Category Archives: News

THIS WEEK in the Fall Garden Farming Series:

Sept. 20 (Thursday) 6-7:30 pm – Soil Development: Part 1, True Yield,
Cycles of Growth, and Compost n’ Mulch Meet @ Hardy Har-Har Sunshine
garden, 1116 Front St., Traverse City, MI 49684 Contact: Penny 231-922-2014

The focus for our fall series is FERTILITY as in making the
environment more fertile….we invite you will devote a bit of your
time, this glorious fall season to becoming a well informed garden
farmer and fertility specialist!

“It is just as much an objective for this year’s crops to improve the
fertility of the soil as it is for them to give us this year’s
food….. Permaculture is based on the understanding that we can meet
our needs and still make the environment more fertile. The most
important increase we can make is to our biological resources.” (Graham Bell)

3 MONTHS of permaculture workshops and work parties begins NOW, ending
with a Dia de Los Muertos celebration on November 2nd!

The Fall Garden-Farming Series, is both an information sharing AND
hands-on learning experience, contributing to the community wide
efforts of an Urban Farming Collective in Traverse City, Michigan. We
are a group or “guild” of learners and growers and invite folks to
consider joining us, or to add on and begin their own guild of
growers.

Join in on workshop and work parties, at garden-farms in Traverse
City, in the Central, Bohemia and Slabtown neighborhoods, AND, as we
begin an exciting, new permaculture homestead–the REALeyes site
project near Cedar Lake.

In this 3 month series, you will learn permaculture skills and
techniques through short lectures and info-sharing, presentations, as
well as, hands-on opportunities focused on feeding our soil and the
processes of building fertility. Through practical steps you can
participate alongside of a dynamic group of folks learning the ways
of:

~Setting up urban/suburban composting systems, both outdoors and
indoors
~Identifying on-site resources in your backyard, nearby woodlot, urban
neighborhoods or along alleyways;
~How-to become a worm-farmer and contribute to the underground
economy;
~What “NO-WASTE” really means;
~Basic permaculture design principles and skills as applied to
creating perennial and annual food producing forest gardens
~and, How-to more deeply understand the cycles of growth from two
levels of observation—both with the aid of science and technical
know-how, and also from your basic human senses and practical
experience.

The Fall Garden Farming workshops are FREE! with a suggested donation
of $10 to cover costs of workshop handouts, announcements and minimal
organizational fees. THANK YOU, for helping to keep permaculture
educational events happening in the Traverse City area.

Additional Fall Garden Farming Series Schedule:

Sept. 20 (Thursday) 6-7:30 pm – Soil Development: Part 1, True Yield,
Cycles of Growth, and Compost n’ Mulch Meet @ Hardy Har-Har Sunshine
garden, 1116 Front St., Traverse City, MI 49684 Contact: Penny 231-922-2014

Sept. 27th, (Thursday) 6-7:30 pm Soil Development, part Two, Household
Compost Strategies, Minerals and Mulch More Meet @ Hardy HH Sunshine
garden,1116 Front St., Traverse City, MI 49684 Contact: Penny
231-922-2014

Sept. 29th (Saturday) 2 pm – Building Swales with Woodchips for Food
Forest and Garden – Work Party @ REALeyes project site : 9775 E.
Cherry Bend Rd. Traverse City, MI 49684 Contact: Levi @ 231-499-2658

October 11th, (Thursday) 6-7:30 pm – “Worm Culture, Manure and
Compost”, meet at DIGs Garden, 510 Second St., Traverse City, MI 49684
Contact: Penny 231-922-2014

October 18th, (Thursday) 6-7:30 pm – “Edible Forest Garden Design
Presentation”, Edible forest gardening is the art and science of
putting plants together in woodland-like patterns that forge mutually
beneficial relationships, creating a garden ecosystem that is more
than the sum of its parts. This presentation will highlight edible
forest garden project designs that have been on the drawing board, and
now in the beginning stages of implementation in Traverse City. At O’k
Studio, 514 Second St. in the Alley, Traverse City, MI 49684 Contact:
Penny 231-922-2014

November 1, (Thursday), 6-7:30 pm – Biking for Garlic “Fall Plantings:
Garlic and other Perennials”, Meet @ the Peace Patch garden, corner of
7th and Oak Streets, Traverse City 30 minute introduction/demo
prepping soil/beds for garlic. We’ll then bike to the Hardy HH
Sunshine Garden, to do a BIG garlic planting. Contact: Penny
231-922-2014

November 2, (Friday), 7 pm – “Dia de los Muertos Celebration”, Please
mark your calendars for this community event! More details coming, so
stay tuned!

The Fall Garden Farming workshops are FREE! with a suggested donation
of $10 to cover costs of workshop handouts, announcements and minimal
organizational fees.

THANK YOU, for helping to keep permaculture educational events
happening in the Traverse City area.

Photo of two fat worms from the DIGs garden on Second St.

CONTACT INFO:
penny.ok.art@gmail.com
231-922-2014

www.littleartshram.org

Little Artshram and O’k CSA looks forward to sharing a weekend of permaculture with folks in Northern Michigan….join us if you can…..

This summer in Traverse City, O’k CSA, offered a series of weekend intensive trainings, focusing on Urban Permaculture Design, and designed a multi-functioning, urban CSA and Market Garden in Traverse City’s Central Grade, Bohemia and Kids Creek neighborhoods.

Permaculture is a practical way to apply ecological design principles to food, housing, and energy systems; making growing fruits, vegetables and livestock easier and more sustainable.

Peter Banes’ book from New Society Publishers: The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country has been a helpful and informational part of both the urban, food growing sites that are producing food for 15 families, and the Urban Permaculture Design intensive over the past three months in Traverse City.

Friday, August 24th, 6 pm-8 pm, @ the Peace Patch Garden site, 7th and Oak St, “A Garden Party” with Peter Bane and Keith D. Johnson, good food/potluck and special music, provided by Zach Power and friends.  This is a Welcome to TC Fundraiser to support Peter and Keith’s visit, please help us spread the word…..Suggested donation, $20 per person

Saturday, Aug. 25th and Sunday Aug 26th, 9 am-4 pm, O’k CSA Studio, 514 Second St. In the Alley, and our garden-farm sites, 2-day Urban Permaculture Design Intensive: Our Needs: Local & Global Resources, Useful plants for garden-farms, and a vision of Renaissance Farm (Saturday focus); AND Homesteading skills and off-grid technologies in Urban Garden Farms, with Peter Bane and Keith D. Johnson, Pre-Register in advance by contacting: penny.ok.art@gmail.com 2-day fee: sliding scale $75-$150 per day (Some work exchange available)

Monday, August 27th, 6 pm. Book signing @ Horizon Bookstore, author Peter Bane, “The Permaculture Handbook, Garden Farming for Town and Country”

Many thanks to our current sponsors: Continual University, Kima Kramer Rolfing Structural Integration, Horizon Books, Oryana Natural Food Co-op and Higher Grounds Trading Company, along with many supportive community members for also contributing to our efforts to keep a steady stream of permaculture educational opportunities happening!  THANK YOU!

REGISTER:  231-922-2014
CONTACT: penny.ok.art@gmail.com

This summer in Traverse City, O’k CSA, offered a series of weekend intensive trainings, focusing on Urban Permaculture Design, and designed a multi-functioning, urban CSA and Market Garden in Traverse City’s Central Grade, Bohemia and Kids Creek neighborhoods.

Permaculture is a practical way to apply ecological design principles to food, housing, and energy systems; making growing fruits, vegetables and livestock easier and more sustainable.

Peter Banes’ book from New Society Publishers: The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country has been a helpful and informational part of both the urban, food growing sites that are producing food for 15 families, and the Urban Permaculture Design intensive over the past three months in Traverse City.

Friday, August 24th, 6 pm-8 pm, @ the Peace Patch Garden site, 7th and Oak St, “A Garden Party” with Peter Bane and Keith D. Johnson, good food/potluck and special music. This is a Welcome to TC Fundraiser to support Peter and Keith’s visit, please help us spread the word…..Suggested donation, $20 per person

Saturday, Aug. 25th and Sunday Aug 26th, 9 am-4 pm, O’k CSA Studio, 514 Second St. In the Alley, and our garden-farm sites, 2-day Urban Permaculture Design Intensive: Our Needs: Local & Global Resources, Useful plants for garden-farms, and a vision of Renaissance Farm (Saturday focus); AND Homesteading skills and off-grid technologies in Urban Garden Farms, with Peter Bane and Keith D. Johnson, Pre-Register in advance by contacting: penny.ok.art@gmail.com 2-day fee: sliding scale $75-$150 per day (Some work exchange available)

Monday, August 27th, 6 pm. Book signing @ Horizon Bookstore, author Peter Bane, “The Permaculture Handbook, Garden Farming for Town and Country”

Many thanks to our current sponsors: Continual University, Kima Kramer Rolfing Structural Integration, Horizon Books, Oryana Natural Food Co-op and Higher Grounds Trading Company, along with many supportive community members for also contributing to our efforts to keep a steady stream of permaculture educational opportunities happening!  THANK YOU!

REGISTER:  231-922-2014
CONTACT: penny.ok.art@gmail.com

www.littleartshram.org

New moon blooms of Scarlett Runner Beans and Sunlowers along a pea fence.

Greetings Friends……Little Artshram is at an exciting and re-energizing place of new beginnings as a non-profit organization.  The way we look at the end of summer and moving into the beginning of fall, is a time of readying for a new year.

Once we begin the harvesting process in our community (in our gardens, after a busy summer of programs and projects), we bring ourselves together around a table and complete our eco-design process of design or embodying this natural method of organization.  This not only means celebrating the harvest, but also composting that which needs to be, AND, tweaking with a feedback and evaluation process our next round of the cycle.

Our New Year begins in November, rather than January, and this year we are tweaking and seeking to expand and strengthen those who care to sit around the harvest table and join in with their voice and heart as a part of our organization.  Little Artshram calls this a circle of leaders, in legal terms it is called a board of directors and directress.

Currently Little Artshram has four devoted and hard-working, open-hearted official leaders and/or board members who have been tending to the month-to- month and organizational tasks: Rokko Jans, Flint Horton, and Lindy Barnes represent the board of directors/501.c3 needs being met.

Penny Krebiehl, the founder of Little Artshram, is the Directress, charged with the on-going task of developing and implementing art and permaculture programs and projects, including an Urban Farm Project and the annual Grand Traverse Earth Day Parade celebration.

Flint Horton has taken on this year’s position at the Historic Barns Park community garden as the coordinator, and continuing to set into motion the necessary community building operations of tending a garden site in a public owned park.

It’s time once again, for us to put the offer out into our Traverse City community to invite folks who have an interest in seeing our wonderful, little Little Artshram organization strengthened with your shared passion and interest in art, community gardening, and environmental education through the teachings and tools of Permaculture.

We are looking for people who are interested in setting down at our table, learning about our design process and system, and offering guidance and improvement.  In other words tweaking, and working with what we have, not re-inventing the wheel, so to speak.  Little Artshram has a 19 + year history of creatively responding to change and has been comprised of dozens of thoughtful, sensitive, hard-working, devoted, passionate individuals over the years.

In the past five years, our leaders and board members  have embraced Permaculture as a method by which we operate.  All of the board members and teachers at Little Artshram, once they accepted the position or shortly afterwards have either attended a permaculture design course, workshop or come to our table with a deep awareness and understanding.

We are knuckling-down, buckling down and searching for additional leaders, partners and board members who can contribute to regaining the foot-hand-heart hold of serving our Traverse City community with our wonderful, Little Artshram experiences, and not afraid to BLAST people with permaculture even in this instance!

Here’s a great natural system mimic as in a forest from one of our Edible Forest Garden teachers, Davejacke, where we are creating a pattern to give structure and organization to our Little Arthram system:

(excerpts and bits from EFG Volume 2)….”Dynamic Patches–in terms of disturbance, regeneration and maintenance regimes…..Patch-system theorists base their research on the observation that the fundamental organizational units of any ecosystem, at many different scales, are patches.  Patches derive from many environmental factors….also from the random or non-random influences of disturbances and the subsequent successional processes… Awareness is gained through observing/reading the factors contributing to different influences….which when read, we can design in concert with those with which we must and we can influence the rest effectively….”Structure and manage the garden as a set of overlapping, interconnected, and dynamic patches, each with its’ own influences, conditions, disturbance regime, and successional process. These patches, taken together, create the habitat for the garden.’

If you are interested in finding out more about joining Little Artshram, please contact any of the folks listed above for a personal conversation.

You may also directly email us at: info@littleartshram.org

Better yet, stop by a “Garden Party” fundraiser welcoming author and permaculture teachers Peter Bane and Keith D. Johnson on Friday, August 24th @ 6:00 pm, at the Peace Patch urban garden-farm site, corner of 7th and Oak St., in TC and speak to Little Artshram folk in person!

More information:

info@littleartshram.org

231-510-3491

A couple of spaces still in our last camp of the summer….

We are looking forward to our final week of Summer Camp which begins tomorrow!

You are registered this week:  August 13th-17th and our theme this week is “What’s Happening in the Woods?” where we will be exploring ecosystem insights and permaculture design through activities, games, songs, and stories.  Permaculture provides people with and creates restoration of relationship with the natural world.
One basis of relationship is ECOLOGY–informed observation of the living world; and the other is DESIGN—a positive, creative response to our own needs, and the logic of natural systems.  Through our exploration of ‘what’s happening in the woods’, we’ll take time to consider how the forest provides for food, water, shelter and community.
AND, among other things, we’ll be climbing trees, jumping across creeks and spending the WHOLE day outdoors!

We meet each day from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, at our meeting place just across from Higher Grounds Trading and Coffee Shop @ the Village of Grand Traverse Commons.

This is our fourth year of a ZERO-Trash program at our Little Artshram workshop and camps, and each week we will explore the possibilities with our campers about reducing the use of package lunch waste…ZERO-Trash means:  we will have no trash-can on-site.  As in all things sustainable “zero-waste and zero-trash” is a process, not a destination. The goal is for all the waste we humans generate to be either reusable, recyclable or compostable. We are excited about the continued “experiment” of ZERO-Trash, as it is part of our Permaculture curriculum!

Please plan to arrive at our Little Arthshram Camp-site, near Higher Grounds, with the following:

Appropriate, mess–making, hot-weather  or cool-weather clothing (It depends….)
Sun-screen and plenty of fresh-drinking water in re-used bottles or containers (ZERO-Trash means using your own bottled water, not store-bought)
Shoes or sandals that are comfortable to protect your feet while hiking on the Munson Trails.
A good sack lunch and an afternoon snack…..

Here’s the daily-do:

The daily schedule, Monday through Thursday, with a few variables:
8:45-9:00 Campers arrive, sign in, play a big game
9:25-9:55 Gather as a group, meet/greet, story at the Village/HG green space or woods classroom (behind HG)

Tree climbing adventures in the Cedar Cathedral...