Urban Harvest - Permaculture

Permaculture Classes Description

updated August 2011

PERMACULTURE CLASS DESCRIPTION

How can the next generations, those that come after them, and the planet’s other life forms be assured of a good living in a beautiful place for centuries? What steps can we take today as individuals or groups to get there? Permaculture is a design system for creating quality living that is sustainable. It minimizes the need for nonrenewable materials and energy, and reduces unnecessary human work. At the same time, it can make many aspects of daily life more enjoyable and comfortable.

Overview of Classes

Urban Harvest offers four modules that are open to anyone who has completed Module One: the two Sustainable Living Through Permaculture classes. The modules are the fall Bountiful Gardens Module, the winter Greening our Homes and Communities Module, and the spring Restoring Nature Module. It is possible to take parts of these three modules or an entire module. Each of the modules can be taken in any order. The fifth module, Graduation Tutorial, is focused on the student’s interest and taught as needed for grads of all the other modules. The modules comply with the international permaculture curriculum, so students who complete all of them are eligible for a Permaculture Designer’s Certificate.

Permaculture Designers Certificate Course

Since 2000, The Permaculture Guild of Houston has taught a Permaculture Design Certificate Course every other week on weekday nights with an occasional weekend day. In summer 2008, we introduced a redesigned certificate course where almost all of the instruction is intensive on weekends. In the new system there will be five course modules. Their content will be largely similar to the previous course, but the new one incorporates more hands-on learning.

Potential Guild Instructors:

JB= Joe Blanton; LC=Lewis Coleman; DC=David Crossley; RD= Rufus Driver; GE=Gary Edmondson; NE= Nancy Edwards; KF: Kirby Fry; BHan=Bill Hancock; BHer=Brian Herod; DL=Diana Liga; MJ =Mark Juedeman; PM= Patricia Michael; SM=Shawn McFarland; BR=Bob Randall; RS=Ray Sher; MCS=MC Swearingen; MT=Maisha Tianuru; KT=Kevin Topek; JW=Jennifer Walker; CV=Cas Van Woerden; GV=Gita Van Woerden

MODULE 1: SUSTAINABLE LIVING THROUGH PERMACULTURE:

Sustainable Living 1

A required prerequisite for any other permaculture course. Permaculture is an ecologically inspired energy-conscious way to design satisfying living arrangements that are sustainable. In this class, the design principles of permaculture are explained, observed and illustrated in a series of breakout sessions at a house and garden remodeled to reflect permaculture sustainability principles. Students should be prepared to walk about an urban garden and should have clothing appropriate for the weather.

Instructors: NE, BHan, SM,BR, MCS,MT
Class Length: 5 hours
Location: Home Garden

Sustainable Living 2

A required prerequisite for any permaculture course except for Sustainable Living 1. In this classroom presentation, we further explore the use of principles demonstrated in the previous class. We begin to design home sites using permaculture design principles. These connect and integrate food with housing and nature. We also explain permaculture’s approach to sustainability and the series of classes we use to teach it, as well as how students can get the international Permaculture Designer’s Certificate.

Class Summary

Introduction to Permaculture (RD, MJ, BR) (100 min)
Permaculture classes and the Permaculture Designer’s Certificate (SM) (40 min)
Break (10 min)
Mapping & Placement (CV) (60 min)
Break (10 min)
Designing with Permaculture Principles, Group Break Out and Design Presentations (GV) (40 min)
Class Length: 5.0 hrs
Location: Classroom

MODULE 2: DESIGNING BOUNTIFUL GARDENS USING PERMACULTURE

Sustainable Living 1 & 2 are prerequisites for any part of this course.

Bountiful Gardens focuses on the design of family gardens in its community context as part of a house or farm. Later in the course we learn some basic gardening skills, and design and build a garden, but first we survey the permaculture of vegetables, fruits, domestic animals and the factors we use to place these for maximum productivity and minimum labor. Water, soil, pest management, garden ecology, and climate are also featured. Excellent lunches are provided for courses lasting all day.

For those unable to take the full Bountiful Gardens module, the classes within the Bountiful Gardens Module can be taken individually.

The Permaculture of Food Gardening

Our area consumes 17,000 tons of food a day using huge amounts of energy. To be sustainable, every society needs to minimize the amount of food produced far from where people live or with supplies and equipment produced far away. This class is an overview of local vegetable and fruit production, how to learn more about production, explains the relative superiority of tree crops, and examines how to use nature to control pests.

Class Summary

Pests, beneficial critters, & eco pest management (DL) (75 min)
Permaculture and veggies (DL) (65 min)
Break (10 min)
Learning Gardening (RS) (30 min)
The Permaculture of fruit trees (RS) (90 min)
Class Length: 4 hrs, 30 min
Location: Classroom

Permacultural Design for Soil, Water and Animals

Bountiful gardens depend on bountiful soil. This class focuses on how earth slope, soil, animals and plants interact to produce bounty. The science of this is explained so that anyone can understand it.

Class Summary

Key Line Designs for Contoured & Flat Land [KT] (60 min)
Animals in the Landscape [KT] (30 min)
Nitrogen and other Cycles [KT] (30 min)
Break (10 min)
Cation exchange and soil chemistry [JB] (50 min)
Break (10 min)
Organics, the soil food web and the foundation of life ( [BR] (50 min)
Class Length: 4.0 hrs
Location Classroom

Permaculture Garden Design for Climate & Weather

Permaculturists have long been expecting the world’s climate system to become unhinged, and create havoc for both food production and the energy budget of buildings. Energy and materials costs will escalate as efforts to combat greenhouse gases intensify. This class examines both normal weather and climate, and touches on its destabilization. The focus is on how to have bountiful gardens despite weather chaos.

Class Summary

World Ecosystems and garden plants [BR] (95 min)
Break (10 min)
Climate [BR] (75 min)
Break (10 min)
Plants, seasons, climate & microclimate [GE] (50 min)
Class Length: 4.0 hrs
Location Classroom

Designing Bountiful Gardens

Bountiful gardens need to be carefully designed so that everything in the landscape and community including roads and buildings benefit other elements in the landscape in as many ways as possible. Permaculturists use natural patterns and groupings, as well as community to increase the garden’s bounty.

Class Summary

Using Edge and Pattern in the Landscape [BR] (60 min)
Bioregional Organizing for Sustainable Food: Farmers’ Markets, Co-ops, Community Gardening, Slow Cooking [BR] (30 min)
Break (10 min)
Using Plant Guilds in Design (MCS) (60 min)
Break (10 min)
Breakout sessions: Designing a garden [LC & others] (70 min)
Class Length: 4.0 hrs
Location Classroom

Hands On Gardening Skills

This class takes place at the Animal Farm Permaculture Center in Cat Spring. It provides small group, partially hands-on learning experiences in putting rainwater and irrigation where it is wanted, in planting trees and pruning fruit trees, in building garden beds from free materials, and on planting seeds and transplants. An excellent lunch is provided.
Animal Farm is approximately 2 hours west of Houston)

Class Summary

Earthworks and the garden [CV] (90 min)
Breakout on swales/slope [BR], irrigation [CV], planting a tree [MCS] (90 min)
Lunch (60 min)
Sheet mulching [GV,RS,MC]; transplants & seeds (GV), pruning a tree [MCS,BR,RS] (180 min)
Breaks (30 min)
Class Length: 7.5

Garden Design and Build

This class takes place at the Animal Farm Permaculture Center in Cat Spring. It provides small group hands-on learning experiences in designing a garden and getting one started. This is a physical labor class whose design component will be most useful if you have taken most or all of previous bountiful gardens classes. An excellent lunch is provided.

Class Summary

Looking at potential garden sites—3 breakout groups [GV] (180 min)
Lunch (60 min)
Design work, presentations & choosing a site [GV] (150 min)
Construction (120 min)
Class Length: 7.50 hours
Location: Animal Farm

MODULE 3: GREENING OUR HOMES & COMMUNITIES

Sustainable Living 1 & 2 are prerequisites for any part of this course.

In a world of peak oil, rapidly rising energy and materials prices, and increasing climate protection measures, it is essential that our homes and communities change as quickly as possible. This course helps us get there. Designing Our Green Homes and Communities is one of five modules in the permaculture design certificate course, and is open to anyone who has completed Module 1: Sustainable Living Through Permaculture. No city planning, engineering or architectural knowledge is assumed.

The Urban Ecohouse

In this class, we look at various features of the urban ecohouse. We discuss climate control, building new ecohouses, and retrofitting old ones. We also look at organizations that promote them worldwide and in Texas. We finish the day working on small group designs of sustainable housing.

Class Summary

Land Development, Smart Growth & Alternative Transit [DC] (90 min)
Bioregional Organizations for sustainable communities [BR] (30 min)
Lunch (60 min)
Student introductions (15 min)
Climate and The Ecohouse [SM] (60 min)
Eco Architecture [SM] (90 min)
Break (15 min)
Integral Urban Home Concept [SM] (30 min)
Hands on designing the eco-house in small groups [SM] (60 min)
Class Length: 7.50 hrs
Location: Classroom

Urban Ecohouse Tours

This course includes an informative guided tour of two homes. One is an affordable new house and the other is retrofitted to reduce fossil energy use.

Class Summary

Urban Ecohouse Tours [SM]
Class Length: 4.0 hrs
Location: Houston area

Skills and Concepts for Renewal

For our third session, we look at a number of important support features particularly valuable for rural structures. These factors include water supply and purification, renewable energy, using local resources for building, disaster prevention and ways to avoid expenses.

Class Summary

Alternative Economics [BR] (60 min)
Placing the house and Design for Disaster [BR] (60 min)
Lunch (60 min)
Water supply & natural purification [CV] (60 min)
Renewable Energy [CV] (120 min)
Using local resources for building/Natural building [GV] (90 min)
Class Length: 7.50 hrs
Location: Classroom

Hands On Renewable Energy

Our fourth session is at a location about 90 minutes west of Houston at Animal Farm Permaculture Center (see www.trcat.com/animalfarm/gallery.htm) Carpooling is strongly encouraged. There will be an excellent mid-day lunch. The day starts with an inspiring talk on building community, and then spends the bulk of the day installing a solar energy set-up hands on and natural building. For directions, see www.urbanharvest.org/permaculture/directions.html.

Class Summary

Building community neighborhood by neighborhood [PM] (90 min)
Lunch (60 min)
Hands on Renewable Energy [CV] (300 min)
Class Length: 7.50 hrs
Location: Animal Farm

Tomorrow’s Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities

Our last class in this module, we will focus on Ecovillages, Cohousing and Sustainable Communities. It is through these intentional communities that sustainable living prospers, transit emphasizes energy conservation and people get more out of less. Much of the day will be devoted to learning to design such communities.

Class Summary

Water supply [JW](60 min)
Intro. to Sustainable Communities & Ecovillages [SM] (90 min)
Lunch and tour of Ecovillage site (120 min)
Urban Ecovillage design practicum in small groups [SM] (180 min)
Class Length: 7.50 hrs
Location: Classroom & Ecovillage

MODULE 4: RESTORING NATURE USING PERMACULTURE DESIGN

Sustainable Living 1 & 2 are prerequisites for any part of this course.
No ecological or nature training is assumed.

Day 1: Ecosystems

Our first session in the classroom focuses on some basic ecology and looks at the broad questions about nature and the threats to it. We then look at trees and forests—remarkable communities of plants and animals that act as our planet’s lungs and kidneys.

Class Summary

Ecology, Restoration Ecology and Deeper Ecology [BR] (120 min)
Trees, Forests, Water and Energy [MCS, BR] (120 min)
Class Length: 4.5 hrs
Location: Classroom

Day 2 Restoring Nature

Our second session is at a natural area. By walking around with a knowledgeable guide, we learn how to observe nature using the permaculture perspective. We also look at ways a former eyesore has been restored to a wonderful place of natural beauty. Restoration could not take place without bioregional organization, so we study the permaculture of that too.

Class Summary

Local Bioregional Organizing to Rebuild Nature [RS] (30 min)
Observations and nature [JB, RS] (240 min)
Class Length: 4.5 hrs
Location: Houston natural area

Day 3: Texas Ecosystems

Our focus this time is on our own state’s ecosystems. Austin-based Houston-native Kirby Fry pays tributes to a beautiful state. We also look at our prairies and wetlands.

Class Summary

Texas Ecosystems [KF] (150 min)
Prairies & Wetlands [tba] (90 min)
Class Length: 4.50 hrs
Location: Classroom

Day 4: Restoration Project

Our last session will be at a local natural area and will be devoted to restoring a habitat feature. Be sure to get the list of how to dress and what to bring. Be prepared to get dirty and have fun.

Class Summary

Designing a Restoration [BHer, JB] (120 min)
Lunch & breaks (60 min)
Hands on Restoration [BHer, JB, (270 min)
Class Length: 7.50 hrs
Location: Houston natural Area

MODULE 5: GRADUATION TUTORIAL [RS]

In this class, students who have completed all of the other modules are invited to design an 8-hour project by consulting with a Guild teacher and then presenting to the group of students and teachers at a graduation party. By taking this module, the student is able to judge whether they have learned the criteria set out by the teachers for their design. It allows the student to see what fellow students have designed, providing opportunities for sharing ideas and expanding learning possibilities. One or more alternative dates are set each year to accommodate students and instructors.

Class Summary

Tutorial Explanation [RS & Guild] (2 hr)
Graduation (6 hr)
Length of class: 8.0 hrs
Location of class: TBD

Information Useful for Taking the Courses

Text Support

By far the best book on permaculture is Bill Mollison’s Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual. This book is expensive ($109 from www.permacultureactivist.net ) and not always easy to purchase so we don’t make it a required text. We do strongly encourage you to purchase it if you can, and read it. Much of our permaculture (PC) courses correspond to parts of this book.

Guild Teachers

The instructors in this course are not all trained teachers, though many of them have substantial background in the topics they teach. Permaculturists think that whatever one’s regular job might be, that everyone with adequate training needs to teach permaculture. No member of our Guild is a full time permaculture instructor. We do our best, but depend on you for helpful suggestions as to how to improve the classes.

Logistics

You will need maps and directions for classes that are not at the classroom. For the first Bountiful Gardens class, you will need to get an email or fax from Urban Harvest. We will discuss the logistics in the class immediately before class with the outing. Let us know well ahead if you will miss a class or need special arrangements or directions.

For directions to Animal Farm, you can paste the following link into your browser, see www.urbanharvest.org/permaculture/directions.html. We strongly suggest that you carpool with other students or teachers to Animal Farm.

Field Trip Weather Issues

There is not a practical way to reschedule classes that may be cancelled due to bad weather. In such cases, we offer a raincheck to attend the class free the following year, provided it is offered. Because of this, cancellations will be very rare. We therefore try to wait as long as possible before canceling. We will know whether we will cancel three hours before the start of a class. You can call the class facilitator’s cell number to inquire. For Houston classes, it is easy to find out the weather and traffic. Animal Farm, being further west, is much, much drier and often 5-10? cooler than Houston. In any case, bring rain gear, sun gear or cold gear if there is any chance you might need it!