Getting
the Growing Season Started by Planting Seeds:
Seed selection, planting, sprouting,
and saving
Friday, March 25th, 2005 1p.m. –
5 p.m. (Holiday: Good Friday)
Sustainable Living Network Headquarters, Toronto
With the support of Jane Hayes from
Food Not Lawns and seeds donated by Urban Harvest
At the afternoon workshop you will:
- Overview of heritage seeds, seed saving, and seed
banks
- Discuss seed selection: plant types, cold and shade
tolerances
- Experience preparing soil for seed starting, and
talk about soil conditioning in your home space
- Select and plant seeds
- Receive direction on how to best tend your seeds
and obtain high sprouting rates
- Discuss transplanting, hardening off, and cold
frames
- Get a brief introduction to permaculture, with
a focus on how to bring it to life in your yard
- Practice reading a landscape, including a zone
& sector analysis, to give you a sense of how
to “read” your home space and map the
area
- Explore container gardening, vertical growing,
with an introduction to the concept of multi-story
“forest gardening”
- Receive support for your home projects
- Meet other interesting people!
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, MARCH 25TH:
- 12:30 -1:00 p.m. Arrive & settle
in: Registration,
informal meeting, browse books for reference and purchase
provided by the volunteers of the Sustainable Living
Books community service bookstore
- 1:00 – 1:20 (Please note
that we will begin promptly at 1 pm) Opening Circle:
Introduction of course facilitators, self-introduction
of course participants, including what you would like
to learn this afternoon
- 1:20 – 1:30 Overview of
the afternoon
- 1:30 – 1:45 Why do we plant
seeds?
- 1:45 – 2:00 Drawbacks of
conventional seed production; benefits of organic,
open-pollinated, non-hybrid, and heritage seeds
- 2:00 – 2:15 Seed selection:
plant types, cold
and shade tolerances
- 2:15 – 2:30 Break and browsing
of seeds and books
- 2:30 – 2:45 Choosing seeds
to plant
- 2:45 – 3:00 Preparing the
soil
- 3:00 – 3:15 Fundamentals
of seed planting & germination
- 3:15 – 4:00 Seed Planting
- 4:00 – 4:45 Outdoor observation:
Practice reading a landscape, including a zone &
sector analysis, brief overview of mapping. Explore
container gardening, vertical growing, with an introduction
to the concept of multi-story “forest gardening”
- 4:45 - 5:00 Closing circle
LANGUAGE
The course will be offered in English.
WHO SHOULD TAKE THE COURSE?
Permaculture offers useful knowledge and creative
applications for almost everyone: Environmentalists,
Agriculturists, Farmers, Landscapers, Land Owners, Interested
citizens, Educators, Gardeners and Youth. This course
is suitable to both home owners, and those who rent.
The material will focus on urban and suburban contexts,
but this does not preclude implementation of the ideas
covered in rural areas.
ABOUT JILLIAN HOVEY
Instructor Jillian Hovey is a seasoned international
permaculture teacher who is dedicated to inspiration
and education about healthy and sustainable living.
Jillian holds a B.Sc. in Agriculture from the University
of Guelph, and is waiting to sit her final exam for
a Masters in Environmental Studies in Sustainable Community
Planning and Design from York University in Toronto.
Jillian sustains herself financially through her teaching,
design, and facilitation work, which is focused on eco
development projects. She has worked across North America
and down into Central America, and has wonderful slide
shows of the eco projects and ecovillages that she has
visited and worked with. Jillian recently supported
a forming ecovillage projects in Quebec and Costa Rica,
and is presently helping to create a sustainable, off-gird
community with a Mohawk tribe in Ontario.
Born and raised in Quebec, Jillian is based in Toronto,
where she founded and runs the Sustainable Living Network
( www.sustainablelivingnetwork.org ). She also focalizes
the volunteer-run Sustainable Living Books project which
makes over 2,500 titles on sustainable and healthy living
available at special events and shows (the draft site
www.sustainablelivingbooks.com will be fully operational
in the fall of 2004). Her organization offers courses
and workshops on a wide range of aspects of permaculture,
and is extensively networked with other people and organizations
in Ontario, and around the world. There are opportunities
for apprentices and volunteers, as well as summer student
positions.
Jillian has a warm, present, and inclusive facilitation
style, which, coupled with the wealth of her experience,
and her passion and commitment to sustainable living,
helps to create a rich and supportive learning environment.
Feel free to approach her with your project ideas: if
she can't help you herself, she always knows someone
who can!
ASSISTANT
Jane Hayes of Food Not Lawns
Jane Hayes is a Toronto-based permaculture gardener,
popular educator, community organizer and food activist.
She pioneered the City of Toronto's Children's Gardening
Program with the help of many volunteers and a few visionary
leaders. Her work with the City was nationally recognized
twice -- for embodying an “innovative approach
to gardening for the future” and an innovative
approach to management. Jane has been teaching permaculture
in the Toronto area since summer 2002, following two
years of intensive community gardening in Oregon. Jane
currently works at Evergreen supporting school-based
greening projects and volunteers with Food Not Lawns,
permaculture-north, Counter Culture café and
in community and children’s gardens all over.
Jane has a Masters degree in Environmental Studies from
York and a BA in Anthropology and Environmental Studies
from U of T. She loves to clown and play with puppets,
but finds it hard to keep the puppets clean in gardens…
SOURCE OF SEEDS
There will be a variety of seeds available at the workshop
each participant will receive some seeds to plant, and
have the opportunity to purchase others. We are very fortunate
to have Urban Harvest as the source of the seeds. Urban
Harvest is a Toronto-based seed company, which is an excellent
source of mostly locally produced certified organic seeds
and plants. Urban Harvest strives to provide heritage
varieties and seeds for native plants.
Contact info: www.uharvest.ca,
email grow@uharvest.ca,
or phone 416-504-1653.
Seeds are available at the Dufferin Grove Farmer's Market
every Thursday
from 3-7 p.m. (For more Dufferin Grove Farmer's Market
see www.dufferinpark.ca.)
MEALS & ACCOMMODATION
As this is an afternoon workshop, no meals will be
provided. There is reverse osmosis filtered water available;
please bring your own snacks.
No accommodations are included. If you are from out
of town and need a place to stay, your options are as
follows: we can recommend a hotel or B&B in the
area; we may be able to arrange housing with another
workshop participant.
INVESTMENT
$15-55 sliding scale according to ability to pay
* We endeavor to make our workshops be accessible
to all those interested. There are a few partial and
full works trade options for people in need. The sliding
scale is intended to acknowledge people’s differing
abilities to pay, with the upper end being the normal
charge for the workshop, and the lower number representing
a price that the most financially challenged people
can pay. Before you approach us for a reduced rate and/or
a work trade, we ask that you reflect upon a balance
between your ability to pay, and honoring those who
make it their life’s work to offer these experiences.
Let us work together to have these workshops be accessible
and sustainable!
LOCATION & HOW TO GET THERE
The workshop will take place in downtown Toronto,
at the Sustainable Living Network office, which is in
a private home in a residential neighbourhood, located
at 78 Alberta Avenue (between Oakwood & St. Clair,
and Davenport & Ossington).
By transit:
From the Ossington station (on the Bloor subway line)
Take #63 Ossington bus NORTH-BOUND (the stop is on the
north side of the bus "island".
[The same number also leaves from a different stop on
the south side of the platform and goes south-bound].
Get off the bus to the third traffic light, which is
Davenport. Cross Davenport to the north side.
Head west-ward 20m. Turn right (north) up Alberta Avenue.
Go to #78, a house on the west side.
Alternatively, on the Yonge or University/Spadina lines,
get off at St.Clair West subway station and take the
St. Clair streetcar westbound (there is an eastbound
streetcar as well).
Get off at Winona Drive or Oakwood and walk south down
Alberta Avenue to #78, a house on the west side.
Alberta Avenue runs parallel to, and 1 block east of
Oakwood. See printable map:
HOW TO REGISTER
Limit of 12 participants – please register asap
to secure your spot!
Contact: Jillian Hovey at 416-410-7581, or email: jillian@permaculture.net
Understanding how to engage with the magical
productive abundance of seeds
is a delightful way to help create a more sustainable
life for yourself and others!
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