permaculture

[gardenbetty@earthlink.net]

> -----Original Message-----
> > From: Paul and Sandra [SMTP:crows@tkc.att.ne.jp]
 >...What does permaculture look like in education?  Has anyone seen
> models?  Has anyone >seen site analysis?  Has anyone seen designs?  I have
> seen a few examples of salad >dressing and installed one ongoing projects
> myself.  Are their outreach programs for >schools?  What about accessing
> teacher trainings?  What about permaculture club along >side the Junior
> Statesmen of America.  What an amazing microcosm for urban >permaculture, a
> much needed expansion of a movement which tends to neglect the broad >belly
> of the beast if favor of a personal rural get away. 

I live in Washington DC and one of the things I do is teach organic gardening
and greenhousing to a group of inner city high school students at Eastern HS.
We just received a small grant to grow our garden to provide produce to our
local AIDS feeding agency, Food and Friends. Having just completed my design
course in permaculture last week, I have just now begun creating a
permaculture design for the Eastern HS greenhouse and garden space. I will be
instructing the kids in pc principles and implementation as it happens,
beginning with a little agroforestry and water catchment so we can start
providing more food to meet our goal. 

I work with an organization (GROW, Garden Resources of Washington) that works
to help folks beautify their low income neighborhoods and become self-
sufficient and food-secure through organic gardening and composting. I now
hope to provide permaculture technical assistance as well. At the very least I
want to begin to create urban pc designs for housing projects and community
gardens as part of my certification. Then I will hope that someone will be
generous enough to provide plants and materials for implementation. :)
Educating the communities about pc will be a big part of this plan.

I would LOVE to collaborate with any pc designers or apprentices in the DC
area. There is great need and little time, labor and resources.

dawn