Join Laura Williams and Annelieke van der Sluijs on our beautiful quinta nestled in the Serra do Açor Mountains. The weekend will be hands on, empowering you with the skills to get started and/or develop your existing garden with permaculture principles. Using permaculture you will be able to work with nature and produce the most abundant yields for the least effort.

We will examine the ecological principles which will enable you to understand and work with the energy flows in nature to your advantage. Using our gardens as a classroom we will then look at how permaculture principles are distilled from nature and apply them to specific areas of gardening.

A very important part of how we live here at the Awakened Life Project is with an emphasis on raw and wild foods; eating them, growing them, gathering them and preparing them and we would like to share this with you. So we will look at how you can incorporate more wild foods and perennials in your gardens and kitchens. We will forage on the quinta and familiarise you with the wild foods you can gather at home.

On Sunday you will apply the principles we have looked at to design and build a raised bed from scratch so you can really get started at home.

On this weekend you will:

• Gain confidence to apply permaculture principles in your own garden
• Find out about natural ecological principles, energy flows and how to work with them
• Look at integrating wild species in your garden and menu
• Get your hands dirty with a practical vegetable bed building
• Have opportunities for questions and discussions on topics of interest to you and your own garden
• Enjoy fresh and delicious, raw and vegetarian food and have the chance to learn some raw food techniques

The weekend will start on your arrival on Friday evening between 6 and 7pm with a shared dinner and will finish on Sunday at 4 for with tea and a raw treat!

We will enjoy 3 freshly prepared and filling vegetarian and raw meals a day.

Accommodation will be in tents and our yurt. IT MAY BE COLD AT NIGHT & RAINY SO BE PREPARED!

You will need to bring bedding, a torch, walking boots/shoes, waterproof coat, sunhat, notepad and pen/pencil. Something to sit on outside like an old cushion or mat would be really useful too.

Spaces are limited to 12 so to reserve your place please contact us and send a non-refundable deposit of €30. Your investment for this weekend is €85, which includes course and all meals.

We look forward to being inspired by nature with you.

In case you need more info, contact Annelieke: annelieke.van.der.sluijs@gmail.com 

Laura and Annelieke created a relaxed, open sharing group space from the start and taught me many things about plants, seeds, gardening techniques and styles during the permaculture gardening course. Importantly they provided plenty of open space for members of the course group to share their wisdom on cultivating life in the garden. Delicious food, humour, mistakes, meditations and hands in the earth helped the learning to sink in and I will remember this weekend for a long time. Already I’ve been foraging for yummy greens in my local countryside and I look forward to creating a raised vegetable bed in the near future! My gratitude to all the folks at Awakened Life Project for this great experience!

Mari Winkerman, UK

People:

Laura Williams

Garden Manager, Permaculture Teacher

Annelieke van der Sluijs

Teacher Of Permaculture & Transition