Upbeat Permaculture Videos

From the Transition Colorado Social network:

Starting with this list, I will add to this in time, you add your favorites please: This blog with upbeat list of u-tube videos was requested by those present at the Thursday Dec 4th Transition Boulder County 12 steps meeting, as a starter for those who ask us for an entry into Transition that is upbeat and can explain Permaculture in its relation with Transition self reliance and resiliency. Then I added other classic Transition and peak oil videos. Sprinkled in are some that are humorous, some relaxing. Feedback is welcome.

Permaculture Garden Design and Planning Workshop

March 14, 10am to 4:30 pm.

It’s time to begin creating this year’s garden! Learn to imitate Nature by establishing garden polycultures that produce a diverse mix of vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers.

We’ll take a virtual tour of Sandy’s garden, consider springtime gardening priorities, and look at strategies for working with our local Rocky Mountain climate. Using Permaculture design principles, we’ll consider where to place the garden, how to build it, what to plant in it, and where to obtain seeds, bedding plants, shrubs and trees. Participants will plant seeds to take home, and will learn how to care for young bedding plants.

Petition to Allow Longmont Residents to have Backyard Chickens

Chickens are a key component species of many a permaculture design. They provide many useful outputs (poop, eggs, meat, amusement, etc) in a compact space, as well as consuming much of our food waste.

Longmont apparently does not allow backyard chickens currently (see section 15.04.030 "Accessory uses" of the Longmont City Code). But now there's an online petition, a yahoo group, and a blog trying to convince the city council to change this rule.

If you're interested, get involved.

Forest Gardens At CRMPI

CRMPI, located in Basalt, gets mentioned in a post about forest gardens around the world.

Forest Garden plots are to be found in various research trials such as those at The Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, community farms and gardens like Montview Neighborhood farm, and in small back (and front!) yards throughout the temperate world.

Check out photo gallerys of the CRMPI forest gardens: Gallery 1 Gallery 2

Denver Permaculture Business Plan

Here's an interesting plan for a permaculture business in Denver. It looks like it is a work in progress.

This is where I am developing a catalyst business for a Community Investment Enterprise in Denver, Colorado. The Base Pair I am starting with is an organic kitchen garden based on no till, perennial plantings mixed with annuals, that is drip irrigated for low maintenance and water efficiency.

"Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains" book excerpt available online

You can read 20 or so pages from "Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains: A Permaculture Approach to Home Gardening Above 6,500 Feet in Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Colorado and Southern Utah". From the introduction:

Welcome to organic food gardening in the high-altitude Southwest! This book is primarily written for gardeners who live in the Ponderosa pine transition zone around 7,000 feet in altitude. However, most of the information is also applicable to lower elevation Pinyon-Juniper woodlands and higher elevation Spruce-Fir forests.

Permaculture Teachers' Collective of Boulder online group

If you teach permaculture, consider joining this online group:

The Permaculture Teachers' Collective of Boulder is focussed on supporting fellow permaculture teachers in promoting the principles and ethics of permaculture.We wish to network with other teachers and create the most dynamic programs available.We also wish to connect with permaculture teachers and institutes around the world.

Looks to be fairly active.

Suburbs and Permaculture

Colorado has plenty of suburbia in the front range urban corridor from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs.

In this video, David Holmgren talks about the possibility of an enduring suburbia. I found it via the Pikes Peak Permaculture Website.

Another very useful set of posts about suburbia is the four part series on Resilient Suburbia by jeffvail on The Oil Drum.

CRMPI seeking grant for rebuilding of green house

In 2007, CRMPI had greenhouse burn down. He's now looking for a grant from Pitkin county to rebuild it:

Not to be left out, other Roaring Fork Valley entities are
submitting their grant applications, including the town of
Carbondale, for everything from money to fund its energy and
climate protection plan, to money for installing a photovoltaic
system at the Carbondale Senior Housing complex; and the
Colorado Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute in Basalt —
$20,000 to help pay for the cost of rebuilding and improve upon
one of its year-round greenhouses, which was destroyed in a
fire.

2009 CRMPI Permaculture Design Course Announced

Another permaculture design course:

The CRMPI Permaculture Design Certification Course provides participants with an understanding of the essential principles and elements of permaculture, enabling them to better design and engineer sustainable systems including forest gardens, appropriate buildings, greenhouses, and more. During the first week we'll cover the essential elements of permaculture, followed in the second week by a full-spectrum design project. The curriculum includes a variety of classes and workshops essential to every permaculturist's development: from soil structure to the invisible structures of our economy and society.

2009 Permaculture Through The Seasons Announced

I took this class last year--highly recommended.

A Local 8-Month Course in Boulder, Colorado with Permaculture Design Certification with Sandy Cruz, Barbara Mueser, Becky Elder, Marco Chung-Shu Lam, Jerome Osentowski, Dave Carlson, Claire Zimmerman, Bill Melvin, Jeff Graef, Kelly Simmons and more.

Case Studies in Permaculture

Updated on Jan 11 with new date.

On Jan 21st, a free talk about permaculture and transition in Boulder:

This evening, Sandy Cruz and Barbara Mueser will discuss how the Permaculture approach has inspired transition in their personal lives, creating small local changes which ripple out to the wider environment.