Coming Again Soon.
Students will learn about the history, philosophy and practices of organic agriculture with a focus on urban application and permaculture. Through lectures and hands-on practice, this intensive course will immerse students in the basic skills and knowledge needed to design, plan, and implement a small scale organic farm. Practical topics will range from composting methods, soil preparation and preservation, bed preparation, companion planting, crop rotation, planting, pest and disease control, seed saving, and season extension. Books by experts such as Eliot Coleman and Toby Hemenway will serve as useful farming and permaculture guides while students will read and discuss other foundational works by Sir Albert Howard, Bill Mollison and Wendell Berry to gain a greater understanding of the theories and goals of the organic agriculture movement.
The course will offer students the chance to work on a functioning organic farm that sells to local restaurants such as Salt of the Earth, Notion, Commonplace Coffee, and others.
This course will run for 8 weeks on Mondays with one all-day workday and one all-day Saturday field trip. Classes will run from 5:00 - 7:30 pm. The class is to be held at Garfield Farm, Wicklow St, Pittsburgh, PA, in the Saxifrage School Campus neighborhood.
John Creasy works as the Director of Garfield Community Farm. He loves using permaculture design, and learning to engage the community. Find him @johncreasy and @garfieldfarm
Our class will be hosted at Garfield Farm, home to Pittsburgh's first Bioshelter.
Coming again soon.