We began the class by standing in a circle and holding hands. We were instructed to each say our name and what we were grateful for at that moment. Hearing what everyone was thankful for was a great way to introduce ourselves and start off the day in a positive way. Then we did a series of exercises that facilitated in helping us become more acquainted and to increase our awareness of one another. This was followed by “The Common Ground” exercise which is how we will be starting off every morning. How it works is, we all stand in a circle and one a time we say “common ground in [blank]” whether it’s cycling, backpacking, or gardening etc. And whoever in the group has that in common with the speaker, steps into the circle. Although many of us may feel alone or separate sometimes it is comforting to be reminded that we may have more in common with people than we think.

After the exercise, we all sat down and listened while our instructors: Vladislav, Jeff and Sandra introduced themselves. They all come from different backgrounds from practicing permaculture techniques for years while living in intentional communities to studying under Geoff Lawton, one of the men famous for “greening the desert” in Jordan. I’m excited to learn the knowledge they have to pass on. We then watched a short film introducing the sort of crises we are faced with right now from water shortages to loss of indigenous communities, how we got there and about the millions of people who are doing fantastic, innovative things to reverse these problems.

I feel inspired and motivated to become one of those people. The film was painful to watch not because the problems outlined in the film were new to me because they weren’t, but because I wanted to do something about them and I didn’t know where to start. But then I realized I had already started and that I was in the right place because just by being in The Permaculture Design Certificate Course, I was making an effort to learn a skill that is already making strides to solving some of the world’s problems.

At certain point in the film we broke up into groups and took turns talking for a couple of minutes, while the others listened, about what we had just seen and what sort of an impact it had on us. After our lunch break, we spent the rest of the day doing exercises mainly from Coming Back to Life: practices to reconnect our lives, our world by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, a book intended to affect peoples’ outlook and ability to act in the world. These exercises helped us to feel our pain for what is happening in the world and convert that into the caring power to address these problems. We did this by talking and listening with one another in groups. We also talked about things such as, what brings us joy and what excites us most about living during this time.

It was great getting to know everyone and I left feeling grateful for the great group of people in the class. Being in the Permaculture Design Certificate Course for just one day has made me feel confident in my role towards creating a more sustainable future for our world. I look forward to learning more about permaculture and especially putting what I learn to good use!

We started the day off with a gratitude circle. Today I was particularly grateful for my roomies making me breakfast this morning. We then did the elm dance but this time we said out loud names of places and people that we thought needed healing. Thousands of people around the world have done this same dance. Then we started talking about permaculture!

The definition of permaculture that was give to us is a whole design science that reflects natural patterns and promotes beneficial relationships and helps us discover how to be a positive contribution to the earth, ourselves and humanity. We talked a little bit about the history of permaculture and how Bill Moleson, the “father” of permaculture, studied natural systems and their relationships and rediscovered what we know today as permaculture. We covered the three permaculture principles: earth care, people care and fair share.

In addition to the principles, permaculture is rooted in ethics; everything has an intrinsic value and people and earth’s needs are connected. We did a mind mapping exercise where we got into groups and wrote down whatever came to mind on five strips of paper, when we thought of permaculture.

Sandra, our instructor, got out several sheets of butcher paper. With markers we wrote down some of what we wrote on our strips of paper. We were then asked to try to form them in categories or connect things that were related. Once we were done, we realized that everything was connected to at least something, nothing stood alone. We learned that in good permaculture design every element has a function, several functions in fact. We were asked to look at the three principles again and discuss how our values and the values of society may or may not agree with those and why. Then we discussed the importance of observation in permaculture design.

One of the most important steps is to spend time observing and taking notes, especially if you are unfamiliar with your site. Ask question. Who has been there? What is the history of the property? Etc. Before you start planning, take the time to look at the elements and how they may interact. Our vision also needs to extend through time for example, what is this tree going to look like in 10 years? Then we walked onto the UC Berkeley campus and did an exercise outside where we spent 15 minutes walking around, without talking, and just observing everything from the consistency of the soil to which areas were shaded or in direct sunlight, how the creek flowed, the different animals nearby, the different trees etc. When we went back to the class room, we talked about what we saw and experienced and began to realize how much there is to observe when you’re really taking to time to notice. And how each detail is important and should be considered when constructing a design plan.

Then we began to talk about the different elements such as a house, animals, rivers, plants etc and how we can choose and place each element in a design to perform as many functions as possible without wearing it out. It is not the number of elements but the number of connections, that those elements make, that creates stability. We got into groups and did an exercise where we were each handed different pictures of a house, a garden, a chicken yard, a pond, evergreen trees, a green house, a fence, etc. and were asked to arrange them on a sheet of paper as if we were designing our own land or site. When thinking about our design we thought about how many different ways we could implement their functions in the most energy efficient ways. It was amazing to realize how many different questions came into play like, where do we need shade? Or how close should the garden be to the chicken yard? Or how can we position these elements so that they serve at least three functions etc.

We learned more tips about permaculture design using small scale intensive systems, optimizing edge, biological and renewable resources, information about getting a yield, and how to turn problems into solutions and the importance of working with nature because it is easier for her, and easier for you. We ended the class with a web of life exercise that showed how all living things are dependent upon each other from the squirrel to the mosquito to a pond.

I learned so much today! There is just so much to learn with permaculture and we are just scratching at the surface. I’m so excited for next week because we’re going to start learning about the different zones

We opened with a gratitude circle and today I was grateful for the long walk I had this morning. We took our seats and gathered around as Slav played a recording of John Trudell, a political activist and poet. In the Permaculture Design Course at Common Circle we of course learn about the technical skills of permaculture but we also learn skills on how to change and develop our understanding of reality. And listening to John Trudell speak about the power of thinking was very inspiring and motivating.

Then Sandra began talking about Need, Function and Product Analysis (NFP) where we picked one element, in this case it was a chicken, and listed it’s inputs and outputs. Some of the inputs included things such as food, water, a dust bath etc. and some of its outputs were eggs and manure. After listing the NFP for the chicken as one group, we got into smaller groups and were each given a different element. We got elements like a pond, a pig, a green house etc. After listing the inputs and outputs for those elements, we thought about how we could connect the outputs of the chicken to the inputs of another element and vise-versa so that, we were reducing waste by recycling our resources for multiple purposes.

Afterwards, we discussed zone planning which is helpful when placing elements according to how much we use them or how often we need to service them. First there’s zone 0 which is the center of activity, i.e. a house, business or nursery etc. Zone 1 is close to the house and the most controlled and intensively used are for example, a vegetable garden or a chicken coop would probably be placed in this zone. Sandra told us about all the zones, all the way to zone 5 which is “unmanaged, natural or wild systems where we are just visitors, no managers.” We also drew out the different zones and added what we might put in each of them. In addition to zone planning, there’s sector planning where we might plant things to help counteract certain elements. For example, you might have the “cooling winds sector,” so you would probably want to plant trees to help block the wind, or you could put a windmill there. The three ways to deal with elements within the sectors is to block/deflect, channel or open it up.

After lunch, we commuted to Bridget House which is a communal house where Sandra lives. In their garden, we discussed patterns in nature. It’s important to be open and understanding to patterns in order to connect with and predict nature. We walked around searching for patterns in the garden. We noticed things like how certain insects preferred particular plants and how orange, white and purple flowers were growing together in bunches. Then Sandra showed us different patters like the Eckman Spiral, the net and the core pattern. Each group was asked to find a particular pattern. My group had the branching pattern which we saw in leaves, roots and stems and even antennas on top of roofs. Before we ended for the day, we talked about how we can optimize edge on our site, because edge provides a shared environment for things to happen and create great diversity among plants and wildlife.

Today we talked a lot about design strategies. Saundra started off the class introducing the design projects we’ll be working on throughout the course, in groups of 3-5. We had several sites to choose from, such as city planning for parts of downtown Berkeley or Bridget House or even designing a food co-op.

By using the permaculture design strategies we’re learning in the course, we’ll be able to come up with a unique and in depth design for each of these sites. Afterwards, we learned about the design methodology. The first step is observation and there are several different approaches for observing your site. You may, for example, want to have an instrumental approach where you would measure sunlight or maybe wind speeds or you could have a more experiential approach which is when you use all your senses to gain more insight about your site.

It’s best to use all of the observation strategies because then you can determine what the biggest problems and the easiest solutions for the site. Then we discussed the structure of nature and how we can make them work for us especially by imitating the structure of such natural systems. We have already learned a lot of the design strategies but spent a little bit of time reviewing them. Some of these design strategies were the NFP analysis, zone sector analysis and flow diagrams, for example. Next we learned about the ‘scale of permanence’ which is based on the idea that some elements are harder to change than others
like, for example, vegetation and wildlife might be easier to change than soil because of the ways you can build up and improve soil. Realizing which elements are easier to change as opposed to other is important because it may influence many of your design decisions. We also learned different skills for working with clients, if we ever chose to do so.

After discussing more design tools such as researching the history of the site and different options + decisions we may want to utilize for maintaining systems, we had a guest speaker come in whose name is Jay Ma. Jay Ma is a permaculture designer and co-founder and director of Living Mandala which, as described on their website, is an ‘emerging collective of educators, designers, and consultants’ and organizes events for ecological and social-social regeneration in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.’ Jay talked to us about climate and how climate regions, from tropical to arid, and also microclimates and how they can influence our design. In addition to climate,we learned about the atmosphere, precipitation and wind. Towards the end, we walked to the UC Berkeley campus where he taught us some nature awareness skills like, for example, finding a ‘sit spot’ to help us become more aware of our environment and open up our senses. He also taught us a few things about birds and different ways they communicate or, in other words, bird language.

Today was soil day! For the first half of the class, Jay Ma, our guest speaker, came out again to talk a bit about fantastic life of Fungi and Soil. I walked into class today hardly knowing a single thing about mushrooms and left feeling so inspired! I immediately bought Paul Stamet’s book entitled, *Mycelia Running, *eager to learn even more about them.

First, Jay talked about the Kingdom of Fungi and Fungi basics. He answered questions like, what role does mycelia play in nature, and how they exchange genetic material, for example. After gaining a basic understanding of the science behind mushrooms, we began talking about the four different types of mushrooms: Saprophytic (common), Mycorrhyzal (Exotic), Endophytic and Parasitic. All of which have fascinating functions. Endophytic Mushrooms, for example, are thought to occupy the inner vascular walls of plants and may even create a bio-shield against infection!

The best part, for me, was learning all the different ways that mushrooms can help save the world. There’s Mycofiltration, for example, which is a process that uses mushroom mycelium mats as biological filters and is a technique that can be used in farm waste management, among other things, by placing the mycrofilter down slope from livestock areas. Then Jay taught us about soil! We learned things like, where soil comes from, the different types of soil, and the most efficient ways to build soil. He also showed us different and inexpensive techniques for checking the soil’s PH levels and how to find out which sorts of particles (clay, sand & silt) our soil is made up of. Then we talked a little bit about carbon farming which is a technique being used to take Carbon from the atmosphere and put it back into the soil, where it should be.

Afterwards, we broke for lunch and I met with my group to discuss our design projects and walk around our site which is right in the center of downtown Berkeley. Afterwards, we grabbed a few things from the Farmer’s Market and made our way to Bridget House. Once there, Saundra gave us some composting basics including all the things you need to know to start your
own. She has three compost bins and it to get some hands on experience. After getting our hands nice and dirt, we learned a little bit about worms and their benefits. Like, for instance, I never knew they convert minerals into components that the plants can actually absorb. Bridget House has two worm bins. One is made from a small Rubbermaid container and the other is called a ‘Wriggly Ranch’ and we got to see how they’re supposed to look and how to create our own. I’ve already started gathering supplies to make my own worm bin!

Next we made compost tea by using some the worm castings we gathered from the Wriggly Ranch, a 5 gallon bucket, water, a pump, some tubing, and an airstone. Not only do the plants love and respond well to compost tea but it also helps adjust the balance between fungi and bacteria in the soil. Lastly, Saundra drew out a diagram for how to create a sheet mulch and then later showed us one that her and a previous class had laid down several months before. There are many advantages to using a sheet mulch and I’m excited to start one of my own on my neighbor’s yard. All in all it was an amazing day, and as always, I learned a ton and had a lot of fun!

The main theme of the day was learning how to create intact cycles instead of broken ones in our permaculture design processes. Our manmade world is full of broken cycles but fortunately by learning permaculture design techniques, we can turn those broken cycles into intact ones to help us create regenerative communities.

Intact cycles produce no waste because, if your system is designed correctly, the ‘waste’ will be recycled as another element’s input. A very basic example would be grey water. While we’re letting the shower warm up in the morning we can collect that water and use it on our garden instead of just letting the water go down the drain. For part of the day, we were shown examples of urban designs where the designer’s intentions were to have cities where absolutely no waste was produced, every output was something else’s input.

We also talked about conventional vs. ecological treatment systems for treating water. Throughout our design process, we want to be thinking about what our intention is, what the yield we’re getting is and whether those things are aligning. Then we talked about grey water versus black water and different ways we can use both. We also talked about dry toilets versus composting ones. The main difference is that with dry toilets you have to separate the urine out and dehydrate the feces with lime, ash and soil so that the pathogens are killed quickly. Whereas composting toilets have urine mixed in and you rely on time and temperature to kill the pathogens.

We also talked a little bit about humanure (human manure) and how you can incorporate that type of waste into different design systems. One of the things I learned was that urine is sterile and actually a great fertilizer, but you want to dilute it with water before you use it directly on your plants. Even methane produced from organic matter has its uses; trap it and use it for things like electricity. At this point, I felt like there wasn’t anything that couldn’t be reused. Then we watched a short movie entitled *How Permaculture can save Humanity and the Earth but not Civilization *with Toby Hemenway. Toby lectured briefly about the history of humanity and the transition from hunter gatherer societies into agricultural ones. He explained how agriculture is civilization and how it has created many social and environmental problems. Horticulturalist societies, on the other hand, did permaculture which benefited the environment and the livelihood of people too. Part of what was so awesome about this video, besides it being incredibly inspiring, was that it was easy to see how great of a solution permaculture is!

Afterwards, Saundra talked to us about trees and what they do for our planet and how we can use trees in our designs. Then we broke for lunch and went to Bridget house. First we talked a bit about how in permaculture there are usually seven layers: There’s the canopy tree layer, understory trees, shrub layer, herbs or ground covers, root and underground layer, vines and climbers, and support plants like nitrogen fixers or plants that attract beneficial insects. Then we broke out and did different projects. Some people, including myself, planted a pear tree. Others removed a large fern tree and the rest did other various gardening projects. I had never actually planted a tree before, it was interesting how far down and wide we had to dig. We also dipped the tree in mychorrizal solution to promote the growth of mycelia between the trees in Saundra’s tree orchard. As usual, I learned *a lot* of incredible things today and I left feeling more prepared to create permaculture designs

Today was water day! We had a guest speaker come in named Max Meyers, who’s the founder of Osiris Designs and loves all things water. First, Max gave us some interesting survival tips like for example, how to turn salt water into fresh, drinkable water. Then we started getting into the different ways for how to use water in our permaculture designs. Step one when working with water in permaculture, is the four S’s which are: slow it, spread it, sink it, and store it.

One of the best ways to slow water is to dig swales so Max drew a lot of different swale design techniques and showed us pictures of how he uses swales on different sites that he’s worked on. Planting amongst swales seemed a little daunting at first, but Max alleviated my concerns by showing us that there are a lot of ways you can grow and even create entire food forests amongst swales. In fact, it makes so much more sense to have them, especially if your site is hilly. We also talked about different ways to spread water which is useful to know especially when you are in a dry region with little rain fall. He showed us different designs for spreading water throughout your site and identifying where your water sources are coming from.

The best place for sinking water is in the soil because water is stored best in the soil because it is not only cheap but the most effective. He showed us different examples of sites that have innovative methods for slowing, spreading, sinking and storing water. Some examples were Bill Moleson’s Tagari Farm in Australia and another was Sepp Holzer in Austria, who is the author of Rebel Farmer. We also watched a short video about Sepp because he uses swales on his land. Max does a lot of designs for people’s homes so he showed us a lot of examples and pictures of the different possibilities you can have with water. He had a lot of innovative and fascinating ideas. We also talked a bit about water pumping. From merry go rounds to pulley systems, there a lot of ways to pump water.

Max is also an Aquaponics specialist. Aquaponics has been used for thousands of years back to the Aztec Chinampas. Some of the reasons why Aquaponics is great method for growing food is because it uses less than 2% of the water that traditional farming does and has 8 to 10 times more vegetable production in the same area and time. Basically we talked all about how to set up an
Aquaponics system and what is needed to do that and methods that can be used. Like, how to deal with large amounts of algae. I came into class knowing nothing about Aquaponics and now I’m so excited about it’s future possibilities and I want to learn more.

Then we talked about climate. There are macro climates and then there are micro ones. We mainly focused on how to create our own microclimates with plants. There’s so much to learn when it comes to this subject, but Max focused on herb spirals to demonstrate a lot of the main points for creating microclimates in your site. He also talked about how to plant things in different extreme macro climates like the tropics and how you can work with water. He worked in Nicaragua for a while so he was telling us how he designed during the dry and wet seasons and the challenges he was met with.

Water is one of the most important things you need to be thinking about when designing your site, I found today to be incredibly interesting and eye opening and I look forward to learning more techniques for slowing, spreading, sinking and storing water!

Day 8

Today Sacha Rabin was our guest speaker and she came to talk about Natural Building. She is one of the founders of Vertical Clay Construction. First she talked about the bigger picture like, for example, she showed us different pictures of villages, towns, and cities and we were asked to determine how the different environments might influence how the people interact and live.

Some of the things that Sacha likes to bring into the process of natural building is to get kids involved, change people’s
expectations and to do it in places where people aren’t expecting it, like making adobe blocks in the parking lot at a Chevron Gas Station. Materials used in natural building are ones that we can identify such as clay, fiber, stone or wood. The appropriate building materials are the least refined, least processed materials that is strong enough to do the job. Then we
learned about the different types of materials from sand to cob, and how and where to use them.

With cob for example you use clay soil, an aggregate to keep clay from cracking like sand or gravel and fiber like straw and the advantage of cob would be that you use it while it’s wet and that it is actually more structurally sound than adobe because it’s used as one big piece. It was interesting to know what materials you would use in certain situations or projects. Sacha showed us a lot of examples of construction projects that she’s personally worked. I especially liked the strawbale buildings and cob ovens. I would love to have a Strawbale house someday!

After we broke for lunch, we met at Berkeley Tech High School where Sacha has been building a cob oven with the kids there. There was still a lot left to be done so she showed us how to make earthenware plaster to spread onto the surface of the oven. We used clay soil, sand, straw and water. It was a lot of fun to make and to get our hands dirty. I realize now that natural
building is something everyone can do and that it really brings people together.

One of the things I like best about the cob oven is that even when, after five to ten years, it cracks and degrades, it’s made out of natural materials so it won’t be damaging to the surrounding environment. I plan on learning more about natural building in the future and would love to be a part of more projects.

Today we talked about urban farming and planting. In the first half of class Saundra introduced us to the different aspects of urban farming. First we talked about the differences between urban and rural farming and things we have to keep in mind when farming in urban environments. The fact that urban spaces typically have a more diverse climate would be one example. Saundra
taught us how to deal with problems of drainage in urban environments and how to incorporate things like border design and living roofs.

One of the bigger problems with urban environments is that you have to be concerned with heavy metals and organic contaminants in your soil. Saundra talked about the different things you can do if you have heavy metals like lead in your soil. We learned how to care for plants in nurseries. We talked about different ways of saving seeds and watched a video that showed us how to
save seeds from different plants like dill and peppers. Then we discussed a lot of different things like hybridization, heirloom varieties and how to keep purity. It was interesting learning about the different types of pollination because it makes me really appreciate the process. Saundra loves making seed balls so she showed us a recipe for making them that includes
seeds, compost, clay and water. Seeds balls are a great way to ensure that your seed is getting the nutrition and support it needs to grow well.

After that we talked about having animals in our urban farming environment. Saundra talked a bit about incorporating them into our designs but we also watched a film about Joe Salatin of Polyface Farms who really knows his stuff when it comes to stacking functions with animals. We talked about different methods for natural pest management such as providing habitats and
a food source for things that will eat your pests, now I know what to do about my tomatoes!

For the second half of class Tonya Steller, who is an herbalist and permaculture designer, taught us about planting and making tinctures. First Tonya talked about how to plant seeds, graphting, and doing a cutting. Then she demonstrated how to properly do a transplant for a seedling and a tree. We talked a bit about the differences between Biointensive and Biodynamic gardening and went into detail about some of the techniques they both use.

At the end of the day, Tonya brought us to an elderberry tree where we picked about 50 grams of flowers. Then we gathered
around as she showed us, step by step, the process for making a medicinal elderberry tincture. As she was showing us, she told us about different herbs and their healing qualities. Today we made a tincture but she also talked a little bit about how to make decoctions and concoctions. When that was over, Saundra’s garden needed some mulch so we laid straw down and then it was time to go!

For the first half of class today Kevin Danaher, author of the Local Green Economy, co-founder of Global Exchange and Executive Co-Producer of Green Festivals, came to talk to us about business and green jobs. Most businesses, he told us, have a ‘business extraction model’ where they ‘extract’ money and resources from the communities they reside in. A ‘community benefits model,’ on the other hand, operates to help put money back into the community. We learned in depth the advantages, disadvantages and differences between the two. It was interesting to learn too that large corporations over the last 25 years have been net negative for creating jobs, where as small businesses have had a positive net.

Kevin Danaher is a well rounded individual. In addition to the topics of business models and green jobs Kevin also taught us lessons from history, nature and human interactions. I even learned what the true function of Testosterone is!

As a student studying energy management, it was very beneficial for me to learn about opportunities in the green job market. I was also happy to hear that green jobs in the U.S. grew twice as fast as the overall job market between 1998 and 2008! After listening to Kevin, I feel more aware of green job opportunities and more prepared to enter into the energy management field.

Craig Chalquist, a professor at JFK University with a PhD in psychology, talked to us today about Eco psychology and gave us some mental health lesson from the garden. For example, gardening can teach us to ‘abandon perfectionism’ simply because there is no perfect garden. As gardeners, we must learn to live with what cannot be controlled such as plants that won’t grow or ones that are eaten. I learned how helpful gardening and nature can be for *everyone*, not just people suffering from mental illnesses.

Today we learned about non-violent communication and handling conflict from Saundra. It’s important to learn these things in a permaculture design course because no matter where we decide to use permaculture, we will undoubtedly be working with other people. NVC’s motive is not about avoiding conflict but it is about wanting to understand where someone is coming from. We did an in class exercise which helped us to identify someone’s needs based on what they were feeling. I am very happy I learned non-violent communication and conflict resolution from Saundra today because I know I can use these skills everyday!