Courses/WorkshopsGeoff Lawton

Greening the Desert Project Itinerary for 2019 and new website announcement!

First of all, I have the great pleasure to announce that we are launching the very first website for the Greening the Desert Project. It’s been a long time coming but now it’s finally here. Please have a look around and let us know what you think of it: greeningthedesertproject.org

 

VISIT THE NEW WEBSITE

 

 

Nadia and I have a full schedule of events lined up in Jordan. We will kick off this year’s activities with jumping straight into the 2019 Greening the Desert PDC:

The Permaculture Design Certificate Course

3rd – 14th November 2019
It’s going to be one to remember. As per usual I will be teaching the course together with my teaching assistants.

This year, Salah Hammad, our top permaculture consultant from our consultancy company, will be back in the classroom teaching with me. He will be sharing his latest experiences from the field of permaculture aid-work from around the world and enlighten us all with experiences form the front line of holistic sustainable development.

We are also delighted to have Istvan Markuly on board the teacher team. He is a charismatic and energetic permaculture teacher with a wealth of knowledge. He runs a permaculture demonstration site in Ireland and has been focusing on permaculture community development projects. He is the co-founder of the international Earth Environmental Education Project. He also has experience working with fellow permaculturists like Warren Brush, Paul Taylor. And myself off course :)

There has never been a better time to come and visit the project if you have ever wanted to see the potential of permaculture design in the desert with your own eyes now is the time. The food forest is reaching establishment, our small animal systems and “chicken tractor systems” are running like well-oiled compost producing machines and we have newly refurbished, comfortable, shared and private rooms our guest house.

By the way, If you are planning to come but haven’t booked yet we recommend to get in early so you can take advantage of the early bird discount. You can save $300 AUD if you book 21 days before the courses start. We still have some spaces left but they are getting booked up.

View the full Permaculture Design Certificate Course details

Fermentation Workshop

15th – 16th November 2019

As an extra addition to this year’s activities, we will be hosting a two-day workshop on fermentation. Our talented and knowledgable friend Gillian will be teaching the course that will l be held on the of November on the weekend between the PDC and internship.
View the workshop details here.

Four Weeks Permaculture Internship

17th of November to the 3rd of December 2019

This year we also have some very exciting projects to sink our teeth into during
The Four-Week Permaculture Internship. We will be building three different types of chicken tractors for different scales of applications. One is for a school permaculture garden, one for a small urban setting and one will be a full-scale version. So very exciting and plenty to learn!

We are also aiming to redo our kitchen shade house garden from sunken contour beds into an array of IBC wicking beds. We have found that the wicking bed systems far out-perform the standard sunken beds both in production but most importantly in water efficiency. We believe by implementing this system we will see a dramatic increase in production. On top of that, we will be installing two flow hives donated from our lovely sponsors and friends at flow hive.

 

Other permaculture internship activities include:

Construction of multiple wicking beds. Maintenance of existing food forests through chop’n’drop, pruning and mulching. Working closely with small animal systems as functional elements within the overarching design. Working with natural fertility systems with compost, compost tea, soil probiotics, natural fermentation and anaerobic natural fertiliser creations. Maintaining and working in desert vegetable gardens. Nursery and
shade-house work. Reed bed maintenance. Compost toilet maintenance. A field trip to observe established gabion water harvesting systems in the desert landscape.

View the full internship details

Oh and If our project budget allows we might also be working on the final stages of the rooftop garden, which will include an aesthetically  pleasing seating area where we will be able to relax at the end of the workdays and enjoy the views of the project’s food forests treetops, and the extent of our neighbors’ permaculture gardens spreading across the landscape.

hope to see you in Jordan. If you can’t make it to any of the courses or events you can still support the project by simply sharing our stories from Jordan on social media.  if you are in the region you are more then welcome to book in for a view few nights and stay in our eco-lodge, or visit our permaculture cafe and gardens, take a guided tour around the project site. We will aslo be taking on volunteers throughout the end of the year and in 2020

We are looking forward to this year’s activities and to reporting back on our progress when we get over to Jordan! 

Geoff Lawton

Geoff Lawton is a world renowned Permaculture consultant, designer and teacher. He first took his Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Course in 1983 with Bill Mollison the founder of Permaculture. Geoff has undertaken thousands of jobs teaching, consulting, designing, administering and implementing, in 6 continents and close to 50 countries around the world. Clients have included private individuals, groups, communities, governments, aid organizations, non-government organisations and multinational companies under the not-for-profit organisation. In 1996 Geoff was accredited with the Permaculture Community Services Award by the Permaculture movement for services in Australia and around the world. Geoff's official website is GeoffLawtonOnline.com. Geoff's Facebook profile can be found here.

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