Southern Vermont Permaculture

This is being created as a "forum", for now, to function alongside the Souther Vermont Permaculture Meetupedia page (http://meetupedia.com/groups/southern-vt-permaculture).

Hi Greg. What towns/counties would be included? I'm in Rutland county.

Well, I honestly haven't been thinking about it in terms of towns/counties, but to answer your question I see Rutland, Windsor, Bennington and Windham as being "Southern" Vermont. The idea behind creating a "Southern Vermont" group was to draw together anyone who remotely considers themselves to reside at the southern-most end of Vermont. There's a whole lot of neat permaculture and/or regenerative agriculture activity I know of in the Central and Northern parts of Vermont, but I haven't encountered much – nor any dedicated online platform to connect folks in this area – in the Southern end, where I am living now. I want to help change that! I just don't feel like driving north (or south to Western Mass or New York) all the time; I want more permaculture-related activity happening right here. I'm near Brattleboro, for reference.

As I see it, this needn't be exclusive to Vermont residents, nor to residents of any particular towns/counties. I see it being available as a resource to anybody living NEAR the loosely-defined area of "Southern Vermont" (meaning, it can include folks living just over the state line in Western Massachusetts, New Hampshire or New York).

That said... I ultimately think it'd be neat if "permaculture guilds" (or whatever we want to call these self-organizing groups) were clustered throughout the Northeast based not on state boundaries, nor on their sharing an #-mile radius from an urban center, but by physiographic region (http://academics.smcvt.edu/vtgeographic/textbook/physiographic/physiographic_regions_of_vermont.htm). If indeed these physiographic regions represent distinctly different sections of the landscape we call Vermont, I feel like it'd beneficial to us (as far as productive ecological restoration is concerned) to ally ourselves with other folks in the same regions and collectively share best practices for producing [____ form of food, fiber, fuel, shelter, etc.] in our particular physiographic region. Different regions will (I suspect, I could be totally wrong here), TEND to be best-suited to particular forms/methods of land use. Anyone else have thoughts on this? Am I crazy?

For now, to fully answer this question, the attached image with Google Earth roughly represents what I see "Southern Vermont" to mean – parts of nearby states included. I hope this clarifies!

Greg Spevak wrote:
... by physiographic region (http://academics.smcvt.edu/vtgeographic/textbook/physiographic/physiographic_regions_of_vermont.htm). If indeed these physiographic regions represent distinctly different sections of the landscape we call Vermont, I feel like it'd beneficial to us (as far as productive ecological restoration is concerned) to ally ourselves with other folks in the same regions and collectively share best practices for producing [____ form of food, fiber, fuel, shelter, etc.] in our particular physiographic region. Different regions will (I suspect, I could be totally wrong here), TEND to be best-suited to particular forms/methods of land use. Anyone else have thoughts on this? Am I crazy?

For now, to fully answer this question, the attached image with Google Earth roughly represents what I see "Southern Vermont" to mean – parts of nearby states included. I hope this clarifies!

I wish that physiographic link had visuals. Your link isn't showing up, BTW.

People in similar areas are going to naturally raise similar items and hopefully share best practices. I belong to a local sheep group, for example. A Local permaculture group would be excellent but local can be a rather broad area in Vermont. I play on a tennis team out of Middlebury & a team or two out of Burlington. For the right group, clearly I'm willing to travel.

I'm in Central Vermont, I guess. Takes me 1 1/2 hours to get to Burlington or Brattleboro.

"The Brattleboro Permaculture Guild will hold one of its sporadic
meetings next Sunday, December 7th, 5-7 PM in the Community Room of the
Brattleboro Food Coop. All are invited who have at least a rudimentary
understanding of the principles and techniques of permaculture design.
Participants will have a chance to describe their ongoing projects,
critique and support each others work, and discuss possible programs and
endeavors for the Guild in the future.

There's no need to RSVP, we'll have fun with however many show up, but
please feel free to pass this announcement on to anyone in our stretch
of the watershed that you think might be interested."

(From a friend)

Man, it bugs me so much that you can't drag/drop images into forum posts on this site. And you can only use 3 images per post? Bah. I immediately saw that the first image I attached wasn't displaying, and went to edit the post and "re-attach it" – no dice. The button to attach a file wasn't really responding. It wasn't a very important image.

Anyway... let's see if this image of Vermont's physiographic regions works. I'm going to attach a few other fun/informative maps of Vermont.

Here are a few more fun ones...

The Brattleboro Permaculture Guild will hold one of its sporadic
meetings next Sunday, December 7th, 5-7 PM in the Community Room of the
Brattleboro Food Coop

Thanks Brian! I plan to be there. Looking forward to it...

Greg Spevak wrote:Man, it bugs me so much that you can't drag/drop images into forum posts on this site. And you can only use 3 images per post? Bah.

If you can set up an account with a site like flicker, it's much easier to post pics remotely. Or find someone else who has the image up & copy the link.

Like so (plus you can do as many as you like):


Just copy the link to the image and click on the "image" button when posting a reply. Hit "preview" to make sure it shows up.

Awesome! Thank you!

Hi, I just found this group and thread - unfortunately after the Dec 7 meeting. I live in Guilford and would very much like to join the group. How did the meeting go? Were any plans made for future meetings or a next step?

Thanks,

Mike

Mike, what town?

I'm in Guilford (adjacent to Brattleboro) and was asking about the group that met at the Brattleboro Co-op

We are barely in NY, 20 minutes from Bennington VT. I work as a ski patroller in Peru VT, and we own 80 wild acres in Readsboro, VT. A meet up in Bennington would be so awesome!

If anyone is on Facebook we have a page there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/permaculturevermont

Hello? Anybody still here?

yes

I'm interested in getting together with permaculture-minded people, scheming, and working on projects.  

I'm living in Brattleboro now and trying to find a good enough(*) piece of land nearby(**) to buy either solo or with other people or some other arrangement that gets me investing in and working on land.

(*) accessible, not N facing, not very steep, not very remote
(**) will consider relocating to near other vibrant towns

i clicked the meet up link but it didnt work.. is it me? im using my phone. Would still love to join! jules

Hi - New to Permies, I was excited to see a Vermont thread.  I'm in Windsor County.

Any action taking place?  We will need to connect post-COVID!

Hi! I'm excited to find a southern VT page. I'm wondering if anyone has housing available on their land, ideally a tiny house or yurt? I am a farmer living in Western Mass right now, looking to live a sustainable lifestyle.

Glen & Yolanda here

We've just purchased 4.4 Acres in Windham, VT and have a plan for Ben Falk to design it for us. We've got a lot of work to do (including salvaging and rebuilding a home). We'd be very interested in seeing what community is around as we are not wealthy, just hard working and creative.

We're currently in lockdown in Brooklyn. Looking to move to VT as soon as we can get a reliable shelter on the land.

How do we hook up with y'all?

Thanks so much!

Satyre

Hi Glen and Yolanda -

I'm Anne, retired, living on 10 acres in Reading (just north of Springfield on Rt. 106), about an hour from your new place.  Congratulations on (almost) moving to Vermont!  I'm pretty new to Permies myself, and don't know any other way of connecting with permaculture people locally. (Wait - there was that FaceBook link:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/permaculturevermont/about ). Although, we are surrounded by people raising organic produce and livestock, despite being in close proximity to Okemo and Killington and plenty of second homes.  

Bummer about the lockdown, although it seems likely that out-of-state travelers may soon be welcome again.  The governor has done a remarkable job of closing things down based on science and data - what a concept! - and beginning to open up using the same cautious approach.  This approach has led to amazing stats on the virus and a lot of healthy Vermonters.

Hi Anne,
I live in Windsor VT.  I have a farm and am practicing and learning all I can. It could be cool to connect.  

Hi Autum - I sent you a Purple Mooseage (PM). :-)

Great! We are on the NY/MA/VT line. Pownal is 15 minutes, and Bennington is about 25 minutes from us. Would love to be part of this forum.

Jules

Cj Sloane wrote:

Greg Spevak wrote:
... by physiographic region (http://academics.smcvt.edu/vtgeographic/textbook/physiographic/physiographic_regions_of_vermont.htm). If indeed these physiographic regions represent distinctly different sections of the landscape we call Vermont, I feel like it'd beneficial to us (as far as productive ecological restoration is concerned) to ally ourselves with other folks in the same regions and collectively share best practices for producing [____ form of food, fiber, fuel, shelter, etc.] in our particular physiographic region. Different regions will (I suspect, I could be totally wrong here), TEND to be best-suited to particular forms/methods of land use. Anyone else have thoughts on this? Am I crazy?

For now, to fully answer this question, the attached image with Google Earth roughly represents what I see "Southern Vermont" to mean – parts of nearby states included. I hope this clarifies!

I wish that physiographic link had visuals. Your link isn't showing up, BTW.

People in similar areas are going to naturally raise similar items and hopefully share best practices. I belong to a local sheep group, for example.  A Local permaculture group would be excellent but local can be a rather broad area in Vermont. I play on a tennis team out of Middlebury & a team or two out of Burlington. For the right group, clearly I'm willing to travel.

I'm in Central Vermont, I guess. Takes me 1 1/2 hours to get to Burlington or Brattleboro.