Winter Solstice Newsletter 2018

Happy Winter Solstice!

Hi Folks,

Time flies, and here we are in December catching our breath from a very busy end to the year. The beautiful fall weather kept us working outside, and with a short break for the heavy rains & holiday season, we’ll be up and running again early in January.

This past year we’ve been busy with several exciting urban/suburban edible landscape installations, farm orchard plantings, keyline design work, on-going edible landscape maintenance, teaching at two local colleges, retrofitting our own home garden, and more. We’re really proud of our crew for the hard work and enthusiasm they’ve dedicated to our little business and to our clients, and we look forward to the coming year with some great projects on the horizon.

There has been so much attention in the news and on the streets about climate change and the trajectory that we are on as a keystone species, completely altering the ecologies around us. With the fires in up and down the West Coast and the smokey summer months, we felt the anxiety and the urgency in our own lives. However, as we are in a line of work that looks to actionable solutions, we can’t help but feel even more inspired by the work we are doing: planting trees, creating landscapes that make people want to be in and eat from, capturing rainwater and building soil.

That said we want to keep you up to date with some of the winter services we are offering and let you know what we’ve been up to. We also want to wish you a happy and healthy holiday season that is filled with good local food, and all the best for a fruitful New Year.

Tayler, Solara, Tim & Shannah

New Video

Check out our new video that shows a bit about what it’s like to work with us. Thanks to Aldridge Street Print and Media for capturing us and our vison.

Winter Pruning

Over the next two months, we’ll be doing winter fruit tree pruning, and so now is the time to get on our list! Send us an email with details about your trees to be pruned and we’ll put you on our schedule. Winter pruning is the best time to make structural cuts to keep trees shaped nicely for easy harvesting.

Wrapping up another teaching year.

The first year of Pacific Rim College’s Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Program was a success. Students dove deep into resilient land theory and practices, and Tayler and Solara were thrilled to be part of the teaching team. The next installment of the program begins in February and we’re looking forward to another amazing year. Check out their website to find out more information.

Tayler and Solara also co-taught the Intro to Permaculture course through the Horticulture Technician Program at the Pacific Horticulture College. Students gained hands-on experience through working in the Permaculture demo garden and were exposed to permaculture principles and ethics. We’re excited to be part of this program again in 2019. The Gardens at HCP have a lot of amazing workshops on offer so check out their website and take a visit to their beautiful site.