PatternBaseFree lifetime Steward access
Your educator account is auto-upgraded to lifetime Steward with no expiration. Every feature, every workspace, no strings.
Educator Program
The permaculture design workspace your students have been missing.
PatternBase is built on Mollison's methodology: guilds, zones, sectors, water, soil, succession, carbon, biodiversity. The full design toolkit in one platform. Free lifetime Steward access for educators.
Plan included
Steward (Lifetime)
Library access
4,500+ plants
Payment required
None
Educator signups are upgraded to lifetime Steward access with every feature unlocked.
What you and your students get
A real workspace for PDC students
Students can sign up free and start designing with guilds, zones, sectors, and a 4,500+ plant library. Enough for any PDC project.
Every design tool unlocked
Guilds, zones, sectors, soil, water, animals, audit, carbon, biodiversity, economics, succession, and calendar. The full Mollison toolkit.
Built-in teaching framework
The 9-category Design Completeness Audit scores gardens across permaculture domains. Use it as a structured assessment tool for student projects.
Evidence-based outcomes
Students document real harvests, soil changes, and system performance. Their observations contribute to the growing evidence base for regenerative agriculture.
Shape what gets built
Direct educator feedback shapes the roadmap. The tools your students use should be shaped by the people who teach them.
Setting up your class
Three steps to get your students designing in PatternBase.
- 1
Create your educator account
Sign up with the educator invite link on this page. Your account is auto-upgraded to lifetime Steward access with every feature unlocked.
- 2
Share the signup link with students
Students sign up free at pattern-base.com/signup. Free Seedling accounts include 3 gardens, the full plant library, guild browser, calendar, and unlimited observations, enough for any PDC project.
- 3
Students follow the design process
The sidebar progress tracker guides students through the Mollison design sequence: create a garden, observe the site, map zones, add plants, test soil, and track harvests. The 9-category Design Audit scores their work across permaculture domains.
Your command center
One dashboard with seasonal context, planting priorities, soil health, and community activity. A teaching surface and a working surface in one.
Guild design with functional overlays
Build plant communities with companion signals, nitrogen fixation, pollinator support, and food production layers visible at a glance. Students see the ecology, not just the layout.
Track what matters
Carbon sequestration and biodiversity metrics give students real numbers to document in their design projects, not just qualitative descriptions.
Site-first planning tools
Zone planning and sector analysis help students design around real site forces. Walk through the design process the way you teach it.
Design completeness audit
Score a garden across 9 permaculture domains and find the gaps. A built-in assessment framework for student design projects.
What's coming next
Field tools, bioregional intelligence, and open science infrastructure for educators who want their students contributing to real research.
Mobile companion app
Students capture observations, photos, and field notes on-site, then sync into full design workflows back in the classroom.
Bioregional pattern maps
See what's thriving across gardens in your climate, soil, and rainfall zone. As more students and growers document, the evidence gets stronger.
Open data for research
Anonymized growing data accessible to universities and extension services. Student documentation contributes to real science.
Earth Care Fund
Permaculture teaches three ethics: earth care, people care, fair share. We're building the third one into the business model.
25% of PatternBase revenue goes directly to regenerative agriculture projects: land access programs, community food forests, and permaculture education where it's needed most.
This is how we think a tool built on permaculture principles should work.
Educator accounts default to Steward
Educator invites open directly on lifetime Steward access, so you can start with the full toolkit immediately. Students sign up free on Seedling with 3 gardens, full plant library, and unlimited observations.
You can also view this invite plan from the pricing page.
Ready to set up your educator account?
Join with the educator invite and you'll land on lifetime Steward access with the full PatternBase toolkit unlocked.
Invite applies to new educator-link signups and includes the full Steward feature set at no cost.