Course discount: if paying in full on or before April 15th, subtract $50.00!
FOREST GARDEN IMMERSION COURSE
May 28-31, 2010
Sage Garden Designs, and Mosaic Farm
at the Dunphy School, Williamsburg, MA
INCLUDING:
Permaculture DesignPropagation & Planting
Sheet Mulching
Forest Ecology
Soil Ecology
Botany for Gardeners
Mushroom Inoculation
Foraging and Wild Edibles
Management Techniques
Fresh Forest Garden Cooking
COURSE INSPIRATION:
Imagine
a forest where every single tree is dripping with fresh fruits and
ripening nuts. Every shrub is packed with delicious berries, and every
other plant is a medicinal herb, culinary spice, or beautiful edible
flower. Tubers and root crops are abundant underfoot, gourmet mushroom
logs sprout in the shade, and hardy kiwi vines climb back up through
the layers of this multi-functional forest of food. Participants learn how to design, establish,
and maintain such Edible Forest Gardens of Eden. Forest Gardening is gardening *like* the forest, in layers, not gardening *in* the forest, as one might expect.
Local food security is essential for resilient local communities. This course immerses participants in the hands-on reality of designing and co-creating edible forest gardens.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This
course immerses participants in the thriving local forest gardening
culture of the Pioneer Valley. Together we will engage in the practical
skills of forest gardening: propagation, planting &
mulching, soil ecology, basic botany & horticulture, management
& maintenance, plant identification, mushroom inoculation, foraging
& wild edibles, and fresh
forest garden cooking.
A visit to an 6-year old
local forest garden shows the evolution of these systems, and connects participants with a diversity of
multifunctional herbs, trees, and vines. We learn to
weave forest gardening into our communities as well as into the soil.
This
course functionally interconnects with other Forest Garden courses
taught in the Northeast this season by providing cultural mentoring in
the hands-on joys and challenges of starting and maintaining
forest gardens. Our connection to the local community culminates
in a Forest Garden installation for the Dunphy School, a public elementary school in Williamsburg, MA.
The course takes place over 3-days: Friday evening May 28 - Monday May 31,
Memorial Day weekend, 2010
INSTRUCTORS
Mai Frank
Mai
Frank dwells in western Massachusetts as a garden designer,
permaculture teacher and nature guide. Mai works closely with the
plant world as the founder of edible landscaping company Sage Garden
Designs and as a permaculture designer with Dave Jacke at Dynamic
Ecological Designs. Her foundations in design, farming,
wild-harvesting and ornamental horticulture from Smith College Botanic
Gardens inform her work. She has taught permaculture and forest
gardening to adults since 2007. Mai mentors youth in three naturalist
programs in southern VT and western MA, including Full Moon Girls, a
joyful, creative, empowering program for teen girls.
Connor Stedman
Connor
Stedman is a permaculture designer, teacher, and lifelong naturalist
with 5 years’ experience training students of all ages in tracking,
bird language, and knowledge of place. He has worked with nature
awareness and permaculture organizations around North America,
including Wilderness Awareness School, Vermont Wilderness School, and the Regenerative Design
Institute. Connor has been farming since age 15 and recently
co-managed an herb farm growing over 60 species of medicinal crops.
Currently, Connor is working to develop Gaia Northeast, a regional
center of Gaia University International offering accredited action
learning B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees. He lives at the base of the Pocumtuck Ridge in western Massachusetts.
Benneth Phelps
Benneth
Phelps is a farmer with a decade of farming
experience in the Northeast. She holds a Masters in Land Use Planning,
and her work often focuses on intersections between agriculture and
larger scale land use issues, including community food systems, food
security and agricultural land use planning. Other areas of focus include farm planning, design and management, winter growing, greenhouse production, and management of perennial
cropping systems. She developed the year-round CSA at
Enterprise Farm, in Whately, MA, where she focused on year-round
production, food system change, and direct collaboration between East
Coast farms to implement a farm-based, year-round distribution system
within an East Coast foodshed. She regularly lectures on topics related to community farms,
Permaculture techniques for farmers, and her farming history and
practices. She consults regularly for municipalities on agricultural land use
planning and community food systems. She currently
spends her time developing Mosaic Farm, in the Connecticut River Valley
of Western Massachusetts, and you can follow her progress at www.mosaicfarm.com
Keith Zaltzberg
Keith Zaltzberg is an energetic ecological designer who draws on his experiences
as an organic farmer and Permaculture teacher to create beautiful,
vital, and productive landscapes. Working as collaborator, teacher,
and guide, Keith empowers individuals, communities and organizations to
understand, appreciate, and steward their landscape through design.
Keith holds a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Design from the
Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the
University of Massachusetts-Amherst and is a founding partner of the
Regenerative Design Group.
GUEST INSTRUCTORS
Eric Toensmeier
Eric Toensmeier is the award-winning author of Perennial Vegetables and co-author of Edible Forest Gardens.
An expert on the useful perennial crops of the world, he has taught
about permaculture and perennial food production systems in multiple
languages and countries. His urban homestead is a model of how to apply
permaculture to a small space with poor soils. Eric also ran the Tierra
de Oportunidades urban farm project for Nuestras Raices in Holyoke, MA,
and provides business training to start-up farmers through the New
England Small Farm Institute and Massachusetts Department of
Agricultural Resources.
Jonathan Bates
Jonathan Bates has been thinking and teaching
ecologically since 1999. In 2001 Jonathan graduated with a masters
degree from the Institute for Social Ecology. Currently he is employed
full time with the Center for Ecological Technology. He’s been
studying, creating and working with rural and urban gardens in the
Connecticut River Valley for the last nine years, and is a co-designer
and inhabitant of an edible forest garden in Holyoke, MA. Jonathan's Permaculture Nursery is providing plant selection advice and plants for the course.
PUBLIC LECTURE, Williamsburg Grange Friday May 28, 7:00p
"Gardening Like the Forest: A Forest Garden Introduction"
Dave Jacke, Co-author, Edible Forest Gardens
$10-25 Suggested donation, all proceeds go to support garden installation at the Dunphy School
Please bring your friends and advertise widely!
TUITION & REGISTRATION
Tuition
includes instruction, all day coffee and tea, and three delicious lunches, prepared
from local organic food and fresh forest garden cooking. The course is designed with the locals in mind and tuition does not include lodging. We encourage those who wish to attend from out of town to book local accommodations or contact us about a student host.
Course Tuition is sliding scale: $350.00 - $650.00 US
Discounts:
If paying in full on or before April 15th, subtract $50.00
If your child attends either the Dunphy or James School in Williamsburg, subtract an additional $50.00. Parents are eligible for both discounts: the sliding scale for parents who pay on or before April 15 is $250.00-650.00. Parents, please also inquire about garden work-trade.
Your tuition helps cover the cost of garden installation for the Dunphy School!
An additional 3% processing fee is required for payments made on-line via credit card.
We appreciate payment in full, if you need to make a deposit towards full payment instead, please contact us at the email below.
Email questions to: ForestGardenImmersionCourse@gmail.com,
For inquires by phone, contact Mai at:203.515.1765
Pay via PayPal:
SNAIL MAIL
To complete your registration payment with a check or money order by mail, make checks out to Sage Garden Designs, and mail to:
Alisha Mai Frank
Sage Garden Designs
Attn: Forest Garden Course
PO Box 406
Greenfield MA
01370
CONFIRMATION
Once
we receive your registration information and payment you will receive a
confirmation e-mail confirming your registration into the course. We
will then send you additional information regarding course details.
REFUND POLICY
Cancellations
up to 2 weeks before the course begins (May 14) will be refunded,
excluding a $50 processing fee. No refunds are given after May 14.
