Valley Natural Foods kicked off its January-March 2011 Gardening series with an Intro to Permaculture class taught by Dan Halsey last night, January 25th. The class was a success , provoking people to think about how they live their life in regards to preparing for future generations.

The fundamentals of permaculture go beyond the concept of sustainability. Permaculture is a holistic approach to sustainabile living, based upon ethics and the idea that we need to create more natural wealth and less waste than what we consume.  In relation to gardening, Permaculture design follows nature’s natural patterns and involves  capturing and storing energy and resources for future use.  If you missed this week’s class, Dan will be back on March 1st from 6pm-9pm to teach another Intro to Permaculture Workshop. Sign up at customer service or call 952-891-1212.

If you are interested in learning more in-depth knowledge about local food production models that following Permaculture design techniques, we have a great new February organic gardening class series for you! Wednesdays in February will explore several different organic growing practices and how they can fit into your backyard garden. Discover how to  design your garden and what crops fit best. Become familiar with basic business strategies and skills that will bring your crops successfully to the market. Courtney Tchida, the Student Program Coordinator for the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, is the instructor.

View complete descriptions of the classes by downloading our entire January-March 2011 class booklet here. All organic growing classes listed below are $15 for members and $20 for non-members. Sign up at customer service or call 952-891-1212.

Principles & Practices of Organic Growing:

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Biointensive Growing:

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

 SPIN Farming:

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011, 6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m.

Field Layout & Design for Production:

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011, 6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m.

Feeding Your Community One Tomato at a Time: Marketing Strategies & Options:

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Tags: classes, Education, gardening, Organic Gardening

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 at 10:22 am and is filed under Co-op Community Gardens, Education, Healthy Updates Newsletter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.