The art and science of Permaculture forms the basis for all that we do at Newforest Institute. In the coming months, we will roll out a new entity called The Pattern Factory, which will serve as a Permaculture design studio and professional training center. In addition to expanding the cadre of trained Permaculture designers, The Pattern Factory will create designs for municipal, nonprofit, farm, business and other clients. It will also oversee the implementation of the designs by providing professional project management services.
Permaculture is about creating meaningful, substantial and robust relationships between people and the land. We have been at work implementing a Permaculture design on our own campus for the past three years. The work plan for 2009 included the following activities:
SPRING
Complete construction of seedling greenhouse
Complete construction of moveable greenhouse
Fruit and nut tree pruning
Start annual and perennial vegetable, flower, and herb seedlings
Establish beehives
Seed moveable greenhouse with salad greens
Construct farm stand
Plant understory layers of forest garden
Transplant annuals and perennials into garden
Mushroom cultivation
SUMMER
Garden maintenance: watering, weeding, planting
Move greenhouse and plant tomatoes
Harvest vegetables, fruits, and herbs for house use, farmstand sales
Preservation of vegetables, fruit, and herbs
Sheet mulching
Rock wall construction
Landscape work around house
Beehive maintenance
Incorporate chickens into garden system
Collect compost material: manure, seaweed, etc.
Root cellar construction
Hobbit House construction
Trellis construction
FALL
Harvest and preservation of vegetables, fruit, and herbs
Removing and composting garden plants
Sheet mulching
Winter garden preparation
Winter beehive preparation
Move greenhouse over winter salad greens
Trail construction and maintenance
WINTER
Construction projects (as snow allows)
Seed order, garden plans for 2010
Travel, teaching, and research
Rest
Learn more about permaculture, homescale organic gardening and medicine gardens by downloading the following presentations by Lauren Buyofsky and Bill Errickson, the farm managers at Newforst Institute. The presentations are fairly large, so please be patient.
Download: Homescale Organic Gardening (PDF - about 4MB)
Download: Medicine Gardens (PDF - about 2MB)
