Rico Zook teaching the students about watersheds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe first day was the conceptual foundation of the course, and had us learning the basics in the classroom, and on day 2 we got out into the forest garden at La Bruguera and began applying what we had learned in \u201chands-on\u201d ways. We learned several \u201cappropriate technologies\u201d, for working with topography and finding level, without the need for any complex or expensive technology, as well as playing a nifty role-playing game to understand system dynamics.<\/span><\/p>\nRico demonstrating how to find level with an A-Frame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe second workshop we hosted a week later was on soil, again attracting another 18 or so people over the two days (some of the same as the water course, some new folk). We followed the same format of one day of conceptual work, and the second day practical work in the garden. Rico took us through the fundamentals of soil, the components which make up soil (air, water, organic matter, micro-organisms, minerals), the cycle by which soil is created and utilised, compost, vermi-compost (compost using a colony of worms), and the harvesting and use of indigenous microorganisms (IMOs).<\/span><\/p>\nRico unearthing some IMO cultures we pre-prepared, to show the students<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOn the second day we looked closer at IMOs, getting to see some pre \u201cmade\u201d IMO capturing technology, and their harvest. Indigenous microorganisms is another way of saying \u201clocal\u201d micro-organisms.\u00a0 These microscopic critters are invisible as individuals to the naked eye, but we \u201cattracted\u201d them in bulk to our pre-cooked rice, which we buried in bamboo pods, with only a tiny slice on each side to keep macro-organisms (like bugs) out.\u00a0 Check out how colourful they are!<\/span><\/p>\nThe colourful range of different micro-organisms who colonised the rice over the course of 2 weeks underground<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWe then cultured our IMOs, providing them with loads of food (unrefined sugar in the form of \u201cmiel de ca\u00f1a\u201d in this case. They duly multiplied, and we were able to deploy them as a foliar (leaf) spray to strengthen our plants, fight off nasties, in full knowledge that these are perfectly well-adapted organisms to our soil and water conditions (because they came from our soil to begin with).\u00a0 They can also be added to compost piles to speed up the composting process, and even – get this – put in a drain that is blocked by organic matter to chew through the blockage!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLining up a range of ingredients to make a “compost tea” – a nutritious concentrated liquid feed for plants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBeing able to host these workshops on permaculture at La Bruguera was such a pleasure, and we\u2019re so pleased they went down so well. Next year we\u2019ll likely be hosting a week-long Introduction to Permaculture Course, a Planet Positive Living course for people looking to take easy steps to lower their environmental impact, among other courses and workshops, so keep your eyes open for those to be announced! If you\u2019re in the market for a space to host a workshop, <\/span>please do get in touch<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nStay In Touch! <\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nStay up to date with permaculture courses at La Bruguera and the goings on at La Bruguera by joining our newsletter <\/span>here!<\/span><\/a> Sign up to receive a short update on what\u2019s happening at La Bruguera, recommendations from the team, and a notification when a new blog is out. We promise not to spam you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We were fortunate to host Rico Zook for a month here at La Bruguera, in November. Rico has almost three decades of experience working in the permaculture realm and is a fountain of knowledge on all things regenerative design. We met him when Mike did a water course of his at Can Lliure earlier this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,71,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-degrowth-economics","category-la-bruguera-de-pubol","category-permaculture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Permaculture courses at La Bruguera - La Bruguera<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n