Written by Lindsey Goldberg | 07 February 2011

A fresh vision for Corbett Slope

Permaculture is a holistic, systems thinking approach to ecological design. The philosophy and embedded principles can be applied to support someone as they design as backyard garden, to the layout of the kitchen, or bedroom to larger-scale city.scapes. In permaculture we strive to harmoniously re.create balance, aligning design with the elements; restoring health to the waters, enhancing fertility to the soil, while growing food to nourish human and non-human communities.

A team of budding permaculture designers enrolled in the Urban Permaculture Design Course this winter season connected with the Urban Permaculture Institute of San Francisco [http://www.upisf.com/] has chosen Corbett Slope in the Upper Castro neighborhood as the site for our design project. Working in conjunction with Kitchen Garden SF and the Corbett Heights Neighborhood Association, we intend to create a design to transform this wild green space into a place that can be enjoyed for recreation, education, inspiration, growing food, building resilience and as a community gathering space.

As a member of the design team, I’ve had the pleasure to spend some time on the Slope in the past couple of weeks; meeting with Gary of Corbett Heights Neighborhood Association and Karla of Kitchen Garden SF as well as the members the design team. This week, I walked and observed the existing elements of the slope on a sunny, clear Tuesday afternoon.

I began creating a simple base.map, identifying areas of interest, noting the native wildflowers, trees and fruit trees growing on the slope. Peach and avocado, cedar and jade, wild cucumber, lavender and nasturium, citrus and a coast iris are a few of the species that I was able to identify.

At this point in our design, we are visioning…some of my dreams for the design include: carving out swales and burms to catch rainwater, irrigate plants and steep fresh water into the vast ground reserves. I envision lots of food growing in round, curved mounds facing south, I see gathering spaces in the shade of the old trees, places to picnic and to learn in community, I imagine pathways winding their way on contour through the space, so folks of all ages can walk through the landscape, enjoy the views and connect with the earth while witnessing the changes in edible, herbal and ornamental plants growing in abundance throughout the slope.

To find out more about the design process, the team, the philosophy of permaculture or to participate in the future implementation of the design, contact:

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Written by John Valenzuela | 02 January 2011

'Grow Your Favorite Fruit' is the theme of this year's Scion Exchange, held by the Golden Gate Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG), being held at the El Sobrante Baptist Church, on Sat Jan 22, Noon to 3pm. Details at the Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange webpage.

Scions are special fruit tree prunings used to propagate fruit trees. At this annual event we will be sharing hundreds of varieties of fruit scions to graft onto your own trees, including: apples, pears, quince, plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries, and others, cuttings to root: grapes, figs, pomegranate, kiwi fruit, mulberries, and more, rootstocks and grafting supplies, grafting class and demonstrations, custom and assisted grafting of your selected variety onto a rootstock, local Fruit Friendly organizations represented, a raffle, and more.

This amazing diversity of propagation material of hundreds of fruit varieties comes mostly from 4 sources: The Heritage Fruit Orchard at Prusch Park in San Jose, taken care of by volunteers lead by the Santa Clara chapter CRFG and Santa Clara Chapter Master Gardeners, Andy's Orchard, in Morgan Hill a commercial farm run by Andy Mariani, the restored orchard at Filoli, a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Woodside, and Lastly the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Fruit and Nut Crops at the Wolfskill Experimental Farm in Winters. According to rare fruit collector and fruit historian, C. Todd Kennedy,

"Taken together, the four sources provide the largest and most varied offering of fruit propagating material available at any place in the world today-for fee or for free."

Written by Gk Callahan | 12 December 2010

Visit the project official blog @ http://pleasetouchgarden.tumblr.com/

Have you ever walked past that empty lot on Grove Street, right next to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and City Hall? This high-traffic space in midst of Civic Center Plaza has been overlooked, ignored and under-utilized for years.

For many seasons, debris and garbage were the only things growing here, but soon, all of this will change.

Local artist Gk Callahan in partnership with the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired received a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to do this large-scale community art project: the Please Touch Community Garden. This garden project will strengthen the role of art and nature in the lives of our community and neighborhood. What is unique and special is that the garden will be planted, maintained and enjoyed by the blind community, along with many others.

The SF Permaculture Guild alongside a team of dedicated permaculture designers will help to oversee the creation of this unique project. Tactile sculpture, living murals and an installation by students at California College of the Arts will be a few of the projects to be showcased in this public space.

 

Artwork by local blind and visually impaired artists will be exhibited on a regular basis.  We will need your support so please come and helpwith design and installation.  To learn more about the LightHouse for the Blind and their programs, visit their website: www.lighthouse-sf.org

Written by Rachel Buddeberg | 02 November 2010

Saturday was Soil Day in my permaculture design course. But if you really want to learn all about soil - from how to determine its texture to how to manage its structure and prevent toxicity leaching into what you grow on it - you have to sign up for a PDC or read the book. I will take you instead down a tangent of soil day that has more to do with regenerating ourselves and community than soil but it's based on the things that soil needs (and we need soil! It's the best CO2 store we have, so we better stop destroying it and start regenerating it!).

What does a person need to thrive?