Author: Guild Website Admin

Our Intro to Permaculture Event Was Magical!

Posted on by Guild Website Admin

What an honor it was on Sunday meeting so many community members who showed up in support of permaculture! We had a wonderful crowd at Avo’s for the Introduction to Permaculture event presented by Patrick Padden, and there was a magical spark of minds tuning into how we can design our lives to mimic nature in fantastic ways, giving back abundantly more than what we put in. Thank you to all who joined us, and please consider registering for one of our future social events using signupgenius here. We look forward to seeing more of you this season!

Season Opener & Action Day with Mama’s Tofu

Posted on by Guild Website Admin

Join us for our season opening action day and dinner, presented by the Northern Colorado Permaculture Guild and Mama’s Tofu. Come learn about starting a fresh garden in a brand new development, working towards feeding yourself from the land, and building in water resilience to ensure healthy harvests. The Northern Colorado Permaculture Guild has been a community of helpers working to give our neighbors edible landscapes while achieving their goals for the land. Mama’s Tofu is a Fort Collins based workers cooperative making local food. Their locally made organic non-GMO tofu has been feeding the Fort Collins area since 2013, and two of their most amazing members recently moved to a new development in Severance hoping to start growing and thriving from the land while feeding themselves.

We will start at 10:30, work on establishing the garden with added compost and sheet-mulched paths, break for a light lunch, then continue installing roof runoff collection barrels until dinner is served at 5:30. If time permits there will be work installing additional paths around the site to improve accessibility.

Please bring work gloves, sun protection, and water. Please register using the signupgenius link here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4fa8aa22a1fcc52-northern Thanks!

Reap The Rewards!

Posted on by Guild Website Admin

We are about to wrap up action days at The Little Red Hen and wanted to share some shots of the work we’ve been doing, moving soil to help concentrate water while planting the food forest and enjoying the delicious meals lovingly provided by our host! There’s been a little pasture containment management (both chicken and goat escapees, thanks Tony!) experienced guidance of heavy machinery, and some beautiful super strong fencing re-established to make sure the food forest doesn’t get browsed by the animals to bare stems. Our site host Maura and roommate Tony cooked us a wonderful home cooked lunch full of locally sourced goodness like garden greens, goat cheese, and sourdough dough for the dessert pizza. Is your mouth watering yet?!

The Little Red Hen Action Days: MEET & GREET

Posted on by Guild Website Admin

Please grab a slot at the signupgenius link here: https://www.signupgenius.com/…/10C0D4FA8AA22A1FCC52…

or the snazzy one below…

Sign Up!

Permaculture designers John Anderson and Matt Fetissoff have teamed up to design a sustainable food forest at The Little Red Hen in north Fort Collins, and with the Northern Colorado Permaculture Guild are hosting workshops on topics like

  • Roof Water Runoff Systems
  • Waste Water Irrigation
  • Food Forest Set Up
  • And more!

Our first event is a meet & greet with a tour of the farm at the hosted site where we will be planning subsequent action days. Please sign up to attend (and receive the location address), bring a mask if you are unvaccinated, as well as drinks and/or snacks to share.

We can’t wait to meet you!

Welcome new guild website folks & aerial videography of our work

Posted on by Guild Website Admin

A huge thank you and welcome to all new faces who have joined the guild website! Please stay tuned on our Facebook Page for event listings or sign up when a link to a registration posting in made here. Thanks again!

  • Blake
  • Kerem Kilic
  • Bernard Hamblin III
  • Christine Noble Lehmann
  • Chandler Williams
  • Emma Smith
  • Mckinsey Whelan
  • Nicole Doyle
  • Elaine Axon
  • Ken Sagen
  • Mark Thiel
  • Gabe Riley

Check out this fantastic video made with help from some of our guild members who run a business shooting and editing aerial photography via drone! This was all shot on a previous action day helping John the Colorado Worm Man feed and harvest from his worm windrows. Thanks Michelle for the video, and thanks John for providing space to capture our hard work!

Milk Carton Beneficial Insect Hotels

Posted on by Guild Website Admin

Needs

  • Hollow plant stems from plants like Lovage or Milkweed (look for others!)
  • Milk or creamer cartons
  • Popsicle sticks, tongue depressors, or other thin wood
  • Tools
    • Pruning shears or other heavy duty cutting tools
    • Box cutter, utility knife or cutting pliers
    • Hot glue gun
    • Awl, nail, screw-hook, or outdoor-quality glue* (see note)
  • Adult supervision & creative kids
  • Electricity
  • Sturdy surface such as a fence, side of house, or post

Yields

  • Child education
  • Community outreach as an event activity add-on
  • Beneficial insect habitat
  • Decoration, novelty
  • Barter item, sale income
  • Less dependence on external pest controls
  • Waste diversion – hollow stems, milk cartons, used popsicle sticks
  • Opportunity to honor another part of the ecosystem

Instructions

  1. Begin by cutting open the carton with the utility knife 1/2 to 1/2 inch from the side edges. I find it helps to finish each corner cut until the very end of this step so the carton does not lose structural integrity, making the process harder. You should now have a hole in your carton.
  2. Wash out any remnants of a previous life from the carton and wipe it dry.
  3. Measure and cut the hollow stems until they just fit inside the carton. Try to make cuts close to any indications of segmented walls within the hollow stems.
Hollow stems are important!
  1. Stuff the carton full of the cut stems, adding in straw if needed to keep it all tightly packed. Warm up your hot glue gun.
  2. Trim the popsicle sticks with the cutting pliers to the size of small shingles and glue them to the top and sides of your carton, creating a roof and decorations.
  3. *Use an awl or a nail to punch a hole through the top ridge flap of the carton and tie a string through it. Then secure the screw-hook to a sturdy surface and hang the bug hotel at least 3 1/2 feet up from the ground. The bug hotel should not swing in the wind. Alternatively, use outdoor-quality glue to secure the bug hotel to a piece of wood which then gets mounted to the sturdy surface as needed at the same height from before.
  4. Enjoy seeing your hotel fill up with grateful beneficial insects in fall then watch them emerge in the spring, bringing ecological diversity and pest reduction as the season grows.

Additional Resources