FOREST GARDEN DESIGN, Parts 1 & 2

with JUDY KEATS

**NEW DATES**

> Part 1 - UNDERSTANDING FOOD FORESTS

Sunday 10 September - 9:30am to 1:00pm (3.5 hours)

> Part 2 - YOUR CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

Sunday 17 September - 9:30am to 1:00pm (3.5 hours)

Are you curious about how to take your garden to the next level? Want to get more from your fruit trees and from your garden overall? Join us at Kelmarna Gardens where we've got working examples of the essential systems you can develop at home, including an established food forest, deciduous to subtropical tree species, animals, and more. Whether you're working with a suburban yard or a spacious lifestyle block, this course will bring you closer to understanding and achieving a path to transform your space into a thriving food forest environment!

What to expect:

This two-part food forest design workshop is arranged to help you reimagine your space, examine your project from a whole-systems perspective, and come away with the knowledge to make your vision a reality. Join you tutor Judy Keats, master gardener and tree cropper, at Kelmarna Gardens to learn the fundamentals of food forests and how to devise your own smart design that works with the natural environment to achieve the results you're after.

Judy will walk you through the basic design principles of food forest, to provide a fresh lens and essential checklist to approach your project space. Then you'll work to get to know your site more in-depth, apply learnings in each of the focus topics, address challenges, and find solutions to accomplish a strategy unique to your space.

This is an information-dense course, with the benefit of on-site immersion in Kelmarna's established and productive food forest, to help you come away with the skills and strategies you need to do to make things happen, keep things going, and get results! There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions as you work through the programme, and light refreshments will be offered in both segments.

Topics covered:

· Food forest fundamentals - what a food forest is, how it differs to an orchard, the benefits of growing in this style, integrated systems that go beyond aesthetic design, and why this works

· Microclimates - using the site at Kelmarna to demonstrate, examining pockets of site to practise reading the landscape, through multiple lenses

· Landscape characteristics & resources - identifying conditions, available resources, and methods of processing; such as water, terrain, wind, sun, and more

· Water management - including flow, catchment strategy, the use of swale, irrigation, and more

· Shelterbelts - including location, density, height, and understanding role in the design process

· Pathways and access routes - understanding your needs, identifying contours, relation to structures, resources, crops, and more

· Integrating animals - understanding types, timing, identifying food provisions from sustainable sources within the system, and more

· Trees & crops - understanding perennial species, deciduous and subtropical specie habits, fruit trees, medicinal herbs, care & seasonal maintenance

· Guilds and beneficial species - companion plants for fruit trees, nitrogen fixing support from ground cover to canopy, and more

· Pests and beneficial organisms - strategies for prevention, benefits of integrated systems, and more

· Conceptual design basics - using data to refine your vision, map out your spatial design, overlay on a base map, and share learnings with the group

--

Part 1 - UNDERSTANDING FOOD FORESTS

The first part is a crash course on principles of food forest design, aimed at familiarising you with the integrated systems that go beyond aesthetic design in the more wild, untidy growing style that differs to orchards. Judy will guide you through each essential topic, to help you approach your space with a fresh perspective and create an effective landscape design uniquely suited to the conditions at your site.

By the end of Part 1, you will have a new understanding of how to evaluate your site, a list of data points to gather, and key questions to consider about your design. It will be your job to go home and practise applying the concepts covered in this session to engage with your project site and return for Part 2 with the information you need to move forward with your concept.

--

Part 2 - YOUR CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

The second part is focused on creating a conceptual design for your site using a systems-based process that follows the principles you've learned, the information about your site, and a refined vision of what you want to achieve. Please come prepared with an aerial photo and/or drawn map of your site, with North clearly marked, to form the basis of your conceptual design.

You will work together with Judy to find natural links between key components and choose plant species that are suited your project. Judy will help you understand how different species behave and interact to put together a list of what plants might work best and a layout of where they could go. By the end of Part 2, you will come away with a draft conceptual design to help you move forward with transforming your site into the inspiring, regenerative, and edible space of your dreams!

--

Tickets include: admission to both sessions of the course (Parts 1 & 2), guided instruction, and design support

What to bring:

Essential:

a refillable water bottle (to stay hydrated)
weather appropriate gear (to keep comfortable)
for Part 1:
- a notebook and pen (to take notes)
- a project site in mind (to focus your vision)
for Part 2:
- a notebook and pen (to take notes)
- an aerial photo/map/drawing of your project site, labelled (to form your design)
- data points relevant to your site (from Part 1; to help guide your design)

Recommended:

a straightedge/ruler or other drafting tools (for marking your design)
information and questions regarding your site and vision (to guide your planning)
a face covering or mask (for indoors or close quarters)

--

Judy Keats is a permaculturist, organic systems educator, and community garden mentor and advisor, with more than 8 years experience establishing, coordinating, and teaching in community gardens across Auckland.

Judy is passionate about well-being for people and caring for the environment in which we dwell. She believes that by observing our plants and our changing climate, we can gain insight and a closer connection to the health of our gardens, which is key to the success and optimal yields of a sustainable food system. She is committed to working with communities to foster knowledge and experience towards mastering resilience.

--

At Kelmarna, we strive to make education accessible for everyone. So, where possible, we offer a 35% discount on our workshops to valid Community Services Card holders. If you book one of these tickets, please email us a copy of your valid Community Services Card, and remember to bring it along to the workshop. Please note that this option does NOT include Super Gold Card holders. Ngā mihi.

Kelmarna Gardens Workshop Program