GREEN THUMB KIDS event listing here.

Permaculture at home and in the city
Presenter: Toby Hemenway
Sunday, Sept 26
10 am – 5 pm
Location: The DCH

Cost for DCH or Eastern PA Peramaculture Guild members:  $30/session, $50 both
Cost for non-members: $35/session, $60 both

To register for this program please go to http://www.meetup.com/permie/calendar/14540435/ . Payment accepted by credit card or Paypal account.
           
Sponsors: the Solar IGERT Program at UD, Eastern Pennsylvania Permaculture Guild, and The DCH
[Additional evening talk at Swarthmore college on Sept 27  http://www.meetup.com/permie/calendar/14540719/?from=list&offset=0]

Workshop Descriptions
10 am – 1 pm Permaculture and Garden Design for Small Yards
Permaculture, an approach to ecological design, helps us create life-filled gardens that not only provide food for people, but habitat for wildlife, carbon sequestering, biodiversity, natural soil building, beauty and tranquility, and a host of other benefits. This workshop will cover the basics of permaculture design, and will give you plenty of ideas and practical tools specifically for urban and suburban yards. You'll learn how to combine food and habitat plants, water harvesting, energy-reducing landscape and building techniques, and much more to create a backyard ecological paradise. a many-layered garden of fruit and nut trees, perennial and annual vegetables, flowers, and wildlife habitat. The class will give you both the theory behind ecological garden design and as well as practical information, including which plants to use, where to start, and what to expect as your food forest grows.

1-2 pm Lunch
A "50-mile" lunch made from fresh, seasonal ingredients bought direct from farmers within 50 miles will be available for $10. 

2 – 5 pm Designing the Urban Food Forest
How does permaculture apply to urban and suburban places? Though land may be limited, cities are rich in other resources, especially social capital. This workshop will show how to find, harvest, and integrate the many resources in our cities in sustainable ways, including getting access to land for gardening, creating business guilds and networks, learning the pattern language of the city, creating public space in neighborhoods, and building urban ecovillages. We will focus on the urban forest, and the design of edible food forests for city and suburban lots.

Toby Hemenway is the author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, which for the past six years has been the world’s best-selling book on permaculture, a design approach based on ecology for creating sustainable landscapes, homes, communities, and workplaces. Renowned author and environmentalist Bill McKibben said of Gaia's Garden "The world didn't come with an operating manual, so it's a good thing that some wise people have from time to time written them. Gaia's Garden is one of the more important, a book that will be absolutely necessary in the world ahead."
Toby is an adjunct professor in the School of Graduate Education at Portland State University, Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University, and a biologist consultant for the Biomimicry Guild. He teaches, consults, and lectures on permaculture and ecological design throughout the US and other countries. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Natural Home, Whole Earth Review, and American Gardener. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is developing sites and resources for urban sustainability. Learn more at http://patternliteracy.com. He will be available for book signing after the conference. Copies of his Gaia's Garden will be available for purchase, but feel free to bring your own (hopefully well-worn) copy.

How to Plant Your New Bare Root Tree
Wednesday, October 27, 5:00 - 6:30 PM

FREE & open to the public

Make sure that your new tree settles in and gets off to a
great start. Pick up your tree order and join us for a
training class on all things bare root including proper
planting technique. Free pizza included! Please
pre-register. Contact Annie Acton: (302) 658-6262 ext 106.

Arrangements for Winter Containers
Wednesday, November 17, 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Members $10, Non-members $15

It’s always a bit sad when chilly fall temperatures put an
end to colorful summer containers. It doesn’t have to be!
Andrew Olson will demonstrate how to use cut greens,
dried flowers, lights and winter hardy plants to create
gorgeous containers to brighten your winter garden.

Greens Get-together
Thursday, December 2, 5:30 – 8:00 PM

Members $30, Non-members $40

Create a beautiful wreath or table arrangement from an
unusual collection of fresh greens, dried flowers, seeds,
fruit and ribbons. Pat Boyd, Mary Szewczyk, and Sarah
Deacle will teach you how to work with the varied
materials. Refreshments served. Bring hand pruners and
gloves. Space is limited. Register by November 18, and
specify wreath or centerpiece.