Just as none of us learned the principles of practical financial literacy in school, none of us were taught the practical principles of how to live on a finite planet. If you care about the future of your children, grandchildren, and other descendants, you owe it to them to pass on a better environmental legacy as opposed to deeper ecological debt.

 

Have you ever really thought about where your drinking water comes from? Do you know what kinds industrial and household wastes end up in wastewater? Do you know where your wastewater goes for treatment and how thoroughly it's "cleaned" before releasing it into the biosphere?

 

Have you considered where your garbage and recyclable materials go? How much of the waste is buried and how much is incinerated? Is the recyclable material really recycled? In a throwaway society, out of sight is out of mind; however, in nature there is no such thing as "away".

 

Have you learned to match the needs of your desired plants with what your actual or prospective garden site provides?

 

These questions delve into but a few of the interconnected aspects of ecoliteracy. In Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy, all of these subjects and more are covered.

 

Sustainability is not possible without ecological literacy as a foundation. Striving for authentic sustainability at this point in human history is requisite for our survival as a species and it entails attunement with earth’s systems and cycles – the sources of our collective survival, well-being, and wealth. Ecology trumps economy – it always has and always will.

 

Exploring the scope of the myriad ways that each of our lives is inextricably intertwined with our planet is one of the objectives of the workshop but we also address practical solutions that are accessible on the personal scale. Wendy Talaro of Fruits to Nuts (sustainable garden design and consultancy specializing in edibles and CA natives) and Steve Hernandez of NativeScape Development Corp. (landscape design/building/maintenance company specializing in CA natives and habitat restoration) will lead workshop participants in a systematic way through the process of ecological design and problem solving. In this fun, highly interactive all-day workshop, you will learn systems thinking using gardens and landscaping as the context for the concrete material and the very same practical skills that these ecological designers use regularly in their businesses.

Who will benefit from attending this workshop? You will if you are:

• beginning a current sustainable or organic garden or landscape project and you’re feeling stuck or confused
• launching a garden redesign or expansion project and you could use specific help and guidance
• getting rid of your lawn in favor of creating a sustainable garden in the ground, rain garden, drought tolerant CA native garden, food forest, edible landscape, container or rooftop garden, or an organic vegetable garden
• seeking ways to reduce the occurrence of ongoing garden and landscape problems or ways to solve those problems for good
• redesigning your garden so that it will save water, time, effort, and energy while bringing more beauty into your surroundings
• telling yourself that you’re a bad gardener or that you have a “black thumb”
• doing any combination of the above

 

First of all, stop blaming yourself for not knowing what it would take for your garden or certain plants to thrive.

 

Next, it is time to take your garden or landscape to the next level with better results – learn to work with nature instead of inadvertently against it.

 

Important registration information:

• Bilingual instruction in English and Español with real time translation is available
• Enrollment is strictly limited on a first come, first served basis to 16 individuals. Conversely, a minimum of 4 individuals is needed for the workshop to carry.
• Early registration until March 27th is $40. Registration until April 3rd is $50.
• All registration payments must be received by April 3rd to ensure you have enough time for the mandatory multi-part homework. (Seriously. The soil sample and identification process part takes a week.) You’re accountable to your fellow classmates for the quality of the content so give yourself ample time to complete it. You will get out of this workshop what you invest in it.
• Homework (2.1 MB PDF file) will only be sent to you via e-mail or snail mailed upon receipt of payment.
• Make checks payable to Wendy Talaro and send to P.O. Box 2382; Gardena, CA 90247. Credit and debit card payments can be processed through NativeScape Development Corp.
• Potluck lunch on-site to facilitate networking and community building, so please bring your business cards and a dish or snack to share
• 25% student discount available, send with proof of current 1/2 to full time registration
• 25% 55+ senior citizen discount available, so send payment with proof of how young you are
• Cancellation Policy: No refunds unless the instructors initiate class cancellation.
• This workshop is prerequisite for From Stumped to Pumped: Great Garden Results Guaranteed. This follow up workshop, like the site analysis practicums we also offer, builds on the practical, real world material covered in Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy.

 

More information about Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy, including an embedded YouTube video, can be found at Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy’s temporary online home (until it gets its own domain name and website): http://fruitstonuts.wordpress.com. Please feel free to forward this link and e-mail to others you think may be interested.

If you have further questions, please call Wendy @ 310.329.5719 or send an e-mail to fruitstonuts@yahoo.com. Para preguntas en Español, llame Esteban, marque 818.302.9699 or coreo electronico steve@gogreennsd.com.