Permaculture is more than just good gardening. It is a lifelong approach to analysis, actions and social structures that results in better relationships, more functional systems and a clearer understanding of everything necessary for human communities to thrive.
– Claudia Joseph, Founder and Director NYPE
To participate in a network supporting the free exchange of information, materials and skills relating to permaculture projects in the Ulster County, NY area contact NYPE directly: permaculturexchange@gmail.com
Subject line: Exchange List
Please include your first and last name and the area where you live.
2026 is a great time to start connecting with local resources and working with neighbors.
The New York Permaculture Exchange (NYPE) demonstrates permaculture principles at its Home Base in Tillson, NY on about half an acre. A suburban display of food, medicine and craft plants with water management and wildlife habitat: birds, bees, butterflies and people benefit. The neglected 100 year-old house has gradually been restored and retrofitted since 2019. The site continues to develop with improved efficiency, yield and potentials.
Beginning mid-April 2026 the landscape will be open on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Participants can register for Field Practice through Rondout Valley Permaculture meetup. Field practice will develop observation skills, plant knowledge, soil assessment and water flows. The “each one teach one” principle will be followed. We all have something to share and we all have something to learn.
Claudia Joseph, founder and Director of the New York Permaculture Exchange, is a permaculture teacher, consultant and practitioner, certified by Permaculture Institute of North America and the Permaculture Institute (PI USA). Following its inception in Oakland, CA (as the East Bay Permaculture Exchange) and 18 years in Brooklyn (affiliated with the Old Stone House of Brooklyn), The New York Permaculture Exchange re-located in 2019 to Tillson, a hamlet of the Town of Rosendale in Ulster county. The site is easily accessible from Rt 32, between Kingston and New Paltz in the beautiful Mid-Hudson Valley.
Rondout Valley Permaculture meetup. Come to meetings to learn skills and techniques, see models and talk with others who are interested in permaculture. Organized by Claudia Joseph and led by community members. Meetups are held the second Tuesday of each month at 7pm and on other days, as well. Visit the meetup site for details.
Join the Rondout Valley Permaculture facebook group.
On Facebook:
New York Permaculture Exchange (environmental news)
Permaculture Festival: NYC (social and political actions).
The Permaculture Exchange began in 1998 in Oakland, CA as the East Bay Permaculture Exchange. The Permaculture Garden in the Oakland Botanical Demonstration Gardens led to Ms Joseph teaching the first permaculture course offered at Merritt College. The first East Bay Permaculture Convergence, organized by the Exchange in 2001, was met with great enthusiasm with over 100 attendees. After moving to NYC, New York Permaculture Exchange hosted many courses, Permaculture Festivals and Seed Swaps at the Old Stone House of Brooklyn, our training ground and long-term demonstration project. Certificate courses, classes and workshops were taught throughout NYC over the course of 18 years while student training sessions and teams of volunteers developed and maintained an acre of gardens in Washington Park.
Ms Joseph has taught on both coasts: at the Berkeley Ecology Center, Oakland Botanical Demonstration Gardens, New York Open Center, Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, the New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, for master composter programs in all five NYC boroughs and more. She is a current member of the Rosendale Recreation Commission and sits on the Ulster County Recycling Oversight Committee.
Contributing Author
2022 The City Is An Ecosystem: Sustainable Education, Policy, and Practice
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
Media & links
2020 article on the OSH gardens from Park Slope Food Coop’s Gazette
2015 Permaculture feature article in Edible Brooklyn
2012 Highlights of our Permaculture Festival by Costa Boutsikaris:
http://vimeo.com/61679230
2011 Recognized by The New York Times, The Old Stone House – MS 51 Partnership Gardens are the first Food Forest model in NYC, based on permaculture design principles. The project began in 2004 and becomes more complex, beautiful, abundant and community centered each year.
A short piece on OSH programs by Costa Boutsikaris
https://vimeo.com/69708589
Interview on OSH project & permaculture by Ladema Zinsmeister:
https://vimeo.com/111785582