The Site Consult
NOTE: TO FOCUS ON LOCAL FARM AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORK, BEN IS TAKING TIME AWAY FROM MOST CONSULTS AS FALL WINTER 2024/2025 ARRIVE. IF YOU HAVE AN UNUSUAL PROJECT YOU’D LIKE BEN’S INPUT ON PLEASE EMAIL DESCRIBING IT.
How It Works
The Site Consult is one of our foundational services for landowners. We’ve found this consultation is often all a landowner needs to make key decisions that set them on a path to accomplishing their goals for the property. During the Site Consult, we visit your site to uncover challenges and opportunities with you. We work through questions such as:
Ideal locations for orchard, pond, garden, parking, etc
Water harvesting, resiliency, drought-proofing, and waterscaping approaches
Where to expand food production areas and how
Access challenges, and how to improve them
Microclimate enhancement for expanded outdoor use
Home and built infrastructure issues and how to improve them
When site developments or planning requirements are significant, this visit serves as the springboard for further design services. If you do not yet have property, please see our Site Selection page.
Due to increasing demand internationally and around the US, we also offer online consultations to aid in site planning for projects further afield, or for those wishing to start with a smaller investment to start. Learn about online consults.
All work with clients is always carried out under a professional duty of confidentiality.
PROCESS
Please book a consultation using the button at the top of this page. We will send you a confirmation and links for deposit and scheduling, as well as a form to help organize project goals.
COST
Costs depend on site complexity and travel required. In-person site consults are based on a daily rate. A deposit of $250 is required before the consultation.
Testimonials
“I have to thank you for providing such useful insight into the sustainability of our school. Your fresh eyes and expertise were crucial to hear. Your advice was an inspiring blend of practicality and vision.””
“Without your site evaluation we would have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the wrong site. Thanks to you, we avoided a major mistake and have now found the property which optimally suits our goals.”
“Your visit was very inspiring. Our director, who prior to your visit was a bit hesitant to make changes, came out and said: lets do it.”
This account is from Anne Macksound, homeowner and organizer of Sustainable Woodstock, VT:
"To prepare for the visit, Ben sent a comprehensive Goals Articulation Form that was extremely helpful in focusing on short and long-term project goals. Because our site is not that large, Ben explained that we would not need a drawn design or formal plan. By taking notes during the hour and a half visit, we would have all the information we needed to get started. That proved to be true.
When Ben arrived, we walked around the property identifying the best places to plant all kinds of berries, fruit and nut trees, grape and hardy Kiwi trellises; he even found a perfect location to establish a rice paddy. The lawn is not too sunny because of a ridge and tall trees on the south side, but Ben found the sunniest spot for raised vegetable beds and discussed effective ways of keeping deer and woodchucks out of the garden. On the north side of the lawn is the Ottauquechee River. Ben suggested a number of different trees to plant on the bank in order to halt the erosion that is happening there. We also talked about cutting a path in the steep slope down to the river so that we would have another walking path, which could be made attractive by building a low stonewall on the uphill side. At the end of an hour and a half, we had a plan for every section of the land, and none of it seemed overwhelming, just exciting.
On that same day Ben visited two other families who want to transform their large land areas into a Permaculture oasis, and there are several other families who are interested in having him come back to help them imagine the possibilities for their land. There were a dozen interested Woodstock landowners who came to hear what Ben had to say (see photo.) Everyone was impressed by his knowledge, his teaching skills, his humor, his patience with our many questions and his obvious love for and dedication to the well being of the planet and all its life forms.”