Fresh cut willow is strong and flexible, and it’s an abundant resource that decomposes into the earth. Join Roxane Mitten as she demonstrates how to create a graceful natural trellis of willow, tied with twine. Use your creativity to envision the trellis of your dreams. One dreamer sent blooming runner beans up her trellis and found hummingbirds at the flowers! Fresh willow will be provided. If possible please bring a pair of hand pruners and a pocket knife or scissors.

More information: www.NewPi.coop

To help residents learn how to create healthy woodlands that benefit our environment, Backyard Abundance is hosting free yard tours from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at seven residences in the Shimek neighborhood in Iowa City. Tours begin at the corner of Bristol Drive and Quincent Court. Refreshments will be served.

Benefits of Woodlands
With the guidance of local woodland experts, a neighborhood is steadily working to restore the health and beauty of nearly ten acres of wooded land in northern Iowa City. “Many people are realizing that healthy urban woods sequester carbon, clean our water and air, support a desired wildlife population, and are very beautiful,” said James Fluck, a homeowner on the tour. “We enjoy doing our small part to benefit our community and our environment.”

Food Forest
Among these landscapes is an expansive garden of edible landscaping in its third year of growth. Visitors will see how apples, pears, plums, hazelnuts, blueberries, gooseberries and many other low-maintenance plants can emulate a woodland ecosystem and provide an abundance of food.

Popular
“Nearly one hundred people attended a tour of one of these landscapes in 2008,” said Fred Meyer, director of Backyard Abundance. “I expect attendance to be similar at this larger event.” 

Bring Questions
Local woodland and prairie restoration experts will be available to answer your questions:

• Mike Fallon, Native Landscaping
• Brad Freidhof, Johnson County Conservation Board
• Jake Hart, Johnson County Heritage Trust
• Connie Mutel, Author of The Emerald Horizon and A Watershed Year
• Wayne Petersen, Rainscaping Iowa
• Liz Mass, Transition Ecology

Map of the Tour (pdf)

View pictures of one of the landscapes on the tour

Thank you to the Johnson County Heritage Trust for their support.

“Where the root meets the soil, food starts here!” says New Pi Soilmates organic garden educator Scott Koepke. Bring the family to this worm-loving, dirt-digging session designed to help you connect with the source of all food: fertile, well-balanced, biologically active soil. As Scott always says, "The food needs to eat first before we can eat the food."

More information: www.NewPi.coop

Learn about the Take a Kid Outdoors program.

More information: http://www.takeakidoutdoors.org

Meet the helpful composting worms! Worms can eat your vegetable trimmings and make fertile castings for natural plant fertilizer. Learn how it is done, indoors and out. First 15 students get a free starter pack of worms!

More information: www.NewPi.coop

Turn pulled weeds, animal waste, and spent garden plants into fertile soil by making compost! Join Loren Leach and friends as they manage the ambitious compost program at Earth Source Gardens. Join the fun for a hands-on learning experience.

More information: www.NewPi.coop

It’s a bug-eat-bug world – if you manage things right! Create the appropriate conditions to reduce pests and disease. Learn about natural pest remedies, including the insect-eating insects, with Master Gardener Joanne Leach. We’ll also consider how to address concerns with rabbits, deer, raccoons, and crows.

More information: www.NewPi.coop

Sustainable living encompasses all aspects of our lives. “Children and adults who have a connection with the natural environment are more able to adjust to stress and are more likely to take care of the environment as a result,” says Kristi Cooper, Family Life Field Specialist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

Beginning Thursday, January 5, a virtual conference for families will be held once a month through June. The Eco Family Conference will help families make attitude and behavior changes that will ultimately improve the environment, human health and family finances.

The Keynote address will begin at 7 PM on Thursday, Jan. 5 and will feature Brenda Ranum, the Regional Director for ISU Extension and driving force behind the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Imitative. Once registered, participants will receive directions as to how to log into the virtual class room. Participants will need high speed internet, a headset with a microphone to participate or can use a chat box.

The first Thursday of each month, January through June, a 90 minutes program will feature a different speaker addressing a different topic.

• Jan. 5 Brenda Ranum
  Regional Extension Education Director and driving force behind the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative
• Feb. 2 Connection to Nature
  Kristi Cooper - ISU Extension Family Life Field Specialist
• March 1 Energy
  Pat Higby UNI Energy Educator
• April 5 Water, Our Precious Resource
  Pat Sauer, ISWEP, Rainscaping Iowa Amy Bouska, Urban Conservationist, Johnson County SWCD
• May 3 Permaculture and Edible Landscape Design
  Fred Meyer, Ecological designer, Founder and Executive Director of Backyard Abundance, will discuss how permaculture and top edible landscaping plants can improve the health of your landscape.
• June 7 Transforming Trash to Treasure Composting basics
  Master Gardener and Master Composter

Registration fee is $15. For registration information contact Kristi Cooper at 319-377-9839 (kcoop@iastate.edu) or Brenda Schmitt at 641-512-0650 (schmitt@iastate.edu)

View the Registration Form
 

Joyce Miller and Jason Grimm host a June tour of their neighboring landscapes. Both yards feature a dizzying variety vegetables arranged in formal and informal gardens.

Jason is the Food System Planner for the Iowa Valley RC&D. Get ideas for how to create tidy gardens that flow throughout a landscape. A rain garden and a hoophouse filled with greens and vegetables completes this beautiful yard. View images of Jason's Landscape.

Joyce is a permaculture designer who knows how to maximize growing space. Learn how to effectively use leaves and reuse materials to create fertile garden beds.

Snacks and fun conversations with fellow gardeners will be provided.

Cost: Free

Learn this sustainable building technique practiced around the world at this 6-day hands-on training by Cal-Earth founder Naker Khalili. June 26 - July 1.

Includes professional instruction in building, plastering, waterproofing, design and more. Learn to use local materials and tools to complete a project.

For more information, Contact Suzan Erem at 319-643-4055 or suzan@lastdraft.com.

Cost: $900

Culinary herbs make good food taste great! Learn which herbs grow best in Iowa: how, when, and where to plant, how to gather and dry, and get useful recipes for butters, pestos, and vinegars.

More information: www.NewPi.coop

Permaculture is founded on the idea that nature knows best. We look to existing plant relationships for inspiration in creating mutually beneficial communities called “guilds.” Backyard Abundance created the design for Sweet Gift Orchard, embedded in Earth Source Gardens. Join Mary Crooks and Roxane Mitten as they discuss the ‘food forest,’ and demonstrate how garden design, planting of mutually beneficial plants, and other aspects of ecological design can enhance orchard production.

More information: www.NewPi.coop

Turn pulled weeds, animal waste, and spent garden plants into fertile soil by making compost! Join Loren Leach and friends as they manage the ambitious compost program at Earth Source Gardens. Join the fun for a hands-on learning experience.

More information: www.NewPi.coop

It’s a bug-eat-bug world – if you manage things right! Create the appropriate conditions to reduce pests and disease. Learn about natural pest remedies, including the insect-eating insects, with Master Gardener Joanne Leach. We’ll also consider how to address concerns with rabbits, deer, raccoons, and crows.

More information: www.NewPi.coop

Join Cindy Reed and Steve Lamer as they give a tour of their evolving food forest.

Backyard Abundance helped Cindy and Steve design their two-acre landscape so that it would produce an abundance of food, provide habitat for wildlife, and improve water quality.

View the landscape design

View implementation pictures

Read more about their landscape

Learn about the time honored tradition of saving seeds from year to year. It is an opportunity to preserve rare, favored strains, and be more secure in your seed sourcing. Roxane will lead a general discussion of seed saving, and then move to identifying plant parts, how pollination occurs, and how to keep the strains pure. In the “hands-on” part of the class we will examine and work with available plant material.

More information: www.NewPi.coop

Learn about the time honored tradition of saving seeds from year to year. It is an opportunity to preserve rare, favored strains, and be more secure in your seed sourcing. Roxane will lead a general discussion of seed saving, and then move to identifying plant parts, how pollination occurs, and how to keep the strains pure. In the “hands-on” part of the class we will examine and work with available plant material.

More information: www.NewPi.coop