Sunday, February 6, 2011

One good thing leads to another – The Living Centre and Peak Moments

Hello ... I hope you are all well.

I received an e-mail from the Lorenna and Shantree Kacera, outlining upcoming programs at their amazing place, The Living Centre. They are certified permaculture teachers – although they’d been living it long before the creds! - and it looks like they are going to teach their 72 hour permaculture design course in segments over this coming year, instead of just as a two-week intensive. This will open it up to people whose job commitments do not allow for a two-week course. This is terrific, and I hope that this course and all their others fill up fast.

Being easily lured, I took their e-mail as an excuse to browse the various parts of their website, and that led me further into the web and a wonderful interview about community gardening.

Janaie Donaldson of Peak Moments Television interviews Patrick Marcus of the Ashland Oregon Community Garden; it’s a 2008 interview available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrALNfsm6o It's really worth listening to. Marcus is a wonderful spokesperson for community gardens generally, noting the many ways gardening is good for people and communities. One of his most important points has to do with the importance of a city plan having ‘infrastructure’ or policies in its overall development plan that allow for and commit to having community gardening spaces. He also makes the case for community gardens on city land being cost-effective for a city, in terms of it costing less for a city to give some financial support to a shared garden than to mow and spray and anything else it might do. The people in the Ashland community garden have done their political work and changes are being made to the city’s plan. He mentions that a survey of city-owned property was being done, to find locales that would be suitable for further community gardens. Great stuff.

Best regards to you,

Why’s Woman

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The Living Centre: http://www.thelivingcentre.com

Course info: http://www.thelivingcentre.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=351&Itemid=1

Peak Moments Television: http://www.peakmoment.tv/




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