Fear Free Future with Toby Hemenway Nov 1

“Redesigning Civilization: Where Our Culture Went Wrong and How Permaculture Can Help”

It’s no secret that our society has become unsustainable. Modern agriculture, industry and finance all extract more than they give back, and the Earth is starting to show the strain. How did we get in this mess? And, more importantly,what can we do to help our culture get back on track? The ecological design approach known as permaculture offers powerful tools for the design of regenerative, fair ways to provide food, energy, livelihood, and other needs while letting humans share the planet with the rest of nature. This presentation will give you insight into why our culture has become fundamentally unsustainable, and offers ecologically-based solutions that can help create a just and sustainable society.

Toby Hemenway is the author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, which for the last seven years has been the best-selling permaculture book in the world. He has been an adjunct professor at Portland State University, Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University, and is currently a field director at the Permaculture Institute (USA). Toby has presented lectures and workshops at major sustainability conferences such as Bioneers,  SolFest, and EcoFarm, and at Duke University, Tufts University, University of Minnesota, University of Delaware and many other educational venues. Toby and his wife, Kiel, spent ten years creating a rural permaculture site in southern Oregon. He was the editor of Permaculture Activist, a journal of ecological design and sustainable culture, from 1999 to 2004. He moved to Portland, Oregon in 2004, and after six years of developing urban sustainability resources there, Toby and his wife now divide their time between Sebastopol, California and western Montana.

Special Evening with Toby, Roosevelt 2.0 Thurs Evening begins Thursday 1 November 2012 at 7pm. 1812 15th North Tampa, Florida $10 in advance, $15 at the door, pay here: or call Bob Lawrason 727-831-5832

Using compost to heat buildings

The Japanese have created a model tea house that is heated with compost in the walls with pipes running through it. It is an elegant design that could be replicated  in cob houses and other natural building, greenhouses, or other types of buildings. It’s good to see the concept is spreading.  We have seen several working compost showers.  How could you capture the heat in your compost pile?

The link below has more information on the tea house.

http://inhabitat.com/circular-pod-tea-house-is-heated-by-compost/

Our new name – Grow Permaculture!

We are changing our name to more closely reflect our mission.  We are focused on spreading the knowledge and practice of permaculture everywhere, to create more abundance, resilience, quality of life, and healing of both people and the earth.

Our projects include using permaculture to improve conditions in high poverty urban and rural areas with degraded lands, and working with schools, governments and organizations to educate people on the regenerative possibilities of conscious design.  We create demonstration sites so people can see, feel, taste and smell what that is like.

These are non-profit activities that are supported by our for-profit education and design business.  We offer high-quality education and aesthetic edible landscaping and other permaculture services via this service.

We feel that a Permaculture Guild has a very specific function of coordinating permaculture activities in an area and providing support and resources for professional permaculture designers and those who want to become professionals.  While we do provide support to the permaculture community in a number of ways through volunteering and other resources, we feel a better way to describe the relationship is as a sponsor of Guild activities.  It is not our main function to coordinate or facilitate all of the permaculture activities in our area, as a guild would do.

We love the abundance and regeneration inherent in the word “Grow” and we feel there is nothing more appropriate or needed than nurturing and growing the concept and practice of conscious design – far and wide!

Nature by Numbers

Patterns in nature never cease to amaze us. The short clip below gives some visuals on what we teach in our Permaculture Design Courses about how to use natural patterns to increase sustainability in human systems. For instance, on many plants, the leaves are spaced in a “Golden Mean” ratio around the stem – giving each leave maximum exposure to sunlight.  That same ratio in a thin spiral seashell gives it more structural support while keeping it light and mobile. How could you use these ratios to improve your design?  :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA&feature=youtu.be

Cob building – “living in a hug”

There is nothing like the warmth of living in a shelter made from the earth. Radiant heat and cooling from the walls feels really good on the skin. The earth provides healing instead of the toxic off-gassing one gets from modern construction. Our favorite herb lady, Willow, said this about natural building, “It’s like living in a hug.” We can relate

Alternative economy in Greece

Greece develops cashless, Euro-free currency in tight economy

http://www.rawstory .com/rs/2012/ 03/16/greece- develops- euro-free- currency- in-tight- economy/# .T2RcMFoiN3h. twitter

A determination to `move beyond anger to creativity’ is driving a strong barter economy in some places
In recent weeks, Theodoros Mavridis has bought fresh eggs, tsipourou (the local brandy: beware), fruit, olives, olive oil, jam, and soap. He has also had some legal advice, and enjoyed the services of an accountant to help fill in his tax return.
None of it has cost him a euro, because he had previously done a spot of electrical work – repairing a TV, sorting out a dodgy light – for some of the 800-odd members of a fast-growing exchange network in the port town of Volos, midway between Athens and Thessaloniki.
In return for his expert labour, Mavridis received a number of Local Alternative Units (known as tems in Greek) in his online network account. In return for the eggs, olive oil, tax advice and the rest, he transferred tems into other people’s accounts….

Follow the Food

A timely article about some of the strategies being used to reclaim farmland from the jaws of development, and to get and keep regenerative farms in production.   Some good ideas that financial and community governance and land tenure permaculture could add to and enhance…

http://www.fa-mag.com/green/news/10123-follow-the-food.html

Pine Ridge reservation 2012 – Food forests!

Last year’s tree planting and gardening at Pine Ridge has led to expanded plans for this year!  Our plans include three food forests at Pine Ridge this year, with three different organizations on the rez. We will also help install gardens and give classes on the techniques we’ll be using. We’ll be there from late April to mid-May, .  Planting will occur Apr 29, May 1-4 and May 5-9.

We still need volunteers! We have a Kickstarter campaign at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/892430421/pine-ridge-reservation-food-forest-2012-0

Pine Ridge reservation is a “food desert” in the extreme sense of the word. There are almost no organic foods being sold on the reservation. People often have to drive two hours or 100 miles to get organic or fresh vegetables or fruits.  Diabetes, heart disease and other diet-related diseases are at epidemic proportions on the rez.  The infant mortality and early death rates are some of the worst in the world.  Food security is a major issue.  The land is harsh – with severe, drying winds, hail in July, and freezes in June and August sometimes.  Insect pests are ubiquitous.   It can be challenging to grow things on this land.

Food forests are a way of working with nature to create stable ecosystems that grow lots of food.   We mimic how a natural ecosystem of trees would behave in this zone.  Because this is open prairie land and the main trees are pine forests, we will be experimenting to some degree to create a good microclimate for fruit trees. There are a number of successful orchards around that we are learning from.

Forests create milder temperatures (cooler in summer, warmer in winter), windbreaks, water capture, erosion control, and many other benefits.  One can have a small food forest in the backyard, or a larger one on a few acres.  Agroforestry is another version of using trees to produce food.  There are many advantages to all of these approaches and they can be integrated in the existing ecosystem in ways that enhance the ecosystem.

The Lakota are known for buffalo hunting, but they also traditionally appreciated the wild plant food that grows in the region.  We’ll be including native edibles traditionally used by Lakota in our food forest, as well as other fruits and nuts that are of interest.

Food forests provide a food system that mimics the ‘hunter-gatherer’ tradition of the Lakota.  We are creating demonstration/experimental forest gardens this year and will continue to document progress, make it publicly available, enhance the forests, and help plant new ones in years to come.  This is not a one shot deal!

We need donations of trees, seeds and plants,  irrigation piping and equipment, rain catchment containers, and funding for travel and food expenses for experts who will install and educate while there.  We also need volunteers to help with planting, and are looking for skilled volunteers to help install irrigation, water catchment, and other systems.

Two members of Grow Permaculture (formerly Permaculture Guild) Koreen Brennan and Bob Lawrason, will be headed to Pine Ridge in late April for approximately three weeks, from the Tampa Bay area.  We are looking for other volunteers to come up from the Tampa area to carpool and share travel costs.  There will also be volunteers coming from Oregon, Wisconsin, California and elsewhere.

Please consider a tax deductible donation via our donation Pay Pal button.

If you have donations of materials or would like to volunteer, please contact us via the web site!

Eradicating Ecocide

We need to create laws that will prevent criminals from passing the true costs of doing business on to others. Future generations are being robbed of their natural capital by greedy, short-sighted and irresponsible people. They need to be held accountable.  What would happen if ecocide was a crime? This is true cost accounting. Check out the video!

http://www.eradicatingecocide.com/the-trial/

Design services

We consult, design and install sustainable systems in your home, business, or farm, that can help you save money and live healthier, all in environmentally friendly ways.  We address the four necessities – food, water, shelter and energy.  We can consult in just one of these areas, or all of them – we offer a full range of services, from advice, to design, to installation.

Click here to introduce yourself and let us know how we can help.

FOOD

Edible landscape design and installation

We design landscapes to be both beautiful and functional.  An edible landscape is:

• Organic
• Natural – we design gardens to work with natural systems, rather than fighting them
• Easy to care for –  less work than conventional gardens
• Aesthetic, beautiful and interesting
• Healthy, providing nutritious food year around
• Economical – skip the fertilizer, and reduce your grocery bill with fresh, healthy food you grew yourself

We offer an unusual selection of attractive plants, both native and non-native, that grow well in Florida conditions and will provide abundant food in small spaces.  We can also give you great advice on what to plant, when, and how, if you want to do it yourself but need some help getting started.  We can usually save you at least the amount of our consulting fee and can provide you with a lot of quality information in a short period of time. Interested in selling your food? We can help with that too.

Aquaponics

Do you live in a small space, but you would like to produce your own healthy, organic food?  Try aquaponics.   Aquaponics is water efficient, energy efficient closed loop system for providing a large amount of food in a small space, even an apartment!

WATER

Rain catchment, irrigation and water filtration systems

We can provide your irrigation needs via rainwater catchment, so that your plants are getting the purest water available to them.  We also provide whole house filters and items that make your water come to life and bring you new levels of health and vitality.  Want to use pure, filtered rainwater for all of your needs?  We install rainwater catchment and filtration, or help you to do it yourself.

Ponds

Enjoy the aesthetics of a backyard pond that is a naturally balanced system. When you have all the elements of nature present, there is very little care needed.

Natural pools

Tired of putting chlorine in your pool? Would you like to use that resource to produce abundant food, and have a beautiful natural pond in your backyard?  We can convert your pool to a pond, using wetlands techniques. These are very aesthetic additions to your yard, and can also be stocked with fish and edible plants. The pond can be linked to an aquaponics system that can boost your vegetable production tremendously, as well.

SHELTER and ENERGY

Solutions for more sustainable living in your home – we offer energy reduction analysis, consultations on planned renovations, and partnerships with green architects and builders to maximum energy savings, aesthetics and integration of the built environment with the natural world.

Click here to introduce yourself and let us know how we can help.

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