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This course introduces the ecological design approach known
as permaculture and shows how it can be used to create water-wise
landscapes in dry climates.
Permaculture combines concepts and principles derived from nature
with research from ecology and sustainability fields to help design
healthy landscapes, homes, and communities that reduce resource use, are
low-maintenance, and are self-renewing. You will learn about specific
techniques that work in a dry climate, and gain a general understanding
of permaculture design and application.
Toby is well-known for his skill at taking technical, scientific
information and making it readily available to everyone, regardless of
science background. In this course, Toby offers 8, very clear
strategies for achieving a water-wise garden. He covers a variety of
techniques to help you carry-out each strategy. In addition, he
introduces the many benefits, besides water conservation, that come with
implementing each water-wise strategy.
By the end of the course, you will have the knowledge necessary to
begin implementing water conservation techniques in your garden. Water
is a precious resource. Toby gives you no excuse not to embrace
water-wise gardening. So dig in and enjoy!
This course was created from Toby’s keynote address at
Rethinking Idaho Landscapes,
a forum presented by the Idaho Botanical Garden and the University of Idaho on February 22, 2014 in Boise, Idaho.
About Toby Hemenway
Toby Hemenway is the author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale
Permaculture, which was awarded the Nautilus Gold Medal in 2011, was
named by the Washington Post as one of the ten best gardening books of
2010, and for the last eight years has been the best-selling
permaculture book in the world. Toby has been an adjunct professor at
Portland State University, Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University,
and has taught over sixty 72-hour permaculture design courses. He has
presented lectures and workshops at major sustainability conferences
such as Bioneers, SolFest, and EcoFarm, and at Duke University, Tufts
University, University of Minnesota, University of Delaware and many
other educational venues. His writing has appeared in magazines such as
Natural Home, Whole Earth Review, and American Gardener. He has
contributed book chapters for WorldWatch Institute and to several
publications on ecological design.
After obtaining a degree in biology from Tufts University, Toby
worked for many years as a researcher in genetics and immunology, first
in academic laboratories including Harvard and the University of
Washington in Seattle, and then at Immunex, a major medical biotech
company. At about the time he was growing dissatisfied with the
direction biotechnology was taking, he discovered permaculture, a design
approach based on ecological principles that creates sustainable
landscapes, homes, and workplaces. A career change followed, and Toby
and his wife, Kiel, spent ten years creating a rural permaculture site
in southern Oregon. He was the editor of Permaculture Activist, a
journal of ecological design and sustainable culture, from 1999 to 2004.
He moved to Portland, Oregon in 2004, and spent six years developing
urban sustainability resources there. Toby and his wife now live in
Sebastopol, California.