Welcome to LiveStacks.co, a Food Forest Research & Design tool

Advanced Research & Design Workflow

LiveStacks.co was built to streamline the research and design process for food forests using permaculture principles and techniques.

Whether you need to perform in-depth plant research, combine plants into functional guilds or create a detailed map of your property, LiveStacks.co can help you cut through the noise and get to the point, enabling you to focus on the most important part — designing your property!

Create detailed digital maps for your property

Many find general mapping applications like Google Maps or ArcGIS to be tedious or unwieldy, and creating maps by hand can be daunting for the artistically challenged.

Our dedicated Permaculture mapping software is designed with ease in mind, allowing you to concentrate on bringing your vision to life, rather than grappling with complex tools.

LiveStacks.co digital mapping software for permaculture design

Comprehensive Map Layers

Use custom drawing features to add precise shapes for all layers of your property. Easily toggle layers on and off or even side-by-side for further refinement.

Solutions

Use a growing list of Permaculture and Agroforestry solutions to solve specific problems on your property or enhance its overall productivity

Pinpoints

Define points of interest on your property, perfect for large properties or sharing with guests at eco-resorts.

Water

Leverage the most valuable asset of your property by identifying all natural and artificial water features, future and present

Soil

Add soil samples taken on your property to track progress of soil restoration and optimization

Zones

Start with your Permaculture Zones to define the various degrees of human intervention

Structures

Call out structures on your property for quick reference

Sectors

Easily define Permaculture Sector arcs for a high-level overview of the inputs on your property

Build Food Forest Guilds like a Pro

A food forest guild is a collection of carefully selected plants that form a self-sustaining ecosystem.
Our unique Stacks tool and extensive plant data gives you all you need to create multi-functional guilds for your property or a specific hardiness zone.

Layers of a Forest Garden

There are 7 main layers in a Food Forest:

1. Canopy

The topmost layer with the tallest trees. Think jungle canopies and palm trees.

Human Benefits : Coconuts, dates

Plant Benefits : Shade, water pump/storage

2. Understory

Smaller trees below the canopy.

Human Benefits : Hundreds of edible fruits and legumes

Plant Benefits : Shade, water pump/storage

3. Shrub

Smaller trees and bushes below the canopy and understory.

Human Benefits : Berries, flowers

Plant Benefits : Fix nitrogen, protect soil, pollination, living fences

4. Herb

Smaller plants without wooded stocks.

Human Benefits : Salad greens, spices and medicinal purposes

Plant Benefits : Fix nitrogen, protect soil, repel posts

5. Ground Cover

Grasses that cover and establish soil.

Human Benefits : Sugar Cane and Bamboo

Plant Benefits : Protect soil, prevent erosion, pioneer plants

6. Root

Starchy vegetables that break up compacted soil.

Human Benefits : Calorie-rich starches like potatoes, taro, yams etc.

Plant Benefits : Loosen soil, prevent erosion

7. Vine

Easily overlooked layer.

Human Benefits : Bonus yields such as grapes or passionfruit

Plant Benefits :

Our free Stacks tool can assist with a variety of complexities that come with designing a fully-functional guild:

Quick visual of which plants belong to which food forest layer i.e. canopy, shrub, ground cover etc
Ensure all member plants can survive in the same hardiness zone
Get a quick care summary to see the total sun and soil requirements for your plants
Aggregate all of the potential edible, medicinal and utility uses of your guild
Add notes for yourself and even share your Stacks publicly to help other designers

Stacks even integrate seamlessly with our Maps feature so you can use any Stacks you create for the design of your property!

Nature is not only more complex than we think, it’s more complex than we CAN think

Joel Salatin - American farmer, lecturer, and author.

Check out the demo Map

To help decide if you would benefit from creating your own Map

See some example Stacks