About Taro
I'm Taro (Christoffer Montenero), permaculture designer
Forest gardener, teacher and the person behind Permaplans. It all started in 2011: I set off from home on foot with no money, looking for a way of living that made sense.
The beginning
How I found permaculture: on foot to New Zealand in 2011
The journey ended on the other side of the world, in New Zealand. That's where I got to know permaculture, not from books but on farms and in gardens. It has been my calling ever since. Everything that came after was an attempt to bring this knowledge home and put it out into the world.
From the ground up
Two hectares of practice: forest garden and permaculture courses
For many years I lived and worked on two hectares of land, with a forest garden that is now around 15 years old. There I planted, observed, made mistakes and learned how a system develops over the years (on the site itself, not on the drawing board).
Since 2017 I have been running my week-long hands-on permaculture courses on this land. I taught my first course in 2015, co-founded a community garden and a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm in 2016, and before that a Transition initiative in my hometown. Later came consulting for ever larger projects, most recently a permaculture design for an ecovillage in southern Spain.
img/kurs.jpgWith people
Teaching permaculture, from primary school to farmers
For me, permaculture has never been just garden planning. It has always been education. I accompanied children's environmental groups for BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany), several times for a whole week at a stretch. I ran week-long workshops for youth groups, led an environmental club at a primary school and in its after-school program, worked at comprehensive schools, and wrote and delivered training for teachers.
On top of that: wilderness and nature-connection work, talks, courses, a permaculture YouTube channel since 2012, and in 2018 the Permaplay cards (a plant card game that later became the database of this app).
In short: over the last 15 years in this field I have worked with primary school kids and with farmers, with youth groups and with municipalities, with homesteaders and with planning firms. From the grassroots to the top, from young to old.
Why an app?
Why hands-on practice turned into planning software
In a course I can reach twenty people. Good planning software reaches tens of thousands, and helps every single one of them avoid the costly first-year mistakes I made myself. To me, forest gardens and agroforestry are the most promising paths toward a kind of agriculture that builds soil instead of using it up. Permaplans is my attempt to open these paths to as many people as possible.
Others helped build it (programmers, an illustrator, supporters, a community), and without them the app wouldn't exist. But the idea, the vision and the database: that has been my path since 2011. Permaplans isn't a business model I dreamed up. It's a passion project.
The path
Milestones: fifteen years of permaculture
- 2011
Setting off
Leaving home on foot with no money. The journey ends in New Zealand, and that's where permaculture begins: on farms and in gardens rather than in books.
- 2012
The YouTube channel
First videos about permaculture. Sharing knowledge becomes a habit that hasn't stopped since.
- 2015
My first own course
Doing turns into teaching. After that: youth groups, environmental clubs, programs for teachers, wilderness and nature-connection work.
- 2016
Community garden and CSA
Co-founded, after the Transition initiative in my hometown. Permaculture as something a whole community carries, not just a single plot.
- 2017
Hands-on courses on my own land
Two hectares with a forest garden become a course venue: a full week of permaculture, spade in hand.
- 2018
The Permaplay cards
A plant card game in a tin box, researched and designed by hand. Its data later becomes the Permaplans database.
- 2020
The app begins
A crowdfunding campaign and a programmer make the start possible. Later I learn to code myself and keep developing it every day.
- 2026
Permaplans launches
On iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux and in the browser, with over 1,100 species, GPS-accurate maps and yield forecasts spanning decades.
For non-profit projects
Permaplans for non-profit projects
Money should never be the barrier that stops anyone from planning well. The paid plans are a way to keep the project going, and if you can afford one, it helps a lot.
If you're planning a non-profit project (a school garden, a community project, an association, an educational institution) and can't afford it: write to me. We'll find a way.