We definitely need a nice group of volunteers for this. If we have extra folks we can help with the raised annual beds too!! If you plan on coming could you please respond to me asap so I know? Thanks.

We will be building a 25-30 foot curved hugelkultur bed and planting it. Wondering about hugelkultur? Check this out: http://permaculture.org.au/2010/08/03/the-art-and-science-of-making-a-hugelkultur-bed-transforming-woody-debris-into-a-garden-resource/

*******PLEASE Drop your brush, or grab some curbside and drop at that corner where I have pink flags placed.

This is a wonderful technique to conserve and hold water, and create a bermed planting area.

We need working hands, brush and donated plants of the following:
Baptisia (Indigo)
Purple Coneflower
Yarrow
Sage
Anemone
Bee Balm
Calendula
Lemon Balm
Nasturtiums
Black-eyed Susan
Little Blue Stem Grass
Whatever you have to donate – we’ll figure it out, or plant it elsewhere to beautify our communities.

Bring a wheel barrow, shovel, fork, soil rake, working gloves, water bottle, trowel, and compost fork or shovel for wood chips. I will have a couple extra shovels and rakes so don’t NOT come because of a lack in tools.

We have this incredible opportunity to make this the primo eye-welcome on this urban renovation and garden project at a main thorough fare in the city of Madison. We can put up a sign explaining hugelkultur and maybe get some press on ANOTHER great way to conserve and hold water.

Questions? Call Kate at 213-2230. AGAIN, please let me know if you’re planning on coming!

If it rains we will meet in the hoop house for just hanging and sharing stories. OR potting up trees, watering seedlings and such. So, please remember to bring that chair. Please use the driveway off of Portage Rd. and park along the mowed drive there. If too muddy we will reassess.

Everyone is welcome to the Guild meetings, so don’t be afraid to bring a friend or someone you think might be interested in learning about water catchment using the earth as our storage container!!

Contact Kate with quesitons: 608-213-2230
P.S. Next month we will be having a regular meeting at St. Stephens Church with guest speaker Clare Norelle. More details to come!

We also will begin some earthworks planning and digging in our swale and berm area by the herb project and the orchard.

We will be meeting early this month! (Sorry about the late posting.) But please come when you can.
5:00 pm or whenever you can arrive
3919 Gray Rd., DeForest, WI 53532
2 roads past hwy. 19 exit on Hwy. 51 going north of town.
(Contact Emily S., Judy S, for some carpooling to happen…..
folks.
Bring your gloves, water bottle, compost forks, scoop shovels, wheel
barrows and soil rakes for the wood chips.
Digging shovels, measuring tapes, mattocks and such for the earth
moving in the orchard and herb garden area.

We’ll be ordering up some pizza and maybe sharing a campfire if the weather cooperates. We will work in a light to medium rain without lightning, so don’t shy away if it precips. Please bring a lawn chair to sit on for eating, cavorting and resting.

Everyone is welcome!! Questions? Call Kate H-C at 213-2230

Instructor is John Holzwart
Sponsored by Madison Area Permaculture Guild
& Madison Fruits & Nuts

Sunday, March 25th
12-2 pm: Classroom & Hands-On Grafting Workshop ($20)
Scions & Root Stock provided. Feel free to bring your own too.
Electronic Registration is at http://www.tokencreekecoinn.com/workshops
Snail Mail Check to MAPG, 5310 Winnequah Rd., Monona, WI 53716 (check to MAPG)
2-4 pm: Public Scion Exchange – FREE to all!
Token Creek Eco-Inn, 3919 Gray Rd., DeForest, WI 53532
Questions? Call Kate at 608-213-2230

SEED EXCHANGE AND LOTS OF FUN CONVERSATION!!
Please bring “Safe” seeds for exchange and sharing. Bring your catalogs to share and mull over. Your questions regarding seeds, what safe seeds might be, how to start seeds, anything you can think of. We’ll have the whole meeting be about exchanging of the seeds and ideas.

We will start off as usual with a potluck. Please bring a dish to pass (don’t feel you have to make it if you don’t have time), dish, cup, silver and napkin to eat with, and a serving utensil for your dish. This is VERY casual; please come even if you didn’t have time to get or make something and enjoy the company and conversation. There is typically WAY MORE than enough food for all!!!

Questions or concerns can be addressed by calling Kate at 608-213-2230.

These meetings are open to all!!!

6:30-7:15 pm is a casual potluck (bring your own dishes, silver,
napkin, glass and a dish to pass).

At 7:15 we will have announcements and then our Guest Speaker will do
a presentation on Carbon in relation to growing, soil health,
sequestering, energy, etc. Rob is wonderful to listen to and learn
from. Below please find his bio. It’s worth reading and connecting
with his blog even if you can’t make it to the meeting.

We need to be out of the room by 9 pm, so lots of time for questions
and discussion afterwards.

We will be meeting at St. Stephens Church, 5700 Pheasant Hill Rd.,
Monona, 53716. Come to the back parking lot and in through the double
glass doors. We will be in the Fireside Room immediately to your left
as you enter. This is an incredible opportunity for us to learn from
Rob’s experience and knowledge base.

Rob grew up in the Chicago area and received his BA in Philosophy and
History from the University of South Dakota in 1996. He now lives in
Johnson Creek WI, with his wife of 13 years, Meriah, and two children
8 and 10. In 2004, Rob and his family purchased a newly constructed
home in a new subdivision. The fact that he was, literally,
contributing to urban sprawl was the impetus for Rob to challenge
himself to reduce the impacts of his new home to at least no worse
than the conventional grain field that the farm had been 2 years
before he moved in. He began to study sustainable gardening and
‘green living’, and soon discovered edible landscaping and
Permaculture. Permaculture- the idea that we could live in
partnership with nature- completed revolutionized his thinking. It
became clear early on that the goal of ‘Better Than Conventional Ag’
was too low and Rob removed the set goal to see what was really
possible in a Suburban Permaculture System in Wisconsin and now grows
2000# of food, collects 75,000 gallons of rainwater, and produces over
5 yards of compost on his .5 acre lot each year- with lots of room for
growth. Over the past 8 years, Rob has become convinced that healing
and building soils is one of the single most important actions we can
take to Be the Change We Wish to See in the World as the future will
be limited by natural capital and the soil will be, once again, what
gives us our food, fiber, energy, and resources. Rob began part-time
market farming potatoes and lettuce in 2008 at Prairie Dock Farm and
is now in a new farm partnership in Watertown, Wi that allows him more
room to experiment with linked biological energy/food systems and low
input / high output soil building on larger scales as he seeks to put
his ideas into practice. You can stay updated with Rob’s projects and
thoughts at www.onestrawrob.com and on Facebook search pages for “One
Straw Rob”.

Yippee! Rob is coming, Rob is coming!!

See you soon.
Kate

Remember to bring your own dishes, silver, cup and napkin.

We will be having a short business mtg. and then speaker Nathan Clarke
from Mad Urban Bees, LLC.
You may have recently seen his business featured in the WI State
Journal.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/around-town-hive-owner-eagerly…

I think it will be very interesting to hear about Nathan’s unique
business structure and plan for his Honey Business. Fits right in
with community and permaculture thinking. He will have time to speak
and there will be questions and answers to follow.

We will have a gifting table at the meeting. Have something you’d
like to move on? Bring it along and put it on the table and maybe
it’s the perfect thing for someone else.

Also, we will be doing a specific letter, but we are doing our end of
year fundraising for MAPG. We are a grassroots organization run only
with volunteer hours by this wonderful community we have. We do have
projects and expenses so please feel free to write a check to MAPG and
send to 5310 Winnequah Rd., Monona, WI 53716. I will be doing a wrap
up letter and report in the next week or so, so you will get another
reminder.

See you next Thursday!!!

Kate

http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/events/event-details.php?e=726

We thank FH King and the Nelson Environmental Institute for allowing this viewing to happen!!! Please join in the fun this Thursday, Nov. 17th from 5:30 until 8 pm, with a potluck starting us off. It will be in Auditorium 101 at Science Hall on the UW campus on the bottom of Bascom Hill. Parking is available in the Helen C White Parking lot next to the Memorial Union, or in the Lake Street Ramp a couple of blocks away on the other side of the UW Library Mall.

We have a new Hoop House for growing and projects out at the Token Creek Eco-Inn in DeForest and will be having volunteer opportunities happening around that endeavor. A sub-group of the Guild, The Token Creek Herb Collective, has a garden project happening on that same property.

Welcome!!