Permaculture Design and Food Cycles Program
2010 Sustainable Living Arts School
Permaculture Design Certification
and Food Cycles Program
Join Delvin Solkinson and Robin Wheeler for a dynamic year round adventure in education. We offer a full Permaculture Design Certificate with a complete Food Cycles Program to create an integrated system of both design concepts and functional living skills.
Permaculture is a holistic approach to conscious living. It promotes an awareness of the world with a focus on sustainability, low impact living and healthy community development.
The Food Cycles course promotes seasonal awareness with practical activities to do at every time of year.
Learn the role of native plants, tips for organic gardening, growth cycles, propagation, seed saving, harvesting, food preservation, water wisdom, medicine making, integrated composting and so much more as part of practical and relevant Timely Actions in the Garden. Other course topics include design methods, patterns in nature, climatic factors, water, soils, earthworks, design strategies for urban and rural applications, practical living for all climates on the planet, trees, aquaculture, waste management, sustainable architecture, ethical business practices and economics, bio-regional organization, and effective aid.
From dormant earth to finished season, the Food Cycles program will occur in conjunction with the Permaculture Design classes to round out and ground in the new permaculture practitioner’s certificate.
13 spaces only
register now to hold your space
Class will begin March, on every other Monday and last for 15 months.
Location: Edible Landscapes, Robert’s Creek BC
Contact
Robin Wheeler : info@ediblelandscapes.ca (604) 885-4505
or Delvin Solkinson : delvin@illuminated.com
for more details
January 25, 2010 No Comments
Organic Gardening, Composting and Native Plants: Permaculture Design on the Sunshine Coast
A weekend long introduction to permaculture course is happening at the Heart Gardens, a branch campus of the Sustainable Living Arts School, in historic ‘downtown’ Roberts Creek this weekend . The course is offered through Capilano University. Join Delvin in a unique learning experience about permaculture in the Elphinstone rainforest.
Permaculture Design is a holistic approach to sustainable community development. This course is a basic introduction to permaculture principles and concepts. Organic gardening with native plants will be discussed, and there will be tours of the Heart Gardens and Gumboot Gardens in Roberts Creek. There will also be a discussion about composting and a hands-on workshop about making your own organic solid and liquid fertilizers with an easy to create and maintain worm farm.
Where? The class meets at the “Elfinhome”, at the back of the Gumboot Café in the Heart of Roberts Creek.
When?
Sat Sept 19 and Sun Sept 20
Noon - 5 pm
Register? via Capilano University
http://www.capilanou.ca/ce/sunshine-coast/gen-interest.html
604.885.9350
conted@capilanou.ca
More info? Email Delvin at delvin@illuminated.com
September 17, 2009 No Comments
Invitation to Permie Primer Weekend- May 31
You are warmly invited to another Sustainable Living Arts School Weekend Retreat in Robert’s Creek on the Sunshine Coast (just 15 minutes from the ferry at Langdale.). Robin has got a bit more land than the average city grower, but whether you’re growing on a counter-top, balcony, patio or yard, Edible Landscapes is a place to come to reconnect, learn, relax and get inspired on how we can increase our self-sufficiency…together. You can camp on the land, hike to the ocean, walk in the woods, wander the gardens, browse in the edible and medicinal plant nursery and medicine emporium.
To reserve your space for the weekend away, email Robin info@ediblelandscapes.ca If you are part of a family or group of friends who would like to learn some do-it-together skills together, get in touch with Robin to arrange group pricing. She’ll work out the details with you and send you an invoice.
You can either pay by Visa or Mastercard via Paypal right away or mail her a cheque. 80% of student fees go directly to the teachers, with another 10% for preparing for classes and promotion. Attending these workshops is a direct way to support folks who live on the land and keep the skills and traditions of the sustainable living arts alive.
Saturday, May 30th
- 9:30 – 11:00 – Basic Framing with ____TBA_____ - Sometimes we don’t realize until we are trying to construct a chicken coop, greenhouse or lean-to that we have no framing concepts. This class will go over the necessary skills to begin simple projects and problem solve on our own. $25
- 11:15 – 12:30 Garden Standbys with Robin Wheeler - What are the tried and true plants that every smallholder should have? How are they placed and cared for? We will look at the top groups of greens, tubers, berries and fruit and learn about their needs. $25
- 12:30 – 1:30 Brown bag, or order $6 snack lunch
- 1:30 – 3:00 –Tool maintenance and Repair with Cymba - Good tools are worth holding on to, and regular care will considerably lengthen their life. Cymba will show methods for caring for garden tools and chain saw, and will also show how to salvage old tools by replacing handles, and how to make a handle out of a found object or branch. $25
- 3:00 - 5:30 Essentials of Permaculture Design Part One : Ethics and Principles with Delvin - Together we will explore the basics of permaculture ethics and principles in the context of a permaculture site design. A great intro to the permaculture way and how it can be applied to your own life. $25
Sunday, May 31
- 10:00 – 11:15 – Woodshed/Woodstove Primer with Robin Wheeler - The goal with a home wood supply is to have sufficient, well dried wood that will burn cleanly, and to understand the basic physiology of a wood burning heater. We will look at placement and purpose of a woodshed, split some wood, and then go inside and learn the parts and purpose of a normal wood stove. We will learn the important components of the cleanest, most non-polluting burn possible. $25
- 11:30 – 1:00 – Irrigation Intrigue with Jason Woodall - Jason is a gentle guy who is going to pull out bits and pieces of irrigation, give them names and purposes, and then will have the group assemble and build a portion of water line. He will also talk about repair problems. Participants will feel much more confidant buying parts and assembling their own systems. $25
- 1:00 – 1:45 – Lunch – brown bag or order $6 snack plate
- 1:45 – 2:50 Water Wisdom with Robin Wheeler - There are many techniques for living with an unreliable volume of farm water. Robin will show methods for water collecting, swaling and mulching methods, and will discuss plant choice and using observation and planting schedules to make plants more resilient and “drought proof”. $25
- 3:00 - 5:30 Essentials of Permaculture Design Part Two : Mapping, Zones and Sectors with Delvin - This class can be independent from the first class though it is also the natural extension of it. Here we will look at permaculture site design with mapping using zones and sectors preparing you to do a permaculture evaluation of your own home and property. $25
May 16, 2009 No Comments
Gaiacraft: Temple Permaculture
If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a seed,
If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree.
If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people.
- Kuan Tzu
Gaiacraft : Temple Permaculture
Permaculture Design Certification Course
Permaculture is a whole systems approach to conscious living. It promotes an awareness of the world in a new light with a focus on sustainability, low impact living, organic gardening and healthy community development. Using a series of principles, techniques and technologies, permaculture empowers people with the skills to evolve their relationship to themselves, each other, the land upon which they live and the planet.
Bill Mollison, the founder of permaculture, defines the world as such:
Permaculture (”Perm”anent “agri”culture and “Perma”nent “culture”) is a sustainable design system stressing the harmonious interrelationship of humans, plants, animals and the Earth.
Permaculture principles focus on thoughtful designs for small-scale intensive systems which are labor efficient and which use biological resources instead of fossil fuels. Designs stress ecological connections and closed energy and material loops. The core of permaculture is design and the working relationships and connections between all things. Each component in a system performs multiple functions, and each function is supported by many elements. Key to efficient design is observation and replication of natural ecosystems, where designers maximize diversity with polycultures, stress efficient energy planning for houses and settlement, using and accelerating natural plant succession, and increasing the highly productive “edge-zones” within the system.
Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted & thoughtless labour; & of looking at plants & animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system.
Join us for an adventure in learning. With the 72 + hour core curriculum we will learn together how to map and design our land and our lives, to plan for emergency, grow food organically and work together to build a more sustainable future. With the certification you will be empowered to use the word permaculture in your business and consider yourself a permaculture designer able to hire yourself out for permaculture consultations and teach permaculture workshops with confidence. Not only is this a course about learning how to practice permaculture, it is also about how to teach permaculture.
Course Topics include:
* design methods * understanding patterns in nature * climatic factors * water * soils * earthworks and their use in earth repair * techniques and design strategies for both urban and rural applications * the temperate climates * dry lands * cold climates * humid cool climates * humid tropics * trees and their energy transactions * aquaculture * waste management * energy efficient architecture * legal strategies and trusts * effective working groups * right livelihood * money and finance * ethical investment * bio-regional organisation * effective aid and much much more
The details:
- There are 13 classes, one a moon for a full year. All classes are required for completion of the course.
- Normally these courses cost $800 - $2000 but here in Roberts Creek at this time the course costs only $20 - $40 per class depending upon class size. The maximum class size is 8 to ensure an intimate learning environment. We will move around to different locations for each class, students have the option to host a class on their land if they wish.
Register now to hold your space with
Delvin Solkinson delvin@crystalandspore.com
March 24, 2009 No Comments