Yesterday we finished up our first four days of a PDC in Ft Worth, TX. I have been coming down here for several years and we have had some amazing students. We will complete the course in May. This year we are at Elizabeth and James Samudio’s edible landscaping nursery, an excellent place to hold a course: hundreds of varieties of plants, vermicompost, biochar making, composting operation, biodiesel manufacture, compost tea production. We worked over at a community garden Friday afternoon. Along with the essentials of the Permaculture curriculum, Dr Paul Range and Gloria Haswell joined us from San antonio. Paul is an expert in aquaponics and Gloria an expert in suburban animal husbandry. In the second half of the course in May Paul will be building an aquaponics system with the students on site. The students were sent home with lots of observation exercises and assessments of their properties to accomplish. When we return we will be focused on designs. Mark Chapin, a local Texas organic farmer, gave a presentation on producing biochar in a steel drum.
Elizabeth Anna's Nursery
The Crew
Making biochar
Como Community Garden
Our cozy classroom
Dr Range discussing aquaponics
Gloria Haswell on raising suburban animals
Strategies for Invisbility