Going Beyond Green: A Permaculture Primer

Going Beyond Green: A Permaculture Primer will happen on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
When: Where:  
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
7:00 PM lower level, side door
Longhouse
Vancouver, BC

Permaculturalists around the world are making a bold statement about our collective future: Sustainability is not enough. Our habitat is threatened by climate change, oil spills, nuclear accidents. Our consumer culture alienates us from each other, and creates oppression and violence around the world as wealth is transferred from the global majority to a rich few. We need to go beyond sustainability and work to meet the needs of everyone on the planet with strategies that don't just do no harm to our environment and the people we share it with, but that actually regenerate our planet's ability to support us, and our ability to support each other. Permaculture design can show us how.
Come join Permaculture designers and educators Erin Innes and Jill Whitelaw to hear about some of the ways we can meet our needs with systems that also heal our climate, our water, our soil, and ourselves.
Presented by Jill Whitelaw/ Cascadia Permaculture and Erin Innes/ Passionate Permaculture
http://www.passionatepermaculture.ca/

Permaculture Tea Meetup- Compost Tea Party

Announcing a new Meetup for The Vancouver Permaculture Meetup Group!
What: Learn to brew aerated compost tea while sipping herbal tea
When: Thursday, June 30, 2011 11:00 AM
Where: Strathcona Community Garden - Garden House
Hawks @ Prior
Vancouver, BC
Garden Brews Learn to brew aerated compost tea for your garden while you sip fresh herbal teas you harvested yourself. Suggested Donation $12 More info, including other great workshops: http://www.eya.ca/urban-ease.html
Check it out!

Cob Workshops

There are a number of cob workshops up on the Natural Building
Vancouver meetup site.  The first of which is tomorrow.
http://www.meetup.com/Natural-Building-Vancouver/
The workshops will be hands-on, with a project using mostly local
dirt, and salvage as construction materials.  The pizza oven is in a
backyard, and intended for group meals and bulk cooking/baking.  (And
Yogurt!)

Green Job Forum

Vancouver is set to be the world's Greenest City by 2020. How can you and your business help make this vision a reality?
Join the David Suzuki Foundation, The City of Vancouver, and The Vancouver Economic Development Commission at the Fairmont Waterfront for an exciting Green Café focusing on green jobs. Learn about the City's Vision of a Green Capital from City Councillor Andrea Reimer and plans for creating it from the VEDC.
Hear from three innovative local businesses (SHIFT Delivery Co-op, The Vancouver Tool Library and debrand) that are creating green jobs in market niches. Participate in group discussions regarding green jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities in Vancouver leading up to 2020.
For:Open to the public including members of employee green teams, business owners and all individuals committed to sustainable workplace practice!
Date:Monday, June 27th, 6 - 8PM (registration at 5:30)
Location:Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, Malaspina Room
900 Canada Place Way

Invitees must RSVP and a $10 fee per participant is required.

Queen of the Sun

Queen of the Sun is a documentary about the vanishing bee populations.  It's now Playing at the Denman Cinema in Vancouver.  Check Cinema Clock for available showtimes.

Movie synopsis: In 2006, beekeepers around the world began reporting a strange and troubling phenomenon -- the population of their hives was shrinking dramatically, with the insects disappearing for reasons unknown to their minders, and in time close to a third of the world's honeybee population had seemingly vanished. While this was of great concern to people who produced honey for market, they were not the only ones worried; bees help pollinate many major cash crops, including a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and beans, and what's come to be known as Colony Collapse Disorder has far-reaching consequences for the international agricultural community. With bees involved in the growth of forty percent of the world's food, restoring the global bee population is of crucial importance, and filmmaker Taggard Siegel examines the role of bees in agriculture and the ecosystem, leading theories about CCD, possible solutions, and the theories of Rudolph Steiner in the documentary Queen Of The Sun. In the 1920s, Steiner was a leading biologist who believed crossbreeding of honeybees could lead to the doom of the species; over eighty years later, are Steiner's notions becoming reality? Queen Of The Sun was an official selection at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi Hide

Food Forest Workshop

A quick shout out to GAIA students that Food Forester Richard Walker is returning to the island this September.
Visit the TESTIMONIALS of both alumni GAIA students and others who took his last course and find out why Richard's experience and information will provide you a wealth of knowledge and the inspiration to use it.
In just 3 days 18 of the 25 spots have been taken. Register soon to attend this class.
This will be the last Level 1 Food Forestry workshop of 2011 offered on island.
Look for the Level II course soon.

Langara Summer School on Building Community

Renew. Learn. Celebrate.
Learn skills, develop strategies, and create visions for sustainable communities, sustainable work, culture, ecology and more at Langara's annual Summer School on Building Community, Saturday, June 11 to Saturday, June 18. (Registration details below).

Workshops related to gardening, food and urban agriculture include:

Two Block Diet: Creating Community and Growing More Food (Monday, June 13, 7 - 9 pm)

Strawberry City: Rebuilding Fractured Communities through Food Security (Tuesday, June 14, 9:30 am-4:30 pm)

Composting Made Easy (Tuesday, June 14, 5:30 - 6:30pm)

Soil Fertility and Plant Health (Tuesday, June 14, 7- 9pm)

Telling Stories through the Act of Gardening (Wednesday, June 15, 1-5pm)

Backyard Chickens 101 (Wednesday, June 15, 7-9pm)

Bees in the City: An Introduction to Backyard Beekeeping (Thursday, June 16, 9:30am-12:30pm)

Winter Gardening and Harvesting (Saturday, June 18, 9:30am - 4:30pm)

I look forward you to seeing you at our Summer School!

Leslie Kemp
Coordinator

Register:
Please register by calling 604.323.5322

Information:
Please contact Leslie Kemp at 604-323-5981/ lkemp@langara.bc.ca or visit our Summer School website

Food Forest Workshop

Food Forest Gardening - Learn how people are changing their approach to gardening by mimicking the natural patterns of a forest ecosystem. You too can learn to design gardens for a more sustainable harvest. Discover tricks to reduce maintenance, reduce fertilizing requirements, increase biodiversity and increase productivity in gardens of any scale. This workshop will include both a lecture and hands on experience. - This course is usually priced at $150 but is part of a fundraiser... suggested donation $40

St. Mary's Hall

121 Columbia Street East - Rear Hall

New Westminster

Saturday, July 9 · 10:00am - 4:00pm

Urban Permaculture Design Course

Wed's 7-Sep to 2-Nov 2011 with a weekend retreat on the Sunshine Coast 30-Sep to 2-Oct.

Registration

at Langara College, call 604-323-5322, course # 70849
Cost: $1100. plus travel and accomodations on Sunshine Coast retreat (approx. $150.)
Scholarship available.

Instructors

This course is co-taught by Rin Innes and Grant Watson.

Overview

Permaculture is a design science for creating sustainable human communities by re-structuring how we relate to the ecosystems we live in, and the people we share them with. Through 72 hours of dynamic experiential learning and a team design project, you will receive your internationally recognized Permaculture Designer Certificate. Experience real world examples of permaculture principles in action in both urban and rural environments.

A portion of course material will be delivered onsite at the following locations and will include hands-on activities:

• Langara Community Garden
• Farmers on 57^th, George Pearson Hospital, Vancouver
• Glen Valley Organic Farm, Abbotsford
• Rolling Earth Farm, Roberts Creek
• Deer Crossing at the Art Farm, Gibsons
• Other venues may be added

Course Outline

Unit 1: Design Fundamentals

• Ethics, Principles, Importance of Design.
• Design Concepts and Themes, Design Methodologies
• Pattern Understanding

Unit 2: Site analysis and Landscape-scale Design

• Climate and Microclimate
• Water in the climate and the landscape
• Rainwater, graywater, earthworks
• Trees, Forests in the landscape, Forest Gardening, Botany
• Soil, Home Gardens, Mushrooms,

Unit 3: System – Specific Design Applications

Sunshine Coast field trip: 30-Sep – 2-Oct. Staying two nights at Rolling Earth Farm, Roberts Creek.

• Permaculture for Structures and the Built Environment
• Natural Building
• Climate-specific considerations – Tropical, Drylands, Temperate Cool, Cold
• Designing for Climate Change and Resilient Communities
• Animal Systems, urban livestock
• Aquaculture, Aquaponics

For more info, email grant@gourmetgardens.ca

--
rin innes
www.passionatepermaculture.ca

Grant Watson
778 869 4060
www.gourmetgardens.ca