Permablitz 2014 – Cold Climate Food Production and Edible Landscaping

Bring your Dad to our permablitz at The Darfield Eartshhip on June 14-15, 2014, Father’s Day weekend!

After nine months of planning we are getting closer and closer to our permabltiz. A month or so ago Javan Bernakevitch and Gord Heibert came up with the following initial design for several zones around the earthship.

This is an overview of our permaculture design...there's a few years of work here! — This is an overview of our permaculture design…there’s a few years of work here!

On Father’s Day weekend we will be welcoming only 20 registrants to learn how to install fruit trees, hedgerows, high beds, and if we are lucky, we will install one hugelkulture bed in anticipation of a whole bunch this fall!

Because we are considered a “cold climate” there should be some interesting questions and solutions to some of the challenges of food production in our region.

We’ve been acquainted with Javan since 2009 when we visited the OUR EcoVillage near Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island. He was there teaching and learning and was the person who gave us a tour of the grounds. I euphemistically refer to Javan (here at home) as Mr. Permaculture BC. After first meeting Javan he went on to form Permaculture BC and has been around the world learning permie techniques from Sepp Holzer, Richard Walker and others. He recently took some Canadians to both Cuba and Kenya to oversee permaculture installations in some very challenging locales.

We met Gord (all online so far) when Javan pulled him in this winter to help with the design. Although Javan and Gord collaborated on the initial design, I believe Gord and his wife, Jana (Elements Eco-Design in Vernon, BC) were responsible for creating the visual with all the lovely colour.

Here is a photo of Zone One, taken today.

Registration should be open by May 3rd. We are meeting with Javan and Gord on May 2nd (online) to iron out details and talk about what the cost for the two-day even will be. By taking only 20 people, Javan and Gord will be able to make sure each person gets maximum benefit out of the weekend.

Information will also be posted on our FB page, The Darfield Earthship. If you have any questions you can email me at sandra@darfieldearthship.com