Just got back from saying goodbye to 14 new permaculture Design Course Certificate holders who completed a 9-day course in Cashel, Co. Tipperary.
Above: Mayor of Cashel Cllr. Eddie Bennet (second from left) with course organiser Micheal of Aimsir Bia discuss a design for an educational center in Cashel town made by one iof the course design groups
The event was organised by local sustainability group Aimsir Bia and The Tipperary Institue, and supported with funding from the UK Carnegie trust
Tutors included myself (permaculture design; forest gardens; woodlands; local currencies);
Philip Quinn (stone building-
Feidhlim Harty (water and wetlands-
David Brickenden (cob building-
http://timberline-ireland.com/; and staff from the Tipperary Institute (energy and housing)
The Aimsir Bia group have already achieved a great deal in a very short period of time, including establishing allotments, school gardens and a community salad garden, and have many other community and sustainability projects in the pipeline.
Above: the Aimsir Bia salad garden
Part of the course took place in the community garden where the canopy payer of a forest garden had been planted earlier in the year with fruit and nut trees supplied by Woodkearne Nurseries. The area was mulched with cardboard and straw and groundcover plants including rubus Betty Ashburner, alpine strawberries, comfrey and herbs were planted as an understory to the fruit trees and bushes.
Other activities during the course included making charcoal; creating a cob bench; dry-stone walling; and site visits to The Apple Farm.
The course ended on Sunday with presentations by the four design groups of sites in and around Cashel The quality of the work and the variety of ideas the groups came up with was of a very high standard and the Aimsir Bia group intend to implement some of the designs in the future. Design certificates were presented by the Mayor of Cashel. A short documentary including interviews with some of the participants will be available online via the Carnegie Trust and Tipperary Institute in the future.
Below: course participants Sean Laffey and Roger Lonergan (L-R) and course organiser Kevin Healion of the Tipperary institute taking a breather on the mulch
It was a great experience for me also and a privilege to be amongst such a group of creative and talented people. Many thanks to everyone who put in such a lot of hard work to make this event possible, and good luck to all with your future endeavors.
Saturday night barbecue for the class at Michael Hickey’s house
