Garden Design and Baby Noah

Sharon January 18th, 2009

First, I wanted to remind you all that despite being in the midst of my food storage class, we have not closed enrollment for Aaron and my Garden design class.  We finally sat down to really get to work on the structure of the class, and all I can say is that this is going to be cool!  Among other things, in each of four weeks we’re going to work on a model design project - the first will be a small, courtyard garden in a cold climate, consisting mostly of patio and a tiny bit of ground and no-or-city only livestock, the second will be a suburban yard in a warmer area with small livestock, then we’re going to move to a 2-3 acre parcel including some wetlands and larger livestock, and finally, we’re going to work on an urban farm design that uses multiple yards and lots in a given area, allowing a city or suburban resident to make use of 1/2-5 acres - but not all contiguous, or owned by them.  Meanwhile, class participants will be able to do their own design projects for their own properties (or borrowed ones) and start figuring out a plan to apply these tools.  We’ll cover annual vegetable cropping, herbs, perennials, permaculture, sun, soil and water, different climate issues and levels of water (from very wet to very dry) and whatever is of concern to others. 

If you’d like to join us, please send an email to [email protected].  Class is offered online, with a “go at your own pace” strategy but with material posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting the first Tuesday in February and running until the last Thursday.  Cost is $150 and payment can be made by paypal to [email protected] or by check to PO Box 342 Delanson, NY 12053.  We do have a couple of scholarship spaces still available for low income participants, so you can email me to request one.  In the past some kind readers have donated spots for low income participants - if you’d like to, please email me, and it will open a spot for someone in need.

Also, in March Aaron and I will be offering the Adapting-In-Place class again - this focuses on helping people who aren’t going to move into the perfect straw bale farmstead or new-urbanist walkable city deal with the coming energy transition.  The focus will be on living well where you are, and being prepared for major changes.  This is an intense and truly fascinating and fun class and it will be even better with Aaron involved.  If you are interested in joining us, the same information as above applies.  The cost for both Adapting-in-Place and Garden Design is $250.

 Finally, some of you enjoyed hearing the story of my Godson’s rather precipitous arrival and the response of his parents: http://sharonastyk.com/2009/01/14/what-you-can-do-when-you-have-to/.  It turns out that their story was exciting enough that it made the nightly news in the Boston area.  If you’d like to see Noah and his parents, you can check it out here: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/18494433/detail.html Official public apologies from me for refering to my friend Chris as “my friend’s husband” throughout the piece I wrote as though he were secondary - at the time I wrote it, I didn’t know if they’d want to be publically known.  They didn’t mind ;-) .

 Cheers,

 Sharon

2 Responses to “Garden Design and Baby Noah”

  1. SurvivalTopics.com says:

    I like your adapting in place strategy very much. The bug-out enthusiasts forget the value of long established community relationships. It’s a big world out there to be alone in - in times of trouble we need each other.

  2. Sarah says:

    I’m waiting to see what the workload on my library classes is going to be, then hopefully I’ll sign up for AIP. (How much work can Storytelling be? But then, I said that about Children’s Literature and I was very, very wrong…)

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