What's it all about? I'm sure most gardeners are familiar with the
Cooperative Extension's Master Gardener Program. It trains volunteers to
answer the thousands of gardening questions that people call in to their
county Cooperative Extension office. My stepmom was a Master Gardener for
awhile, and I admit I've been tempted to take the course, just for the
knowledge. But the deterrent has been that it's geared toward conventional
gardening and includes the use of chemical fertilizers and sprays. I'm not
interested in that.
In January of this year, Wheaton Labs hosted a
Certified Permaculture Garden Master Course in Missoula, Montana. That was too far away for me, but the entire
5-day event was videotaped. Now Permies.com
wants to turn all that raw footage into a professional quality permaculture
garden master video course! This is something I'm definitely interested in!
The instructor is
Helen Atthowe. Helen is a long-time no-till farmer, researcher, and teacher. Noteworthy
(to me!) is that she interned with Masanobu Fukuoka. As a former extension
agent in Montana, she designed, wrote, and taught the manual for an
Organic Master Gardener course for the Montana Cooperative Extension. Now,
she teaches the Certified Garden Master Course. If this Kickstarter is
successful, this course will be available to us all as a video.
The course teaches organic, veganic, no-till, and permaculture gardening
knowledge and skills. You will learn:
- how to understand functions and interactions within plant, soil, microorganism, and insect communities
- how to identify and manage all the relationships that make up a healthy farm-garden-ecosystem without pesticide and fertilizer inputs
- soil and habitat-building for beneficial organisms
- systems-thinking for gardeners and farmers: how to manage relationships rather than just crops
To see the course contents,
click here
and scroll about halfway down the page.
Does this sound like something you could support? If you're ready, click
here! Early Bird supporters get the best deal. In addition to the regular
rewards for a $1 pledge and up, everyone who donates at least $1 now
through Friday, will get $199.88 worth of early bird specials:
- Early Spring chapter from A Year in an Off-Grid Kitchen by Kate Downham
- Justin Rhodes' Great American Farm Tour: Extended Cut
- Angi Schneider's Succession Planting e-book & calculator
- The 3rd issue of Living Woods Magazine
- Composting with Chickens eBook
- Chapter 10 from Leigh Tate's 5 Acres and a Dream The Sequel
- Paul Wheaton's Permaculture Thorns Presentation from Exit & Build 2022
- Practical Biodynamic Farming with Adam Klaus from Permaculture Voices
- Grow Don't Mow eBook from Roots Down
- Hotbed Plans + Self Heating Winter Greenhouse Plans eBooks from Dirt Patch Heaven
Plus these popular repeat goodies from previous Kickstarters.
(You can use the gift codes for yourself, or to pass it on to someone
else. )
- Gift code for The Berm Shed Movie
- Gift code for Spring 2019 Issue of Communities Magazine: Community Land
- Gift code for Learning to spin yarn on a drop spindle by R Ranson
- Gift code for Thomas Elpel's Green Prosperity chapters 1-10
- Gift code for Common Weeds And Wild Edibles Of The World (HD movie)
- Gift code for Native Bee Guide by Crown Bees
- Gift code for An hour long presentation by Tim Barker about ram pumps
- Gift code for Six Quick Stove Tricks from Ernie and Erica Wisner
- Gift code for a two hour long Farm and Animal Relationships presentation by Jacqueline Freeman
- Gift code for Hugelkultur chapter from Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist from Michael Judd
- Gift code for Uncle Mud's EZ Cob Rocket Stove from Chris McClellan (aka Uncle Mud)
- Gift code for Thermophilic Compost for the Garden or Homestead pdf by Alan Booker
The early bird offer ends at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14 (Mountain
Time).
Access to the Garden Master Video course starts at $50 for raw, unedited
video of the entire event. The professionally edited, polished video
will be available at the $80 pledge level, with more rewards for higher
pledge categories. This is probably the lowest price point we'll see for
this course; future access to the finished course will likely be higher.
If you grab it during the early bird specials, it will be like getting
the course for free!
To see all of the pledge levels and their rewards,
click here.
I know all that sounds like a full-blown sales pitch, lol. It's just that
I'm really excited about this project. The course will be my winter
personal enrichment learning project. If you have any questions, please
ask in the comments, and I'll try to answer them if I can.
10 comments:
Leigh, I have received the lead up to this over the last few days and am literally looking at the Kickstarter right now - and low and behold, you have already written about it!
The part about Helen's working with Fukuoka is exciting. That alone almost makes it all worthwhile (other than all the actual knowledge, of course).
TB, that was extremely interesting to me too, especially because I'm not familiar with Helen, and Fukuoka is one of my heros. In looking over the workshop contents, this appears to be one of the most comprehensive studies out there. Bill Mollison's Permaculture Design Course was that way, but it focuses on designing an entire property to become a permaculture system. This course focuses on gardening, so I'm anticipating it will be of even greater personal value. Plus, all those early bird goodies. (I still sound like a commercial, LOL).
Leigh
I was overwhelmed by your unbridled enthusiasm lol. I hate to see you when you’re really excited 😜
I am in board 😎 project!
Sorry 'bout that! lol I've gardened a lot of years, but I'm always looking to learn and do better. So this is right up my alley, and how can I not help but share it! :)
Goat people are always a bit over the top ;-)
They funded in one day. Amazing!
Goatldi, we are indeed! lol
TB, there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for this project. Now, they're into some interesting stretch goal rewards for those who pledge $100 up. I'm at $80, but it's tempting to kick in that extra $20!
Leigh - I am at the same level you are currently and thinking the same thing.
TB, you probably got the same notification I did about the next stretch goal; a webinar with Helen on creating a backyard fruit forest. I think I'm caving, lol.
Leigh - I caved too.
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