Sustainable Sunday: Regenerative Design Institute

This week we will be featuring the Regenerative Design Institute, a permaculture demonstration farm and experiential education center in Bolinas, CA. If you were paying attention to earlier posts (and we don't judge you if you were not), you would have noted that this is where Jason has trundled off to for a 6 month internship.

Founded in 2005 by Penny Livingston and James Stark on the property of Commonweal Garden, RDI is dedicated to showing people a better way to live on our planet. They believe that not only can people live sustainably, but they can improve the planet rather than keeping it as is. This is done through the principles of permaculture. For those of you who scratch your head every time we mention permaculture, let this be your basic primer. Permaculture is a design system for human interaction with the earth. This includes everything from agriculture to waste management, water systems to how humans relate to one another. In short, it is a way of life driven by an understanding of natural ecosystems that posits developing strong connectivity within a system makes it even stronger.

RDI offers a series of courses that include permaculture design, regenerative design and nature awareness, ecology of leadership, and reskilling (learning ancient and primitive technologies). They do this within the demonstrative context of their 7-acre farm which includes orchards, livestock, gardens, natural buildings, and a greenhouse. Participants in the courses are able to see first hand the principles of permaculture at work, while hearing lectures from some of the top permaculture experts in the world. For example, a lecture on livestock leads to observation of the ranging chickens providing pest control in the garden. This allows the chickens to gain nutrients for producing better eggs, while the plants are pest-free and get valuable nitrogen from chicken manure. Participants can watch the systems in action, and become inspired to create their own permaculture designs.

So where does Jason come in? As example of how permaculture stretches even into human interaction, RDI 'hires' groups of work traders (monikered 'farm homies') who offer farm labor in exchange for knowledge through permaculture immersion. In the short month that J has been at RDI he's milked goats, plastered buildings, hauled rocks, germinated seeds, planted crops, pruned trees, managed the gravity-fed water system, and learned to make cheese (whew!). He has found it a lot of fun with an amazing community, meaningful work, and great learning opportunities. He now understands how much it takes to run a farm, and the intricacies of permaculture require trial and error and a willingness to make mistakes. As Penny would say, "permaculture is not rocket science. It's a lot more complicated." One might argue this a fair assertion seeing as it's taken 3 billion years to develop natural ecosystems, and permaculture has been alive and kicking a short 30.

The next 5 months for J are full of promise, including remodeling the greenhouse, perfecting the composting systems, and waiting for the rains to cease so spring planting can commence (not to mention lots of yummy food to eat all summer). We hope to hear more about this great place and the things J is doing down on the farm with the homies.

Sheet Mulch

So its time for us to actually start that whole gardening thing. We spent some time talking, dreaming, scheming about it about 2 weeks ago, and now we are finally getting it to action.

We decided to put in 4 framed beds out back - each is 8'x3' and made out of reclaimed lumber we got from the Benton Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Jason worked this week getting the frames built, and we are going to spend some time this weekend turning the ground and starting to get things ready for seeds.

Upon digging into the yard (thanks to our landlady who is OK with this!) we found that the soil is mostly clay. This is great when we are talking about making plasters or cob, but for gardening it worried us a bit, hence the framed beds so we can import some other materials without having to till up the whole yard.

We looked into ways to get ahold of good soil. This included all kinds of ideas from going to the woods and getting some to purchasing it at a local store. We decided hauling soil seemed pretty energy inefficient and labor intensive, and discovered the route of buying soil would put us out over $200 minimum (ouch). So Jason got on the horn and started researching other options.

What he landed on was sheet mulching. This was an idea he'd originally had, but rejected because he did not think it was feasible for immediate planting. Sheet mulching is an incredible soil-building technique, especially if you have 6 months to let it break down. Fortunately, Jason pursued this idea deeply enough to discover that it is possible to plant almost immediately if one takes certain steps.

Lets take a moment and talk about what sheet mulching actually is. It is rooted in the concept that tilling is actually not beneficial for sustainable gardening (or agriculture for that matter) in that it will initially promote plant growth, but in the long run leeches nutrients out of the soil and leaves in barren (anybody remember the dust bowl?). It is essentially composting in place. To do this we are going to:

• Trim the grass short, leaving it in place.
• Covering the grass with newspaper and cardboard to prevent grass growth.
• Layering on top of the paper and cardboard from the bottom up, these four layers: partially composted goat manure and straw from a local farm, completed compost from the local municipality, straw, and dead leaves.

The net result is a striated combination of materials that will break down into fluffy, humus-rich, healthy soil. This process would have been best started back in October of last year. Of course last October Jason was living in a tent at an earth-building worksite, and I was watching football and drinking beer in Flagstaff. So, we are starting a bit behind, but developing a plan for being able move forward nonetheless.

While Jason builds his 5-layer dip of poop and other organic material in the backyard, I have been saving old containers to get our starts going. The plan is to get the sheet mulch up and decomposing while the plants get rolling indoors. Stay tuned for an article on starting plants as well as updates on the backyard beds. We are slated to get our plants into the ground on April 15, thus turning tax day into happy-gardening-fun-plant-dirt-day.

We must certainly give a nod to Toby Hemenway, author of "Gaia's Garden" for inspiration, ideas, plans, and instruction.