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You can see and read more about this course in an awesome blog post by one of the students in this course: These Light Footsteps – Hands-on Permaculture.
Classroom Panorama
Pictures from our July 2012 Hands-on Permaculture Course
Tag Archives: water harvesting
Linear Food Forests along Hugelkultured Swales
In this design we will be planting linear-food forests all along the downhill side of each of three hugelkultured swales. What is a hugelkultured swale?
While the tress and shrubs are in the early stages of growing (small) we will use the open space to grow some of our annual vegetables. We will also plant some nitrogen fixing ground covers and dynamic accumulators to help build the soil.
Applying Local Resources to Capture Greywater
The harvesting of greywater is an important technique that we often use in permaculture designs. Not only does it utilize what is considered a ‘waste product’, it helps our gardens grow, reduces the amount of fresh water required for our gardens, remediates this ‘waste water’ better than municipal systems can, recycles nutrients, and it creates a direct connection to where we live. Good greywater design can save us time, money, and improve the environment.
We met Candace Vanderhoff (greywater and rainwater collection practitioner) while we were in So. Calif. last year and have asked her to join us for our permaculture design course and super adobe earth building training (Oct. 8-10, 2012)
She is a long-time admirer of Cal-Earth’s work and studied under Nadir Khalili (founder of Cal-Earth) while she was earning her masters degree in architecture. It wasn’t long before she became friends with Nadir and several Cal-Earth staff.
She will be leading the installation of a greywater system from a washing machine located in the interns house at Cal-Earth to the permaculture/hugelkultur garden system that we will be designing and building during the training.
Candace Vanderhoff, M.Arch, LEED AP
Founder/CEO RainThanks & Greywater
Candace has a masters degree in architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, is certified as a LEED accredited professional by the US Green Building Council, and is an experienced Permaculture designer.
In 2009, Candace trained with Greywater Action in the Sand Francisco Bay area and also completed the Green Plumber Training for water professionals.
Her current work with RainThanks is managing, consulting and designing water harvesting systems, sustainable landscapes and water conservation products.
See Pictures of her work below… or by clicking on “Continue reading…”
6-Day Family Friendly Training
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6-day “Hands-on” Training - August 2011 This Training is also Stage 2 or our 3-Stage PDC Certificate Course
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Water Wheel Pump
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This is just too cool…! How many people live near a running creek, but the creek sits low enough on their property that there is no good way to get the water up on to the land for irrigation or for a small pond without running electricity for a pump? This simple, homemade device will do the trick. Of note, the water pump wheel will lift water 2 to 8 times higher than the diameter of the wheel. Basically, the more loops you have in the wheel the higher and farther you can ‘pump’ the water. However, the more loops in the wheel makes the wheel heaver and harder to turn, so one needs a larger or faster running creek to do the work. Regardless, there appears to be a happy median, and to move any amount of water uphill on a piece of property gives one a very valuable resource to work with. Here is a link to a simple article about how the water wheel pump works and how to build one. Just had to share this with you…. Bill Wilson |
Graduates in the News
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It’s always exciting when we hear about the mainstream media picking up on permaculture and even more so when they’re talking about graduates of Midwest Permaculture. Here are a couple of these recent appearances in the news:
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Wind & Sun Farm – A Permaculture Design (Part 2)
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Part 2 of 2
Current Conditions
Permaculture Design Recommendations Keylining and Swales In order to deal effectively with the two distinct areas of erosion, (cream colored squiggles in aerial photo below) while simultaneously preparing the soils for an abundance of food production, we recommend keyline plowing in years 1 through 3. Keylining is done until dramatic improvement to soil quality is achieved. |
Hugelkultur Video
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Check out this time lapse video we made of the construction of a hugelkultur bed… Hugelkultur is a raised bed filled with wood. As the wood decomposes it slowly releases nutrients to the plants in the bed. It also acts like a sponge, holding more water for the plants to access in between rains. We built this bed in Bill & Becky Wilson’s yard as a part of our Hands-On Permaculture Training this past August. |
Wind & Sun Farm – A Permaculture Design (Part 1 of 2)
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Permaculture Design Charrette — July 2011
Above: The Design Crew – Completion of a Cup Swale So often in the world of permaculture we focus on the elements of a design, like gardens, herb spirals food forests, or chicken tractors. It is all too easy to get distracted from what the real goals of permaculture are, which is how we assemble the items in the landscape into a cohesive and synergistic whole; the permaculture design. Creating a design is an important part of our Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) courses but is not the only way that a design can be made. At the invitation of John and Ann Hippensteel of Wind and Sun Farm, Midwest Permaculture hosted a permaculture design charrette at their farm in Door County, WI. The charrette was opened up to their family & friends and the greater public. In attendance were 4 family members, 6 other students, and 3 Midwest Permaculture instructors/designers — Bill Wilson, Milton Dixon and Bryce Ruddock. We will share some of this design beginning with an overview of permaculture, the farm, the goals of the design, and our process. |
Farewell Frank
Frank Fekonia – Queensland, Australia
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A Great Video Short Goodbye to a real Permaculture Innovator There are many creative permaculture folk in the world (thank goodness) but few had the spunk and vibrato that Frank had. He passed away last month but some of his creativity lives on in the spontaneous YouTube videos that we continue to use in our Permaculture Design Certification Courses. They demonstrate clearly what ‘thinking outside of the box’ truly looks like. A million “Thank-Yous” Frank for your generous and creative gifts. Video of Frank and His Refrigerator Grow Beds Loof for Frank’s other two videos on YouTube once you view this one. |