Rich Dana

For folks in the midwest-

https://www.facebook.com/events/439702179398535/

Keyline Techniques for Drought-Proofing Your Farm
Featuring Australian Expert, Darren Doherty
Nov. 30 – Dec 2

The Department of Sustainable Living at Maharishi University of Management is pleased to host Darren Doherty for this timely workshop on Drought-Proofing Your Farm Utilizing Keyline Design. Keyline Design is a technique for maximizing beneficial use of water resources of a piece of land. Keyline Farming is an integrated approach to broadscale landscape design and a practice that emphasizes soil bu
ilding and innovative water harvesting, with the resultant soils becoming the largest reservoir of water in a landscape. The workshop will also cover survey and layout methods including GPS (Global Positioning Systems).

Due to drought conditions Iowa has experienced for several growing seasons and the prediction that those conditions may well continue, it is imperative for growers to explore new techniques for maximizing efficient water use. Darren Doherty, expert from Australia, has had extensive experience across the planet in project design, development & management, with a focus on retrofitting broad-acre agricultural systems, and has been acclaimed as a pioneer in this important & often overlooked field. With an alumni of over 5000 people, Darren has conducted trainings across more than 40 countries and originated the Keyline Farming Course, Carbon Farming Course, Carbon Economy Course, RegenAG, and TransitionAG. He is a qualified Whole Farm Planner, Approved Keyline Designer, & Accredited Permaculture Training (APT) Trainer, and is based at 'Dehesa Felix', Eppalock, central Victoria, south eastern Australia.

The workshop is an intensive blend of technical & practical sessions targeted at farmers, professional land managers, consultants, designers, earth movers and anyone with a strong interest in sustainable land management and soil creation. More details to come.

Other event sponsors at this time:

Practical Farmers of Iowa, Leopold Center

Weekend workshop fee: $100, MUM Students free

Location: Friday eve lecture- Argiro Center, Weekend-New Sustainable Living Building, MUM Campus

Thanks for the thoughts!
Julie- we grow for ourselves, but also we grow for market and online sales of heirloom seeds and dried herbs. The hay goes to a neighbor with a cow/calf operation. ERic- I love the idea of working food trees into the hay field. I have been talking to a friend with some PC design training about a keyline design for the field. I want to work a couple of ponds in and slowly start shrinking the hay and maybe transitioning to pasture and food forests. I'll attach some interesting aerials I came across from the 30's 50's 70's and now from the geologcal sevice. It's interesting to see that there were a lot more trees in the old days (it also shows a pond in the 70s- gone now). As you can see, we have brought back a lot of trees- primarily a native heirloom peach that my wife has made her "legacy project". It grows true from seed and produces fruit in 3 years. They definitely like to go in the ground in the fall- in fact, the groundfall often provide great young seedlings in the spring that are easy to dig up and transplant. We have over 50 bearing trees now, all descended from the same basket of peaches that an old farmer neighbor gave us about 12 years ago.

Anyway- I do want to expand into some other fruit and nut trees, and expand my medicinal herbs. Lots to do before the snow flies!

Julie- I'm in zone 5.

We always sow winter rye, vetch etc as cover crop and usually get kale etc well into the winter. This year I have some woodlands stuff like bloodroot and goldenseal that I'm going to split up and replant. I started building some hugelkultur style beds, and I'm wondering what are good things to start in them this fall.... are their edible perenials that are well suited to fall planting in zone 5? Any thoughts are appreciated!

I'm super excited to read this thread! We have 15 acres, mostly hay and annual vegetables, but we are slowly trying to transition to a more permie-style model. I'm looking for ideas for fall plantings- what I should be doing in the fall to pre for next season, and perennials that can go in before the snow flies...

Greetings- vermicomposting (and Permies) newbie here-

I've had a multi-level vermocomposter going for a few months- the bottom level seems to be about done and the 2nd layer is filling up- I'm not seeing as much of an increase in population as I would have anticipated- of course it's hard to tell how many are in there, but they are getting the job done. I don't want to lose too many when I remove the material from the bottom layer- should I not be worrying about this? How hard should I try to recover wigglers before moving the finished material to the garden?

I'll second Tanya's comment- here in Iowa, we are in a severe deought, but the birdsfoor trefoil seems totally uneffected. It's the healthiest thing growing around here right now!

Nicely done! Thanks for sharing! Just an FYI- I signed up but haven't gotten an email confirmation yet, so I can't log in.

Wow, these look fantastic! I'm building my first HK beds now for fall planting- fingers crossed. Congrats on the success!