On Tuesday evening we created the brand new SC Upstate Permaculture Society. Barely three days later we already have 80 members!

Here’s the description of our group:

Free & beginners welcome! Permaculture is an agriculture/garden movement that tries to be sustainable and self-sufficient. It incorporates the home and community as well. We’re planning to have meetings where members can talk sustainable living, resource exchanges (we can trade plants, seeds, labor, and other materials), activism events, site tours, potlucks, and more. Suggestions are welcome!

Again, just click here and request to join.

Photo Caption: A hugelkultur keyhole bed we put in this week. Our front yard is getting a makeover, expect a post with extensive before and after pictures soon!

Everyone is welcome to attend our upcoming planning meeting on May 5th, which happens to be International Permaculture Day. The location and time is still TBA. Note that you may not be able to see the planning meeting link until you’ve joined the permaculture group.

For the few of you who still don’t use Facebook, we plan to post a separate calendar of events on our website and we’ll be setting a regular day of the month to meet. We’ll also list additional events like site tours, swaps, classes, or shared labor days (as an example of shared labor, people might get together to build a cob oven at someone’s house).

Photo Caption: Zev Friedman talking plant guilds at the Organic Growers School this past March. His Friday full-day Forest Gardening workshop was outstanding.

We also want to make sure you hear about the free permaculture talk tomorrow morning, May 6th, 9:30am, at Furman University. Zev Friedman is an engaging speaker and you can’t beat the price! He works with Chuck Marsh at Living Systems Design in Asheville, NC. Click here for additional details about this event. There is an optional potluck after the lecture.

What else? Nathaniel and I are currently enrolled in a course to get our PDCs (Permaculture Design Course/Certificate). We’re very excited! More on that later…

So much good green stuff in the upstate!

~Eliza