April Open House with afternoon seminar on:

Introduction to Permaculture

Sunday, April 3, 2005

10:00 Overview of CSC and community of Stelle
11:15 Tour of community (Solar & wind applications, gardens, etc…)
12:15 Lunch (Made with garden produce – vegetarian option)
 1:30 Seminar (see below)

Join Bill Wilson and Mark Hoffman during the afternoon seminar for an experience of Permaculture. We will start with a short introduction and conclude with an outdoor tour of permaculture applications.

Permaculture is a method of ecosystem design and management that serves to consciously maximize the abundance of an ecosystem.

A guild of oregano and eggplant underneath a persimmon tree. This guild maximizes harvest of sunlight to simultaneously produce three crops.

Using Permaculture principles, the designer first observes, then utilizes (and in some cases modifies) the inherent patterns of land, weather, and water flow to optimize their relationship. In such a design any surplus produced is used either for the benefit of the people managing the system or it is returned to the ecosystem to further its enrichment.

 

Permaculture provides sensible methods to rehabilitate degraded and damaged ecosystems, and in their place establish plant systems for our own use on the least amount of land we can use for our existence. In Permaculture design, everything is a resource, nothing is wasted. There is no need for synthetic chemical or fertilizer inputs because the balanced ecosystem eliminates their need. In a higher sense, Permaculture can be viewed as conscious manipulation of an ecosystem to produce a balanced, harmonious relationship between human needs and the needs of nature.

A gourd vine using a small maple tree as a trellise.

This presentation will give an overview of the principles of permaculture design and describe some examples of permaculture sytems in use. Click here to learn about permaculture projects implemented by CSC in November 2004. Click here to learn of our Summer 2005 Permaculture Workshops.

After the talk, Mark will give a tour of his yard where he and his wife Guia have built permaculture principles into their organic gardening system. Click here to see some examples of permaculture application in the yard at their Bed and Breakfast.