I first started becoming involved with farming at a friends farm 7 years ago helping to start a fairly decent sized shiitake log inoculation business (1,500-2,000 logs), we sold to local restaurants in Virginia. Also, helped with other basic farm projects there such as planting garlic, potatoes, etc. and setting up greenhouses. Moved onto urban gardening in Richmond, VA installing hugelkultur gardens for a few people and then mainly working with another friend on a nice plot of land which was previously used by VCU gardening club but was abandoned at that point. Wwoofed on and off for the next couple years in Michigan (a dairy farm/vegetable/hay farm), CT and soon after got an apprenticeship at a large CSA farm in Minnesota, where I helped run the greenhouse, set up and plant 12 30X90ft high tunnels before leaving to become the garden manager at a place called The Hostel in the Forest. I managed the garden for the past 7 months (April-Nov 2013) and can confidently say I completely transformed it with the help of a few others. Installed many large scale hugelkultur mounds all around the property, sheet mulched the entire garden, moved and improved the compost piles, set up a nice watermelon patch on the mound built by the lake and many other things! This is also where I took my PDC and got my certification, we did many hands on things such as practicing with small scale swales, lasagna beds, worm beds and a water catchment system for the outdoor showers. A friend and I who took the course with me are currently working on starting a Permaculture company and should have it up and running soon! I am currently in SoFlo so if you have any interesting projects going on and need the help of a few people let me know and we will come through, check it out and give a hand.
Hostel in the Forest PDC |
Type: Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course |
Verifying teacher: Marcus Thomson |
Other Teachers: Richard G Powell |
Location: The Hostel in the Forest |
Date: Sep 2013 |