Understand your land before you start changing it.

Permaculture design and consultancy for water-secure, productive landscapes in Mediterranean and semi-arid climates.

Perhaps you’ve recently bought a piece of land.

Perhaps you’ve been living there for years and are beginning to see its possibilities.

You might be thinking about water, planting trees, creating a food forest, improving the soil, harvesting rainwater or simply making the property more productive and easier to manage.

The question is often not just:

What could I do here?

But:

What makes sense here — and what should come first?

That’s where good design begins.

– Show me your land

From bare ground to family homestead

When my family and I began developing our finca in the mountains of southern Spain in 2016, much of it was exposed, degraded ground.

Today it is our home and an evolving productive landscape of trees, food, shade, habitat and increasingly healthy soil.

2016 PHOTO

2023 PHOTO

Bare soil → ground cover → trees → shade → habitat → food → home

This transformation didn’t come from applying a single permaculture technique.

It came from gradually understanding the relationships between water, soil, topography, vegetation, climate and the way we live on the land.

Our finca has become both our family home and an ongoing experiment in what dryland permaculture can look like in a Mediterranean climate.

A dry landscape doesn’t necessarily need more water.

It needs to do more with the water it has.

One of the most useful questions we can ask about a property is remarkably simple:

What happens to a drop of rain from the moment it lands here?

Does it run off?

Does it infiltrate?

Can it be stored?

Can it establish a tree?

Can that tree create shade?

Can that shade protect the soil?

Can healthier soil hold more of the next rainfall?

This is why I don’t see water security as a single intervention.

A tank can help. A pond can help. Earthworks can help. So can vegetation, healthier soil, greywater and efficient irrigation.

But the real opportunity appears when we understand how all of these elements can work together.

Climate · Landscape · Soil · Water · Vegetation · People

Rather than designing isolated solutions, I look at the property as a whole.

The aim is to create landscapes that work with their climate rather than continually compensating for it.

What should happen first?

A property might eventually include a house, tracks, water tanks, ponds, orchards, vegetable gardens, a food forest, greywater systems and irrigation.

But where should they go?

And in what order should they be developed?

Good design isn’t only about choosing the right elements.

It’s about putting them in the right relationships — and doing things in the right sequence.

Water influences access. Access influences structures. Structures create opportunities for water harvesting. Water influences vegetation. Vegetation changes soil, shade and microclimate.

Everything is connected.

That’s why some of the most valuable design work can happen before much has happened on the land at all.

Understand → Prioritise → Design → Implement

Design for August

Mediterranean landscapes can be wonderfully abundant in spring.

August tells you something different.

After months with little or no meaningful rain, how much irrigation does the landscape require? Where is there shade? What is protecting the soil? Which plants are thriving? And how much work is required to keep the whole system going?

My particular interest is in designing landscapes — especially productive perennial systems — that still make sense after ten Mediterranean summers, not just during their first spring.

This includes exploring how the food-forest concept can be adapted to dry climates.

Rather than simply importing models developed in wetter parts of the world, I am interested in creating climate-adapted food forests and agroforestry systems that can become progressively less dependent on irrigation as they establish.

About David

You don’t necessarily need a complete permaculture design.

Sometimes you have a specific question.

Sometimes you need someone to look at the property as a whole and help you identify the priorities.

And sometimes you’re planning a larger project where getting the underlying pattern right will influence almost everything that follows.

Permaculture services

SKYWALKER DESIGNS

Q&A Consultation — €90

1.5 hours · Online or on-site

A focused session to explore your questions and ideas.

Perhaps you’re considering a food forest, wondering about water storage, planning earthworks or trying to decide what to do with a particular area.

We’ll look at the situation together and identify practical ways forward.

Best for specific questions and individual decisions.

Book a Q&A consultation

Site Analysis Consultation — €150

Prior site study + 1.5-hour consultation · Online or on-site

Before we meet, you send me relevant maps, photographs, videos and information about the property, together with the questions you’re trying to answer.

I study the site beforehand.

Then we use the session to identify:

Site patterns · Opportunities · Constraints · Priorities · Recommended next steps

This is particularly useful when you’re at the beginning of a project and want a clearer understanding of what to do first.

Best for landowners who want direction before making significant changes to their property.

Show me your land

Design services

When a property requires more detailed analysis, mapping and design, I offer individually quoted design services.

Water · Access · Structures

The underlying pattern of the property — integrating water harvesting and storage, access, earthworks, irrigation and the positioning of key structures.

Full Permaculture Design

An integrated whole-site design bringing together water, access, structures, soil, vegetation, productive systems and the long-term development of the property.

Individual Element Design

Detailed design of a particular element, such as a climate-adapted food forest, agroforestry system, earthworks, rainwater harvesting, greywater or irrigation.

Every property is different, so these projects are quoted individually according to their scale, complexity and requirements.

If you’re not sure what level of design you need, that’s absolutely fine.

Show me your land

About David

I’m David Glinka, a permaculture designer based in the Alpujarra mountains of southern Spain.

I moved from the UK to Spain in 2007 and by 2009 had left the city for the mountains.

Since 2010 I have lived off-grid, learning first-hand about many of the systems that make a home and landscape work: water, energy, waste, food production and the land itself.

In 2016, my family and I began developing our own finca.

That process has probably been my most important education.

Living with a landscape over many years means seeing what happens after the design — after the earthworks, after the trees are planted, after a wet winter and after another long, hot summer.

It has allowed me to observe what establishes, what struggles, how soils change, where water moves and how a landscape can gradually develop its own momentum.

I completed my Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) with Geoff Lawton, first through his online PDC in 2021 and later in person in 2025.

I’m also co-founder of Permacultura Lanjarón, a local network connecting people interested in permaculture, practical knowledge sharing and community resilience.

Today my main design interest is the application of permaculture to Mediterranean and semi-arid environments, with water as one of the fundamental organising patterns.

How intelligently can a landscape use the water that passes through it?

Learn

Skywalker Designs is also an educational project.

Through face-to-face workshops, courses and online education, I explore how we can design productive, water-secure landscapes for Mediterranean and semi-arid climates.

Topics include landscape reading, dryland permaculture, water harvesting, soil, earthworks, rainwater systems, greywater, climate-adapted food forests, agroforestry, Mediterranean species, fire resilience and integrated property design.

Skywalker Designs on YouTube

The finca is an ongoing experiment.

On YouTube I’ll be sharing its story, the thinking behind the decisions we’ve made, what has worked, what hasn’t, and the questions I’m continuing to explore.

Not so much:

“Here’s how to copy what I did.”

“Here’s what this landscape has taught me to look for.”

Because every property is different.

And good design begins with learning how to see it.

Watch Skywalker Designs on YouTube

What could your land become?

You don’t need to arrive with a finished plan.

And you don’t need to know whether you need a consultation, a water design, a food forest or a complete permaculture design.

We can begin much more simply.