Cycle of Weeds, Permaculture Opportunities, UVIC Environmental Restoration, Wwoof and Soil Apprenticeships, UVIC Food Courses, Gaia College and SOUL

March 27, 2011
I spent most of yesterday pulling weeds out two flower beds around the house. It was an activity not directly related to food production, but related to yard maintenance (by way of showing that neglecting the yard for a year does not yield good results). The soil was disturbed and bare, allowing early successional, colonizing plants (weeds) to take over. Pulling them up, further disturbs the soil and the seed bank, which leads to further weeds and more pulling...it is an endless cycle.

That is unless principles of permaculture are used in your food garden. The food part of a garden or orchard, is really just a bi-product of a healthy, functional, integrated, self-perpetuating ecosystem of organisms (including soil microbes, fungi, plants that fix nitrogen, plants that provide organic biomass to the soil, plants that shade, plants that stabilize soil, pollinators, plants that feed pollinators, etc, etc). Therefore, the more holistically you can design your garden, the LESS work you have to do maintaining it -voila permaculture.
I am very interested in getting into permaculture, as it is ecologically sound (it also has much in common with the Environmental Restoration practices I'm learning with UVIC Continuing Studies http://www.uvcs.uvic.ca/aspnet/Program/Detail/?code=RESNATSYS ). I have been looking up opportunities to learn about permaculture and this is what I found: Bullock's Permaculture Homestead (US http://www.permacultureportal.com/index.html ), O.U.R. Ecovillage (Shawnigan http://ourecovillage.org/courses-events/permaculture/ ), Pacific Permaculture running a program in Victoria ( http://www.pacificpermaculture.ca/ and http://www.victory-gardens.ca/2011_PDC.html ), a private permaculture workshop in Victoria ( http://www.hatchetnseed.ca/Hatchet_%26_Seed_Contracting/Urban_Permaculture_Workshop.html ), and a Kootenay Permaculture Institute (close to my home in Nelson http://www3.telus.net/permaculture/ ).
I am also interested in going Wwoofing (willing workers on organic farms http://www.wwoof.ca/ ) again. Wwoofing in a great way to learn about farming and gardening where you work for a farm about 6 hours a day, and get room and board in return. I went once at a farm about Castlegar, and it was an amazing experience: wood stove, fruit and nut trees, humanure saving, water from a local creek with a micro-hydro system, chickens, etc. I also have heard of a similar program called Soil Apprenticeships ( http://www.soilapprenticeships.org/ ), but I haven't done it so I can't vouch for its process yet.
There are also three upcoming food courses (local, urban, indigenous) with UVIC Continuing Studies: ( http://www.uvcs.uvic.ca/sustainability/courses/community/ ).
One further note, I also am investigating the Growing Food part of the Organic Landcare program taught at multiple locations (including Victoria) by Gaia College ( http://www.gaiacollege.ca/ from SOUL http://www.organiclandcare.org/ ).
Photos of the outside wood stove at the place I went Wwoofing, and the greenhouses at O.U.R. Ecovillage.