Austin Permaculture Guild

The courses listed on this page are not permaculture courses per se, but cover topics related to permaculture, such as gardening and solar cooking.

*******

Citizen Gardener of Austin and the Austin Permaculture Guild present:
“The Spring Garden”: Hands-On Organic Gardening Class
Saturday Mornings January 10 and 17, 2009
Wednesday Evening Discussion January 14, 2009

Instructor: Dick Pierce (for information about Dick, see his bio at the bottom of this listing)

Want to learn about Austin’s unique growing season(s), climate, soils, plants, and water resources?
Want to raise safe, nutritious food for your family, and your children to know and enjoy gardening?
Don’t have a lot of time, money, patience, or space…but want to grow food and want it to work?

What will I learn?
Basics: Turn your bare ground or Bermuda grass lawn into raised-garden beds – in the right place, with the right soil. Small enough to manage, big enough to provide real food.

Techniques: Raised beds; soil, mulch, and compost; bio-intensive/square-foot gardening; plant varieties for Central Texas; water management; starts, seeds, and propagation; good and bad bugs. Do It To Learn It. Saturday workshops include fun outdoor activities with small groups. Schedule coincides with Austin’s fall growing season.

Austin Spring gardens start in January?

Mid-January through mid March is the planting time for most vegetables in Austin’s climate.
Grow/harvest until mid-late June – before it’s too hot!
Jan./Feb./Mar. in Austin feel like April/May/June in NY, Chicago

Details

Become a Citizen Gardener and help build the “Prosperity Garden at the Victory Grill” on E. 11th St. in Austin on Sat AM, Jan. 10 & 17 from 9-12 AM and Wed. Jan 14 from 7-8:30 PM. You’ll help build this garden in historic East Austin; you’ll learn to build your own home garden for your family and friends; and you’ll be with a great group of enthusiastic gardeners. But, you ask, mid-January?? Yes, many people don’t know this, but mid-Jan is the start of planting for the Spring Gardening season in Austin - it runs from mid-Jan – early June.

Enrollments are open now and will be limited to just 35 lucky students – with 10 spaces reserved for East-Side residents. The price is very reasonable - $50 for the 3 sessions, $25 for East Side residents with need, or FREE to those who sign up to be Citizen Gardeners and to volunteer for 10 hours with a CG partner organization - like the Green Corn Project, the Sustainable Food Center, or one of the East Side Community Gardens.

About the course location

You may already know that 11th and 12th Streets in East Austin are a growing area for locally owned restaurants serving local/traditional foods. There will be a lot to talk about after class, so students are encouraged to stay for lunch on Sat (or come early for dinner on Wed.) at one of the neighborhood restaurants: the Victory Grill, Nubian Queen Lola’s Cajun Soul Food, Gene’s New Orleans Po’ Boys and Deli, J. Kelly’s BBQ, and Sam’s BBQ (12th St.). - Soul Food, Collard/Mustard Greens, Chicken, Gumbo, Cajun Food, Beans & Rice, Po’ Boys, BBQ, and more. Gardeners and non-Gardeners welcome.

This is a great opportunity to learn how to garden in Austin, start growing some of your own food, be introduced to East Side restaurants serving soul food and Cajun dishes, and contributing to the economic prosperity of small, local businesses.

More about the history of the Victory Garden and the concept of the Prosperity Garden

In times of economic stress and national need, American families have turned their front/backyards into productive vegetable gardens - gaining valuable nutrition, saving precious money, having fun, relaxing exercise, giving away the surplus and re-building communities. During WW I they were called Liberty Gardens. In WW II, they were called Victory Gardens. Americans raised an astonishing 40% of their food in their own yards. As a sign of the current times and emphasis on growing local food, the San Francisco Mayor/City Council recently gave the go-ahead to create a Victory Garden on the City Hall front lawn. In early 2008, Brandi Clark started a movement in Austin, TX – we are called Citizen Foodies, Citizen Gardeners, and we have/help with Citizen Gardens!

Make this the year you get [back] into gardening!

Fee is $50 for two Saturday classes and one evening discussion, or it’s FREE if you pledge/perform 10 hours of volunteer time with a Supporting Garden Partner (list available soon). To enroll, or for more information, contact Nita at http://citizengardener.ning.com, or Dick at dickpiercedesigns@gmail.com or 512-992-8858; mail check to 801 E. 32nd St., Austin, 78705. (NOTE: These addresses/numbers are different from the contact info for the regular permaculture design courses; take note!)

Schedule (subject to minor changes)

Saturday Workshop #1 January 10
9:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Site walkthrough & analysis
Select bed location
Raised bed construction
Plant fall veggies
Build a compost pile

Sun/shade/drains/level/seasons
Locations for compost, rain barrels, etc.
Beds over grass: scraps, cardboard, soil inside, wood mulch outside
Intro. to square foot planting
Greens, browns, water, air, pallets

Wednesday Evening Discussion #1 January 14
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Triangle Farmers Market

Students share their experiences
Introduction to gardening for food
Site analysis and selection
Garden design, including ancillary areas
Austin seasons, varieties, planting
Square foot gardening
Students’ pictures of gardens
Compost talk

Saturday Workshop #2 January 17
9:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Build a mulched bed over grass: cardboard, plywood sides, rebar/stakes
Plant mulch bed – fall veggies
Install gutter, rain barrel, drippers
Turn compost – temperature, microbes – water/air
Plant tomato seed in small pots for later transfer to a square bucket.

Attention Citizen Gardeners: Schedule your volunteer hours with partnering Citizen Gardener organizations. Document them for class credit. Remember to take pictures & gather stories to share at a potluck later in the Spring.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Dick Pierce teaches Permaculture and gardening in central Texas and New England. He counts Geoff Lawton and Patricia Allison among his permaculture teachers. Dick’s experience includes working on farms, working with Native American tribes across the US, and running a greenbuilding program for young people at American Youthworks, a non-profit high school in Austin. Dick was born and raised in New England but has called Central Texas home for the past 10 years. One of his current passions is the “Citizen Gardener” program, aimed at promoting food self-sufficiency in Austin through gardening. For Dick’s detailed CV, visit the COURSES IN NEW ENGLAND page of this website.

*******

SUN-COOKING & SIMPLE LIVING WORKSHOP
Save money, reduce fossil-fuel consumption, and increase your energy independence by adding the solar oven, haybox, and Rocket Stove to your kitchen. In this three-hour workshop, you’ll get a chance to practice cooking with all three of these simple devices. You’ll also learn about low-cost or free resources for obtaining or building your own solar oven, haybox, and Rocket Stove. Other topics covered include composting, radical water conservation, greywater cycling, and downsizing your household to enrich your life. Fee: adults $25; teens $10; kids 7 to 12 $5; young ones free. Solar-cooked snacks included.

(This workshop happens several times a year and will be offered next in Spring 2009. Please watch this space for updates.)

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Jenny Nazak is an apprentice permaculture teacher whose interests include urban permaculture; rural revitalization via towns; semi-nomadism, micro-dwellings; and building with scavenged materials. One of her long-term goals is to contribute to the popularization of solar cooking in Texas and throughout the United States. Jenny took her first permaculture design course with Scott Pittman in September 2005, and completed a Certificate in Earth-Based Vocations from EcoVersity (Santa Fe, New Mexico) in September 2006.