One hour of good design can save ten hours of hard work. Learn about the fundimentals of designing and constructing a productive and sustainable garden.

Length of party:

6 hrs plus breaks

Full Menu Items:

• Garden Design
• Garden Maintenance
• Construction
• Irrigation

Taster Menu Items:

• Keeping Chooks
• Native Vegetation
• Seasons
• Composting
• Support Species
• Habitat

Outcome:

Understanding the importance of designing to create a productive and sustainable garden.

Host Gift:

• Basic sketch design of the garden
• Summary report
• Garden manual - Stage 1
  
• DVD

Guest’s Goodie Bag:

• Notes Pack
• Compass
• Sun chart
• Planting guide

Cost: $95 per person

• Minimum 12 people required
• Early bird specials apply

Full menu items:

Designing for maximum yield and curriculum integration.

One hour of clever design can save ten hours of hard work.

Our professional permaculture designers will design of your school garden to maximise the space available, the number of students, your estimated budget, incorporate an outdoor classroom and integrate curriculum activities for long term use.

We can complete the design with or without student participation. We have found that by including students in the design process a deeper understanding of the elements of the garden will be gained and a sense of ownership in the gardens will be established.

• Elements of a design
• Sectors and Zones
• Positioning the garden
• How to design a garden
• Site analysis
• Sector analysis & sun patterns
• Designing out problems
• Stages and steps
• Why good planning saves time and improves productivity
• The needs of the client/school
• Materials required
• Walk around a garden area for observation

Maintaining a healthy and productive garden.

• Edible Schoolyard yearly maintenance schedule
• What is maintenance and why we do it
• How to maintain your garden
• Successional Planting
• Pest and Disease Management
• Jobs in the subtropical edible garden
• Tips for saving time, energy and money
• Selection and care of garden tools
• Garden tidy ups
• Understanding weeds
• Weed management - the organic way

Be waterwise.

• Different methods of irrigating and how to apply them
• Your plants' water needs
• Designing your garden to save water
• When to water and how
• Storing and using water for irrigation
• Irrigation systems and watering options
• Water saving techniques
• Sources of water
• Create an irrigation system in easy steps

Healthy happy schoolyard chooks.

• Why keep chooks?
• What type of chooks?
• Hatching and raising chickens
  
• Getting your garden ready for chooks
• Housing your chooks (including chook tractors)
• Feeding and watering you chooks
• Organic treatments for common chook problems using herbs and home made treatments
• Chooks in the garden system
• Incorporating free range chooks into your garden and food forests
• Council regulations
• The myth about chooks, rats and snakes
  
• Holding a chook
• Preparing and adding organic preps to their water
• Using chooks in the garden as pest management and workers

Biodiversity in the garden.

• Why we need natives in the sustainable garden
• How to identify and selecting the right natives for your garden
• Attracting natives birds, lizards, frogs and other species to your garden
• Bush tucker plants in the edible garden
• Forestry, National Parks and Landcare
• Our local species - what's growing in your area

Seasonal planning for a subtropical edible garden.

• Mapping sun and shade patterns throughout the year
• Understanding orientation
• Growing in the subtropics (specific issues)
• Planning your garden for a year of food (this steps into garden design)
• Seasonal jobs - busy times, quiet times
• When to plant, when to harvest
• Annuals & perennials - growing food throughout the year
• Understanding the subtropical climate and how it affects backyard food production
• Using a compass, finding orientation
• Using sun map for our region

Composting made easy.

• Why compost?
• What is compost?
• The role of compost in an organic garden
• The life in compost
• What goes in, what stays out - ingredients
• Building, maintaining, harvesting, using and storing your perfect compost
• Troubleshooting common problems (vermin, odours etc) & easy remedies
• Selecting and preparing the site
• Selecting & preparing the materials incl compost starters
• Build a small compost heap to manage kitchen scraps and provide soil for your garden
• Large compost systems
• Fungal vs bacterial dominated
• Importance of feeding microbes
• Bokashi systems

Using plants to support your garden's health

• Identifying common support species in a sustainable garden
• The role of support species in an edible schoolgarden, orchard and food forest
• Using them in garden design
• Exploring the many uses of plants and their benefits
• Growing your own mulch, fertilisers and compost activators
• Growing your own shade and structural plants
• Identifying various species and how to grow them

Creating habitat to attract diversity into your garden.

• Identifying the different types of habitats
• What do we attract to the garden and why they are important
• How do we bring them to the garden and keep them there
• Recognising the importance of existing habitats and nurturing them

Herbs for human and garden health.

• Looking at different varieties
• Their many uses
• Growing needs and habits
  
• Designing herbs into gardens
• Permaculture Herb Spirals
• Growing herbs in pots
  
• Harvesting and using
• Looking at and tasting a variety of herbs
• Creating natural remedies from herbs