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COLLECTING INFORMATION

This began with the initial phone call from Dee, so, it was an informal chat where she explained a little bit about the garden project & why they would like to do a Permaculture workshop.

I reflected on this & put together a short questionaire in an email for Dee & another key member of the project:

 

 

Vision: Could you outline again what you are hoping the workshop to be/cover. What are you hoping to acheive with the workshop? What do you want to get out of it? What are the main aims from the point of view of the group & what could be most useful to you guys given the time frame.

Site: What resources do you have available, re: spaces (I know you've no permanent shelter, you mentioned other options though) & tools, Could you send me the name of the garden again & a link to the photos & maybe a map?

People: And how many people would you expect? And what are their experiences (a rough guide!) in permaculture, growing, etc 

 

A Summary of the information I got back from Dee:

Clients:

Vision: An introduction to Permaculture, What we can do with the sie, A gardening focus.

People: There would be about 10-12 people, Most don't know about Permaculture

Site:

Shelter: Nearby Dublin City Council office, but would like to b onsite if at all possible,

2 raised beds, walls, small space

Schedule: Come on Friday evening for a look at the space, have dinner together, workshop 10-1 saturday

Dee also confirmed that they could pay me e100 for coming & giving the workshop.

 

 

Edge, & Integrate rather than Segregate:

I also joined the group's  facebook page and introduced myself & began some discussion there by posting a link

to Guerras urban permaculture garden video.

 

Additional Documents Workshop outline: aims, learning outcomes, schedule.

                                          Site Observation Worksheets

                                          Workshop Handouts

I was contacted by a friend, Dee, who was a part of the core team of a new community garden in Dublin. She asked if I could lead a short workshop of “permaculture basics” with a group of the members to “make the allotment, more than just an allotment”. Dee said the group wanted to incorperate Permaculture into the garden, generate some ideas of how to use the small space & make a plan for the development of the site.

They had some funding available to pay for a workshop, and a preference for Saturday the 10th November, They also preferred that it would be a short morning workshop rather than a whole day.

 

Design Methods:

I wanted to really integrate the permaculture principles fully so I I used CEAP(E) which has a specific focus on 'applying principles': Collect Information, Evaluate, Apply Principles, Plan, Evaluate...

 

Tools Used:

C: Client Interview, Informal chat, Online research, Reading research, 

E: Wild design, Analysis of boundaries & resources

A: Brainstorming, Mindmaps,

P: Base Map; Overlays, Work Plan, Randown Assembly, Brainstorming, Mindmaps,

E: 4 Action Learning Questions

EVALUATION

I considered the Resources & the Constraints of myself, and of  what I knew of the community garden project.

 

My resources: I had 10 days until the course, and could forsee giving 1hour/day to working on it so 10 hours in total. Plenty of previous teaching plans, teaching resources , teaching tools, feedback from other workshops, practical experience....

My constraints: Other ongoing projects (time), Tendency to procrasinate,Safety/Comfort zone of teaching, Transport; no car.

 

Garden Project Resources: Interested people, Funding, Allotment, DCC Office, raised beds in place, facebook page,

Garden Project Constraints: Possiblity of small group, Not much knowledge of Permaculture, Tiny space, No available shelter onsite, limited timeframe for the workshop.

 

 

....leading to Functions

 

Multiple Functions The workshop and the preparation could & should do many things:

 

For the Community Garden Group & Project: See it through a Permaculture Lens, Make a Draft plan for the space, & fire it up!

 

For Individual Participants: Get a taste of Permaculture, Are Inspired, Empowered, & Included.

 

For me: Learning: Improve my teaching (planning, delivery, energy), Explore Urban Permaculture, Create a Diploma design, & Livelihood: contribute to & enhance my livelihood.

APPLYING Permaculture Principles & Ethics

I used alot of the principles....

 

 

Why?

Workshop Design

Workshop Content

Pattern to detail

Energy efficiency,

To avoid getting lost in details, (planning & delivery)

To share replicable tools

To have it as a diploma design

To use my time efficiently

See image

Use Principles

Identify learning outcomes & work in from there,

Use a design process to guide workshop

explore in terms of patterns: sectors, principles

Distill Principles to have 5 or 6 general ideas rather than 12

Multiple Function

For efficient use of a short time (& money, attention, availability...)

Learning: Improve my teaching (planning, delivery, energy), Explore Urban Permaculture, Create a Diploma design,

&Livelihood: Contribute to & enhance my livelihood,

See it through a Permaculture Lens, Make a Draft plan for the space, & fire it up!

 

Get a taste of Permaculture, Are Inspired, Empowered, & Included.

Produce A yield &

Catch and store energy

To make it worthwhile!

Income & learning for me,

Share with others (not at the workshop) through blog post,

Identify clear learning outcomes,

Create a draft plan for the garden space, A gathering of & record of ideas, Inspiration, Learning about Permaculture,

Integrate rather than Segregate

To support & strengthen the group formation/growth,

Include others who can't make it

Communicate with Dee/Peadar to get their thoughts/vision

Interact on their facebook page pre-w/s to break the ice,

Onsite

Practical, learning through doing, sharing & reflecting,

Tutor as a guide; collaborative process “initiate the learning process then ge out of the way”!

Edge

To be inclusive,

to be most productive in a small space

To encourage creativity & new ways of thinking & seeing,

Write a blog review about the w/s

Use voice recorder on phone to note ideas when on the go

 

Diversity &

Imagination

To have an enjoyable , memorable workshop

To encourage creativity & new ways of thinking & seeing,

Revisit TOT notes

Use principles to design workshop

take risks!

Be explicit about aims,

Creative

Interactive

Question based learning,

Engage multiple learning styles

Be unusual

Multidimensional thinking: space, time, garden “edges”, movement.

Small Appropriate scale

Tiny space

& Short timeframe

Work from Pattern to detail (see above)

 

Achievable aims: clear L.O's

Focus on solutions for small spaces & principles which particularly support this, eg: stacking, integration,

Multidimensional thinking: space, time, garden “edges”, movement.

 

Relative location

Energy & space efficiency

Urban micro-climate environment...

Do some research on urban strategies,

 

Highlight this principle: with an activity

 

Stacking

Tiny space: productivity

 

Highlight this principle

 

Accept feedback

To keep in tune with the “system”, the group, needs, opportunities as they arise,

To meet the real needs

Communicate with Dee/peadar, during design process, ask for their ideas, reflec back plans etc

Questionning approach, lots of check in opportunities,

Have a support facilitator,

Earth care

To be sustainable and expand thinking

 

Highlight the Ethics,

People care

To be inclusive in the w/s and in the design and thinking of the group,

Pre communication with particpipants about what to bring/expect; email, facebook

Stay with Dee the night before,

Tea!

Check in opportunities,

 

Fairshare

To be sustainable

Share info on blog,

Get paid enough to cover my costs; travel, food, (& possibly a bit more?)

Share design with other pc teachers

 

 

 

PLANNING

 

I developed design solutions using brainstorming from the main functions (see slideshow above) together with considering the key principles (table above). And I also had been wild designing along the way.

 

Working from Pattern to Detail

 

Learning Outcomes: I clarified the learning outcomes of the w/s 

 

System 1/base map: I decided to use the format of a guided collaborative design process (DDEAP -see below) as a framework for the w/s. This would get to the required 'draft plan' and at the same time learn -through doing- some basics of permaculture design.

 

System 2/Overlay 1: An adaptation of the principles into 5 or 6 main ideas which will guide us through the w/s (see images in slideshow below)

 

System 3/Overlay 2: I overlayed this with the detail of learning about techniques for food growing, community building, & urban permaculture.

 

Elements: I then played around, with the elements I wanted to include in a sort of random assembly style,

eg: Ethics, Principles, Planning, Design, Practical Techniques etc until I had a rough outline of the workshop content,

 

 

Implementation plan:

I made a rough work plan/to do list, working backwards from the course date.

  • Draft plan: What to include, Timings, Resources needed,

  • Send to Dee/Peadar for feedback (at least 1 week before w/s)

  • Session detail

  • Interact on their facebook group page (Monday before w/s)

  • Gather resources (Friday)

  • Travel to Dublin (Friday afternoon)

  • Visit garden

  • Dinner with Dee

  • Saturday a.m.... w/s starts at 10 am.

 

EVALUATION

 

Participants/Organisers:

I didn't do a formal assesement with the participants as the w/s was so short,

We all went for some tea & luch afterwards though so I did get to have a chat with them, continue the flow of ideas, learn from each other & assess how they found the workshop.

They were all very happy with what we had acheived & felt it had been a worthwhile, if very cold mornings work!

 

Participant Comments: Feel like we have a direction & some next steps, Great to be all on the same page with a shared vision, excited about getting the plan into place on the ground,

 

Myself: I evaluated the w/s soon after...

 

What went well?

Process:

  • Focus on collecting information from various sources, together with open communication beforehand, -clarification of vision & expectations of the clients,

  • Focus on 'pattern to detail' kept the workload manageable and I think it improved the quality of the design.

  • Dividing functions into categories; simplifying things,

  • I liked the CEAP process; having a specific time to focus on eppying the principles to me means the design becomes more 'permaculture'. On the other hand, it could do with an extra E for evaluate on he end.

  • Collaborating; Having Danny my boyfriend there as a 'planter' of sorts, for support, honest feedback, taking photos, & throwing in the odd creative suggstion so as they don't always come from me really helped alot. And again, sommunication/collaboration with clients.

  • Starting small; a small focussed design which felt manageable & I had time to be creative with i because I wasn' under pressure.

Content

  • I really enjoyed it! Working with really nice genuine people, sharing knowledge, experience & inspiration felt really good & I felt supported in the work., I was humbled to be invited to share these skills with people who are engaged in positive community activism. I appreciated thelessons I've learnt so far which gave me the skills to do this effectively.

  • The design process structure

  • Giving partcipants the chance to do it themselves, facilitating their own design, they felt ownership of it, creative teaching methods paid off!

  • Me going around & spending time with each pair or group to check in, support & keep them focussed

  • Working with an open & focussed group who are all up for learning, finding solutions & participating. And in a situation where they are ready to put this into action straight away so it's real applied learning. I felt a part of the group rather than a teacher. At the beginning of my diploma pathway I identified one goal to work with groups who are working on a project, to design with them & guide them using permaculture design, So I am really happy that i am finally doing this! Was like the participants were leading the workshop, I was steering,

  • Intense learning, short workshop

  • Allowing at leat 20 min in the plan for people to arrive in the morning.

  • Adapted principles cards worked well,

  • Worksheets worked well,

  • Positive & temporary graffiti!

  • Visiting the site the day before,

  • Staying with Dee, -comfy, nearby, relaxed, get to spend time with a friend, background of the project.

 

What was challenging?

Process

  • The evaluating part: Aside from assessing Boundaries & Resources I don't know what else I could have used here to help evaluate the needs of the design.

 

Content

  • The weather: Personally, I was well wrapped up but some people were very cold.

  • Initial set up: the gazebo wasn't ideal shelter from the wind, & the makeshit whiteboard was a bit messy, & we got started quite late as people drifted in.

  • Dreaming about Permaculture in my sleep the night before,

  • Last minute clarification of goals from one organiser, good to get it but would've been better earlier on in the preparation!

  • Not exactly challenging but I could have had more design patterns to hand giving precise examples eg: pathways,

  • In group & pair work people tend to drift off & talk about other things!

  • The money aspect, it wasn't exactly challenging but by the time i take travel time & costs & preparation time into account I earnt a pretty optimistic e3/hour.

  • At times I am hesitant to cut across people who are telling long irrelevant stories :-)

     

Long term vision:

Process:

  • I feel this design has come a long way from some of my earlier work, partly the conditions were amenable & tha makes things alot easier.

Content:

  • To adapt more of my workshops to a learning-by-doing format,

  • To get to teach more workshops, short & long,

  • To be reimbursed a bit more in some way, financially or otherwise and/or to spend less time in preparation.

 

What could be better next time?

Process:

  • Explore the resources better & really try to get hold of all clients early on in the design process eg: if we knew we had access to inside the container it could have saved us putting up the gazebo, 

Content:

  • I did notify people on their group facebook page about wrapping up warm but an email would also help, perhaps sent through an organiser

  • Meditate, or something before I sleep the night before,

  • Ask for travel costs to be covered/contributed to (seperately)

  • Group/pair work: keep going around & give people more ideas, & suggestions, keep them focussed, don't assume they are doing it!

  • Have some tools at the ready for bringing people back to the issue at and when there is a storyteller on the go.

  • Anticipate questions.... & have the relevant info to hand.

 

Next achievable steps:

  • Write a review/overview of the w/s & put on my blog, & send link to those who are involved & other interested parties, via social media & email.

  • Sort SEO on the website, so that people can find me,

  • Compile list of organisations, sites, individuals who may be interested in hosting p.c workshops, & contact the with offers & my website

  • Sort out all my teaching notes & resources!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

​

 

 

Finally, I self assesed this design (click here) against the diploma criteria using the tutors individual assesment form.

Design Notes: 1/2 day Practical workshop in Permaculture Design

Blarney Park Community Garden, Dublin

November 2012

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