This seems strange coming from Southern California, one of the most unsustainable areas in North America, but this is an offering for the richest of Orange county including Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. These folks can afford the high up-front costs of sustainable homes.
Green is great, but thinking about how the actions we make today will echo into the future is something we’re not doing nearly enough of. Worshiping resource intensive technologies instead of following nature’s path to abundance.
It’s not all that smart to ship flooring with a thin veneer of bamboo from a distant location to cover your living room floor that won’t last more than a decade instead of harvesting a much more durable, local wood or stone that will out live yourself. These are the short sided, reactionary decisions that we’re hoping to influence. We feel the ideas associated with permaculture are the most efficient and appropriate way to define the change that’s needed in our community.
‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition Town movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun.
Check out the trailer:
The screening will be followed by a talk and discussion about the burgeoning Transition Town movement with Michel Durand of Villes en Transition.
“I want to eat well -meaning organic, local and additive-free -and I think everybody should be able to eat well. That’s the general idea of food security -that everybody should have the right to healthy, nutritious food,” states Cameron Stiff, coordinator for the Concordia Food Systems Project.
The project addresses aspects of food security at Concordia through applied research, student internships and partnerships with other campus organizations. This summer, they helped Concordia’s vegetarian soup kitchen, the People’s Potato, transition their vegetable garden to a permaculture (naturally sustainable) design. Project members worked with Concordia’s student union to develop a business plan to transform an under-utilized lounge space into a local cafe and food security resource library.
The permablitz was announced for Sunday, October 3, is canceled It will be postponed to Sunday after or on Sunday, October 10 .*
A slight possibility exists that the project can be realized. The project is on hold until Monday when we will finally have an answer clear from the committee owns the church.
Sorry for last minute changes. More news will follow earlier in the week.
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* Date: Sunday, October 3, 2010
* Time: 9:30 am to 17h
* Location: The garden, located on Galt **, north of Bannantyne (Map)
That the time has come for a permablitz Fall! Yep!
The project takes place in a community garden Culture Verdun Elementary (CEV), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the development of individual and collective knowledge, the awareness and support for citizens of Verdun food security, among others through the gardens collective. In addition to two community gardens, where participants work together, exchange knowledge and share the harvest, CEV is also implementing a teaching garden located in the courtyard of a primary school, and another garden tub in a house for youth 12 to 17 years.
The organization is in its third season of gardening, and we will become aware through discussions with gardeners how to improve the size of gardens. Because there is no denying it’s still very modest.
Here we are particularly pleased to see the possibility of expanding our gardens and to make better use of land currently grassed and under-utilized. Also, we invite you all to come with a hand shovel, to completely transform the Garden of Hope!
The work we do during the day will be to transform and prepare the ground for planting next spring. We will therefore use the technique of “lasagna” to kill the grass, then we will transfer the land to the garden, add compost, and possibly sow a green manure for the winter. We also dismantle bins that we used previously, but will no longer be needed.
We will need equipment, so if you can bring:
- Something to share for dinner
- The Excavator
- Two wheelbarrows (if you have any, please let me know)
- Of unbleached cardboard, no ink color
Steve and I will teach our course on Sustainable Gardening Practices again, using the base of life cycle and from our last class, with a special focus on the harvest as well as putting the indoor and outdoor garden to bed for the winter.
With regard to the harvest there will be discussions of what to harvest, when, how to save and dry seeds and which seeds (from which plants) are viable for the next generation, etc.
We will also have a workshop on growing mushrooms and greens indoors and developing small indoor growing chambers. One of our principle interests is to assist the sustainable gardening community to grow and develop in Montreal.
The class will be held at Victoria Hall in Westmount as part of its community programs at 7-8:30 PM Thursday evenings for 10 weeks. It is $50 for residents and $80 for non-residents.
Learn ways to intergrate sustainable gardening practices in any home setting – backyard garden, windowsill or container planting, indoor winter blooms, etc. Bring sustainability into your life by the presence of nature around us. Explore nature, innovative landscaping and growing techniques. Classes will include time for Q & A.
1. Only one planet that we know of in all the galaxies of the universe has a living, breathing skin called dirt. For 2 million years, humans have used dirt to grow their food for survival. If we don’t take care of the soil, our future is condemned. We can’t survive on Twinkies alone. (But it sure would be *fun…*for an hour or so.)
2. A handful of soil contains tens of billions of creepy-crawly microorganisms. These organisms keep plants, animals, and the planet alive.
3. Industrial farming is eroding the soil and disrupting its structure. We’ve lost a third of our topsoil in the last 100 years.
4. When there are miles and miles of only one species and one variety growing on our farms, as there is in modern-day industrial agriculture, this creates a vulnerable system. Monocultures are dangerous to our future. Diversifying crops on our farms, especially in drought, can keep the system from collapsing.
5. When we grow just one species on our farms, it’s an all-you-can-eat restaurant for pests. Once a pest learns to unlock the key to that plant, you have a pest infestation, and then you add pesticides. Exposure to pesticides, especially in children, has been linked to higher birth defect rates, cancer, learning disabilities, and abnormal hormonal changes.
6. Insects and plants are so like us physiologically, cell to cell, protein to protein, gene to gene, that if a pesticide is going to kill plants and insects, it’s going to kill humans, too. *Ta-da!*
7. Chemicals (synthetic fertilizers and pesticides) deplete the life of the soil. They take away the structure and the moisture of the soil. They take away the very organisms that make the soil fertile. When you add a layer of compost to your dirt, instead of a nasty chemical fertilizer, you’re adding life to your dirt, and can then call it “soil.”
Repeat after me: *Compost, compost, compost*.
8. When the land is dead and we add synthetic nitrogen fertilizer to feed the crops, only about 20 percent goes to the plant roots. In the Midwest, the rest of the wasted fertilizer flows into the rivers and streams, and then into the Gulf of Mexico. This excess fertilizer feeds algae that grow and suffocate nearly all of the marine life, creating “dead zones” where only jellyfish survive. This mobile nitrogen combines with oxygen, which forms nitrous oxide and rises into the atmosphere accelerating climate change. Twenty-five percent of greenhouse-gas emissions come from agriculture.
9. In India, farmers have been pushed to buy more genetically modified seeds, chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and tractors. Now a farming activity that was zero cost is increasingly expensive. In India, over the last decade an *estimated 200,000 farmers have killed themselves*, many by drinking the pesticide they can no longer afford.
As farmers around the world go broke and lose their farms, their land is taken over by international agribusinesses that grow genetically modified single crops for a globalized economy.
10. Each year 100 million trees are turned into 20 million mail-order catalogues.
All Day Urban Permaculture Workshops, Movie Screening, and Potluck @ P3 Permaculture
Where: 1247 Rue Ste-Elizabeth
When: May 1st, 11am- 7pm
(Workshops and movies ongoing, Potluck From 3-7pm)
Are you interested in your food security? Are you in search of a new approach to designing sustainable human settlements? Or maybe you are just interested in new avenues of sustainable social development?
Join us on May 1st to discover and celebrate Permaculture. Get a chance to participate in our three great DIY Urban Permaculture workshops: How to make Seed Balls, Window Farms: R&DIY,and self watering planters for our Roof top garden. Help to green our roof and take a self-watering planter home.
We will be having a potluck so bring anything you like, we will be trying to follow the 100 mile diet and ethical food theme however it may not be feasible for everyone, so do not be shy, to just bring something to share.
All supplies will be on site, however, more tools and materials are welcome.
Movies to be screened:
Introduction to Permaculture
In Fear of Falling Food
Permaculture In Practice
Food Maters
Sprouts have higher vitamin content than raw veggies and fruits! You can grow them year-round in your home, without a garden or greenhouse and they are great for kids, too!
Coop la Maison Verte will host a sprouting workshop on January 20th 7:00PM-9:00PM. 5785, Sherbrooke st. West, Metro Vendome + bus #105
Cost: $25. To reserve your place, please call Tara Peters at (514) 722-7127.
Tara will bring several different types of sprouting jars and trays. Expect to get your hands dirty a little bit and bring a pen as there will be handouts on which to take notes.
Forest gardening is usually done in warmer climates, but having the chance to do it in our cold climate is very exciting! Unfortunately, the following series of weekend classes are about 5 hours away in upstate NY. You may go for one weekend or the whole entire 4 weekend course! Discounts and some work trade available.
Join us for a hands-on skill-building experience in forest gardening from start to finish. Learn to transform traditional lawn landscapes into abundant food-producing perennial gardens. Each unique weekend equips participants with the skills needed to get started at their own home or expand the abilities of a gardening business.
Forest gardening yields local abundance, healthy families, and thriving ecosystems. Join us to build your own knowledge and experience and bring these ingredients to your home and community. Imagine a future of homegrown fruits- berries, pawpaws and persimmons, perennial vegetables- sorrel, ground nuts, water celery and more! All of this is possible.
February 26-28: Design & Theory- Dave Jacke, primary author of the Award-winning 2-volume Edible Forest Gardens, will kick off our first weekend with an evening talk. Throughout the rest of the weekend we will begin the design process for a future farm on our host site.
April 16-18: Install & Establish – In our second weekend we will get our hands dirty while we Install and Establish a brand new forest garden. This is the third year in a row that we are planting out forest gardens in the Hudson Valley!
May 28-30: Tend & Caretake – The already existing forest gardens at Camp Epworth will receive our love and attention in the third weekend of the series. We will immerse ourselves in how to Tend and Caretake the gardens to support future food abundance.
June 18-20: Food & Medicine – This leads us to our final weekend with special guest Dina Falconi. In this last weekend of the series we will harvest the fruits of our labor and spend the entire time making Food and Medicine.
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (www.greenroofs.org) is offering a course from their Green Roof Professional (GRP) accreditation program in Montreal on September 30th. The course is Green Roof Design 101, the first of the 4 GRP courses. The venue for the course hasn’t been announced yet.
This seems strange coming from Southern California, one of the most unsustainable areas in North America, but this is an offering for the richest of Orange county including Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. These folks can afford the high up-front costs of sustainable homes.
April 16-18: Install & Establish – In our second weekend we will get our hands dirty while we Install and Establish a brand new forest garden. This is the third year in a row that we are planting out forest gardens in the Hudson Valley!
