Bill Bilodeau: urban permaculture and community building

Bill and Grow Permaculture student volunteers at the Faith House

Bill is a real pioneer species. After taking the first two weeks, on site permaculture design course taught in the state of Florida at age 77, braving primitive conditions and unexpected wind and freezing temperatures to gain the knowledge, Bill started a small book study group on the book Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway, in his home town of St Petersburg. This group helped build a permaculture meetup site to over 500 members, and created a groundswell of permablitzes, backyard and front yard permaculture gardens, and hundreds of people introduced to the concept of permaculture.  When it came time to choose a name for themselves, they became Gaia’s Guardians, a fitting name for what this group is doing.

As a veteran native plant landscaper and now a permaculture designer, Bill was the ideal person to help establish a permaculture project at the Faith House, a transitional housing organization with 1/2 acre of land given over to grow food for the participants in the program.  Along with Emmanuel Roux, another energetic pioneer, and many volunteers who lent their hands and backs to the project, Bill has created an organic garden paradise on this lot. Complete with several dozen chickens, a kenaf forest to feed them, an exotic looking banana lined and papyrus stocked pond, native pollinator borders, numerous productive vegetable beds and a budding food forest, this plot provides a large amount of food for the Faith House, with leftovers for volunteers.  A number of 275 gallon containers catch rainwater from the roof, and a well provides clean water to the garden. The site gives a boost to new community gardens by collecting pallets and dock wood for raised beds, and tools and other materials. You can find Bill working in the garden on just about any Wednesday or Sunday morning, and pitch in and help, if you like.

Chicken and kenaf symbiosis

Bill’s own home permaculture garden is a regular and favorite stop during the permaculture home tour that is organized by Gaia’s Guardians.  From the weeping yaupon holly and other beautiful natives, and the huge kale and watermelon growing on his hugulkulture bed in his front yard, to the large abundant backyard overflowing with perennial edibles and potted permaculture plants for sale via his permaculture nursery, to his greywater and rain catchment systems and pond,  Bill’s garden is a great example of how permaculture style organic gardening can create abundance, and a real nice place to hang out.

Bill regularly tours permaculture students, school classrooms, and others through the Faith House, and shares his wisdom and experience on creating community through permaculture style gardening, via our Permaculture Design Courses.

native pollinator hedge

Bill has taken his activity up yet another notch as one of the original members and continuing very active member of the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition of St Petersburg. This Coalition is a diverse group of individuals from many walks of life who want to see both the city and the environment become healthier and reap all the other benefits available through growing much more local food.  Bill heads the Education committee and is very active in the Board selection committee, Community Gardens committee, and as an advisor for new community gardens.  Bill’s community involvement is truly inspiring – he has gone above and beyond to bring permaculture to his community.

Toby Hemenway Urban Permaculture Design Workshop Nov 3-4

Urban Permaculture Design for a Fear-Free Future – Designing Resilient Gardens and Communities in Cities and Suburbs

Toby Hemenway, internationally renowned author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture – the best-selling permaculture book in the world for the last seven years – is coming to Tampa Bay to present an exciting workshop.

Toby will teach you how to find, harvest, and integrate the many resources in our cities in sustainable ways, including getting access to land for organic gardening, creating business guilds and networks, using the pattern language of the city to create more abundance, creating public space in neighborhoods, building urban ecovillages, and more.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn urban permaculture design
from an international expert

Call Bob Lawrason at 727-831-5832 to sign up or find out more information.

$190 for the entire weekend! Special rates for students ($150)  and couples ($340).  Register via PayPal or call Bob.

November 3 & 4, 2012. 9 AM – 5 PM

Mocassin Lake Nature Park, Clearwater, Florida

Urban Farming, Forest Gardens, and More

How can we create resilient, regenerative cities and suburbs? Permaculture, an ecological approach to design, shows us the way. Though land may be limited, cities are rich in other resources, especially human resourcefulness. This workshop will offer specific techniques and strategies for food production, energy security, and community resilience in metropolitan areas.

Toby will share the passion, focus, wisdom and wealth garnered from his decades of experience with resilient living via urban permaculture design.

You will hear examples, see pictures, learn about the specifics and participate in class exercises that will engage you and leave you with tons of practical and hands-on ideas for your own yard, neighborhood and city.

Learn about:

• Forest garden design and use – get your questions answered.
• Social, economic and energy aspects of city and town life – practical solutions that work.
• Urban food, water and land issues and how to solve them.
• Visible and invisible structure design for the specific challenges in cities and towns.

Toby Hemenway is one of the most popular designers and teachers in the world.

This workshop is filling up fast! Call today to reserve your spot.

Bob Lawrason 727-831-5832

Learn about Urban Permaculture Design from the Best

Toby has over 20 years of experience as a permaculture designer and teacher and has visited and designed hundreds of sites. You will tap into this wealth of experience and learn from his successes and failures, giving yourself the confidence to move forward quickly with your own projects.

Whether you are an architect or landscape designer, urban planner, green business owner, gardener, farmer, or interested in local food or energy security, sustainable living, the Transition movement, ecology, or community, you will learn many tools to improve your abilities.

Learn to leverage the special opportunities that cities and suburbs provide.

About Toby Hemenway

Toby 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. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Whole Earth Review, Natural Home, and Kitchen Gardener. He has contributed book chapters for WorldWatch Institute and to several publications on ecological design.

Check out Toby’s website, www.patternliteracy, for the great info in his latest articles.

“I will never look at the world in the same way. This course has changed everything.”