Saturday, November 15, 2008 10am to 4pm

Location: Langara College, room to be announced. 100 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver, BC. Directions

Cost: $85 includes a delicious lunch with local and seasonal goodies

Register: In person or by phone 604-323-5322 with Langara College Continuing Studies. Course code: 70709

Please bring a simple map of the space you’re working with: your home garden or community garden.

Learn more about the practical applications of Permaculture – a design system based on mimicking natural ecosystems. Permaculture offers much for the busy urban gardener who wants to sustainably grow more food in a small space with minimal maintenance time. Students will design their own perennial food systems based on a simple site plan they bring to class.

Schedule for the day:

10-11:30: Introduction to Permaculture – Exploring the (hard to define) concept, its history and ethics.
11:30-12:30 Lunch provided- local, seasonal and delicious!
12:30-2:00 Defining permaculture design principles and discussing examples of their application in day-to-day life.
2-2:15 Break
2:15-3:45: Learn the basics of site assessment and apply them to your own space. Bring a basic site plan of the space you are working that includes a rough sketch of your space, including any permanent structures, cardinal directons and rough dimensions or we can provide one for you.
3:45: Wrap-up including final questions.

Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to:
* define permaculture and briefly discuss its history and ethics
* articulate permaculture design principles and the basics of site design
* design a low maintenance perennial food system for their own space

Teachers:
Heather Johnstone is the coordinator of the Edible Garden Project on Vancouver’s North Shore (www.ediblegardenproject.com). She has spent years learning with organic farmers on the west coast, and now teaches urban home gardeners to help them grow food. She teaches workshops ranging from Permaculture to cooking to seed saving.

Sheryl Webster is a landscape designer and permaculture teacher who has worked and studied in both Vancouver and San Francisco. She has worked in both the public and private sector as a project manager for various sustainability initiatives focusing on native and edible plants. Her design experience ranges in scale from garden beds to habitat corridors.

Partnering with Langara College Continuing Studies on some full day workshops as part of the Healthy and Sustainable Living Series has been a delight.  We’re able to slow down, practice skills and traditions together and share stories of our own discoveries and family traditions. So much of what we’re learning as part of this school community are traditions that are barely lost- our grandparents or maybe great grandparents knew how to cook without waste, how to grow and preserve food, no matter how small the space, and how to heal their kids with simple plant remedies.

Our next three full-day workshops will give us a chance to tap into our shared wisdom with the guidance of some warm, articulate and good humoured teachers. But what really makes these days sing is your participation, stories and wisdom.  Join us!

Healing Children with Herbal Plant Medicines

With Garliq on Saturday, September 20 10am to 4pm

Sustainable Cookery

With Andrea Potter and Jill Broadway on Saturday, October 18, 2008 10am to 4pm

Practical Permaculture Design for the Home Garden

Saturday, November 15, 2008 10am to 4pm

Location: Unitarian Centre- 949 W 49th Ave. near Oak Street.

Cost: $85 includes a delicious lunch with local and seasonal goodies

Register: In person or by phone 604-323-5322 with Langara College Continuing Studies.

Read on past the jump for detailed course outlines and some more about our teachers for these days.

[Read more →]