By Lani Edghill
The FCT’s Little Edgehill site, is receiving a garden transformation and it started on April 7, 2012 with the help of a great bunch of volunteers! But the work has just begun!
Recently, the FCT, has had the pleasure of working with Ms. Lorraine Ciarallo of Canada. Lorraine, is a Permaculture Designer, Consultant & Educator and obtained her Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) in 2009 and in December 2011, completed the Permaculture Internship Program at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. www.permaculture.org.au
This intensive program followed Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture A Designers’ Manual” which covered Concept Themes in Design, Trees and Their Energy Transactions, Water, Soils, The Humid Tropics and has trained Lorraine, to build garden design systems that are full proof.
Lorraine, will be volunteering her time at the Hudson Permaculture Garden for the next month and sharing permaculture knowledge with us. As we said, we began on April 7th with a truly inspiring morning. Lorraine, explained the garden design and how to improve it, provided productive tips on how to improve the ecological soil biology in a garden, and explained how to grow highly dense nutritious food for you and your family in a short presentation after the work was done.
Permaculture, was founded by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the early 1970’s. Geoff Lawton, Lorraine’s teacher, is the founder and managing director of PRI Australia and a direct student of Mr. Mollison. In the video link below, Geoff, demonstrates his teaching expertise by implementing the use of permaculture ethics and principals on the most arid land of Jordan. “Greening The Desert” Parts 1 and 2 can be viewed here http://permaculture.org.au/2007/03/01/greening-the-desert-now-on-youtube/
The Research Institute has thousands of qualified members www.globalpermaculture.org and they are encouraged to venture out globally and set up PRI demonstration sites so that people of all nations have an example of how to design for success no matter the land size and no matter the climatic condition. Permaculture ethics and principals provide a means and an opportunity to learn about simple and proven techniques that rejuvenate the land. Yes, it’s about growing nutritious food, but it’s also, about growing soil too! Once a system is put into place, little input is required, yet maximum output is provided.
We will be calling for more volunteers to help with this great project so please let us know if you have an ongoing interest in this initiative so we can keep you updated! We were to have a day on April 21 but we are also celebrating Earth Day on the Sunday where Lorraine will provide a presentation to all present to you can register your interest for the next morning in the garden there.
We need your help to get the FCT garden back up and running and your help to create a demonstration site for local Barbadians to experience and learn from. For more information please contact Lani at 836-6189.
« businessbarbados.com article – March 2012 Celebrate Earth Day with the FCT on April 22! »
