Food Forest Rain Barrel Demo & Work Day

Michelle | March 22nd, 2011

Spring is finally here! Let’s celebrate by getting our hands dirty at the Hazelwood Food Forest. We need to capture and retain water on the site especially until the young trees and plants are established. This first workday of 2011 will focus on setting up a gutter and downspout for the shed so that we can hook up to a rain barrel. We will also be doing some spring clean-up. Handy folks are especially needed to help put up the gutters!

Following the work day, Luke Stamper of the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association will explain and show us how to install a rain barrel as well as answer participants’ questions. Luke helps to manage the Rain Barrel Initiative inside the Nine Mile Run Watershed and is quite experienced with installing rain barrels.

Join us at 10:00 am and trade some work for the demonstration/class. Or come at 11:00 am just for the demonstration/class for $5.

Planning to show up? Sign up here

Regenerating Pittsburgh from the Ground Up, Weekend Workshop

Juliette | January 11th, 2011

Saturday-Sunday Workshop:

Principles and Practices of Regenerative Design

With Dave Jacke and up-and-coming permaculture teachers from around the region.

Click here to Register

9 AM – 4:30 PM, Saturday, April 30^th and Sunday, May 1^st

Phipps Garden Center, 1059 Shady Ave., Pittsburgh, PA (Please note, this location is different from the public lecture, which is located at Eddy Theatre on Chatham University’s Shadyside Campus, Pittsburgh, PA.)

Heard enough doom and gloom about the planet-scale destruction we humans are causing (polluted rivers, toxins in our soil and food, climate chaos, etc.)? Are you ready for tangible, empowering solutions?

There is so much we can do. But before we jump in, let us heed the words of Einstein: “We cannot solve the significant problems we face at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” So, are you also ready to embrace a new paradigm, new ways of thinking that will get us out of this mess and help us regenerate our world?

This weekend workshop offers you the experience of a holistic, ecological worldview while you learn multiple practical solutions that model, signify, and demonstrate this paradigm. Learn the ecological principles that inform an ecological worldview and provide concrete directions for finding solutions to multiple problems with maximum effect for least effort. These principles apply at all scales, from garden beds to cities to whole regions, and in every realm of human endeavor and beyond. You’ll have the opportunity to see, hear about, and engage with these principles in large and small groups, applying them to a range of challenges in your neighborhood with people in your community.

When we see the world as a set of isolated and disconnected elements, we can never see, understand, or respond appropriately to the interconnectedness of the natural ecosystems within which we live. Yet, when we see the world whole, we can create a world that embodies wholeness. We can, with nature’s help, heal our landscapes, our waterways, our communities, and ourselves. Please join us! We welcome you to the adventure.

$150 – $200 sliding scale for individuals. This includes admittance to the Friday night public lecture. Scholarships may be available, please inquire.

$125 per person if five or more register together from one neighborhood, organization, or friendship network. (Please send a check with the total amount along with a list of the names of each participant, their address, email, phone number and the group affiliation to Pittsburgh Permaculture, 5031 Ampere St, Pittsburgh, Pa 15207.)

To register for the weekend workshop visit here.

For more information please email pghfoodforests@gmail.com or call Juliette at 412-780-5833.

Regenerating Pittsburgh is a collaboration of Pittsburgh Permaculture, Dynamics Ecological Design, and Wild Meadows Farm. This weekend event is sponsored by Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

Regenerating Pittsburgh from the Ground Up, Public Lecture

Juliette | January 10th, 2011

Friday Night Public Lecture: Regenerating Communities, Ecosystems, and Landscapes with Permaculture

With Dave Jacke (author Edible Forest Gardens)

And Special Guest Darrell Frey (of Three Sisters Farm and Bioshelter)

7 – 9 PM, Friday, April 29^th at Eddy Theatre on Chatham University’s Shadyside Campus. Pittsburgh, PA. (Please note, this location is different from the weekend workshop, which is located at Phipps Garden Center, 1059 Shady Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA.)

Suggested Donation $10 (included in weekend workshop fee), no one turned away for lack of funds. Admittance is free for all Chatham students and staff.

How can we regenerate healthy human communities and natural ecosystems while meeting our own needs? What is the future of food in an era of economic disruption, peak oil, and climate chaos? Healthy forests maintain, fertilize, and renew themselves naturally, while creating habitats of high productivity and deep beauty. These ecosystems can serve as models for garden and culture design and offer the same benefits. Edible forest gardens mimic the structure and function of natural forests and grow food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and fun!

This presentation introduces the forest gardening vision and presents living examples of gardens as well as a sampling of perennial edibles you can grow. It shows how the underlying ecology of forest ecosystems can teach us ways to organize our own communities and cities to meet the challenges of the future right here, right now. We will also ask what role our species can and should assume in our local and global ecosystems and how that translates to concrete action where we live.

To register for the lecture ONLY, please click here.

To register for the lecture and the weekend workshop, please click here.

For more information e-mail pghfoodforests@gmail.com or call Juliette at 412-780-5833.

Regenerating Pittsburgh is a collaboration of Pittsburgh Permaculture, Dynamics Ecological Design, and Wild Meadows Farm. This weekend event is sponsored by Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Chatham University School of Sustainability and the Environment and the Chatham University Graduate Program in Food Studies.

Pittsburgh Permaculture