Speaker

Laura Sweany, Owner, Terra Flora Farm.

Laura is a Puget Sound native having enjoyed this distinctive maritime bioregion for over 40 years. She is a 5th generation Washingtonian; farming and gardening are in her blood. Having avidly studied garden design since the late 1980's gives Laura a firm grounding in traditional ornamental design and maintenance. When Laura discovered the concept of Permaculture in 1999 her entire focus shifted. Gone were the plans for elaborate ornamental beds and water-guzzling lawns; instead Laura realized that gardening could be more than 'making things look pretty'. Now her passion is using the whole systems design principles of Permaculture to create sustainable designs that include the whole site, not just the garden. Using techniques like water catchments, solar harvesting, natural pest management and guild based polycultures to create vibrant and resilient soil, Laura encourages others to recognize the invisible inputs that nature showers each and every property with all the time.

Talk description

Sustainability can begin at the very beginning: everyone eats.  You've probably heard about "food miles", the "locavore" movement, "eat local now", and perhaps you occasionally shop at a farmer's market, in between trips to the supermarket and Costco. 

Can it get more local and sustainable than that?  You bet!  Permaculture, a whole-system design approach to home and yard development, gives us easy, inexpensive tools and techniques to have a lovely, healthy yard that also functions as a food-producing cornucopia.  We will discuss easy, practical, low-maintenance options to home food production, such as: guilds, polycultures, food forests, edible hedgerows, herb spirals, sheet mulching, and more.

Venue

YWCA Opportunity Place
2024 Third Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121

Registration

This event is free and open to the general public. Space is limited! RSVP to save your space to STARs@sustainableseattle.org

Contact us with any questions: STARs@sustainableseattle.org and (206) 659-8077, or sign up for email updates. .

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