Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting System Installation Workshop

Part of our Fair Share is our volunteer time organizing the Chico Permaculture Guild. We facilitate monthly gatherings and seasonal workshops as well as participate in local events and other outreach efforts to help our community learn more about permaculture.

A timely workshop that Brian and I are teaching is coming up this month and it's focus is all about rooftop rainwater harvesting. We'll be teaching this workshop at our own property as part of our forest garden development. This workshop is FREE for the community to attend.

All the details are here:

6th Annual Spring Seed Swap

Sunday, March 1st from 2-6pm 

Chico Grange Hall, 2775 Nord Ave, Chico, CA

ALWAYS  A  FREE  COMMUNITY  EVENT

Practical Tips for Conserving Water in the Landscape

Reducing outdoor water use on a residential scale is absolutely necessary during times of drought but is really something that we need to do consistently in the Mediterranean climate we live in here in California. Here are a few more tips to add to the article 'Save our water! Tips for conserving water outdoors' in the Chico News and Review January 30, 2014 issue:

1. Reduce/remove your lawn by sheet mulching
2. Plant perennials instead of annuals
3. Boost the soil food web living in your soil
4. Install a clothes washer greywater system
5. Harvest rainwater

Urban Permaculture Property Tour

In celebration of International Permaculture Day, May 5^th, 2013 the Chico Permaculture Guild is sponsoring 2 FREE tours of our urban permaculture project.

About the Tour:

Brian and I (Stephanie) are helping our local permaculture guild celebrate International Permaculture Day by providing a public tour of our local permaculture project; an urban 2/3 acre residential property that has been in development and succession since 2009.  (You can view photos of the Project here.)

3.5 years underway this property has been designed, implemented and managed utilizing the ethics and principles of permaculture. We'll be providing tour participants a first glimpse of this property which has not been open to public until now. We plan to provide and overview of the designs, permaculture techniques and strategies they used for creating an evolving oasis on this urban piece of land.

Map of Fruit Trees 2011 (canopy and subcanopy of forest gardens)

 Site Elements and Systems Tour Attendees will Observe:

•    From Swimming Pool To Aquaculture Pond

•    Rainwater Harvesting

•    Edible Forest Gardens

•    Perennial Polycultures

•    Coppice Tree System

•    Chicken Integrations

and more...

TOUR INFORMATION

Tour #1: 10am - 12pm

Tour #2: 2pm - 4pm

Registration is required; please indicate which tour you wish to attend when registering. Please register here: http://ipdtour.eventbrite.com/

Space is limited to 20 people per tour so register today to ensure your spot!

This event is free but donations are accepted to support the Chico Permaculture Guild and more events such as this one! No dogs or other animals, please.

Please join us for a day of learning and fun in solidarity with other permaculture activities around the world as we celebrate International Permaculture Day 2013!!

For more information please contact Stephanie at 530-828-6390 or modcpg@gmail.com

Berries, Trellising and Harvest

Marionberries on trellis

Eating berries is one of my favorite summer activities. Saving them for later use is also a favorite past time. There are many ways of preserving berries -making jams and jellies, canning or freezing them whole or even dehydrating them for a hiking snack with nuts and seeds. Anyway you do it berries are an awesome treat.

Introduction to Permaculture Workshop June 23, 2012 in Chico, CA

Flier for Intro to Permaculture Workshop

Brian and I, via our business Gaia Creations, will be teaching an Introduction to Permaculture Workshop next month in Chico, CA. The focus of this workshop is to invite the community to learn more about permaculture in general and at the same time begin/continue networking with each other to gain experience in permaculture design strategies for effective local food production and resource efficiency.

Lego Sheet Mulch Example

My Aunt asked me recently about a good weed free mulch for topping her new sheet mulch bed -she doesn’t have a lot of on-site materials so what could she use? As a parent always trying to engage my kids in permaculture I posed this question to my 2 boys (ages 11 and 8 in 2012). 

Rather than answer me directly they were immediately inspired to create a sheet mulch example out of Lego.  I thought it was a great visual demonstration of all the layers and I decided not to press for an answer.  My question was far less interesting than building this model and they got a load of information from doing it.  Though, when finished, my eldest did tell me to make sure any mulch used was never sprayed with chemicals!

Sheet mulch layers pictured above:

THINK GLOBAL - SHOP LOCAL Give the Gift of a Garden

How many times have your family and friends said to you,

“If only I had more time to spend in the garden!” or

“I wish I knew more about growing fruit trees.” or even

“It would be great to have an expert over to consult with me about my gardens.”?

If your answer was "A LOT!" then give the gift of a garden or garden advice to your friends and family. Simply contact us today at 530-828-6390 and we’ll set you up with a beautiful gift certificate that can either be directly mailed to the garden loving people in your life or we can meet in person to discuss details.  You’ll be supporting an 11 year old Chico business while caring for the planet at the same time! 

Gift Certificate Example

Urban Permaculture Project -2 years in progress

My husband and I have been actively working on an urban 2/3 acre permaculture project for 2 years this month. We began the design and subsequent installation at a residence in October of 2009 and it continues in multiple phases today.  As we complete the swimming pool to aquaculture pond conversion and reflect upon our progress thus far we would like to share our experiences -the trials, corrections and successes made along the way and to basically let more people know about this Mediterranean climate permaculture project.

An Elderberry Volunteers -Applying Permaculture Principle Number One in Our Backyard

Work With Nature Rather Than Against It: We can assist rather than impede natural elements, forces, pressures, processes, agencies, and evolutions.

Observe and Interact: By taking the time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.

Elderberry volunteer 4-25-08

This beautiful California native shrub (photo above) is a volunteer plant.  He sprouted up a few years ago, probably from the seed of a passing bird, and staked his claim on what our family had planned to be a sunny Zone 2 herb garden… and we let him take over.  Once we did our due diligence of his habits and functions, that is.  What we found are shrubs like the native Elderberry (Sambucus mexicana) are insectary plants and provide pollen, nectar, shelter, as well as undisturbed habitat, for beneficial insect predators and parasites. 

Garden Planning

Tis the season for designing your gardens and outdoor living spaces!

5 Tips to an efficient Garden Plan:

1. Have your site measured or obtain plans from the City or County

2. Perform a site analysis for your property. Example questions:

-usage of property

-what do you want?

-zones and sectors

-soil quality and drainage patterns

3. Draw out your site and create overlays for your tree canopy, hardscape, perennial plants etc. (as illustrated above) to accurately envision your site

4. Create planting and harvest calendars

5. Consult reference books, articles online and local sources for more information

We're here to help!!

www.gaiacreationsecoland.com

“California graywater liberation day”

Art Ludwig says this of historic Tuesday, August 4th in California.

Yesterday, California Regulators issued an emergency decision that will allow residents to create simple water-reuse systems without a construction permit. Such as the Laundry to Landscape system that Art Ludwig has modeled for years, in addition to the thousands of other Californians. This emergency ruling is based on CA governors drought condition report of 2007 and last year.

While the single use system is legal without a permit other more complicated systems will require one to go though the permitting process.

http://hcd.ca.gov/codes/shl/graywater_emergency.html

One positive step in the right direction... now let's stop using flush toilets!!