It was a couple months ago that Nathan Fournier joined the Patreon community and we began a correspondence. I quickly realised that he had followed a similar path as I did in getting into ecological design. Nathan first studied engineering and pursued that career path only for a short time before realising that there was a lot missing in the pursuit. Fast forward to today where he’s running a successful ecological landscaping service offering edible gardens, tree planting, and much more to a wide range of clients in his community.
I’ve often thought about getting into landscaping work myself and nearly started a company before some different opportunities came up, so I was excited to hear about Nathan’s journey into the profession and what he’s learned in the process.
In this interview, we unpack all of the potential in offering ecological repair and optimisation services and just how many interests and skill sets that it can accommodate. Nathan gives some great insights into the business end of things which is often where permaculture design courses and other ecological learning leaves off. There are also a large range of side businesses that can help to support the transformation of whole communities through the production of high quality seeds, trees, compost, tools, and much more, so this really serves to open a range of options outside of just farming and gardening for people looking for career paths to support this movement.
I really hope that you find some inspiring information here, but I’ll start from the beginning with the story of how Nathan got started.
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