How to Grow Water: A Hands-on Permaculture Skills Training -Smart Yards Ed

Open to all levels seeking to learn how eco-gardening saves water and can grow water through permaculture practices. For bilingual Spanish and English-speaking landscape experts, community members, students, property owners, and all residents of Santa Clara County who seek practical skills for tending outdoor living spaces, our experts and permaculture instructors will show you how to install water optimization systems and create lush, regenerative, and resilient ecosystems in urban spaces and residential yards.

This permaculture training workshop series will broaden your perspective and expand your skills.

The first weekend will be held at an established food and natives garden designed upon permaculture principles, and includes an introduction to permaculture with an emphasis on a regenerative approach to water solutions. We will demystify the water cycle, its challenges, and how to restore it with an extensive tour of the garden system, real-life examples, Q and A, and a discussion. Each of the three remaining workshop weekends will include a Saturday morning presentation followed by hands-on installations Saturday afternoons and Sundays. This workshop series includes the following:

• Optional kick-off “meet & greet” with local food offerings
• Delicious locally sourced lunch each day
• Compost systems construction
• Hugelkultur system construction to reuse and recycle on-site yard waste
• Greywater Laundry-to-Landscape installation (at one location)
• Tour of a backyard food farm built upon permaculture principles (First Weekend)
• Presentations on understanding the water cycle, how and why to heal it
• Discussions and Q and A on challenges and opportunities
• Assessing roofs and roof rainwater catchment potential
• Techniques to Slow, Spread, and Sink water into the landscape
• Lawn Conversion into low-water multilayered native pollinator and bird habitat
• Flame weeding and sheet mulching for weed control and fertility building
• Installation of an easy, efficient and effective irrigation system
• 8 days of instruction, skills training, and hands-on work

This group will meet in person for one weekend each month for four months, each weekend at a different residence in the South Bay Area. There’s also an optional “meet and greet” kick-off gathering at the instructor’s permaculture garden in San Jose on Feb 3, 2023

• February 4 and 5, 2023
• March 4 and 5, 2023
• Apr 15 and 16, 2023
• May 27 and 28, 2023

Earn a “certificate of completion” in these skills:

• Introduction to the Permaculture Ethics of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share
• Installation of water optimization systems for reduced irrigation needs
• Landscaping and gardening for California climate appropriateness
• Diversification and ecological functions of urban California native habitat and regeneration

Register Now. Space is limited to 25 students.

Learn Eco-Landscaping Skills in Four Weekends–One weekend per month starting February 2023. Register now at smartyardseducation.org/events

Questions? info@smartyardseducation.org

Meet Your Instructors:

–Anne Freiwald of Vital Cycles. Holding a Masters Degree in Public Health from SJSU, Anne is a community health and earth activist, permaculture educator, and regenerative life and landscape designer, focusing on human ecology and community resilience.

–Lydia Neilsen of Vital Cycles. As a Permaculture Institute of North America certified permaculture educator, Lydia is a landscape and habitat designer, specializing in water cycle restoration and passionate polyculture.

–Elizabeth Sarmiento of Smart Yards Education. As a native Spanish-speaker with a commitment to resource conservation, social justice, and permaculture methods, Elizabeth is a Santa Clara County Master Composter, certified by Greywater Action for systems installation, and Bay-Friendly Regional for landscape design.

Tuition:

In the spirit of equity, we invite you to enroll at the Full Tuition rate if you are able to do so. This rate enables us to provide scholarships to those in our community who may not have the resources at this time but desire equally to invoke positive change in our urban landscape.

All pricing levels include the 4 weekends of instruction, hands-on training, and preliminary kick-off gathering. We are in full support of educating bilingual Spanish and English-speaking landscape experts, community members, and students who will go forward throughout our community to further this knowledge about water optimization strategies and Valley Water Rebate programs.

Tuition for this comprehensive “certificate of completion" course in eco-landscaping is on a sliding scale:

• $800 (full tuition will support scholarships for low income community members who are committed to learning Permaculture Principles)
• $400
• $200
• $100 (minimum financial commitment)
• Details will be announced soon. Limited to 25 students.

Brought to you by Valley Water and Smart Yards Education– a non-profit California corporation 501(c)(3) charity cultivating vibrant communities by providing hands-on education to creating and maintaining eco-friendly gardens and conserving resources.