On January 24, we had 30 participants come out for our
Permaculture 101 and Garden Planning Workshop at OISE. Ivan Chan from Eden in Season kicked things off with a one-hour lesson on some of the core principles of permaculture, such as integration, diversity and resilience. Before planning a garden, it’s important to first start with observation of the site you wish to transform, and then design based on your observations in order to achieve your garden planning goals. Taking into consideration the various characteristics of the site is key. What can be changed, and what must we figure out how to incorporate into our design? Soil for example can be improved over time through the addition of organic matter like compost, whereas the topography, surrounding buildings, and climate are not easily modified – particularly by students whose gardening is subject to the approval of the University administration. We can only use land that University Grounds (Facilities and Services) permits us to use, frequently in collaboration with other relevant departments. For our context, we must learn to work with the university bureaucracy if we want to garden on university property.
Once you’ve observed a site and come up with a design, you need to consider the resources that will need to go into making the garden a reality, such as seeds, compost, water, sun, and labour. Over the years, we’ve found that our best gardens are those located near already existing sprinkler systems, thereby limiting the labour required for manual irrigation.
Ivan also had us thinking about the shapes we find occurring in nature, such as spirals, snowflakes, or the way branches and roots grow. In nature, we rarely encounter straight gridlines or triangles. Instead, there are more complicated, interconnected patterns and undulations. Finally, Ivan encouraged us to introduce another core principle to our gardening ethic: stimulating infectious viral fun! Labour is one of the most important resources we rely upon to start and maintain any garden, so making the work fun and rewarding is key to ensuring volunteers continue to stay involved.
Charles presenting his group’s ideas for the Anthropology Greenhouse
After our introduction to permaculture, we broke into four groups to brainstorm ideas for our different projects this season: the UTSU Gardens, the Sid Smith Plot, the Anthropology Garden and Greenhouse, and the hope of establishing a spiral herb mound at Hart House post ramp construction (the ramp will be built on top of our previous garden in front of the building.) Each group was provided with some background for their relevant site to inform their plans, and after 20 minutes they presented their ideas to the larger group.
Some of the ideas involved the importance of rotating crops to ensure soil health, and the need to avoid soil compaction. Others came up with ways to integrate vertical systems to make better use of the limited space, or how to tap into various funding sources to buy any required materials. It was wonderful to sense the excitement in the air at all the possibilities of what we could achieve through working together collaboratively. It was also great to meet so many people with different backgrounds and skill sets, eager to share their knowledge.
A special thank you to Ivan Chan for facilitating this workshop for us, and to UTSU for contributing an honorarium. Thanks as well to all of those who came out and contributed to such a successful planning exercise!
Kristy Bard Coordinator, Dig In! Campus Agriculture