Are you interested in becoming part of the solution? Permaculture is applied ecology; founded by Australian agronomists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the late 1970s, it is now a worldwide movement promoting ethically grounded gardening and landscape design—working with nature, rather than against it. The Mid-Willamette Permaculture Guild sponsors monthly meetings featuring films and lectures on all aspects of permaculture design and related topics pertaining to restorative and regenerative gardening and agriculture.
This Second Wednesday of March (March 11) our guest speaker will be Dr. Roberta Bigelow, presenting on the topic of backyard habitat design. Roberta retired from Willamette University in 2015 after teaching physics for nearly 30 years. She took the Master Gardeners’ Trainee course as soon as it was available, becoming a Master Gardener in 2016 and the MCMGA Treasurer in 2017. Along with Master Gardeners Karen Freeman and Carol & Bill Sutkus, Roberta taught a class on Backyard Habitat gardening–the gardening practice that seeks to provide natural habitat for wildlife.
Backyard Habitat Gardening
We are currently living in a time where the loss in biodiversity is becoming known as the sixth extinction, the sixth time in world history that many species have disappeared at a rapid rate, but this time the cause is clearly human activity. The reasons for this rapid decline in biodiversity are complicated but among them are habitat degradation and loss. The principle of Backyard Habitat gardening is to create natural, low-maintenance gardens that support people, wildlife, and the planet. We do this through removing invasive weeds, using native plants when possible, reducing pesticide use to a minimal level, managing water appropriately, and providing wildlife habitat. In this presentation, Roberta will talk about practical ways to make your yard attractive to wildlife, mainly insects and birds.
Held in Salem every 2nd Wednesday at 6:30 pm At Salem Friend’s Meeting House, 490 19th Street NE (19th and Breyman) For more information: 971-218-4772/ dianedalychavez@gmail.com or 971-701-6965/ tiellis@gmail.com
Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW, 36 hour class
Build resilience, save money and energy, save water, and feed your family or community.
Come join our latest classes!
12 classes – $15 each (If all classes are paid in advance, course discounted to $160)
Permaculture is “Earth Care, People Care, and Return of Surplus,” combining traditional and innovative methods that are sustainable and energy saving, enriching to the soil and all life. Design a system to feed your family, or complete additional short classes to earn your certificate and work as a consultant.
Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW covers permaculture history and ethics and goes into depth on the core concepts for creating sustainable systems by observing connections and capturing energy. Explore the energy transactions of trees, the roles of fungi, and the many functions of living soil. Learn pH, mineral availability, and enriching your soil with worm beds, weeds as repair tools, and compost fixing strategies. Study landscape effects on climate and temperate climate design for your home and landscape from kitchen gardens to main crops and food forests. This course prepares you to design a sustainable system for your yard or small farm in the Pacific NW.
Saturdays, starting September 10th, 2016, 10am-1pm, @ Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, 5090 Center St. NE, Salem, Oregon. Instructor, L. June, email nwperma at gmail dot com, or call 503-449-8077 for questions or registration
Build resilience, save money and energy, save water, and feed your family or community.
Come join our latest classes!
12 classes – $15 each (If all classes are paid in advance, course discounted to $160)
Permaculture is “Earth Care, People Care, and Return of Surplus,” combining traditional and innovative methods that are sustainable and energy saving, enriching to the soil and all life. Design a system to feed your family, or complete additional short classes to earn your certificate and work as a consultant.
Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW covers permaculture history and ethics and goes into depth on the core concepts for creating sustainable systems by observing connections and capturing energy. Explore the energy transactions of trees, the roles of fungi, and the many functions of living soil. Learn pH, mineral availability, and enriching your soil with worm beds, weeds as repair tools, and compost fixing strategies. Study landscape effects on climate and temperate climate design for your home and landscape from kitchen gardens to main crops and food forests. This course prepares you to design a sustainable system for your yard or small farm in the Pacific NW.
Wednesday evenings, starting June 8th, 2015, 6:30pm-9:30pm, @ First United Methodist Church, 1771 West Harvard, Roseburg, Oregon. Instructor, Diana Cason, call 941-735-0452, or 541-459-3938 for questions or registration
Design your own lower maintenance garden and reap the benefits for years to come
Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW
12 classes – $15 each (If all classes are paid in advance, course discounted to $160)
Permaculture is “Earth Care, People Care, and Return of Surplus,” combining traditional and innovative methods that are sustainable and energy saving, enriching to the soil and all life. Design a system to feed your family, or complete additional short classes to earn your certificate and work as a consultant.
Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW covers permaculture history and ethics and goes into depth on the core concepts for creating sustainable systems by observing connections and capturing energy. Explore the energy transactions of trees, the roles of fungi, and the many functions of living soil. Learn pH, mineral availability, and enriching your soil with worm beds, weeds as repair tools, and compost fixing strategies. Study landscape effects on climate and temperate climate design for your home and landscape from kitchen gardens to main crops and food forests. This course prepares you to design a sustainable system for your yard or small farm in the Pacific NW.
Let’s build resilience, save money and energy, save water, and feed our communities now.
Come join one of our latest classes!
Monday evenings, starting September 28th, 2015, 6:30pm-9:30pm, @ Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, 5090 Center St NE, Salem. Instructor, L. June, call 503-449-8077 for questions or registration
Presented by the NW Permaculture Institute. Our instructors and staff studied permaculture with world renowned permaculture designer & instructor, Geoff Lawton, of PRI, Australia, and his students. We offer classes at low rates, as well as free film and lecture series to further educate our students and the community. NWPI works with homeless and low income families to provide education to those who would otherwise be unable to take a permaculture course. Scholarships are available on a limited basis for those with financial need. Contact us for information on applying, or on donating to our scholarship fund, or to support our free film and lecture series, nwpermacultureinstitute.org
Concerned about Oregon’s drought and the future of farming?
Rising fuel prices are a wake up call for filmmaker, Rebecca Hosking, as she investigates how to turn her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future. Going beyond mere alarm raising to present practical, ingenious solutions from pioneering farmers and gardeners, Rebecca shows that nature holds some surprising keys to abundance. Film 50 minutes.
After the film, Lichen June, Director of the NW Permaculture Institute, will speak and take questions about how permaculture saves energy, money, and time while growing nutrient dense food, dropping your water usage, reducing heating and cooling bills, and benefiting the environment around us rather than decreasing fertility and life in the landscape. Learn about the content taught in the local NW Permaculture Institute class, “Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW,” and how you can use that information to benefit your land and living space, or go on to become a permaculture designer.
Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share: Free Film and Lecture Series
Held in Salem every 4th Thursday @ 6:30pm (except November and December)
Salem 4th Thursday events include potluck & discussion
@ Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, 5090 Center Street. NE, Salem
For more information: 503-449-8077
Join us on June 26th for a finger food potluck and an extraordinary film. How can Sepp Holzer farm fish, livestock, vegetables and herbs, a wide variety of fruits including lemons high in the Alps? No weeding, no watering, no annual plowing. The Agro Rebel explores the unusual, sustainable, energy and time saving, farming methods developed by Austrian farmer, Sepp Holzer. Come join us for food, film and discussion. Questions? Call 503-449-8077
Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share: Free Film and Lecture Series, presents, The Agro Rebel: Permaculture in the Salzburg Alps, film 45 mins. Finger food potluck and discussion. Thursday, June 26th @ 6:30pm. Showing at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, 5090 Center Street NE, Salem, 97317
Special Thanks to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem for the use of the beautiful space, and to Life Source Natural Foods for the potluck beverages. Additional thanks to Marion Polk Food Share and the Straub Environmental Learning Center for helping to promote our events.
A new PDC starts this Saturday. Below is a list of class subjects by date. You can pick to attend individual classes that match your interests, or take the full course and become a Permaculture Designer. Call if you have questions: 503-449-8077
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Permaculture Design Certificate Course Syllabus, Summer 2014
Saturdays 10am – 2pm, bring brown bag lunch. In the event of class cancellation, all class dates will move forward one date.
June 14th – Class 1
Introduction to permaculture. Human past-present-future. Permaculture design philosophy. Holistic thinking. Key problems: soil erosion-deforestation-pollution. Ethics of permaculture: Earth care, People care, Return of surplus. Definitions of permaculture. Sustainability outcomes. History of permaculture. Permanent culture. Urban permaculture. Permaculture repair. Permaculture aid work. Permaculture in society. Permaculture as an holistic design. Introduction to Concepts and Themes. Sustainable systems. Hierarchy of soil creation in natural systems.
June 21st – Class 2
Concepts and Themes cont. Elements. Needs and products. The sun – the source of energy. Characteristics of natural ecosystems. Weeds-pioneers-niches. Weeds-fast tracking recovery by design techniques. Diversity leads to stability. Connections between elements. Positioning of elements. Use of natural resources. Energy, Edge opportunities. Capturing energy and extending entropy. Categories of resources. Dispersal of yield over time. Diversity of plants. Perennial food advantages. Diversity and security. Yield and energy inputs. Niches. Mollisonian permaculture principals.
June 28th – Class 3
Introduction to Methods. Analysis: design by listing characteristics of components. Slope. Orientation. Zone analysis. Sector analysis. Designing with zones. Zonal placement. Sectors. Outside energies effect on site. Listing possibilities. Selection of random assemblies.
July 5th – Class 4
Methods cont. Connecting elements. Simple efficiencies. Observation. Introduction to Pattern. Patterns in nature. Pattern forms. Fibonacci sequence. Formation of pattern. Working with nature and patterns. Scale and order of size. Order and form. Edge areas. Edge effect. Working with pattern design events.
July 12th – Class 5
Pattern cont. Looking for existing patterns. Translating pattern form. Re-patterning a river. Wind patterns. Pattern used for passing on knowledge. Pattern for productive form – the herbal spiral. Traditional use of pattern. Re-patterning society. The pit garden – banana circle. Edge to space relationships. Introduction to Climatic Factors. Using local knowledge. Broad climate zones: temperate, tropical, drylands. Orographic effect. Maritime effect. Continental effect. Rain shadow. Micro climate.
July 19th – Class 6
Climatic Factors cont. Landscape effects on climate. Climate analogues. Characteristics of major climate zones. Orographic features. Major landscape profiles: humid and arid. Minor landscape profiles: volcanic, high island, low island, flatlands, wetlands, coasts and estuaries. Fungal relationships.
July 26th – Class 7
Introduction to Trees. Temperature effects. How a tree interacts with rain. Fungi. Forests. Legumes as support species. Introduction to Water. Water storage on earth. Recharging landscape with water. Building a dam/pond. Valley dams. Building a keyway. Putting a pipe in a dam wall. Spillways. Calculating catchment. Types of dams/ponds. Position of dams in landscape. Duties of water. Sealing a dam. Approach to water.
August 2nd – Class 8
Introduction to soils. Collapsing soil fertility. Compost. Chemical agriculture. pH testing – acid vs. alkaline soils. pH of soil and availability of minerals to plants. Role of weeds. Ants. Soil fertilizer. Berkley method of 18 day compost. Fixing problems with compost.
August 9th – Class 9
Soils cont. Compost tea. Bio fertilizer. Mineralizing soils by feeding livestock. Worm farms. Introduction to earthworks. Water: stop-spread-and soak. Planning. Measuring. Timing. Terraces. Conture banks. Measuring with an A Frame. Surveying. Water pressure on soil particles. Cover crops. Transit level. Machines used in earthworks.
August 16th – Class 10
Earthworks examples. Introduction to climate design. Climate comparisons. House design: humid tropics. cool to cold humid climates, drylands. Energy use in the different climates. Garden design in the different climates.
August 23rd – Class 11
Climate design cont. Zone 2 food forest comparisons across climates. Comparing zone 2 main crop gardens. Comparisons of zone 3 across climates, Zone 4 comparisons in design over climates in farm forestry. Aquaculture example.
August 30th – Class 12
Introduction to Aquaculture. Productive elements. Chain of life in water design. Pond design. Shallow aquaculture. Food for fish. Aquaponics.
September 6th – Class 13
Introduction to Strategies of an Alternate Global Nation. Invisible structures. Ethical basis. Establishing community structures. Establishing a permaculture community group. Bioregional resilience. Definition of culture from the environment we live in. Community land development. Money economy. Money and finance. Setting up not for profit permaculture institutes.
NW Permaculture Institute 