Welcome to the APG Community!
We are an ever growing community in Central Texas committed to resilience, collaboration, and catalyzing diversity and abundance. We believe that although one person can’t change the world, together We can.
It stands for Permanent Agri(culture). It’s an ideology that can be used as a guide when making major sustainable improvements to all areas of our life including our homes, our communities, or our work situations. This ideology offers human beings a way to harmonize with our environment, symbiotically.
Many people first hear of permaculture in a gardening or farming context. But the terrain of permaculture extends far and wide, to include all other areas of human activity as well. Transportation, energy, building, manufacturing, business and finance, social organizations — you name it.
Another aspect that is not so much at the forefront that we believe is highly potent is social permaculture. We believe that an important element of permaculture is being able to facilitate a safe space where all people, marginalized communities, all genders and orientations feel empowered to restructure existing societal frameworks while regenerating ecosystems.
The Earth is a living, breathing entity. Without ongoing care and nurturing there will be consequences too big to ignore.
If people’s needs are met in compassionate and simple ways, the environment surrounding them will prosper.
Take what we need, share what we don’t, while recognizing that there are limits to how much we can give and how much we can take.
“This course change my life from a very deep place in my soul. It gave me the courage to believe in the Earth’s future and my ability to help.”
“I am inspired to steward the Earth more than ever. Even though I have been organic gardening and bio-dynamic gardening for years, I have never felt closer to Mother Nature.”
“This class equipped me with the confidence to utilize the knowledge and realize I already have a great knowledge base and can do what I’ve set out to do! I’m ready to get busy! It has also made me realize that I have a passion for teaching!”
Taelor is a wildling at heart. She is deeply passionate about healing our earth, our bodies, and our relationships with ourselves and one another. She revels in growing healthy soils, healthy bodies, and delicious home cooked meals.
She studied under Caroline Riley, at the Whole Life Learning Center from 2014-2015, where she worked to transform the space into a full functioning permaculture design. She received her permaculture teacher training certificate from Theron Beaudreau in the Fall of 2014. She helped the Permablitz events get started in Central Texas, with Kirby Fry from 2013-2016.
She previously helped start a Permaculture centered intentional community titled Sacred Roots in San Marcos, TX in 2011. She has studied Permaculture design under Theron Beaudreau, Kirby Fry, Caroline Riley and Dick Pierce. Her main focus and drive is to create community and educate others about regenerative permaculture design and practice. Her home base is in a tiny house on 4.5 acres in the Hill Country.
When she’s not gardening or cooking, she is out dancing at local music shows around Central Texas or spending time with her family. Contact her at taelor@austinperm.com, 214-448-6428
Caroline Riley is a Texas native who grew up in the garden and free ranging on the Texas gulf coast with her family. She discovered permaculture design while living in Colorado in 2004 and soon incorporated the ethics and principles into her Montessori classroom as a foundation to learn from nature with youth. She completed her first PDC through Austin Permaculture Guild in 2009. She has since studies with Jude Hobbs, Warren Brush and Geoff Lawton.
Caroline founded One World Permaculture in 2010 with the mission to connect and serve people worldwide through the study and practice of permaculture design ethics and principles. OWP collaborates and inspires to create integrated regenerative community, ecology and economy. This project took her on world travels connecting with communities in need through permaculture design projects and evolved into local design and consultation work in Austin, TX.
In 2011 she and her husband founded the Whole Life Learning Center in Austin, TX which is where she currently focuses her creative efforts. This site is an example of permaculture in action. Over the years as the learning center has grown and matured, so have the permaculture systems in place including animal systems, a beautiful forest garden and farm space, the outdoor living classroom and Mutable Earth Botanicals. Mutable Earth Botanicals is a seed to apothecary herbalism practice and small scale plant nursery offering community and clinical herbalism.
With a passion for experiential learning and creative design, Caroline instructs Permaculture Design Courses through Austin Permaculture Guild and herbalism classes through Sacred Journey School of Herbalism. Her goal is to create a unique learning opportunity for her students from her vast experience.
When not at the learning center Caroline can be found with her husband and two children while enjoying the retreat of her South Austin homestead. Contact Caroline at caroline.riley.carberry@gmail.com, 512-217-0661
Holistic Site Design & Install Services:
What are your hopes and dreams that you want to accomplish at your property? Do you work at a business that wants to take a step beyond landscaping and add more truly regenerative elements to their property? Then this is the service for you!
Hire Taelor for an initial consultation to discover and document the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats to your property. During this walk around the property your specific wants and needs will unfold. Solutions will then be introduced to holistically solve any problems presented during the consultation. If you also desire an integrative design of the space, together we will map out the perfect homestead, community, and/or education center. We will make sure all essential elements including food, water, energy, and/or shelter are represented.
Service Fees:
March 28 & 30th, 2022
This March 28th & 30th join us in planning out your Spring garden! Austin Permaculture Guild’s Co-Director Taelor Monroe will be teaching an in-depth workshop on how to companion plant and design out your fall garden.
Have you been getting really excited about planting a garden for yourself but don’t know where to start? Do you want to make your current garden more sustainable? Do you want to keep those pesky pests away without using chemicals? Then this is the workshop for you!
The practice of companion planting uses the selection of specific plants organized in such a way that they are in symbiotic relationship with one another. Instead of planting the same plant over and over again in rows, which attract pests and reduces the nutrient density of the growing vegetable, a polyculture of intermixed plant types is planted. This style of planting not only reduces pests but also provides beneficial support plants that increase the strength and nutrient density of the plants in your garden. For instance, legumes are planted to provide nitrogen to the surrounding plants and alliums are planted on the outside of each bed to deter pests and weeds from coming in.
In integrated pest management, specific plants are selected to deter pests from entering your garden. Often times the best plants are very aromatic plants with strong smells to confuse pests. Within these companion planted systems, the plants are stronger than in mono-cropped gardens increasing their integral pest deterrents. Weak plants attract pests.
This workshop will be a two part event, going deep into details of companion planting, plant selection, plant placement, integrated pest management, how to prevent weeds, feeding the biology in the soil, maintenance, on Wednesday evening and how to build a garden bed on Saturday morning. I’ve found that putting it in chunks, instead of a whole day long event, allows the information to have time to sink in, so that you have more brain power for each section.
The soil and microbial life at the plants’ roots also determine the health of each plant. If you have healthy soil biology, then you will also deter blights, harmful pathogens, and fungal infections growing on your plants. Even a home gardener can spend a terrible amount of time and money trying to kill off these pathogens and pests to keep their plants alive. A better practice is one that is preventative, less time consuming, and free!
Come out to this dynamic, holistic garden management design workshop, to build a better fall garden! There will be a focus on the design of Spring Companion Planting but these methods can be applied to any season.
SCHEDULE:
March 28th, 2022
6-8pm: Classroom Instruction on Companion Planting & Plant Families, Plant Selection, Plant Placement, Integrated Pest Management, Preventing Weeds, Soil Biology
March 30th, 2022
6pm-8pm: Outdoor Hands-on Planting of a Companion Planted Garden Bed
Classroom instruction and hands-on planting will take place outside. Masks optional.
COST: $85
Click the PayPal Button below to pay your tuition and Register
Starts September 19, 2022
More people than ever are diving into the world of herbalism and holistic health. I have found nothing more empowering and therapeutic than growing medicinal plants to support the health and wellbeing of my family and community. Just being in the garden is medicine.
I have a vision of community herbalists, hands in the soil and plants, sharing seeds, starts, herbal remedies and knowledge with others.
Now is the time!
This course will walk you through the process of designing a medicine forest garden. It includes the basics of cultivating soil and plants, working with the flows of nature and human systems. We will cover specific plants, their needs, how they work within the garden ecosystem and broad strokes on their herbal actions and how they work to support our health and wellbeing.
THE MEDICINE GARDEN COURSE SCHEDULE
~Each session is 2 – 2.5 hours long via Zoom, taught by Caroline Riley
~You will have follow up activities between classes to help move you along your personal design process
~ Seeds, starts and cuttings will be available to get your garden up and running.
Class 1 – September 19
~What is a medicine garden and how is it different from an annual edible garden.
~Community herbalism and garden activism
~Introductions
Class 2 – September 21
Flows and the art of Observation
~Get oriented with the natural flows – sun, water, wildlife, people
~Create your own goal/context for your medicine forest garden
Class 3 – September 26
~Soil and Water – strategies for success
~Small Scale Earthworks to utilize water
Class 4 – September 28
~Plants for the soil – medicinals to grow healthy soil
– Utilizing medicinal cover crops
~Growing healthy soil takes time – a soil succession story
Class 5 – October 3
~Design Basics – creating an easy functional scale design to get the job done.
~If you build it, they will come. . . Seriously
Class 6 – October 5
~Plants and succession through the seasons and years – working with perennials and annuals
~Incorporating edibles – veggie gardening 101 for Central Texas
~Plants for pollinators – Blooms for every season
Class 7 – October 10
~Propagation stations for small scale needs
~Seeds, starts, division and a bit on grafting
Class 8 – October 12
~Design shares and celebrations
~Be the Fulcrum – Break ground – A Declaration!
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Cost : Sliding Scale – $450 – $700. You pay the base of $250 as a deposit.
Pay more if feel it.
SCHOLARSHIPS
We are providing two reparation scholarships for this workshop for people of color. These full ride scholarships require no payment in exchange for taking the course. If you would like to apply for either of these two available spots please submit a letter of intention attached in an email addressed to Taelor Monroe, monroe DOT taelor AT gmail DOT com.
Scholarship Deadline: September 1st. Responses will be given one week after the deadline.
SCHEDULE:
September 29th, 2021
6:30-8:30pm: Classroom Instruction on Companion Planting & Plant Families, Plant Selection, Plant Placement, Integrated Pest Management, Preventing Weeds, Soil Biology
October 2nd, 2021
10am-12pm: Outdoor Hands-on Planting of a Companion Planted Garden Bed
Classroom instruction and hands-on planting will take place outside. Masks optional.
COST: $85
Click the PayPal Button below to pay your tuition and Register
with Jude Hobbs
October 22-28th, 2022
Location: Cultivate Holistic Supply
Course Dates: October 22-28th, 2022, First date is arrival day, last is departure day
Instructors: Jude Hobbs and Caroline Riley as TA
Tuition: $650-$960, Sliding Scale
Registration: $300 non-refundable deposit to hold your spot, click PayPal button below to submit your deposit and register. Keep your browser open after the deposit, as our registration form will pop-up. Please fill out our form to complete your registration.
Food costs not covered, Cafe and food trucks on site
Empower yourself to advocate for change through whole systems teaching and design. In this dynamic and interactive course, you will learn impactful teaching techniques to communicate and apply Permaculture (Pc) principles and strategies to a wide variety of audiences and educational settings.
Jude utilizes a combination of diverse teaching modalities; including effective use of lecture, storytelling, power points, structured discussion, small groups, interactive experiential activities, visual aids and hands-on experiences. These assist participants to gain the tools needed to teach multiple ways of sharing information.
As a group we facilitate a safe setting of active learning, building confidence by experiencing essential practice via preparing and co-teaching a variety presentations.
We appreciate the unique skills and experiences of those attending and cultivate building strong networks to support one another via group projects and connections post-course.
As with a Permaculture Design Course, in this teacher training we offer practical solutions for sharing information, which is essential in these current times. We have had great success teaching, and are advocates for the Mollisonian Standard Permaculture Design Course curriculum. We also believe each course taught needs to speak directly to local conditions and the specific skills of the presenters’ team.
The focus of this course is not about teaching Permaculture Design Courses but to guide participants to share information in many types of situations, such as workshops, libraries, schools and other venues.
Course Topics Include:
• Philosophy and Ethics of Being an Instructor • The Art of Teaching and Facilitation • Adult Learning Styles • Building Curriculum and Lesson Plans • Presentation Techniques • Experiential Learning Activities • Co-Instructing • Time Management • Cultural Diversity & Social Justice • Venue Logistics, Course Planning, Marketing and Budgets • Interns, Apprentices and Mentors • Evaluations and Feedback • Tips from the Trade • Keeping Up The Spirit • Self-care • Right Livelihood •Extensive Resources and More
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Jude Hobbs is an internationally recognized permaculturist with 35 years’ experience in the design and teaching fields. As an educator she conveys her passion for permaculture by providing curricula developed to encompass diverse learning styles with teaching techniques that are accessible, inspiring and information rich. Her courses offer a safe place for learning, the strategies to understand whole systems design and the confidence to get out there to do awesome work via a tool kit for action. This course is modeled after the advanced course in Teaching and Design, she attended with world renowned Permaculture Instructors, Max Lindeggar and Lea Harrison in 1990. Jude co-tends Wilson Creek Gardens, a 7-acre homestead and demonstration site located in Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Our health and wellbeing is a direct reflection of our relationship to our environment. Our body, mind and spirit are woven. In holistic health we are working to find and treat the root cause of dis-ease and treat the whole being. Click the button below to browse available bookings with Caroline Riley.
A donation to the Austin Permaculture Guild means more outreach in all areas of our organization. We get to host more workshops, have more community building events, sponsor events and other non-profit organizations
Austin Permaculture Guild is a societally supportive platform meaning it is our main goal to help Austin thrive by growing in environmental awareness and action. We do this through our education courses, supporting our local neighbors grow food, and by creating an outlet that connects people to regenerative organizations.
Membership Tiers and Perks included (this is a tax deductible donation):
**These perks are based on a yearly membership commitment. They can be taken away at any point in time if a member decides to cancel their membership before a year’s worth of contributions.***
**All donations made in partnership with Whole Systems Network**
Whole Systems Network: A national nonprofit dedicated to funneling funding to environmental grassroots causes. They do this by hosting events, providing educational trainings, and managing an online resource platform. Our main goal is to help livelihoods thrive within the movement. We are a fiscal sponsor of the Austin Permaculture Guild.
