PatternBaseThe Complete Guide to PatternBase
Everything you need to know about designing, observing, and growing with PatternBase, from your first guild to a thriving food forest. Think of this as your field companion for the platform.
1.What is PatternBase?
PatternBase is permaculture design software for people who grow things. It helps you plan plant guilds, map your property by Mollison zones, track harvests and soil health, log observations with AI photo analysis, and connect with growers in similar climates, all in one place.
Most garden planners are built for annual vegetables in rows. PatternBase is built for the way permaculture actually works: perennial polycultures, food forests, multi-year succession, and plant communities that support each other.
Whether you're establishing your first fruit tree guild or managing a mature food forest, PatternBase gives you the tools to design with intention, observe with discipline, and share what you learn.
2.The Design Philosophy
PatternBase is grounded in three permaculture ethics: earth care, people care, and fair share. Bill Mollison's principle that the designer's job is to observe, then create the conditions for natural systems to thrive.
Every feature in PatternBase maps back to a permaculture design principle. Guild design is functional stacking. Zone planning is energy-efficient placement. Observation logging is protracted and thoughtful observation. The community commons is the fair share ethic in practice: your evidence helps everyone.
We believe the best garden software doesn't tell you what to plant. It helps you read your land, understand what's already working, and design from there.
3.Guild Designer
The guild designer is the heart of PatternBase. A guild is a community of plants that support each other: a fruit tree surrounded by nitrogen fixers, ground covers, pest confusers, and pollinator attractors, all working together as an ecosystem.
PatternBase comes with 30 guild templates covering fruit trees, nut trees, berries, vines, vegetables, herbs, and climate-specific combinations. Each template includes functional role assignments, so you can see at a glance which plants are fixing nitrogen, which are accumulating minerals, and which are attracting beneficial insects.
The visual overlay system lets you toggle views by functional role to see just the nitrogen fixers, just the ground covers, or the full community at once. Cross-section views show the vertical stacking from canopy to root zone.
Guild designer feature page · Understanding plant guilds · Fruit tree guild design
4.Plant Library
PatternBase includes a library of 4,500+ plants with permaculture data you won't find in typical garden apps: functional roles (nitrogen fixer, dynamic accumulator, pest confuser), food forest layers, guild compatibility, climate suitability, and caloric yield estimates.
Every plant entry includes growing conditions, companion relationships, and the specific functions it serves in a polyculture. The search is built for permaculture thinking: filter by guild role, food forest layer, climate zone, or function.
5.Zone & Sector Planning
Permaculture zone planning organizes your site by frequency of human interaction, from Zone 0 (the home) to Zone 5 (wild areas). PatternBase maps your property into Mollison zones and uses them to organize your dashboard, calendar, and task priorities.
Sector analysis maps the external energies flowing through your site: sun paths, prevailing winds, water flow, fire risk, and noise. Understanding sectors helps you place windbreaks, water catchments, and sun-loving plants in the right spots.
The zone calendar shows you what needs attention in each zone, season by season. It's the bridge between the design on paper and the daily reality of managing a permaculture site.
Zone planning features · Zone placement guide · Sector analysis explained
6.Observations & Evidence
Good permaculture starts with good observation. PatternBase makes it easy to log what you see: growth patterns, pest activity, wildlife visits, and weather effects, with timestamped notes and photos. Over months and years, these observations become genuine evidence about what works on your land.
AI photo analysis identifies what you photograph and suggests relevant observations. Every photo becomes part of your garden's story and your community's shared knowledge base.
Quick capture lets you log an observation in seconds from your phone, because the best observation tool is the one you actually use when you're standing in the garden.
7.Tracking Systems
PatternBase tracks the systems that matter for regenerative growing. Harvest tracking logs your yields over time, so you can see which guilds and plantings are actually productive. Soil tracking records lab tests, pH, organic matter, and amendments. Water tracking calculates rainwater harvest potential and irrigation needs.
Carbon sequestration estimates show the climate impact of your plantings at the species level. Biodiversity metrics track the diversity of your plant communities. Economic tracking helps you understand the real value of what your garden produces.
None of these require precision instruments. They're designed for home gardeners using simple observations and occasional soil tests, building a picture over time.
Soil tracking · Carbon sequestration · Building healthy soil
8.Multi-Year Planning & Succession
Permaculture is a long game. A food forest takes 5–10 years to mature. PatternBase's multi-year timeline shows how your plantings will develop over time: which trees will reach canopy, which ground covers will fill in, which pioneer species will give way to climax species.
The succession planner helps you design for change: fast-growing pioneers that establish cover while slow-growing trees mature, annual crops that fill gaps in the early years, and the eventual transition from managed system to self-sustaining ecosystem.
Succession planting guide · Building a seven-layer food forest
9.Community & Marketplace
PatternBase connects you with growers in similar climates through climate matching. See what's actually thriving in growing conditions like yours, not just what a book recommends for your USDA zone, but what real people are growing and harvesting nearby.
The community commons is where observations, guild designs, and growing evidence are shared. It's the fair share ethic in practice: your data helps others, and theirs helps you. Public profiles let you follow growers whose work inspires you.
The guild marketplace lets you share and discover guild templates. Published templates include reviews and growing reports from people who've actually planted them.
10.PDC Design Software
For permaculture educators and PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) students, PatternBase includes a full design workflow: 5-phase project structure, base map uploads, sector overlays, and professional PDF report generation.
Educators can create classrooms, assign design projects, and review student work within the platform. The design audit tool checks completed designs against permaculture principles and offers suggestions.
11.Pricing & Getting Started
PatternBase has a free tier that's actually useful. The Seedling plan includes guild design, access to all 4,500+ plants, zone mapping, observations, and up to 3 gardens, free forever, no credit card required.
Paid plans (Grower and Steward) add soil tracking, carbon metrics, harvest analytics, unlimited gardens, marketplace access, AI analysis allowance, and priority support.
Getting started is simple: create an account, set up your first garden with your location and climate data, and start designing your first guild. The platform walks you through each step.
12.Permaculture Glossary
Key terms you'll encounter throughout PatternBase and in permaculture design. Each links to deeper reading in our knowledge library where available.
- Companion planting
- Growing specific plants together for mutual benefit: pest control, pollination, nutrient sharing, or physical support.
- Cover crop
- A crop grown primarily to protect and enrich the soil between main plantings, rather than for harvest.
- Dynamic accumulator
- A plant that draws minerals from deep in the soil and makes them available to neighboring plants through leaf drop. Comfrey is the classic example.
- Edge effect
- The increased diversity and productivity found where two ecosystems meet. Permaculture designers maximize edges intentionally.
- Food forest
- A designed perennial ecosystem that mimics a natural forest structure with edible and useful plants across seven layers, from canopy trees to root crops.
- Functional stacking
- Designing so that every element serves multiple functions and every important function is supported by multiple elements.
- Ground cover
- Low-growing plants that protect soil from erosion, suppress weeds, and retain moisture. The living mulch layer of a guild.
- Guild
- A community of plants and animals that support each other, typically centered around a main productive species like a fruit tree.
- Hugelkultur
- A raised garden bed built over buried logs and woody debris that decompose slowly, creating a self-composting, moisture-retaining growing mound.
- Keyhole garden
- A circular raised bed with a composting basket at the center and a notch for access, designed for efficient watering and nutrient cycling in small spaces.
- Keyline design
- A landscape water management system that uses contour plowing along key points of a slope to spread water evenly across the land.
- Microclimate
- A small area where conditions differ from the surrounding environment. South-facing walls, frost pockets, or sheltered courtyards all create microclimates.
- Mulch
- Material layered on soil to retain moisture, suppress weeds, regulate temperature, and build organic matter as it decomposes.
- Nitrogen fixer
- A plant that converts atmospheric nitrogen into soil-available forms through symbiotic bacteria on its roots. Legumes like clover, beans, and acacias.
- Observation
- In PatternBase, a timestamped record of what you notice in your garden: growth, problems, wildlife, harvests. Building an evidence base over time.
- Overstory
- The tallest canopy layer in a food forest, typically large fruit or nut trees that define the structure of the system.
- Pattern language
- A method of describing design solutions as repeatable patterns. In permaculture, patterns from nature guide site design decisions.
- Permaculture
- A design system for creating sustainable human habitats by following nature's patterns. The word blends 'permanent' and 'agriculture' (and 'culture').
- Pest confuser
- A plant whose strong scent, appearance, or chemical properties disrupts pest insects from finding their target crops, like marigolds or aromatic herbs.
- Polyculture
- Growing multiple species together in the same space, as opposed to monoculture. Mimics natural ecosystems for resilience and productivity.
- Pollinator attractor
- A plant grown specifically to draw pollinating insects to the garden, increasing fruit set for nearby food-producing plants.
- Sector analysis
- Mapping the external energies that flow through your site: sun, wind, water, fire risk, noise. Used to inform placement decisions.
- Seven layers
- The seven vegetation layers of a food forest: canopy, understory, shrub, herbaceous, ground cover, vine, and root/rhizosphere.
- Sheet mulching
- A no-dig method of building new garden beds by layering cardboard and organic materials directly over existing ground to suppress weeds and build soil.
- Soil food web
- The community of organisms living in the soil: bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, and arthropods. They cycle nutrients and build soil structure.
- Succession planting
- Planning for how a planting changes over time, from pioneer species that establish quickly to mature species that take years to develop.
- Swale
- A level ditch dug along a contour to capture and infiltrate rainwater, recharging the soil downslope rather than letting water run off.
- Understory
- The layer of smaller trees growing beneath the canopy in a food forest, typically dwarf fruit trees or large shrubs.
- Yield stacking
- Designing systems to produce multiple yields from the same space: food, medicine, fiber, habitat, beauty, and carbon storage simultaneously.
- Zone planning
- Organizing your site by frequency of use: Zone 0 (home) through Zone 5 (wild), placing elements that need daily attention closest to you.