DESIGNING YOUR GARDEN USING PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES

 This 8- hour project workshop will be held at:

Christy Webber Landscapes – Rancho Verde Site

2900 W. Ferdinand Street  (Behind former Center for Green Technology at 445 N Sacramento Blvd, 60612)   

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Workshop begins promptly at 9am and runs until 5pm.  

Tea and coffee included.   Potluck for breakfast, lunch and snacks.

Fee: $175.00 – payable by cash, credit card, or money order.

Prepayment required to reserve a seat.  Strict limit of 10 participants.  
RSVP to Christy Webber Farm & Garden Center – 312-829-8200.

Participants will bring their proposed garden design (if available) or current garden information and will leave workshop with a working design. Please bring a memory stick to workshop. Course workbook will be provided.

Topics to be covered:

Morning Session:

• Recognize the problems associated with current garden practices
• Discuss the need for Permaculture in garden design
• Study Permaculture Design Strategies such as: 

• Zone and Sector Mapping:  plant what, where, why

• Earthworks: berms, keyholes and herb spirals

• Sheet mulching: also known as lasagna gardening

• Forest Gardening: stacking plantings in space and time to increase yield

• How to protect the soil from sun, wind and rain 

   

• Understand soil and its functions

• Soil texture/structure

• Soil testing: pH, contaminants, permeability

• The Soil food web

• Organic matter and Humus in soil

• Nutrient cycling

• Protecting soil and soil organisms

   

• Include wildlife habitat in your garden design to attract birds, pollinators, predatory insects and beneficial bugs

   

  Afternoon session:

• Review individual garden designs as a group
• Plant Guilds: how to choose plants based on their ability to support each other’s functional needs
• Identify appropriate plants for our hardiness zone
• Identify economical, readily available building material options: bricks, cardboard, urbanite, containers
• Understand the problems and solutions regarding  raised bed boxes
• Combining The New Perennials Movement with edibles 

About the Instructor:

AnnaMaria León received her Permaculture Design Course Certification in Fall of 2011 from the Bloomington, IN Permaculture Activist team. In October 2013, she graduated from  City of Chicago’s Arturo Velasquez Institute and Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest Program with a certificate in Sustainable Urban Agriculture. Annamaria is also a Traditional Chinese Feng Shui Consultant and currently manages the Edible Landscaping Division at Christy Webber Landscapes.