It’s been a busy one.
As ever, most of the inspiration I draw for these articles comes directly from the field — from the real work I do as a designer, walking land, reading landscapes, and listening to people’s dreams.
This week, I had the pleasure of diving into a project with Marie, one of our community members and the owner of a beautiful property in the Potomac River Valley of West Virginia. Together with our cohort of trainee designers, we took a deep look at her land — and more importantly, her vision.
Marie wants to create a holistic health center, a place of healing nestled in the forest. So we followed the process we always use: observe first, intervene later.
Mold and the Misunderstanding of Water
When we reviewed the site analysis, one thing became clear: a lot of water moves across this landscape. The property slopes gently toward the Potomac River, and storm events send sheets of water across the pastures, across roads, even against the house.
Inside that house, Marie has been struggling with mold.
It’s a more common story than you might think. And I’ve come to realize that one of the biggest resistances people have to water harvesting — especially around homes — comes from a real, lived experience with mold, mildew, and rot.
But what’s misunderstood is that harvesting water doesn’t mean turning your land into a swamp.
There is an art to hydrating a landscape while keeping infrastructure bone-dry. I made a video this week on a simple technique — extending your roof overhangs — that can do wonders to prevent mold. You can check that out here:
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Horses, Hydration, and the Texture of Land
Now, w, Marie’s land isn’t just forest. She also keeps horses and grazes them on open paddocks. ow, Marie’s land isn’t just forest. She also keeps horses and grazes them on open paddocks. Here again, people often think that hydrating land and grazing animals don’t mix. They hear me talk about swales and ponds and assume I want to turn their pasture into a bog.
But it’s not about flooding the land — it’s about texturing it.
When I see drainage lines on a topographic map, I don’t see problems — I see opportunities. Strategic ponds can slow and settle water from extreme weather events. Swales can spread that water into the landscape. And the soil we excavate from those interventions? We use it to build raised access paths — perfect for animals and machines to move around, even in the rainy season.
The result? A textured landscape that slows water, soaks it in, and stores it biologically — not just in ponds, but in the roots of grasses and trees and pasture.
This is the kind of work we’re doing with Marie’s design. And it’s the kind of thinking that permaculture invites: nuanced, site-specific, and deeply aligned with both ecology and human use.
Shifting from Employees to Empowered Entrepreneurs
Back here in Guatemala, another exciting shift is happening.
If you’ve been following our journey at Granja Tzikin, you’ll know that we’ve created something special — a farm-to-table restaurant powered by regenerative farming practices. Our chickens range freely through food forests. Their bedding becomes rich compost. That compost feeds the gardens. The gardens feed our guests.
It’s beautiful. But it’s also been… hard to maintain.
Why? Because I’m a designer. I build systems. But maintaining high standards — especially in the traditional employer-employee model — often depends on how closely you can oversee the work.
So we’re doing something different.
This week, we officially handed over the farm to Herbert and O’Donnell, two amazing men we’ve worked with for years. They’re no longer just employees. They’re now independent entrepreneurs, running the farm as their own business.
It’s a huge step. And it’s the first of many.
Our next dream is to support Maria Pérez, who’s managed our kitchen for nearly a decade, to take over the restaurant and develop it further. We’ve built a network of regenerative farmers in the region, many of whom we’ve trained or designed for — and now we want to empower them all to grow with us.
👉 Watch the video about this transition
🌱 Apply for our farm internship
This is what regeneration looks like — not just in soil, but in community.
Calling Out the Concrete
This is what regeneration lo Finally, I made another video this week — one I’ve been meaning to make for years.
In Panajachel, there’s a water treatment plant that’s been engineered to process wastewater from the town. And while it does a decent job of settling solids and filtering, it discharges the outflow — still rich in nutrients — straight into the lake.
All through a high-speed, concrete chute.
No wetland. No final filtration. No beauty.
It didn’t have to be that way.
We could’ve built a constructed wetland — a living ecosystem that naturally filters water while creating habitat, beauty, and even educational opportunities.
So I said it. I posted the video.
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And the response?
Two municipalities contacted me.
Several NGOs reached out.
Discussions are beginning.
Sometimes, you just have to say the thing. The thing you see. The thing that could be different.
First Principles — The Roots Beneath the System
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This video was, in many ways, an example of what I talked about in another piece of content this week: the power of first principles.
We live in a culture that chases complexity. We build fragile systems on top of fragile assumptions.
But what if we started again — from the roots?
Permaculture gives us first principles for design:
- Catch and store energy
- Use and value renewable resources
- Obtain a yield
- Integrate rather than segregate
- Use edges and value the marginal
- Slow water, spread it out, sink it in
But what about you?
What are the first principles of your life?
- For your health?
- Your business?
- Your relationships?
- Your creative practice?
- Your sovereignty?
That’s what we’ll be exploring in our upcoming free event — a community conversation about first principles that go beyond land design, and into every area of life.
Because this ecological crisis is also a spiritual one.
And the solution begins with remembering what’s real.
👉 Join our next free event here
See you there.
With love and in service,
Neal
