Seeds of Sustainability is a series of community events offered by Backyard Abundance and partners. It culminates with a March 12-14 presentation and workshop led by Dave Jacke, author of the award-winning two-volume book entitled Edible Forest Gardens.
Read more about Dave Jacke and other teachers.
This event also signifies the launch of an ongoing series of environmental education classes entitled, Create Abundant Landscapes.
Read more about Create Abundant Landscapes.
Printed materials (PDF): Poster and Brochure
More information: 319-325-6810
Prairie Preview XXVII
Tuesday, March 9
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Parkview Evangelical Church, 15 Foster Road, Iowa City
Free
Prepare to be enchanted at the Johnson County Heritage Trust’s 27th annual Prairie Preview. Writer and photographer Bill Witt will present Enchantment by Prairie, weaving together visions of our natural prairies, both past and present, through his beautiful photographs and thoughtful prose.
The Prairie Preview also includes information and displays from local environmental organizations and agencies. Doors open to the public at 6:30 p.m. for registration and to view the exhibits, with Witt’s presentation at 7:30. Refreshments will be provided following his presentation. Contact Tammy Richardson (319) 338-7030 or visit www.jcht.org for additional information.
The Prairie Preview is sponsored by the Johnson County Heritage Trust, Friends of Hickory Hill Park, Project GREEN, Four Seasons Garden Club, Environmental Advocates, Johnson County Songbird Project, Johnson County Conservation Board and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Start Growing Fruits
Friday, March 12
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
University of Iowa Student Garden
Cost: Free
Would you like to add a few pears, apples, currants or blueberries to your landscape, but are unsure of how to begin? Join Chris Jackson as he tours the University of Iowa Student Garden and provides ideas and advice for how to place and manage fruits in a low-maintenance landscape. Food grown in the student garden is sold to the university.
Mr. Jackson is an ecological designer specializing in edible landscaping and orchard restoration in Vermont. He is the coordinator of a food coop and works at an agro-education farm that provides food to a local school.
In case of rain, we will meet in room 51 in Schaeffer Hall on the Pentacrest (directions).
Master Gardener Q&A
Friday, March 12
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
University of Iowa Pomerantz Center, 21 E. Market Street, Iowa City
Cost: Free
Get answers to your spring gardening questions. The Johnson County Master Gardeners will be available in the foyer of the Pomerantz Center before the evening presentation.
Friday, March 12
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm (registration at 5:30 pm)
University of Iowa Pomerantz Center, 21 E. Market Street, Iowa City (directions)
$10 per person. Free to University of Iowa Students (show your student ID at the door)
Pay at the door or pre-register online.
The keynote presentation will be given by Dave Jacke, award winning author of Edible Forest Gardens.
How can we regenerate healthy human communities and natural ecosystems while meeting our own needs? What is the future of food in an era of economic disruption, peak oil, and climate chaos? Healthy forests maintain, fertilize, and renew themselves naturally, while creating habitats of high productivity and deep beauty. These ecosystems can serve as models for garden and culture design and offer the same benefits. Edible forest gardens mimic the structure and function of natural forests and grow food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and fun!
This presentation introduces the forest gardening vision and presents living examples of gardens as well as a sampling of perennial edibles you can grow. It shows how the underlying ecology of forest ecosystems can teach us ways to organize our own communities and cities to meet the challenges of the future right here, right now. We will also ask what role our species can and should assume in our local and global ecosystems and how that translates to concrete action where we live.
The evening will end with a panel discussion about bringing sustainability to our community. Panelists include:
- Liz Christiansen, University of Iowa Sustainability Coordinator
- Jason Grimm, Iowa Valley RC&D Food Systems Planner
- Dave Jacke, author and ecological designer
- Brenda Nations, Iowa City Environmental Coordinator
Workshop: Principles and Practices of Regenerative Design
Saturday-Sunday, March 13-14
9:00 am – 5:00 pm (doors open for check-in at 8:00 am)
University of Iowa Pomerantz Center, 21 E. Market Street, Iowa City (directions)
$125 per person. $110 for students.
Includes lunch and snacks.
Pre-registration required: register online or send payment to 637 Scott Park Drive, Iowa City, IA 52245
This weekend workshop will be led by Dave Jacke, award winning author of Edible Forest Gardens, Chris Jackson, ecological landscape designer and educator.
Evidence of planet-wide damage caused by humans abounds: polluted rivers and waterways, toxins in our soil and food, climate change, loss of biodiversity, peak oil and more. We stand on the verge of threatening our own survival, as well as that of other species. We cannot maintain our economy if we deplete the natural resources that support our jobs and businesses. People are asking, “What kind of future are we creating for our children and grandchildren?”
What can we do? As caring residents, now is the time to learn new ways to positively contribute to improving our community’s environmental and social health. We must heed the words of Einstein: “We cannot solve the significant problems we face at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” We need to ask, “What new ways of thinking will get us out of this mess and help us restore our world to health?”
We can look to nature for answers. Healthy ecosystems are based on interdependence and mutually beneficial connections. With nature’s help, we can heal landscapes, our community, our planet, and ourselves.
This workshop will give you the solid base of a holistic, ecological worldview, while simultaneously offering practical solutions that demonstrate how we can create a sustainable, abundant community. Ecological principles form the foundation of this way of seeing, and offer concrete directions for finding solutions to multiple problems with maximum effect for least effort. These principles apply at all scales, from your garden bed, to your neighborhood, to cities, to whole regions, and in every realm of human endeavor. We invite you to experience a new way of looking at our world, and through that lens, you will find empowerment and skills you never knew existed.
This class provides a foundation of knowledge that can be built upon in the Create Abundant Landscapes class series.
Taproot Childcare
Taproot Nature Experience will engage your child in nature while you attend the weekend workshop. A sack lunch must be provided for the child.
Discounted cost: $95 per child for both days
Learn more about Taproot: www.TaprootNatureExperience.org
Book Reading: Edible Forest Gardens
Saturday, March 13
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Prairie Lights Bookstore, 15 South Dubuque Street, Iowa City
Free
Join Dave Jacke as he reads from his award-winning book, Edible Forest Gardens.
Dave Jacke has studied ecology and design since the 1970s, and has run his own design firm—Dynamics Ecological Design—since 1984. Dave is an engaging and passionate teacher of ecological design and permaculture. He has designed, built, and planted landscapes, homes, farms, and communities in many parts of the United States and overseas. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Simon's Rock College and a M.A. in Landscape Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design.
Edible Forest Gardens is a groundbreaking two-volume work that spells out and explores the key concepts of forest ecology and applies them to the needs of natural gardeners in temperate climates. Volume I lays out the vision of the forest garden and explains the basic ecological principles that make it work. In Volume II, Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier move on to practical considerations: concrete ways to design, establish, and maintain your own forest garden. Along the way they present case studies and examples, as well as tables, illustrations, and a uniquely valuable "plant matrix" that lists hundreds of the best edible and useful species.
Taken together, the two volumes of Edible Forest Gardens offer an advanced course in ecological gardening-one that will forever change the way you look at plants and your environment.