Grow Real Food in the Tropics — Without Guesswork or Waste

Tropical Permaculture Online Course

A practical, step-by-step system for growing food that actually produces in tropical climates — even if you’ve failed before.

Start with a vegetable garden or food forest.
Expand into a full system only if and when you want.

Get Instant Access →


$599 $299 ● Self-paced ● No prior experience needed ● 7-day guarantee

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A practical, step-by-step system for growing food that actually produces in tropical climates — even if you’ve failed before.

Start with a vegetable garden or food forest.
Expand into a full system only if and when you want.

If growing food in the tropics feels confusing, you’re not doing it wrong

Too much rain.
Too many plants.
Too many opinions.

Most people don’t fail because they lack effort —
they fail because they don’t know:

  • what to plant first

  • what to ignore

  • how to design the system in the right order

This course gives you that clarity.

What this replaces

This course replaces:

  • Years of trial-and-error planting

  • Buying trees and inputs that never worked in your climate

  • Following advice designed for temperate zones

  • Rebuilding systems that fail after the first rainy season

Instead of guessing, you start with a system that’s already been tested — and adapt it to your land.

What you’ll get in the first 30 days

You do not need to learn everything at once.

In your first month, you will:

  • Know exactly what to plant first in your climate

  • Stop wasting money on plants that don’t perform

  • Understand how soil, water, spacing, and crops actually work together

  • Design a simple, realistic plan you can follow

  • Start producing food instead of constantly re-planting

No overwhelm.
No academic theory.
Just clear decisions and practical action.

You don’t have to build everything at once

Most people come to this course for one clear reason:

  • a productive vegetable garden

  • a food forest

  • staple crops for calories

  • clarity about what actually works in the tropics


Many students use this course for just one of these goals.

This course is designed so you can:

  • start exactly where you are

  • focus only on what you need now

  • ignore everything else until you’re ready

The system connects everything —
but you choose where to enter.

Choose your starting point

You can begin anywhere.

  • 🌱 Vegetable Garden — fast harvests, small spaces

  • 🌳 Food Forest — perennial abundance, low maintenance

  • 🍠 Staple Crops — calories, resilience, food security

  • 🧩 Complete System — diet design, gardens, infrastructure

All paths are included.
You choose how far you go.

Who this course is for

This course is for you if:

  • you live (or plan to live) in the tropics

  • you want food production that actually works

  • you’re tired of contradictory advice

  • you want a clear system, not endless experimentation

You do not need:

  • prior permaculture training

  • perfect soil

  • expensive inputs

  • large land

This works whether you’re growing in a backyard or multiple hectares.

What this course really is

This is not an academic permaculture course.

It is:

  • a decision-making system

  • a way to know what matters and what doesn’t

  • a shortcut around years of trial and error

  • the exact approach we use on our own tropical homestead

You’re not just learning techniques —
you’re learning how to think clearly about tropical food systems.

How it’s structured

You move at your own pace.

You start with:

  • understanding your climate and site

  • choosing the right crops and strategies

  • designing for calories, nutrition, and resilience

If and when you want more, you’ll also find:

  • food forests and perennial systems

  • diet design and staple crops

  • processing, storage, and long-term sustainability

Nothing is mandatory.
You take what you need, when you need it.

What’s included

✔ Practical video lessons
✔ Clear explanations without jargon
✔ Design tools and templates
✔ Private community access
✔ Lifetime access

This is a tool you keep — not a course you rush to finish.

What Our Students Say

We started with degraded land — and built a living system

When we arrived in 2008, this land was an abandoned cattle pasture — compacted clay soil, no fertility, no shade.

We planted.
We learned.
We redesigned.

Today, that same land produces:

  • a complete diet (calories, protein, fats, staples)

  • year-round vegetables, roots, fruits, and perennials

  • working soil fertility, water, and energy systems

This course is the design framework we built — simplified so you can apply it without years of trial and error.

Investment

$599 $299 — Lifetime Access

Previously offered at $599. Now priced at $299 to make entry easier.

One season of mistakes costs more than this.
Most students recover the cost by avoiding just one mistake.

This price is set so you can:

  • start now

  • reduce risk

  • get clarity before making bigger investments

7-day money-back guarantee.

Get Instant Access → and start growing food that actually works in your climate

You don’t need to do everything.
You just need to do the right things.

No account required

Inside the Course

Many students start with just one section.

Some students choose to go further. If that’s you, here’s what’s available.

Shared farm-to-table meal made with tropical vegetables, roots, and homemade dishes at Finca Tierra in Costa Rica

Design a Complete, Nutrient-Rich Diet

Learn to design a balanced diet using easy-to-grow perennial staples that thrive in the tropics.

  • Decide which parts of your diet you’ll grow (based on space and lifestyle)

  • Maximize small areas with nutrient-dense vegetables, roots, herbs, and spices

  • Select crops based on climate, nutrition, yield, and effort.

Aerial view of a tropical garden and food forest with labeled crop areas, showing an example 2,000 m² (½-acre) layout used for diet and yield planning

Example Garden & Crop Charts (2,000m² Template)

Plan your tropical vegetable garden and food forest for 2,000m² (½ acre) - or adapt to any space.

  • Understand how much area you need for your goals

  • Use Crop Area Charts to plan space for calories, protein & fats

  • Use Nutrient Charts to calculate yields & nutritional coverage

  • Scale down for small gardens, or expand for retreats/restaurants


    Based on real diet and yield data from our homestead.

Instructor explaining a tropical permaculture site design on a hand-drawn master plan, showing garden zones, paths, and water systems

Permaculture Design - Build Your Tropical Homestead

  • Map your land using permaculture design principles

  • Place gardens, ponds, and water systems efficiently

  • Create closed nutrient cycles and reduce waste

  • Build a long-term master plan

Harvesting fruit from a mature tropical food forest with layered trees, shrubs, and perennial plants

Tropical Food Forest - Abundance with Minimal Effort

  • Design a food forest that becomes more productive every year

  • Use support species to build soil and fertility

  • Choose resilient, high-yield tropical species

  • Reduce labor by letting nature do the work

Tropical vegetable garden with trellised beans, root crops, leafy greens, and mulched pathways in a productive homestead system

Tropical Vegetable Garden & Staples (Grains, Tubers, Beans & More)

  • Grow grains, beans, cassava, sweet potatoes, greens & vegetables

  • Improve soil with compost, mulch, biochar, and support species

  • Raise chickens for eggs and bees for honey

  • Plan harvests so your pantry stays full year-round

Off-grid bamboo homestead infrastructure with solar energy, rainwater collection, and outdoor kitchen systems in the tropics

Homestead Infrastructure - Energy, Water & Waste Systems

  • Domestic solar & solar hot water

  • Rainwater capture, filter, and storage

  • Wastewater recycling and kitchen waste composting

  • Solar dehydrators, oil presses, grain mills

Tropical crop seeds prepared for planting, storage, and propagation in a permaculture system

Master 60+ Essential Tropical Crops

  • Best varieties for yield & resilience

  • How to propagate, plant, prune, fertilize & manage pests

  • How to harvest, store & prepare each crop

Prepared tropical meals and preserved foods made from garden harvests in a wellness kitchen

Wellness Kitchen - Cooking, Preserving & Nutrition

  • Cook with tropical ingredients

  • Make flours, oils, vinegars, teas, spices, sauces

  • Preserve harvests for year-round food security

  • Use our Nutrition Chart + Sample Week Menu

+ Private Community - Guidance & Connection

Connect with other tropical growers, ask questions, and share your progress as you build your homestead.

Meet Your Instructors

Instructor harvesting vegetables in a tropical garden at Finca Tierra

Ana Gaspar A. - Co-Founder of Finca Tierra

Human rights lawyer and environmental advocate.
Founder of the BioRegional Plan for Talamanca.
Teaches wellness kitchen, nutrition, and sustainable living.

Instructor managing compost and soil fertility in a tropical permaculture system

Ian Macaulay - Co-Founder of Finca Tierra

Designer and educator with 15 years of hands-on tropical permaculture experience.
Leads research, design, and implementation at Finca Tierra.

Grounded in Real Tropical Systems

This course is based on systems we actively use and document on our farm in Costa Rica.
If you’d like to explore the thinking and design behind the course, you can read:

How Much Land to Feed a Family: A Complete Tropical Diet on 2,000 m²
Tropical Food Forest: How We Design Perennial Systems in the Humid Tropics
Tropical Vegetable Garden: How to Grow Abundantly in the Tropics

These articles show how the systems work in practice. The course brings them together into a complete, step-by-step framework.

FAQ

  • Yes.

    You’ll learn how to build fertile soil using biochar, compost, mulch, and support species — without buying soil.

    This is the same approach we used on degraded, compacted cattle pasture.

  • No.
    The system scales from backyard → homestead → eco-village.

    You can grow a complete diet on 2,000 m² (½ acre) and still apply the method on smaller spaces.

  • Yes.

    Designed specifically for tropical climates:

    • Humid tropics

    • Wet/dry (monsoon)

    • Tropical savanna

    (Caribbean, Central America, SE Asia, Hawaii, Brazil, Africa)

    If bananas, cassava, or papaya grow where you live, this course applies.

  • What’s the difference between a vegetable garden and a food forest?

    • Vegetable garden → fast harvests (greens, herbs, vegetables)

    • Food forest → long-term staples (roots, beans, fruits, fats)

    Together, they form a complete diet system.

  • No.

    Everything is taught step by step using clear videos, templates, and examples — from planning to harvest.

  • Within 4–12 weeks, most students are harvesting greens and vegetables.

    Staple crops (cassava, plantain, beans, taro) begin producing within a few months.

    Food forests increase productivity year after year.

  • No.

    This course does not grant a PDC.

    PDC certification requires an in-person, 72-hour course with hands-on assessment. Certification is available only through our on-site PDC at Finca Tierra.

  • This course is ideal for people living in or moving to the tropics.

    While a PDC teaches design principles, this course focuses on real-world implementation:

    • what to plant

    • how to manage harvests

    • how to turn food into meals

  • Yes.

    No prior training is required.

    The course is beginner-friendly, and especially valuable for people who want to move from theory to lived practice.

Grow your food. Regenerate your land.
Live from the tropics with confidence.