here is a link to the website with workshop details: http://www.southernvermontpermaculture.com/
 Working with the Hilltop Montessori School on their ecological playground, one of the goals is to provide multi-sensory stimulation to the children, and give them opportunities to care for and nurture nature. A permaculture herb spiral seems a natural. Below are directions from Toby Hemmingway's great book Gaia's Garden on how to build an herb spiral, with a bunch of instructional video links below. "We can go a little further into the use of shape and pattern in the garden. Let's say that we've become enamored of the marvelous benefits that can be had by using the Zone concept, so we're putting an herb garden along the path that starts at our back door. Okay, in goes the oregano, next to it a couple of types of thyme, then chives-we like chives, so let's plant five of them-and past those, a few parsley plants and a little mint. We add a dozen more favorite herbs and spices, and finish off with three varieties of sage. Soon, about twenty-five plants are dotted along the path, stretching well into the backyard. Those sage plants are pretty far away. Something tells me this arrangement will fail Bill Mollison's "wet slipper test." Plus, that little herb garden needs about 30 feet of path to give easy access, and every inch of path is one Jess inch of growing space. What if we design the herb garden using a different pattern? Instead of a straight-or even meandering-line, let's fold up the path somehow so that the whole affair takes less space. We could just plunk the herbs into a standard raised bed, leaving a rather dull rectangular patch outside our door. That would save space, though some of the herbs might need quite a stretch to reach. But let's be more creative. Here's where a little knowledge of shapes and patterns comes into play. This is a perfect spot for an herb spiral. An herb spiral coils up 20 or 30 linear feet of pathside plants into a roundish pattern about 5 feet across. It's not just a flat spiral, either. Here's how it works. An herb spiral hegins as a mound of good soil about 3 feet high and 5 feet across. To turn this mound into a spiral, place fist- to head-sized rocks in a spiral pattern that winds from the bottom inward to the top. Leave about a foot of soil between the tiers of the rock spiral. Now it's time to install the herbs, Winding them up the spiral. This coils ahout 30 linear feet of row into a much smaller space. All the herbs can grow right outside the door, using only the path space necessary to walk around the spiral. Plus, mounding up the soil means we can reach the central herbs without bending over very far. But this new pattern does much more than save space and effort. The herb spiral has slopes that face in all the directions of the compass. The south-facing slope will be hotter than the north. The east-facing side, which gets morning sun, will dry out earlier in the day than the west one. The soil at the bottom will stay wetter than than at the top. We've created an herb garden with different microclimatcs. So we plant accordingly, locating each herb in a suitable environment. Varieties that thrive in hat, dry climates, such as oregano, rosemary,and thyme, go on the sunny south side near the top. Parsley and chives, which prefer cooler, moister climes, find a home on the north side. Cilantro, which seems to bolt in too much hot sun, can be stationed on the east side, protected from afternoon scorchings. Other herbs can snuggled into their best sites as well. A few tips on building an herb spiral: An herb spiral combines a two-dimensional pattem (a spiral) with a three-dimensional one (a mound) to form a beautiful and space-saving living sculpture that has several microclimates. • To save on topsoil, place a few rocks or a heap of subsoil at the base of the mound, then build over that. • To water the spiral easily, run plastic irrigation tubing (1/4" or 1/2") inside the mound, emerging from the top, and attach a mini-sprinkler. • Consider sinking a small basin or tiny pond (I to 3 feet across) at the bottom of the spiral. Water cress, waterchestnuts, and othcr edible pond plants can grow here. Built with attractivc stone, an herb spiral can be an eye-catching central feature of any garden.  YouTube videos on herb spirals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LSG0dtjwA&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxGqUnHz-1A&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxGqUnHz-1A&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtN8CB_vrak&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcJpvx56Mpk (at 1 min. 38 sec.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcODj6vcles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yFfIH2R26s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbh2Dr7yU-A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn6iS20BAbE (at 1 min. 29 sec.) -- Tad M From Mark Krawczyk of Keyline Vermont. " ʻKeylineʼ Design describes a holistic design system developed by Australian mining engineer and farmer PA Yeomans in the 1940s and 50s. Developed as a direct response to the conservation movement in the 30s and 40s, Yeomans believed it was not nearly enough to ʻconserveʼ the remaining topsoil resource that had since eroded from abused Australian farmland - they needed to develop a ʻregenerativeʼ agriculture and land use system that helped restore health to landscapes. Keyline Design looks to the topographic character of the landscape to inform the layout of farm, home and community infrastructure. To help guide this process, Yeomans developed the Scale of Permanence, a spectrum of ecological characteristics that influence a site, organized based on those things that are ʻmost permanentʼ (we have the least ability to modify) and those that are most easily changed. The Scale of Permanence (as modified by Jacke and Toensmeier) includes: •Climate •Landform •Water •Legal Issues •Access and Circulation •Vegetation and Wildlife •Microclimate •Buildings and Infrastructure •Zones of Use •Soil Fertility and Management •Aesthetics and Experience of Place "The document you wanted is not on my keylinevermont.com site but I just uploaded it to the Burlington Permaculture site where we already have a reasonable sized permaculture resources library - http://burlingtonpermaculture.weebly.com/uploads/4/2/8/9/4289790/keylinehandout2011.pdf "This (other) article on keyline can also be found there http://burlingtonpermaculture.weebly.com/uploads/4/2/8/9/4289790/keylinearticle.pdf "Also you may find other useful information on the Burlington Permaculture resources site if you like. Best, Mark The document linked to below contains testimony to the VT Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs by Tad Montgomery. Oral testimony was given March 30, 2012; written testimony submitted April 5, 2012. Download document here. Topics covered:
From vermicomposters.com Do It Yourself systems. Vermicomposting, worm bin, composting with worms community and forums http://vermicomposters.ning.com/forum/topics/diy-flow-through-bins-a?id=2094123%3ATopic%3A41256 Hey folks, I thought I'd pass on this great information on mushroom cultivation. The first of the forum links has an amazing photo medley of oysters colonizing a phone book(!). Tad Here are some links: Oyster Cultivation Handbook (29.97 MB PDF) Shiitake Cultivation Handbook (34.88MB) Brooks Library has the book Mycelium Running (Paul Stamets) Forum discussions about oyster growing: http://www.permies.com/t/7152/fungi/Oysters-phonebooks http://www.permies.com/t/10181/fungi/starting-up-log-cultures#95013 http://www.permies.com/t/11450/fungi/outdoor-oyster-growing http://www.permies.com/t/8485/fungi/Outdoor-growing#77720 Here's a link to a great essay on living walls: http://pingmag.jp/2006/12/08/vertical-garden-the-art-of-organic-architecture/ 
TOPICS: fungus, soil Present: Steve Crofter, Laurel Green, Tad (scribbler) & Tom Jandernoa. Tom is a landscape designer with an M.A. in sustainable landscape design from the Conway School and a recent permaculture course under his belt from D Acres. He works at Stevens & Associates here in town, with one current project being a special garden at the Brattleboro Retreat. His PC design project is an over-arching design of the SIT campus, working with the farmer Steve Hed to look at alternative food production systems such as mushrooms, pigs, rice and other grains. Scheduling Future Meetings A couple of people have said that Tuesday evenings don't work for them. Could everyone who wants to attend our meetings regularly send Tad their best times to meet: which weekday evenings, weekday daytime times if you are able, and/or weekend times. Thanks! Edible Forest Gardens ch. 5 "Structures of the Underground Economy" Our discussion lasted over 90 minutes, and could've lasted lots another. It's a great chapter with all sorts of fascinating information and theories. It was wonderful to see the scientific basis for conventional agriculture's destructiveness to the soil, explore tree root structures, ponder all of the various soil organisms and consider the raging conflict between bacterial predominant soils and those of fungal dominance. We will finish with ch. 6 at our next meeting, then start in on Mycelium Running. Tad proposed advertising the next study group to the broader community and perhaps even finding another site to have the discussions in (likely 6). The Brattleboro library might buy a couple more books to have available for us. Mission/Vision statement By the time we got to this only Steve & Laurel were present, and both liked what's written below. We'll keep it as a draft mission statement until someone suggests we consider amending it for whatever reason. The Brattleboro Permaculture Guild is dedicated to promoting, teaching, learning and developing the broad philosophy and design tools of permaculture in this stretch of the Connecticut River watershed. Our activities include: work projects, study groups on specific topics, field trips, lectures and workshops, developing publicity and forums, and attempts to change the general culture to reflect the ideals and wisdom of permaculture. We strive to make learning about permaculture and regenerative/ecological design accessible to as many people as possible. At the same time we value the importance of consistency and continuity amongst our members. We support each other in our projects, and live by the principle of 'Sharing the Surplus' of our endeavors in order to foster a regenerative local economy. Fungal Stuff Another round of oyster inoculation should happen in a week or so using the totem method. Tad is trying to figure out how to get the oak dislodged from the maple at High Point and if he does, shiitake inoculation should happen soon, too. He might buy an inoculation tool to be able to plug inoculated sawdust into drilled holes, which would be cheaper than buying plugs. Tad has been in touch with a fantastic permaculture teacher who specializes in fungus -- Rafter Sass -- about teaching a series of workshops in Bratt this year. More to come. Get in touch if you would like to help out with this, or have special topics that you want the workshops to cover. There is a mushroom cultivation workshop happening in Chester VT on Feb. 25th. Here's the info: 11am – 1pm, Peace of Paradise Tim Hensley & his wife Jane have been cultivating several varieties of mushrooms on their 200 acre homestead in Berea, Kentucky for over a decade. We are so excited to welcome Tim to Chester to offer this unique yet practical workshop featuring all you need to know to grow your own specialty mushrooms! Plus, learn some tips on how to identify wild edible mushrooms and get some of your questions answered about gourmet and wildcrafted mushrooms. Tim will be doing a live demonstration inoculating a log to cultivate gourmet shiitake mushrooms! All participants will receive a comprehensive mushroom supplies catalog to take home so they can begin cultivating their own gourmet mushrooms. Cost: $25-$45 sliding fee per person. Pre-registration required by calling Peace of Paradise @ 802-875-8008 | ArchivesApril 2012 CategoriesAll About The Guild
We are dedicated to promoting, teaching, learning and developing the broad philosophy and design tools of permaculture in this stretch of the Connecticut River watershed. Our activities include work projects, study groups on specific topics, field trips, lectures and workshops, developing publicity and forums, and attempts to change the general culture to reflect the permaculture principles. We strive to make learning about permaculture and regenerative or ecological design accessible to as many people as possible. At the same time we value the importance of consistency and continuity amongst our members. We support each other in our projects, and live by the principle of 'Sharing the Surplus' of our endeavors in order to foster a regenerative local economy. |
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