Course:Spring semester

From PermaWiki

(Redirected from Spring semester)
Jump to: navigation, search


This is an overview of the spring semester of the MUSE course that was offered from January to May 2009. Thanks to all who attended! You can still find the readings for each class here. See also Course:Summer practicum and Course:Fall semester.

List of classes

January Courses

Introduction to permaculture

Date: January 7th, 2009

Preparatory readings

Additional resources

Instructors: MPG

  • What is Permaculture? Permanent + Culture, Permanent + Agriculture
  • What is its rich indigenous history, and how did it culminate in the coining of the term and Mollison and Holmgren's work?
  • What are its principles and why apply them?
  • What are some examples of inspiring Permaculture projects?

Notebooks made from reused paper will be offered by-donation to students to fundraise for the course.

Urban Permaculture Design

Date: January 14th, 2009

Preparatory Readings

Course slides and notes

Instructors: Nina

  • Traditional focus (homesteads, rural areas) vs. urban application, Scale (balcony, house, garden, neighbourhood, city)
  • Urban Site Assessment. Let the site speak to you, don’t impose your desires upon it. Use whatever materials are readily available to you on or near the site. Understand the constraints and turn them into opportunities eg. Don’t think about shade in terms of preventing you of growing certain veggies, but as an opportunity to grow mushrooms and other shade tolerant plants.
  • We will take you through a 9 step site assessment process using the MUCS space as the main example to deepen our engagement with it.


Homework (optional): Apply Permaculture site assessment and design principles to your own space! Feel free to contact Nina for further resources (her email was sent out to all registered students).

Stacking functions and the 7-Layered Garden

Date: January 21st

Additional resources

Instructors: Kyra, Chris, Steve

  • Principle of stacking functions and the 7 layered garden
  • Maximizing use of space: hanging plants, trellises, living ground covers etc. Living fences/walls (eg. out of thatched willow). And explore the reasons to put up climbing vines (morning glory, grapes etc) on walls and chainlink fences to protect gardens from outside pollution, to cool in the summer and heat in the winter.

Forms of Agriculture in Urban Spaces

Date: January 28th,2009

Additional resources

Instructors: Panel discussion: Eleuthera, Scott, Marion, Stef

  • Brief intro to forms of urban agriculture and the challenges and opportunities of: community gardens, collective gardens, rooftop gardens, backyard and balcony gardens, urban farms, peri-urban farms and guerilla gardening.


February Courses

Perma Movie!

Date: February 4th, 2009

Facilitators: Wen

PLEASE NOTE THERE WILL BE NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 4TH. ALL CLASSES IN THE SPRING SEMESTER HAVE BEEN MOVED FORWARD ONE WEEK. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING.

  • We will instead be watching "Establishing a Food Forest the Permaculture Way" with Geoff Lawton, same time and place as the MUSE class: 5:30pm at MUCS- 2000 Northcliffe #218, so come on down!! We're going to have a really chill night, hang out, watch the movie and discuss it afterwards. The movie's only about an hour and a half so we'll have a good half hour afterwards to talk, so if anyone has any questions that have come up during the class or a topic they want to discuss this is the perfect opportunity.

Fieldtrip to the Botanical Gardens Seed Exchange!

Date: February 8th, 2009

  • Activity: go to the Seedy Sunday seed exchange and workshops at the Botanical Gardens*
  • You are cordially invited to the 9th annual Montreal Seedy Sunday seed sale and exchange that will take place Sunday February 8th, 2009 from

10:00 To 16:30.at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, 4101 Sherbrooke Street east (Metro Pie IX). Admission is free.

Water Issues

Sources of Water, Their Health and Environmental Repercussions and The Nourishing of Waterways

Date: February 11th, 2009

Preparatory readings

Additional Resources

Instructors: Eleuthera, Marion, Steve

  • Environmental, political and health issues related to water sources.
  • Toxins present in water- farm run off, hormones, chlorine etc. How to filter as uch as possible out.
  • Humanure: why composting toilets?
  • Rainwater collection: for drinking purposes. Collect in food grade plastic containers, wood or cement cisterns. Filter with ceramic (to get rid of the giardia, e. coli and larger organisms) and activated carbon filters (for the chlorine and smaller organisms)- buy one to show from Dalton. Passive solar water purification methods to use in emergency situations and third world countries where other options are not available: putting glass containers on sheet metal for between 6 hours on sunny days and 48 hours on cloudy days, uses solar UV-A radiation and temperature to inactivate pathogens that cause diarrhea. Jan- April so we could implement a rainwater collection and/or filtration system at MUCS
  • Dams and their impact.
  • Swales and A frames, springs, aquifers, water diversion techniques and the placing of trees to reduce soil erosion, watersheds

Greywater

Recuperation, Treatment and Uses

Date: February 18th,2009

Preparatory readings

Additional Resources

Instructors: Marion, Stef

Please note this class will NOT be held at MUCS but at the Concordia Greenhouse! Go to the Hall building on DeMaisonneuve between Mackay and Bishop and proceed to the 12th floor where we will meet. Here's a google map of where the university is.

  • What is grey water? What is dark grey water? What are some filtration methods and uses?
  • Grey water site assessment
  • DIY!!: Grey water can be saved from the kitchen sink in a dishtub, from the bathroom sink by removing an elbow in the pipe, and from the shower by putting a collection bucket in or just leaving the plug in while showering. Use it to flush toilets, wash hands and water plants depending on source. Filtration necessary to use for irrigation- woodchip buckets.
  • Implement a grey water recuperation and filtration system at MUCS?
  • Activity: Visit the Concordia Greenhouse to see the Maison productive grey water system

Ponds, Aquaculture and Living Machines

Date: February 25th, 2009

Preparatory readings

Additional resources

Instructors: Steve, Stef, Rachel

  • Ponds
  • Aquaculture
  • Living machines
  • Filtration and use
  • Hydroponics
  • Treatment of black water
  • What plants to use and how
March Courses

Insects, Friends and Foes

Date: March 4th, 2009

Instructors: Chris

  • Knowing your insects
  • Attracting beneficial insects to your garden
  • For non-beneficial insects: repellent plants and natural sprays
  • Insects as food

Fieldtrip to Eleuthera's garden to caretake her fruit trees!

Date: Sunday March 8th, 2009 3pm-5pm

  • Activity: Marion will talk about biodynamic tree care and especially healing pastes for trees. Then we will be making a paste together to apply it to Eleuthera's apple and pear trees who have worms and need to be pruned!
  • Meet at Eleuthera's place at 3pm: address: 4992 Montclair corner Fielding. Take the 51 bus west from Snowdon metro for about 10 minutes until you reach walkley and fielding and walk one block west.

Here is a google map to Eleuthera's garden

Soin et entretien d'arbres fruitiers

Date: 11 mars, 2009

Instructors: Marion

  • Description des merveilleux arbres fruitiers du Québec (notamment ceux méconnus et qui ont un potentiel énorme!)
  • Préparation du sol avant et lors de la croissance des arbres fruitiers
  • Entretien des arbres
  • Taille des arbres
  • Session Question+Réponse pour la dernière demi heure: Mathieu Roy répondra à vos questions!
  • La partie pratique de cet atelier sera ce dimanche le 8 mars chez Eleuthera (voir ci-dessous)

Please note: This class will be held in French. Whisper translation in English will be offered to those who need it.

Perennials

Care and Division and Why We Love Them

Date: March 18th, 2009

Instructors: Eleuthera, Heather, Kyra

  • Perennials, self-seeding annuals, annuals, biennials etc. Importance of distinctions for planning out the season and for seed saving. Where the lines blur between them.
  • The impact of Hardiness Zones on our understanding of their classification.
  • Importance of perennials and self-seeding annuals for permaculture practice. Why they are so loveable :o)
  • How to care for them- pruning, thinning, watering, how to harvest. How to leave them alone and let them do their thing!
  • How they reproduce- seeds, cuttings, grafting, layering, air layering, rhizomes, division.

The Garden Ecosystem

Companion Planting, 'Weeds', Natives and Exotics

Date: March 25th, 2009

Further Resources

Instructors: Eleuthera, Heather,

  • Companion planting, Ecological pest control & Beneficial weeds: A delving into the diverse relationships between plants and insects, how they can affect eachother's- productivity, flavour, control insects, trap crops, provide shade etc. Importance for applying companion planting in choosing seeds to plant and plan out garden for summer practicum.
  • Care and starting


April Courses

Garden Design

Practical Application in the MUCS Courtyard

Date: April 1st, 2009

Instructors: MPG, discussion-based

  • Take the above into consideration (companion planting, beneficial and non-beneficial insects, beneficial weeds etc.)
  • Rotations within the garden
  • Design the MUCS garden! :o)

Starting with the Seed

Techniques and Schools of Thought

Date: April 8th, 2009

Instructors: Ed (Seed Basics), Marion (seed sovereignty, food sovereignty)

  • Basic seed anatomy, human uses of seed, seed dispersal strategies.
  • Basics of germinating seeds indoors under lights or in a greenhouse.
  • Damping-off disease and how to prevent it.
  • The politics of seeds. Codex Alimentarius, Bill C-51, Global Seed Banks.
  • Some inspiring seed initiatives throughout the world.


Microlivestock

Rearing Animals in the City

Date: April 15th, 2009

Instructors: Danielle, Heather, Chris (bugs), Marina (the politics of), Marion,Kyra

Preparatory Readings: RUST (Radical Urban Sustainability Training) manual, section on Microlivestock

  • Caring for bees, chickens, rabbits, other microlivestock: the possibilities and politics of, how to go about rearing animals in the city.
  • Let’s get the pro chicken and bee petitions going as part of the course!
  • Workshop on beekeeping with Danielle, possible class visit to see her hives (To be confirmed)

Soil

Composition, Contamination and Life

Date: April 22nd, 2009

Instructors: Rachel, Heather,

  • Soil science: How did the Earth come to be the way it is? What is soil? What makes it up? It’s not an empty receptacle but a living organism. Negative effects of chemical fertilizers, NPK not enough, can burn roots. How can we nourish it? Composting and natural fertilizer!
  • Environmental consequences of asphalt, mining and building roads- Acid Rock Drainage, pollution of waterways. Hands on application if possible! Use RUST manual as a step-by-step guide. Let’s dig up some asphalt and remediate the soil!

Feeding the Soil

Composting, Vermicomposting, Herbal Teas, Mushroom Compost, etc.

Date: April 29th, 2009

Instructors: Eleuthera, Marion,Kyra

  • Fertilizing naturally, the importance to a garden
  • Vermi-composting
  • Mushroom compost
  • Outdoor composting: compost heaps, boxes, herb teas to nourish your compost
  • Vita Biosa (Kyra...maybe Kyra's mom/Dawn)

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS WILL BE OUR LAST CLASS OF THE SPRING SEMESTER AND AS SUCH WILL BE A SHORTER CLASS, TO BE FOLLOWED BY A MEAL AND CELEBRATION OF THE SEMESTER WE'VE SHARED TOGETHER AND THOSE TO COME!! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRESENCE!!


May Courses

Irrigation

Principles and the Self-Watering Container

Date: May 6th, 2009


PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS CLASS HAS BEEN CANCELLED. THERE SHOULD BE A WORKSHOP ON SELF-WATERING CONTAINERS OFFERED BY SANTROPOL ROULANT DURING THE MONTH OF MAY. MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW.

FEEL FREE TO JOIN US IN THE MUCS COURTYARD GARDEN EVERY WEDNESDAY STARTING MAY 6TH FROM 3-7PM THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER TO GARDEN TOGETHER AND CHECK OUT THE SUMMER PRACTICUM PAGES FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WHAT WE'LL BE DOING EACH WEEK!

Retrieved from "http://www.montrealpermaculture.org/index.php/Course:Spring_semester"
Personal tools