Design Charrette Site - May 2009

At this moment we have stopped the charrettes for the summer as we all focus on getting our planting done. The wonderful thing is that we have the makings of some real community on the ground level with all of this.

One of our permaculture charrette members helped me to put together my mandala garden for the front yard, another helped me to plan out the location of the plants in the garden and a third member made it possible for the bulk purchase of hazelnut trees and rose bushes for the fruit tree guilds. This is community building and mutual support and interests all wrapped into one!

I went to visit a fellow charrette member Mike Lilja this past Monday (to pick up the rose bushes and hazelnuts) and was able to see the swales he has created and the planting of some of his fruit tree guilds. All that discussion around the charrette was fun and exciting, but seeing Permaculture in action is so incredibly beautiful and hopeful!

On June 21st, the summer solstice, we are planning a get together just to reconnect and talk about our adventures in permaculture since our last charrette. We will be having everyone here at our house, the location of the first charrette. Things have happened since they were last here and I am excited to think about what observations or ideas they might have.

The group is thinking of reconvening for more charrettes either this fall or early next spring.

For me, the members of the group have become friendly and familiar faces at the various PRI events, and wonderful resources for the many questions that crop up as we move forward on this journey. The charrette offered each of us the opportunity to share our joys and struggles (opportunities!) with other like-minded folks--and these are not always easy to find around us in the world today.

I think for many of us the social aspect of the charrette is more important than anything else. And people's commitment to the process was very heartening.

I have gotten a few emails since the charrettes ended for this year: new interested folks who will certainly join us at some point in the future. We are growing in our own way--comfortably and steadily, from dreams, to hopes to realities!