from conventional bee keeping practices and embracing more holistic models of honey bee care. Thus, in the coming seasons we’ll be using both the Warre hive and horizontal hives instead of Langstroth.

If you’re on signal, I created a Naturalistic Beekeeping group for those who want to have a community space to explore how to best support bees by looking to nature as our guide. Let us know if you’d like to be added to it! Also drop👇your favorite books and resources on sustainable and regenerative bee keeping practices!

#naturalisticbeekeeping #warrehive #honeybees #beehive #apiary #sustainablebeekeeping #pdxbeekeeping #beekeepers #beekeeperslife

Throwing it back to this beautiful install, as apparently these photos never made it on here! As part of a bigger design we completed, this area showcases sustainable juniper wood planting boxes, including one with a small vermiculture composting unit.

Our current design process is slow, to give us time to get to know you and your landscape. In fact, we’re prioritizing clients who want on-going stewardship for some time before jumping into design. Doing so gives us a chance to know your landscape through the seasons, as well as take note about who and how the space is utilized over time. These observations are crucial in coming up with a landscape design that is functional. It also gives us time to build the soil and resources on site as we move toward an eventual installation, and set proper expectations about the years long process is takes to build truly sustainable and regenerative landscapes (because it doesn’t happen over night, nor does it happen in just a year!).

Curious to get on our stewardship schedule? Get in touch for a consultation! We’ll be at the Milwaukie Sustainability Fair tomorrow if you want to learn more!

#milwaukiebusiness #pdxlandscapers #permaculture #ecologicallandscapes #sustainablelandscaping #permaculturedesign

Join @urbanvillagedesigns and @osaltorg on November 9th, from 10:00am-2:00pm at the @yamanebosefoodforest in Milwaukie, Oregon for this Fall Time Permaculture event!

In this workshop, we’ll explore permaculture techniques as we transition from summer to fall, embracing abundance (and excess), building our beds and preparing the land and ourselves for the fast approaching time of rest.

Through community building, experienced instruction, guided observation, as well as hands on practice building beds and preparing them for the winter, participants will walk away inspired and eager to tend to their own beds at home.

Please RSVP to reserve your spot! $35 fee covers instruction, snacks and refreshments. Register by emailing Drake with your full name, phone number and email at Drake@urbanvillagedesigns.com. Payment to reserve via Venmo @urbanvillagedesigns or Zelle to drake@urbanvillagedesigns.com.

Learn more about this event in the @urbanvillagedesigns bio!

#milwaukieevents #pdxsustainability #foodforests #permaculture #permaculturedesign #pdxpermaculture #milwaukiebusiness #pdxnonprofit

We love doing real estate clean ups! Over the years we’ve worked with multiple realtors and home owners to transform unruly landscapes into picture perfect homes.

We always work to complete our work as sustainably as possible—if you’re a homeowner or realtor who prioritizes local community relationships and a high standard of sustainable values, we’re the husband and wife team to call upon!

Scroll to check out some afters and befores of this recent property 🙌

#sustainablelandscaping #realestatecleanups #pdxbusiness #milwaukieoregon #milwaukiebusiness #ecologicallandscaping #pdxlandscaper

Just a reminder that when you plant flowers that support pollinators, you’ll bring all kinds of bees to your yard—and they really need all the flowers they can get!! Oregon in particular has something like 500+ different bee species. When you plant diverse species of flowering plants, you’ll be amazed at the visitors you’ll find buzzing about, like this metallic sweat bee. Maybe you’ve seen her flying around lately?

#plantpollinators #pesticidefreezone #backyardhabitat #permaculture #pdxpermaculture #sustainablelandscaping #milwaukieor #pdx #pdxgardens #sustainablegardening

Progress photos! 🤩 There’s been a lot of work happening on this site over the last couple of months, and we’ve loved getting to work collaboratively with @pdxpermaculture to materialize the vision. 🌿

Scroll to the last two photos to see the before shots!

#pdxpermaculture #permaculture #pdxlandscaping #ecologicallandscaping #inprogress #sustainablelandscaping #naturetrail #milwaukiebusiness

Come find us on Saturday, September 6th at the Milwaukie 2025 Sustainability Fair! We’ll be talking about holistically sustainable and ecological landscaping/ stewardship. Come explore what it means to work with seasonal cycles and cultivate landscapes that serve multiple functions like growing food, increasing native plant diversity, creating pollinator friendly habitat, building soil, capturing water, food forests and more!

Speaking of food forests, we’ll also be representing @yamanebosefoodforest and @osaltorg 🌿 Come on by to learn more about land trusts, our local Milwaukie food forest at Yamane-Bose, and ways to get involved to support us in protecting land for future Oregonians.

We look forward to seeing you there!

#milwaukieor #milwaukiesustainabilityfair #milwaukiesmallbusiness #ecologicallandscaping #permaculture #sustainablelandscaping #pdxevents #pdxlandscaping #pdxgardens

Part one of a two part big clean up we started this week. It’s amazing how much of a difference one day can make! (First photos are the after result. Keep scrolling for how it started).

This property is also one where we installed the brick pathway and patio here some years ago. A little weeding is definitely bringing it back to life 🤩

Get in touch if you could use a special touch to get your space where you want it. And once we’re done with an initial clean up, we can keep coming back to maintain it that way using some of the most sustainable tools and techniques in the industry 🙌

#sustainablelandscaping #ecologicallandscaping #milwaukiebusiness #pdxlandscaping #pdxgardens

Most people think about permaculture in terms of using a whole systems framework to design and manage ecologically robust food production—as learned from the OGs Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. We might even think about orchestrating resilient communities in the ways taught by Looby Macnamara.

But it can also be the small things, like repurposing an old toilet, rather than throwing it away. This is an example of integrating rather than segregating, turning outputs back into inputs by producing limited to no waste.

So I dragged this old toilet into the garden, filling it with materials I already had: a pile of rocky debris for the basin, compost and soil needing a job, and mixed in a little straw from the chicken coop to aid in building the soil over time.

It’s too hot to plant or transplant much right now, so it got me thinking: what can I use for an aesthetically pleasing mulch? Moss left over from vivarium builds, agates and small pebbles left over from potted plants and terrariums, wood from nearby on the ground, a stone turtle who was being over-shadowed by a very robust mullein. Those skeletons have been sitting in my shop for years, purchased once upon a time at Trader Joe’s.

All of these inputs help to prevent moisture from quickly evaporating, to slowly aid in building healthy, alive soil and prepare for when I eventually start adding plants (with a baby on the way, it might be a while). In the meantime, the addition adds artistic value—we could see this as a contribution to the landscape and community’s creation of culture.

While we do larger design and installation projects, our services also offer on-going stewardship and smaller additions like this that can be part of regular hours or a one-time contribution. If you have an idea and want help bringing it to life, let us know!

#milwaukiebusiness #landscaping #sustainablelandscaping #permaculture #ecologicallandscaping #pdxbusiness #permaculturedesign

July’s garden is not disappointing!

Turning your landscape into an edible oasis is a true joy to experience.

When I was a kid, my favorite part about being in the yard was munching on anything edible I could find (including my mom’s annual ornamental kale 👀).

Now that UVD has a baby of our own on the way, we’re excited to bring our kiddo into an edible landscape with almost 100 different edible plants to nibble on.

If you want help turning your landscape into a place of yummy treats and education galore, get in touch! We have space for one more design client for a fall or spring installation.

#ediblelandscapes #permaculture #growfoodnotlawns #kiddoapproved #ecologicallandscaping #urbanfarming #pdxurbanfarms #backyardgarden #permaculturedesign #ediblelandscaping

Just a friendly reminder that instead of growing grass you could plant a pollinator haven and fill your landscape with color 🎨 💁‍♀️

We did this install back in March and it’s already POPPING 🌺

#sustainablelandscaping #backyardhabitat #meadowscaping #pollinators #pollinatorfriendly #growanythingbutlawns #plantdiversity #flowers #ecologicallandscaping #permaculture #pdxpermaculture #permaculturedesign #ecolawn

Our in-ground vermiculture containers are such an awesome addition to the garden. No smell, lids heavy enough to keep out rodents, and LOTs of diverse bio-activity feeding off of scraps from the kitchen. These pots deliver nutrient-rich compost right into your growing beds.

We’ve found rotating through a handful of pots located in different beds around the garden provides plenty of time to allow each one to break down by a significant amount by the time we get back to it. No need to scoop the rich compost out if you don’t want to get your hands dirty… all our soil friends do it for you by making their way in and out of the holes drilled around the bottom of the pots. All you have to do is add your scraps to the top 🙌

It’s been extra exciting to see tons of black soldier flies laying larvae into a couple of these containers (BSF larvae are master composters, even tackling meat and cheese with ease!). When we eventually go to start some dedicated BSF composting systems, we’ll be able to harvest them right out of here.

Interested in trying out your own? Let us know and we’ll help you get started! 🙌 🪱

#vermiculture #redwrigglers #compostingsystem #bsf #blacksoldierflies #compost #wholesystems #permaculture #ecologicallandscaping #sustainablegardening #gardening

Things that are making me happy in my garden right now:

A) First and foremost, the Mock Orange. Wow. THE SMELL. Is this what heaven smells like?

B) Emergent cardoon flowers. Very similar to artichokes, but you eat the stems and not the flowers. This is my first season growing this phenomenal perennial. Do I know what I’m doing with it? Absolutely not. It’s a new addition to my repertoire. But are we having amazing success in this undertaking? The verdict says yes.

C) Fruiting goumi berries. Small, but tasty, they give our garden a supreme pop of red. Also it’s first season in our yard and it is NOT disappointing!

D) Sweet, sweet strawberries. I pop them into my mouth right from the ground daily. I’ve heard of folks complaining of insects or animals eating theirs before they can get to them. My dense ecosystem has nurtured perfect growing conditions. Not a bite on them (before I get to them, that is). [Oops! This photo didn’t make it in… maybe next time! 🤪]

E) Flowering feverfew. I planted this in our yard years ago and now it grows sporadically all over and I’m not mad about it. These flowers are gorgeous, tiny and abundant.

D) Our in-ground terracotta vermiculture composting receptacles. We have four, two in the front yard and two in the back, planted right into the beds. Drilled holes allow red wrigglers to distribute fresh, nutrient-rich compost directly into surrounding soil underneath. These four are the perfect amount to take our family’s weekly waste, and the composters are so quick there’s never any overflow (also note: no smell, no mess).

These are just a handful of my favs. It’s hard to choose in an ecological landscape packed full of so many treasures!! Anyone else love permaculture as much as we do?

My favorite time of year 😍 Everything is POPPIN and occasionally the rains come in and give everything a deep, solid watering.

While this annual/perennial garden gets regular irrigation support on account of the annual veggies and various growth cycles (seeds, sprouts, fruits—like our goumi berries 🤤—and every other iteration of a plant’s growth be out here), the front yard food forest doesn’t get any. It’s lush and happily thriving and hasn’t received anything but rain water in two years.

That goes for all of our densely planted native planted areas—no water support but everything is so vibrant.

With every rain I feel deep gratitude for the ways nature can be so resilient—and how we as gardeners and land stewards can cultivate spaces that don’t need our constant attention in order for those spaces to thrive (unlike our annuals gardens that need just a bit more constant support—which is why I like to interplant with perennials).

How are your annual and perennial gardens looking? We’re here if you need support!

#permaculture #ecologicallandscaping #resilientlandscapes #permaculturedesign #landstewardship #milwaukiebusiness #ecoscaping #sustainablelandscaping

Unique benefits for our land stewardship clients: we’ll deliver poopy chicken straw to you! Or clean your own coop and help integrate that output back into your growing beds or compost systems.

We’re all about turning outputs, or waste, back into inputs. This means we’re considering ways we can repurpose anything back into the landscape—whether at our own property or our client’s, in order to maximize the ways something can be turned into a benefit. Interested this case we’re building healthy soil and adding a natural fertilizer into growing beds.

Interested in joining our stewardship program? Reach out! We’re all about whole systems land tending that contributes to long term site resiliency. Many clients work along side us, receive coaching along the way or just let us do the work and reap the benefits of knowing their landscape is contributing to greater regenerative earth care practices 🐓

#ecologicallandscapes #sustainablelandscaping #urbanfarming #permaculture #permaculturedesign #landstewardship #earthcare #pdxlandscaping #milwaukieor #milwaukiesmallbusiness #backyardchickens #urbanchickens

Lucas has spent the last couple of weeks in building mode! It’s great to offer not only landscape installations like in-ground planting beds or rain gardens, but to also have the capacity to offer hardscaping as well. We build patios, fences, raised garden beds, mud kitchens and more.

Are you into developing a sustainable landscape at your home or business and have a building project you could use support with? Reach out! We’re licensed, bonded and insured 👍

#pdxlandscaping #sustainablelandscaping #permaculture #permaculturedesign #integratedsystems #milwaukiesmallbusiness #ecologicallandscaping

The mason bees have arrived! And they’re getting beeesy 🐝

Mason bees are a fun addition to the garden and an easy way to increase pollinators where you live. Plus, theses bees are BEE-AUTIFUL! 🌸

Shoutout to @stevensen728 for creating these cute mason bee houses, and for inadvertently supporting this success due to sheer proximity of our gardens 🤪 🐝

#supportnativebees #masonbees #beekeeping #sustainablelandscapes #pollinators #pollinatorfriendly

The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps. The fourth year it is just a full blown forest 🌿 🤩

It’s a good reminder, and we’ll say to again and again: ecological gardens and forests take a little time to grow in. And when they do… they REALLY go for it. It’s hard to conceptualize those little plants in tiny pots becomes spreading trees, shrubs, vines and ground cover. But these plants—native plants especially—really want to expand. Which is one of the many reasons why we love them!

Roots belong in the soil. Bare areas of mulch and soil don’t really make a lot of sense as we often see as the rule rather than the exception in conventional landscaping. Not to say bare areas don’t have an important role… like when moles create holes and expose soil where native bees later make their homes—there’s an ecological place for bare areas.

But overall, we want to encourage plants to take over ✌️ and then we curate the bare minimum, like pathways for walking, areas for play and connection, and areas to grow annuals. Birds, bees and the greater web of life benefits from planting forests, even in tiny Sellwood backyards 🌳

#ecologicallandscaping #permaculture #backyardhabitat #plantnatives #pdxlandscaping #sellwood #milwaukiesmallbusiness #ecologicaldesign #permaculture #backyardforest #miyawaki #sustainablelandscaping

Compost is a vital component of the ecological landscape—and so are all of the seen and unseen friends who help to break down our waste and put it back into the soil. One of the most commonly known composting friends is the red wriggler (as pictured here). We call this vermiculture composting.

There are MANY communities that play an important role in creating compost and building healthy soil. Isopods (rollie pollies), nematodes, protozoa, spring tails, fungal networks, and bacteria form underground soil communities. This is why we never till garden beds or areas we intend to grow—because these communities thrive when we leave them alone and pave the way for more resilient and nutritious plants in the long-term.

On top of not disturbing the under layers of soil as much as possible, we work to feed the soil. One of the best ways to do this is by adding nutrient-rich compost!

We work to turn as much of our outputs back into inputs—at our own home and the properties we help steward. That means turning waste into something that can be useful. At home, this means we save veggie scraps to use in our regular homemade bone broth. After that, there are various composting systems in place: there’s one for the chickens, one for the tumbler or worms (as seen here!), and one for city compost—that will eventually move into black soldier fly and bokashi systems (specifically meats and hard to break down foods). Many people even work with composting humanure (I.e. human manure!).

Composting is a small habitual change that can have big results for your landscape. Be in touch if you want to learn more!

What’s your favorite way to compost? 🪱 Let us know 👇

#ecologicallandscaping #pdxlandscapers #permaculture #permaculturedesign #sustainablelandscaping #permaculture #milwaukieor #milwaukiesmallbusiness #compost #vermiculture #vermiculturecompost

Fresh mulch makes everything pop 🌺🤩🪨

#sustainablelandscaping #ecologicallandscaping #pdxlandscaping #milwaukiesmallbusiness #mulchyourbeds #sustainablelandscapers

This week we have some fun vermiculture projects under way. Vermiculture is the term for using annelid worms (as opposed to black soldier fly larvae composting systems) to compost food waste. They come in all shapes and sizes to meet a wide range of composting needs and spacial requirements.

We’re prepping a handful of in-ground vermiculture systems this week to decrease the work load on us humans, while encouraging nutrient exchange right where we need it: in our growing beds. We’ll post some updates as we get them in the ground later this week.

What’s your favorite way to work with vermiculture composting? If you’re interested in learning more or adding compost to your garden or urban farm, reach out! This is also something that can be woven into our land stewardship program for on-going clients.

#landstewardship #permaculture #earthcare #vermiculture #compost #composting #sustainablelandscaping #landscaping #earthcare #milwaukieoregon #milwaukie #milwaukiesmallbusiness

Initial big spring clean up! And today we had the whole family involved!

With our land stewardship program, we can work independently, but if folks want to get involved and learn how to care for their landscape along side of us—we’re here for it! Whether we have kids or adults working on our team, we offer all kinds of educational insight into how the garden functions along the way.

It’s amazing how much we can get done when we have more hands on deck! Swipe to the end to see the final photo from today’s clean up.

#landstewardship #ecologicallandscapes #gardening #permaculture #sustainablelandscaping #sustainablegardening #ecolandscaping #pdxgardening #milwaukiebusiness

Reason #1,000,001 for ecological landscapes: unsolicited morels growing in the garden next to the bee hives 👀 🍄‍🟫

#ecologicallandscaping #permaculture #pdxgardens #landstewardship #permaculturedesign #beekeeping #mushrooms #ediblemushrooms #sustainablegardens

Recently installed ecolawn in the center of the yard (fresh seedlings currently emerging! 🌱🌧️) and fresh cedar chip pathways!

As part of our stewardship plans, changes to the yard don’t need to happen all at once, and instead can be spread out over the course of months to work with nature’s best timing (as well as client budgets!).

If you have food forest requiring some TLC, let’s talk! We have a few more land stewardship spots available.

#foodforest #urbanfarm #permaculture #permaculturedesign #permaculturegarden #sustainablegardens #ecolawn #pdxgardener #pdxgardens

A few chicken integrations we love:

🌱 A wheel barrow full of freshly pulled weeds from the food forest, straight into the chicken run for a healthy snack.
🚪An added gate from the neighbor’s garden into our chicken run so they can keep chickens in with our own.
🌳 A mulberry tree planted in the chicken run to eventually provide shade, shelter and food for the chickens (+ comfrey for added snacking, while providing various benefits to the fruit tree). The run also features: raspberries, thornless blackberries, an elderberry and yarrow.

🪰 Our next move is adding a black soldier fly compost bin that drops larvae directly into the run (just waiting for it to warm up a bit more out there).

What chicken integrations get you excited?!

#permaculture #permaculturedesign #foodforests #urbanfarm #urbanfarming #chicken #backyardchicken #chickenrun #stackingfunctions #sustainablandscaping #ecologicallandscapes #socialpermaculture #urbanfarms #growyourfood

Bramblin’ blackberry! This special food forest needs some TLC! Join us over at @yamanebosefoodforest on Sunday, March 30th from 11:00am to 2:00pm for an afternoon of clearing noxious plants to make way for what’s to come.

As a for-benefit company, we’re always looking to give back—and we’ll be putting more of our extra time and resources into supporting this food forest moving forward. Located in Milwaukie, Oregon, this project means extra local for us; it’s in our neighborhood!

As a property of the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust, this site will showcase a continued legacy of food production for the community for many years to come.

Wanna join us in caring for this site? Come out for monthly volunteer meet-ups, every last Sunday of the month from 11:00am-2:00pm, with additional opportunities to get involved on the horizon.

Check the @yamanebosefoodforest IG and FB pages for more info on events and how to get involved, or slide into our DMs and we’ll make sure you get the info you need.

#foodforest #milwaukieor #milwaukienonprofits #milwaukiebusiness #ecologicallandscapes #invasivespecies #sustainableagriculture #urbanfarming #urbanfarms #permaculture #pdxpermaculture #linwoodneighborhood

Oh hey! It’s me, Drake!

I recently had this picture taken by the great @psychic.parking in response to a grant I had applied for (3x) and had been contacted about being selected for—only to find someone had found out I applied for the grant and then used that info to phish me. So that’s cool.

But you know what? It’s alright. With or without a grant, UVD has been in an exciting time of renewal. After years of battling chronic illness, I finally recovered this year and it has been such a gift to be able to show up for this work—fully and consistently in a way that I couldn’t before.

With the previous years of experience behind us, our systems are running smoother than ever, our services are more aligned with what we want to be doing (and increasingly so as we move along!) and we’ve finally found a business model that is sustainable for us.

So with or without a grant to lift us up, we’re already winning. Thanks to our community who has been so supportive in our reopening and helping us to find a place to continue to grow from for many years to come. 🌿

Also shout out to the amazing @andreaplaysguitar for this one of a kind UVD sign!

#pdxlandscapers #ecologicallandscaping #permaculturedesign #milwaukiebusiness #ecolandscapes #plantnatives #growfood #healthycommunities #permaculture #landstewardship #pdxlandscaping #sustainablefoodsystems

Our team took on quite the clean up job this week, but the final state of the yard made it worth it! Highlights include a fully excavated patio we didn’t even know was there.

With many thousands of stairs climbed and descended, our muscles are FEELING it. With this house soon going on the market, we hope the new homeowners enjoy the fruits of our labor and the absolute tranquil beauty this landscape has to offer—as well as its many established fruiting trees and annual garden areas located on the other side of the property.

Scroll over to see some of the previous photos.

And thanks to our bud @psychic.parking for stepping in to help us with this hefty project!!

#realestatecleanup #pdxrealestate #sustainablelandscaping #ecologicallandscaping #pdxlandscapers #landstewardship #milwaukiebusiness

Out here rain or shine… and sometimes hail and thunderstorms ⛈️

This week we’re working on two houses that are about to be put on the market. We love doing real estate cleanups! If you ever need help taking a property to the next level, we have a good eye for making things pop in photos.

We also do our cleanups as sustainably as possible (just like everything else we do). Get in touch if we can help you out!

#pdxlandscaping #pdxsmallbusiness #mikwaukiesmallbusiness #milwaukieor #sustainablelandscaping #ecologicallandscaping #realestatecleanups #pdxrealestate #sustainablelandscapers #pdxgardener

So many Spring time friends beginning to emerge from their winter slumbers. Among them include the riverbank (and big leaf-not pictured) lupine, red flowering currant, osoberry, and—as of just this week—we’re spotting an outpouring of cherry blossoms! Who have you loved seeing wake up recently?

Toppin’ off raised beds and throwing down a fresh layer of compost on this sweet little backyard food forest, tucked away in inner SE. Next on our list? Pruning fruit trees, followed by a new ecolawn and fresh cedar chip pathways.

Stewardship clients get the flexibility of integrating maintenance with project installations, allowing us to work toward short and long term goals while considering factors like budget and seasonal appropriateness.

Our schedules are filling up fast, but we have space for another stewardship client or two. We even include design and education as we go along. Fill out the contact form on our website to get in touch!

#ecologicallandscaping #foodforests #permaculture #permaculturedesign #earthstewardship #sustainablelandscaping #ecolawn #milwaukieoregon #milwaukiesmallbusiness #milwaukielandscaping #portlandlandscaping #portlandlandscapes #foodforest #sustainablebusiness

It’s time to order this season’s nucs! (nucs: meaning “nucleus” and typically consisting of a queen, established colony, and five frames with various stages of larvae).

🐝 Have you thought about bee keeping? Or perhaps you just want to improve native bee populations in your yard? Let’s talk about it!

🍯 Bee keeping is a fun and rewarding hobby. While honey bees are a bit more involved, the reward of honey at the end of the year is always a wonderful reward for your efforts!

🌺 On the other hand, if you have less time, we can explore implementing mason bees—or work together to design pollinators spaces in your yard to support your neighborhood’s native bee and other pollinator populations (now it a great time to be putting some of those pollinator friendly seeds on the ground!).

🦋 We have a lot of resources, so definitely reach out if you’re interested in learning more.

#urbanfarming #pdx #milwaukie #milwaukieoregon #sustainablelandscaping #ecologicallandscaping #beekeeper #apiary #permaculture #pdxpermaculture #ecological #milwaukiesmallbusiness #bees

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@urbanvillagedesigns

"Have been working with Drake for the past year as she led the installation of an ecolawn of mostly clover; we couldn't be happier with the result. It feels great to have a lawn that requires less water/mowing and supports pollinators, and on top of that it's so beautiful we get complements daily from folks walking by! Drake is friendly, knowledgeable, and has been very responsive any time we had a question or ran into a snag. Would recommend her highly!"

- Catherine B

“If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.”

Joanna Macy

Urban Village Designs works with land, people, and organizations as living systems—always in relationship and always evolving. Through permaculture design, education, consulting and our living lab work parties, we support places in becoming more resilient, abundant, and regenerative over time.

Why Permaculture?

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Urban Village Designs works with land, people, and organizations as living systems—always in relationship and always evolving.
Through permaculture design, education, consulting and our living lab work parties, we support places in becoming more resilient, abundant, and regenerative over time.