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permaculture - [permaculture] Bliss, Idaho Design Course April 16-29, 06 Re: Designers for extreme cold?

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  • From: "L.Santoyo Designs" <santoyo@earthflow.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Bliss, Idaho Design Course April 16-29, 06 Re: Designers for extreme cold?
  • Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 12:40:56 -0800

Vint et al,

We have a Permaculture Design Course scheduled for April 16 -29, 2006 in Bliss, Idaho...(yes, Bliss!) and we will, of course, be featuring strategies, techniques and technologies for cold climates.
details coming soon -www.IdahoPermaculture.com.

For a decade of my life I homesteaded in "rustic elegance" in the forests of the inland NorthWest. These days I am very much into the greening movement in manufactured homes and the clean-lines of a more modern design aesthetic -and I'm happy to say, I'm once again living and enjoying the weather of California's beautiful Central Coast.

When I lived in the Great Northwest... I worked on the production crew, for Tony Galen, Julian Russell and Bill Mollison, on the cold climate segment of "The Global Gardener" video and have maintained clients and projects there ever since... including the extreme conditions of the Flathead Reservation.

Anyway...
I'd be happy to give you a list of plants, suitable for (most of) the extremes of the inland Northwest that I compiled while working at Bear Creak Nursery (back in the day) and am now using for a project in Whitefish, Montana.
see -http://www.gaynorsinthewoods.com/OurStory.html

I'm not sure if he does any design work -but for plant info -Michael Pilarski is a legend in the Northwest and is truly a "walking encyclopedia" of botanical and ethnobotanical info...
see - http://www.friendsofthetrees.net/

Don't forget Jerome Ostentowski's infamous green house designs.
see - http://www.crmpi.org/

Most any super-insulated house should work well there... I just finished a design for a single story load-bearing straw bale house with radiant-floor-heat hooked into the water heater. I recommend; Building One House: A Handbook For Straw Bale Construction by Nathaniel Corum, Red Feather Development Co.
see - http://redfeather.org/boh.html.

There is also a home builder in Livinston Montana that insulated a grain silo to use as living space.
see - http://organicstyle.com/feature/0,8028,s1-37-0-0-1290,00.html

Good luck,


Larry

Larry Santoyo, Director
EarthFlow Design Works
805.459.0452
http://www.earthflow.com/consulting.html


Information shared to the whole list might also be appreciated. I may not live
in a zone known for extreme cold as in Montana, but in my exceptionally cold
pocket of New York's Finger Lakes, I rarely get more than 12 frost-free weeks.

Cold-hardy agroforestry, greenhouses (look up Elliot Coleman,) and
well-designed homes seem to be key.

Who else is growing/living in zone 4 or colder?
-Michael Burns

I have received an inquiry for both permaculture and building design for
Northern Montana. Low temps are twenty to thirty degrees sub-zero
Fahrenheit.
Does anyone have any recommendations of practitioners in this area or
equivalent and neighboring zones?
Anyone who should be avoided?
You can contact me off list if you wish.
Vint Lawrence



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