Hugelkultur, Holzer Permaculture, and Natural Swimming Pool Workshop

Working with Time and Nature to Create Beauty and Abundance

May 1 – 3, 2015 at Sun Dappled Farms near Farmington, IL
A Workshop with Zachary Weiss of Elemental Ecosystems



Zachary Weiss, a student of legendary Austrian Rebel Farmer Sepp Holzer, will lead a weekend workshop to inspire and empower participants to start creating their dream landscape. Having worked extensively with Holzer in both North America and Austria, Zach will share his unique approach to working with time and nature to create landscapes that are ecologically regenerative, economically viable, beautiful, and abundant. Water retention, Agro-Forestry, Animal Systems, Crater Gardens, Hugelkultur, Micro-Climates, and Earthworks will all be touched on during the workshop in addition to a variety of other topics. Zach is a consultant, contractor, and designer who also has extensive experience with greenhouses, natural building, and ecological entrepreneurship.

During the workshop Elemental Ecosystems will be creating a Hugelkultur bed and Natural Swimming Pool to improve the aesthetics and functionality of the area around the main house. Participants will have a chance to get their hands dirty, learning the real way to create, plant, and mulch a Hugelkultur while also learning how to cultivate water that is clear, healthy, and attractive. The natural swimming pool will be under construction during the workshop providing participants a unique opportunity to learn the nuts and bolts behind these systems, covering the important strategies and techniques for a successful project.



The Friday night lecture will cover Renaturing the Landscape: Sepp Holzer’s vision and strategy for regenerating the planet. This will provide participants an inside perspective to Sepp’s body of work as well as exposing people to the larger scale vision and strategy. Over the weekend participants will walk the landscape with Zach learning how to read and understand the different opportunities and possibilities that nature provides. Zach will paint the picture of the dreamscape that can exist at Sun Dappled Farms including ponds, Chinampas, and the integration of various tree and animal cropping systems.





Join us for an inspiring weekend with exquisite food from Sun Dappled Farms (we like lamb and duck!) and great discussion with others who are passionate about regenerating our landscape and working with nature to create paradise. The Friday Evening through Sunday Evening workshop costs $250. Meals and snacks will be provided. Housing in available via one of the farm’s lovely rentals for $40/night, $50 for couples. There is also plenty of free camping space available. Can’t stay for the whole weekend? Friday night’s lecture is free. To register for the workshop please email your intentions or questions to Kate Potter at potter_kate@hotmail.com

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Why oh why is it that this awesome Holtzer inspired stuff never seems to show up west of the Rockies [preferably near the Cascades though I'm a little more flexible than that ] anymore >_<

Sounds like an awesome workshop Zach, hope it goes great for you.

If at all possible it would be so amazing if you could get someone to record it, either a cheapo version you could later provide for free [possibly a hook to get more people on your mailing list, or cut up into a series of youtube videos or something] or something with real production value you could sell would be greatly appreciated by those of us too far away to feasibly make it to the workshop.