The Detritivore Collective is primarily a permaculture design, construction, and maintenance organization. We work with clients to design beautiful landscapes with high volume food production as a top priority. We are based in San Francisco and Mendocino County.

Our Mission

Through all of our works, we aim to propel the following PERMACULTURE ethics of stewardship and compassion:

People Care

The health, wellbeing and satisfaction of our clients, team members, contractors, and community members are our top priorities. First and foremost, a garden should bring joy to, and serve its human inhabitants. And we ensure to the best of our ability that its construction methods also serve the laborers that are bringing the garden to life. We opt for non-toxic, low-impact solutions wherever possible.

Earth Care

Our gardens are more than farms or yards, they are biodiverse landscapes rich with flora and fauna. Throughout our process, we work to mitigate water usage, bring beneficial insects and animals into the garden, keep away pests and disease, and overall create a healthy, thriving, food producing ECOSYSTEM. Growing food at home also lessens demands for transportation, packaging, and unethical working conditions that pervade our food system.

Return the Surplus

More often than not, our gardens produce food in excess of what our clients can use. We propose multiple channels through which our clients can opt for this extra food to be redistributed. Firstly, we partner with community organizations for distribution to underserved communities; secondly, our neighborhood sharing program offers the distribution of our clients’ excess fruit and vegetables to their direct neighbors.

Our Services

• Design – We work with clients to come up either a comprehensive landscape plan covering their entire property, or a partial plan for a smaller, food-focused area. Design is based on what our clients want to eat from their garden as well as ecological considerations.
• Construction – We are a full-service, design-build company. We follow our design through to completion of construction.
• Maintenance – We tend to your garden regularly. Typically this is on a biweekly basis. Services include irrigation, pruning, weeding, and harvesting. Conventional landscape maintenance services (such as lawn-care and upkeep of ornamental plants) may also be available depending on the project.
• Redistribution – In almost all cases, our gardens produce more food than our clients can use themselves. We work with clients on a case by case basis to distribute this surplus abundance to their immediate neighbors or to a handful of amazing community organizations.

In the Community

We LOVE collaborating with artists, activists, people who like building things, event organizers, etc. in and out of the garden. If you are interested in collaborating on a community project or installation, please get in touch.