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Urban Permaculture Courses – Join the movement, become an Urban gardener

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Permaculture is the use of ecology as the basis for designing integrated systems of food production, housing appropriate technology and community development. It offers a practical, creative approach to the problems of diminishing resources and threatened life support systems now facing the world.

Simon Henderson, Cortez IS, BC

 

Agora and Cityplot are joining forces to build an inspiring programme of workshops with an Urban Permaculture focus. This is a practice that both organisations envisage being implemented into everyone’s daily lives. Permaculture is the conscious design of ‘cultivated’ ecosystems in disciplines including biology, ecology, geography, agriculture, architecture, appropriate technology, gardening and community building, that have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.

 

There is a clear urgency to change our habits as a society on several levels. Concrete climate consequences are already obvious and increasing year by year. To slow down, or even reverse the process, large scale engagement and commitment of our communities is necessary. Although this can appear overwhelming, contributing to this change can be easily implemented and a lot of fun. We can simply start with ourselves and the decisions we make in everyday life.

 

In the series of workshops that Cityplot will lead at Agora, we will focus on one very important and fundamental element: Food.  We currently face severe problems at various stages of our food production and consumption. Scarcity of food is a real issue and one not helped by an ever increasing world population. GMO seeds, pesticides and herbicides threaten our health and the health of the earth. Monocultural agriculture is depleting vital soil nutrients and leading to extensive desertification.

 

How can we pro-actively contribute to the growing movement, which seeks answers to these self-destructive systems? Simple. We start in our own houses, by changing our own behavior and dependency on such systems – by sharing, learning, educating ourselves and going back to an ancestral practice, which gives us fundamental control: growing our own food.

 

City-plot (www.cityplot.org) encourages and educates city dwellers who would like to grow their own vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, fruit and berries. We start with the basics: from planting seeds to harvesting, and from worm composting to attracting pollinators to your garden. Cityplot demonstrates how simple it is to provide healthy and sustainable alternatives to the global food system. Cityplot was founded in Amsterdam in 2008 and has been active in Berlin since 2010, with a particular focus on Urban Permaculture systems planning. Now they offer their educational programme in parallel.Come join us, and expect to get dirty!

In 2015 there are two great ways to begin exploring the multi-faced world of Urban Permaculture:

*a year long course with six half-day workshops throughout the year

*9 individual two-hour workshops throughout the year

Scroll down for detailed information

Year Long Course:

GET DOWN, GET DIRTY – GROW YOUR OWN FOOD COURSE
Get Down, Get Dirty is an year long course, the high-light of the City-plot – Agora Collaboration.
In this year long course you will learn and get one to one consultancy to start your own permaculture vegetable garden.

GDGD is an in-depth six-part series of half-day workshops covers the fundamentals of sustainable organic growing as the seasons unfold. We will cover crop planning, seeds, seedlings, composting, soil health, propagation by cuttings, creating a balanced garden, various vegetables, herbs, fruit, wild and edible flower crops, seed saving, four-season growing, harvest and more. All classes are a combination of theory and hands-on practical work.

Dates: March 21st / May 9th / June 13th / July 4th / September 5th / October 10th

Times: always from 1pm to 5pm

Price: 300 euros for the integral course / 60 euros for a single workshop of the course

Course language: English

Contact for all questions: theresa@agoracollective.org

CONTENT:

march
1: Planning an Edible Natural Garden
1:1 Creating a Balanced Ecosystem
1:2 Where to Grow
1:3 Sun, Moon, Temperature and Climate
1:4 General Crop Characteristics
1:5 Making a Plan
1:6 Homeworkapril

may
2: Getting Dirty
2:1 How to start growing indoors
2:2 What to plant when
2:3 Planting the Seeds
2:4 Caring for your Seedlings
2:5 Transplanting seedlingsmay

 

june
3: Building Healthy Soil
3:1 Building Healthy Soil
3:2 Building Healthy Soil – Composting
3:3 Homework

 

july
4: Caring for your crops
4:1 General Crop Care
4:2 Family by Family, Crop by Crop
4:3 Attracting Beneficial Insects
4:4 Pests and Diseases
4:5 Propagating by cuttings

 

september
5: Extending the Season and Seed Saving
5:2 Seed Saving
5:3 Winter Crops
5:4 Structures to Extend the Growing Season
5:5 Building Healthy Soil: Green Manures, Leafmould, Crop Rotation and Nutrients

 

october

6: harvesting, processing and storage
6:1 Vegetable, Fruit and Herb Storage
6: Resources

Eventbrite - Get Down, Get Dirty - Growing your own food course

 

Workshops

Besides the Year Long Course there will be 9 individual Workshops on different aspects of Urban Permaculture throughout the year:

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INTRODUCTION TO PHENOLOGY

Phenology is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life. Because of yearly variations in weather, calendar dates are usually not a good basis for gardening decisions. In this workshop we will be discussing the physiological time scale that is biologically more accurate than calendar days, spanning the scale from folk wisdom through to the collection of scientific data for global warming.

Date: November 7th. Time: 15 pm – 17pm. Price: 20 euros online / 25 euros spontaneous turn-up

Eventbrite - Introduction to Phenology

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PAST WORKSHOPS:

CITY CHICKEN

Date: September 5th. Time: 10 am – 12 am.  Price: 20 euros online / 25 euros spontaneous turn-up

Eventbrite - CITY CHICKEN WORKSHOP

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GROWING EDIBLES IN THE SHADE

Do you have very little direct sunlight in your city garden and despair of ever producing healthy homegrown vegetables and herbs? All is not lost! Learn which crops can grow in shade and expand your gardening space.

Date: September 26th. Time: 15pm – 17pm. Price: 20 euros online / 25 euros spontaneous turn-up

Eventbrite - GROWING EDIBLES IN THE SHADE

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WORMSHOP

Did you know that worms can transform your food scraps into a rich compost? Come along and learn how to make your own worm bin for your kitchen or balcony! You will leave with hungry worms to live in your bin, and information about how to feed them so that they make a delicious treat for your plants.

Date: June 13th. Time: 10 am – 12 am.  Price: 20 euros online / 25 euros spontaneous turn-up

Eventbrite - WORMSHOP

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COMPANION PLANTING

Organic gardeners know that a diverse mix of companion plants make for a healthy, productive and space-efficient garden. Learn about how certain planting combinations can increase crop yield, attract beneficial insects, repel pests, and even enhance flavour.

Date: April 12th. Time: 15 pm – 17 pm. Price: 20 euros online / 25 euros spontaneous turn-up

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INTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE

Join us for an introduction to permaculture ethics: earth care, people care, and fair share. We will interactively explore how these principles can be applied to city garden projects of all sizes.

Date: March 7th. Time: 15 pm – 17 pm. Price: 27 euros online / 33 euros spontaneous turn-up

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BEEKEEPING IN THE CITY

This course is suitable for you if you want to get an overview of beekeeping in the city. If you are thinking of keeping bees by yourself, the course may help you deciding. Topics will be among others: What is the bee mortality? Why do bees feel so comfortable in the city? What do I need to know and how can I start with beekeeping?

Course instructor: Johannes Weber / stadtbienen e.V., inventor of the bienenbox system. For more information check: www.bienenbox.de and www.stadtbienen.org

Date: March 14th. Time 15-17 pm. Price: 27 euros online / 33 euros spontaneous turn-up

 

 

 

Date: December 16, 2014