Living Mandala Group

Forest Garden Immersion Group
Now Up & Running!

Forest Garden Immersion Course
Camp Epworth Permaculture
Demonstration & Education Center

April 23-26, 2009 High Falls, New York

In Association With: Appleseed Permaculture & Sowing Solutions


Course Inspiration

Imagine a forest where every single tree is dripping with fresh fruits
and ripening nuts. Every shrub is packed with delicious berries, and
every other plant is a medicinal herb, culinary spice, or beautiful
edible flower. Tubers and root crops are abundant underfoot, gourmet
mushroom logs sprout in the shade, and hardy kiwi vines climb back up
through the layers of this multi-functional forest of food. During the
4-day (Thu-Fri-Sat-Sun) course, participants learn how to design,
establish, and maintain such Edible Forest Gardens of Eden.

Local food security is essential for resilient local transition. This
course immerses participants in the hands-on reality of designing and
co-creating edible forest gardens.

Course Description

This course immerses participants in the thriving local forest
gardening culture of the Hudson Valley. Together we will engage in the
practical skills of forest gardening: propagation, grafting, planting
& mulching, soil ecology, basic botany & horticulture, management &
maintenance, plant identification, mushroom inoculation, foraging &
wild edibles, community preparation of local medicines, and fresh
forest garden cooking.

Daily plant walks connect participants on a deeper level with a
diversity of multifunctional herbs, trees, and vines. Participants
share stories of their own forest gardening explorations, and a visit
to an 11-year old local forest garden shows the evolution of these
systems. We learn to weave forest gardening into our communities as
well as into the soil.

This course functionally interconnects with other Forest Garden
courses taught in the Northeast this season by providing cultural
mentoring in the hands-on joys and challenges of starting and
maintaining forest gardens. Our connection to the local community will
culminate in adding another quarter-acre of forest garden to last
year's acre-planting, and a celebration with the local permaculture
community before returning home.

For more information visit the course website at www.LivingMandala.com