Organic Grower's School 1994-2012

Signs of hope escape our eyes easily; we like to see the doom.
Here's some good news: Attendance at the OGS doubles every five years.
Can we shrink our carbon footprint as quickly as this grows (15%)?
Easily, no. Impossible? Probably not.
(tabled updated every year or so since 2008)

Year # Attendance % growth 1994 1st 100 1995 2nd 213 213% 1996 3rd 141 66% 1997 4th 160 113% 1998 5th 230 144% 1999 6th 430 187% 2000 7th 392 91% 2001 8th 500 128% 2002 9th 533 107% 2003 10th 609 114% 2004 11th 683 112% 2005 12th 800 117% 2006 13th 900 113% 2007 14th 1000 111% 2008 15th 1200 120% 2009 16th 1300 108% 2010 17th 1500 115% 2011 18th 1679 112% 2012 19th 1906 114% Average annual growth= 14.8

Average doubling time = 4.9 years

Figures courtesy of

Meredith Leigh McKissick

Director, Organic Growers School

Crooked Creek Farms; Sweet Earth Flower Farm

www.sweetearthflowers.com

Click Here to Read More..

In Search of the Fabled Permaculture Chicken/Greenhouse

By Rob Hopkins
http://transitionculture.org/2008/10/20/in-search-of-the-fabled-permaculture-chickengreenhouse

For many years I have taught permaculture courses, and like many who do so, I start my courses with the Tale of Two Chickens. This is a very useful way of looking at inputs, outputs, and the science of maximising beneficial relationships, and it concludes with describing one of permaculture’s Holy Grails, The Chicken/Greenhouse. However, now, as I stand on the verge of actually trying to make a chicken greenhouse, I am finding it very difficult to find actual working examples of chicken/greenhouses. Might I have spent years unwittingly promoting a permaculture urban myth?

The idea is straightforward and works brilliantly on paper. Patrick Whitefield in ‘Permaculture in a Nutshell’ sets it out very clearly (you can read it here), and you can read the thinking behind the Chicken/Greenhouse here. The picture below is taken from ‘In a Nutshell’, and captures the essential idea, which is that by placing the 2 elements of chickenhouse and greenhouse together with the proper orientation, you enable, via. good design, interactions to take place that otherwise would not take place and would require energy inputs to make happen. For example, the warmth from the chickens keeps the greenhouse free of frost, the carbon dioxide from the hens benefits the plants, and so on.

Visit full article at
http://transitionculture.org/2008/10/20/in-search-of-the-fabled-permaculture-chickengreenhouse
Click link to learn more Click Here to Read More..

Two Permaculture Events This Weekend

Come join us this weekend for a film and a talk as well as the opportunity to share and learn more about permaculture.

Friday Night, June 6, will be a film screening of The Global Gardener: PERMACULTURE with Bill Mollison.

Sunday night, June 8, we host "The Permaculture Underground: Getting Deeper Into The Soil Biology Of Our Region" - an evening with Dr. Laura Lengnick.
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Film Screening: The Global Gardener: PERMACULTURE with Bill Mollison

Friday, June 6, 7 PM
West Asheville Library
942 Haywood Rd., West Asheville, NC 28806
250-4750

BILL MOLLISON is a practical visionary. For nearly two decades he has traveled the globe spreading the word about permaculture, the method of sustainable agriculture he devised. Permaculture weaves together microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, water management and human needs into intimately connected productive communities. Mollison has proved that evening the most difficult conditions permaculture empowers people to turn wastelands into food forests. Presented by West Asheville Friends of the Library and the Smith Mill Creek Permaculture School.

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"The Permaculture Underground: Getting Deeper Into The Soil Biology Of Our Region" - an evening with Dr. Laura Lengnick

Sunday, June 8th, 7 PM
Firestorm Café, 48 Commerce St in Downtown Asheville
Donations welcome

Topics might include:

* a long-term, soil-centric agricultural vision for the southern Appalachians
* learning the most from your soil test
* intro to the soil food web
* geological origins of our soils
* soil building strategies
* the differences between forest and field, fungal and bacterial soil biologies
* cultivating beneficial microbes
* ethics and sources of mineral amendments and alternatives to those amendments
* Native and imported plants and their different soils

Laura Lengnick is a Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Warren Wilson College. She holds a Ph.D. in Agronomy from Penn State and a Masters in Soil Science from N.C. State. Some of you might know her from the mean fiddle she plays while you dance.

This event is the first in the Asheville Permaculture Guild 2008 speaker series. The series consists of bi-monthly speakers chosen to deepen our understanding of topics related to the seeding of a resilient, beautiful culture. All of these events are open to the public. The Asheville Permaculture Guild is the new pink. For more info and the calendar of future events, check us out at ashevillepermacultureguild.org.

For more info pertaining to APG speakers call Gwen at 203.273.4527 or Zev at 828.279.2870 Click Here to Read More..