Pacific Rim College - Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems

We are excited for a unique opportunity to invite members of the public to participate in a community natural building day hosted by Elke Cole and students of the Permaculture and Resilient Ecosystems Program. Email [email protected] to register and join for a fun day learning how to create sustainable structures.

Do you want to study Permaculture Design at PRC?⁣
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The Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma is offered on a full-time basis (20 hours per week of study) from February through November, spanning three terms. Most of the coursework is schedule Monday through Thursday with occasional workshop intensives potentially on weekends. ⁣
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This program and all learning components include year-round outdoor learning in all weather elements and regularly includes physically demanding activities.⁣
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Admission into the Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma program is on a competitive basis. Graduates will have the distinction of having completed an unprecedented program.⁣
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Apply today through our website – www.pacificrimcollege.com
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📷 by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels⁣
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[Image description: person standing in a garden with a watering can, watering a squash plant.]⁣

Course Highlight⁣
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DLPD204 | Applied Permaculture Design⁣
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In small teams, students are paired with local residents, businesses or organizations requiring design assistance to create real-world permaculture designs. Participants apply their learnings from throughout the program to work with their clients from consultation to mapping to design and create professional packages.⁣
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Final packages consist of a written reports with review and evaluation of soil, water and plants systems, built infrastructure, energy systems, and human systems that affect the site. Recommendations for phased planning and budgeting for designs are shared. Visual maps and designs are included and consist of zone and sector drawings, as well as detailed design plans for quick fixes, retrofits and ultimate Permaculture systems.⁣
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Do you want to study Permaculture at PRC? Learn more about our School of Permaculture Design on our website – www.pacificrimcollege.com
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Photo by Pixabay from Pexels⁣
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[Image description: a fenced field with sheep, overlooking the water.]⁣

Ravenhill Herb Farm is a locally-owned permaculture-based farm overlooking the Saanich Inlet of the Salish Sea. As stewards of this 10-acre west coast oasis, the owners are dedicated to growing food using regenerative and sustainable methods that benefit both the land and quality of what they grow for their family and community. At Ravenhill Herb Farm they enjoy sharing knowledge of sustainable growing, natural animal care, and holistic practices through educational programs and tours.⁣
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Ravenhill Herb Farm also serves as a learning site for the PRC Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma Program.⁣
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Do you want to study Permaculture at PRC? Learn more about our School of Permaculture Design on our website. www.pacificrimcollege.com
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📷 from ⁣
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[Image description: Four goats in a grassy field, beside a barn.]⁣

Do you want to study Permaculture Design at PRC?⁣
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The Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma is offered on a full time basis (20 hours per week of study) from February through November, spanning three terms. ⁣
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Most of the coursework is scheduled Monday through Thursday with occasional workshop intensives potentially on weekends. This program and all learning components include year-round outdoor learning in all weather elements and regularly included physically demanding activities.⁣
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Program Length: 9 months⁣
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Hours: 720 total⁣
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Offered: Yearly beginning in February⁣
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Program Enrolment: Maximum 18 students⁣
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To apply and to learn more about the Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystem Diploma visit our website – www.pacificrimcollege.com
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📷 by Maria Naichenko from Pexels⁣
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[Image description: person standing in a field, holding a bucket of compost.]⁣

Tiny Tree Herb Farm is located near the coastal community of Brentwood Bay overlooking the Malahat. This 6-acre farm organically grows a variety of food, along with medicinal and culinary herbs, trees and mushrooms. The rich soil, spring-fed water and ample sun exposure makes it a beautiful place to grow. ⁣
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Tiny Tree Herb Farm serves as one of the learning sites for the PRC School of Permaculture Design.⁣
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Do you want to study Permaculture? Learn more about our Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma on our website – www.pacificrimcollege.com
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[Image description: Four chickens standing in the grass.]

Serving as the keystone of Pacific Rim College’s pursuit to provide world-class education and opportunities are our Deans and Directors, teaching Faculty and Staff. PRC’s teaching faculty is comprised of a diverse group of instructors with unique backgrounds and enthusiastic teaching styles. ⁣
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When possible, instructors have a terminal degree in their field of expertise and/or extensive experience. We select our instructors not only for their professional qualifications, but also for their passion and ability to inspire students. Via in-class evaluations and verbal feedback, students are integral in PRC’s decision to make instructional and curricular modifications.⁣
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Stay tuned over the coming months. We will be highlighting our amazing faculty on our Instagram so you can get a sense of who your teachers will be when you enroll at PRC!⁣
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Are you looking to study at PRC? Admissions is open. Explore our programs and submit your applications today – www.pacificrimcollege.com
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[Image description: A teacher standing at the front of a classroom, pointing at a whiteboard, while students sitting at desks observe.]

The PRC Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma is a 9-month program that provides training for participants who are interested in creating resilient and regenerative systems and lifestyles within the context of Permaculture design processes, tools, methods and strategies. ⁣
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Providing an immersive curriculum in permaculture design, this training goes above and beyond basic training. The program is the first of this caliber and scope in the world.⁣
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Do you want to study Permaculture? Visit our website to learn more about our Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma – www.pacificrimcollege.com

"Sarah Queblatin suggests that before we start to ‘observe and interact’ – permaculture principle no. 1 – we need to step right back and honour local knowledge, seeking consent from people and place."

Decolonising Permaculture Sarah Queblatin suggests that before we start to ‘observe and interact’ – permaculture principle no. 1 – we need to step right back and honour local knowledge, seeking consent from people and place.

The PRC Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma is a 10-month program that provides training for participants who are interested in creating resilient and regenerative systems and lifestyles within the context of the Permaculture design processes, tools, methods and strategies.⁣
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Providing an immersive curriculum in permaculture design, this training goes above and beyond basic training and includes courses in:⁣
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🌿Foundational Permaculture concepts including:⁣
•Ethics and principles and Indigenous perspectives⁣
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🌿Pattern literacy including:⁣
•Mapping and design methods⁣
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🌿Ecological literacy including:⁣
•Mushrooms, plants & animals, soils, water, ecological restoration, bioremediation and herbalism⁣
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🌿Design literacy including:⁣
•Organizational planning, governance, economy, community building & development, facilitation, natural building and applied design.⁣
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The Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems program is one of the highest caliber and greatest scope in the world.⁣
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To learn more about the program and to apply, visit our website - www.pacificrimcollege.com
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Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels⁣
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[Image Description: person crouching on a rock pathway in front of a garden and grassland.]

"We can shorten the food supply chain by producing food locally; doing so is much more land efficient and it allows us to return some land to natural systems."

The B.C. floods are a mere hint of what climate change could do to the food supply - Macleans.ca Barren store shelves will refill, and farmers will rebound in the short term, says food security expert Lenore Newman. But the system just can't take disaster after disaster.

Graduates of the PRC Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma program have the distinction of having completed an unprecedented program. They are poised to be leaders in the permaculture realm and seek employment as permaculture designers, in greenhouse/nursery management, in a horticulture and/or sustainable agriculture business, in herbal medicine production and processing, as a natural building apprentice, and in sustainable community development.⁣⁠
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What graduates are saying:⁣⁠
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“My experience in the Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma has been life altering in the best ways. The way I look at the world, at our ecosystems and at our history as individuals and a society has forever been changed. The value of understanding regenerative farming, sustainable practices and how to thrive while practicing permaculture principles are priceless. I am grateful for all of the instructors that share their passions with us and continue to plant seeds of inspiration and knowledge for a brighter future.”⁣⁠
––Nikki Wilkinson, Alumnus⁣⁠
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To learn more about the Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Diploma, visit our website. www.pacificrimcollege.com
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Photo by munzelminka from Pixabay⁣⁠
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[Image description: 3 chickens grazing in the grass behind a barn]⁣

An inspiring video of what a year's worth of food looks like in preparation for winter.

Our YEARS worth of FOOD! | Root Cellar Tour (full & complete!) | Food Storage Come along on my root cellar tour - here's what our years worth of food looks like! Now that it's finished, we were finally able to take you through the enti...

"Urban permaculture can be charming, productive, sustainable, delicious and beautiful".

Garden to table: A fresh approach to urban gardening Urban permaculture can be charming, productive, sustainable, delicious and beautiful

Are interested in studying permaculture? The PRC Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems Program is the first of its caliber and scope in the world.⁣
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This 9-month diploma program provides training for participants who are interested in creating regenerative food systems and lifestyles within the context of the development of resilient ecosystems. It provides robust curriculum in permaculture design, going above and beyond basic permaculture training while also including courses in business planning and project management, community development, natural building, and food and medicine systems.⁣
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This program is offered yearly beginning in February. 2021 and 2022 programs are full, but enroll today to secure your spot in our next available program. Visit our website to apply. www.pacificrimcollege.com
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Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash ⁣
⁣[Image description: green plants in brown wooden planter boxes]

"Chris and Stef jumped into self-sufficiency last year when they decided not to buy groceries for an entire year, including staples like salt, sugar, coffee, and flour! Instead, they've been growing, catching, raising, and harvesting 100% of their food supply on a small 1/2 acre homestead."

Homesteading Couple Hasn’t Bought Groceries in a Year of Self-Sufficient Living Chris and Stef jumped into self-sufficiency last year when they decided not to buy groceries for an entire year, including staples like salt, sugar, coffee, ...

Are you looking to further your education? We have a wide variety of Continuing Education options in the form of workshops, and online courses and programs.⁣⁠⁠
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Take part in a weekend workshop on campus at the college or enjoy the self-paced online studies through . We have topics ranging from Acupuncture and TCM, Bodywork and Holistic Nutrition, to Natural Building, Herbal Medicine, Doula Support, and more.⁣⁠⁠
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Explore our website at www.pacificrimcollege.com or www.pacificrimcollege.online
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[Image description: Person watching a video entitled ‘Herbs For Fertile Years’ on an iPad]

Do you grow your own squash? If not you might be inspired by Hatchet & Seed] to start – we sure are!⁣
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As they explain, “winter squash is a food security powerhouse. Many of our ancestors understood this very well. Last season we grew enough for 2 years (plus many to sell and give away). Many are still perfectly fresh, stored on our living room book shelves since October of last year. These three are a sample of what’s left from last season: Queensland, blue, tromboncino, and black futsu.”⁣
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photo: Hatchet & Seed]

In July, the Pacific Rim College Permaculture students helped out with harvesting lavender at Bilston Creek Farm in Metchosin. The field was buzzing with bees and the students had a blast learning about harvesting, drying, and processing this incredible herb.

The farm grows various types of lavender for culinary, medicinal, and body care uses. The lavender is incorporated into products made at the farm including syrup, lip balm, tea blends, soaps, and bath salts!

They also learned about how to use a copper alembic still for making herbal hydrosols and essential oils.

Thanks to Bilston Creek Farm for the invitation!

If you’re a spinach fan and like to grow it in your garden, we came across this great tip from West Coast Seeds 🌱Grow Organic] for Coastal gardeners:⁣
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“We think the trick to the absolute best spinach is to direct sow seeds in the this week in August. These will mature for light picking in the fall, and then the plants die back when the cold weather arrives. The following March, when it’s still cool at night, the spinach plants will re-emerge and provide the cleanest, pest-free, freshest spinach ever.”🍃⁣
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Looks like we’ll be planting some spinach in the next week or so! Do you have any fool-proof, late summer gardening tips? Share them below – we’d love to give them a try.⁣
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photo: West Coast Seeds 🌱Grow Organic]

A new month is always exciting, especially in the summer, because it means there is new produce in season. ⁣
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August is amazing for local produce because the weather brings on an abundance of some of our favourite vegetables and lots of fruit!⁣
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What’s in season on Vancouver Island in August:⁣
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apples, apricots, beets, blackberries, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cherries, corn, cucumber, garlic, kale, leek, lettuce, melons, mushrooms, nectarines, onions, parsnip, peaches, pears, peppers, plums, potatoes, radish, raspberries, rhubarb, shallots, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes, turnip, zucchini.🍐🍓🌽🥦⁣

Are you having trouble keeping up with the surplus of herbs from your garden?🌿⁣
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Olive oil and herb ice cubes are the perfect way to preserve those herbs and reduce waste! Just chop up your extra herbs––measuring them out if you’d like even portions––and top with olive oil. Once they’re frozen, pop out the ice cubes and store them in a freezer safe bag or container.⁣
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The ice cubes are great for using throughout the winter when fresh herbs are no longer in season. Just pop them right into your cooking and voila! They’re so much better than the flavourless, out-of-season herbs you’ll find at the grocery store after the summer months.⁣
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Who has given this method a try?🌿

Honeybees are such fascinating creatures – don’t you agree? Queen & Colony Bee Co.] describes the incredible process of how honeybees make honeycomb:⁣
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“honeycomb is essentially where the honeybee makes its home. It is made from wax that is secreted from the bee’s abdomen. It is then chewed with saliva making it a suitable building material. The bees then form the wax into hexagonal cells where the queen lays eggs and the foragers store nectar and pollen. Honeycomb is an amazing feat of engineering as well as a delicious treat!”🐝⁣
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Did you know that is how honeycomb is made?🍯⁣
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photo: Queen & Colony Bee Co.]

Red Cedar Garden Cafe + PRC

The Pacific Rim College Permaculture class of ’21 collaborated with the Red Cedar Cafe to create an inviting and educational community garden located at 1900 Douglas Street, Victoria, BC.

The garden will supply the cafe with fresh herbs, edible flowers, and vegetables for the daily meals they serve to those in need. The inviting garden will also provide an opportunity for volunteers and local residents to learn about growing food and herbal medicines.

The Red Cedar Cafe is a non-profit meal program for people in need, fueled by volunteers and mutual aid. The organization provides food to those that need it most, including low-income people, seniors, and people living with disabilities. The Red Cedar cafe offers meal delivery, a pay-what-you-can cafe model, and a free food table outside of the restaurant.

This project was led by the Pacific Rim College instructors Liza Couse and Kym Chi with help from Jessica Ash and Liz Maze from Red Cedar. The beautiful garden boxes were built by Interactive Construction. The garden was made possible by the generous donations and contributions of community members, local businesses, and the exuberant students that designed and implemented the project.

Some plants in the garden:
Native perennials: Oregon grape, bearberry, yarrow, gumweed
Edible flowers: borage, calendula, nasturtium, viola
Herbs: rosemary, sage, lavender, holy basil, skullcap, California poppy, lemon balm, mint, basil, oregano, dill, cilantro, parsley
Vegetables +: tomatoes, hot peppers, lettuce, bok choi, strawberries

Thank you to everyone involved!

Do you compost? Compost is a simple way to decrease food waste and create beautiful, rich, nutrient-dense plant food for your yard and garden. It is however, important to now what should and should not go into you compost bin in order to have a successful compost and to avoid problems such as pests, unpleasant smells, and more.⁣
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Avoid adding:⁣
•Oils, fats, bread products, rice and pasta, sauces, dairy products, nuts, fish and meat, or bones.⁣
•Human waste, animal faces, kitty litter.⁣
•Weeds with mature seeds.⁣
•Treated wood products containing harmful chemicals.⁣
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Add:⁣
Alternate layers of nitrogen-rich greens (vegetables scraps, decomposing fruit, coffee grounds, tea leaves) and carbon-rich browns (dry leaves, grass and plant stalks, shredded newspaper or brown paper, cut up cardboards and other paper products like unbleached paper towel or napkins).⁣
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Did you know you can also add rinsed and crushed eggshells, pet hair (to help deter rodents) and dryer lint from biodegradable fibres like organic cottons (not synthetics)?⁣
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Do you have any helpful composting tips? If so, leave them below and help spread the joys of composting!🍃🍂🌿

Is your garden suffering through the extreme heat? Here are some great tips on the best ways to care for your plants in these temperatures.

Beating the Heat: Protect Plants From Heat Stress Just like us, plants need special care in extreme heat. Check out these tips to keep the garden cool and protect plants from heat stress.

It’s our favourite time of year – Farmer’s Market season! We’re headed into some of the most bountiful months when it comes to fresh produce and we can’t wait to spend our weekends taking in all of the bright colours and fresh smells of the fruits and veggies at our favourite local markets.⁣
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What’s in season on Vancouver Island in June?⁣
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•asparagus⁣
•beets⁣
•broccoli⁣
•carrots⁣
•cauliflower⁣
•celery⁣
•cucumber⁣
•fennel⁣
•garlic⁣
•kale⁣
•lettuce⁣
•mushrooms⁣
•green onion⁣
•peas⁣
•potatoes⁣
•radish⁣
•rhubard⁣
•saskatoon berries⁣
•spinach⁣
•strawberries⁣
•swiss chard⁣
•turnip⁣
•zucchini⁣
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Which ones are you most looking forward to?⁣

One of the most satisfying ways fo growing a fruit tree is by propagating your own. Propagating by cuttings can be one of the fastest ways of starting a new fruit tree.

Michael Feldmann describes how to propagate fruit trees and bushes, and the ideal natural ingredients to boost growth of cuttings, including honey, cinnamon and willow water.

Beginner's Guide to Propagating Fruit Michael Feldmann describes how to propagate fruit trees and bushes, and the ideal natural ingredients to boost growth of cuttings, including natural honey, cinnamon and willow water.

Happy Earth Day – a day that should be honoured and celebrated every single day of the year! As a college, Pacific Rim is committed to preserving the environment and promoting natural and sustainable medicinal and lifestyle practices.🌍⁣
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Our Environment Commitments include:⁣
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🌿Sustainable Medicines⁣
The holistic medical practices we teach and encourage are gentle on the environment through the use of organic products, local sourcing, responsible packaging and minimal waste. By integrating modern and traditional medicine practices, we are endeavouring to ensure that ancient knowledge will not be lost and consumption of toxic pharmaceutical by products will be kept to a minimum.⁣
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🌿Sustainable Living⁣
With an unparalleled yearlong program in Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems, PRC is paving the way for sustainable land stewardship and environmentally friendly building practices.⁣
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🌿Environmental Stewardship⁣
PRC maintains the green standard of eco-certification with the Vancouver Island Green Business Certification and is a Surfrider Approved business. Beginning in 2015, PRC initiated a project to plant trees for every graduate and now has a partnership with onetreeplanted.org to plant 10 trees per graduate.⁣
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🌿Alternative Energy⁣
Our Victoria campus is Bullfrog Powered. Bullfrog Power is Canada’s 100% green energy provider.⁣
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🌿Recycling and Composting⁣
Our Victoria campus is fully equipped with recycling receptacles and compost bins. We even recycle soft plastics. All herbs dispensed from our organic herbal dispensary are done so in compostable bags or recyclable glass containers.⁣
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🌿Upcycling⁣
Almost any time we do a campus renovation or expansion, or simply need a piece of furniture, we source upcycled materials and give them new life.⁣
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🌿Natural Cleaners⁣
We proudly support and use Clean Conscience Natural Aromatherapy and Cleaning Products.⁣
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🌿Low Impact⁣
We minimize our print material as much as possible and use recycled and FSC certified papers when we do print.⁣
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🌿Thinking Local ⁣
We support many local, ethical and eco companies including upcyclers, herbal companies, superfoods, suppliers, and grocers.⁣

We’ve heard of starting seeds in egg cartons, empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls and makeshift newspaper pots, but the idea of using ice cream cones as seed starting pots from is one we haven’t seen before.⁣⁣
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“They can be planted directly in the ground and they’re 100% biodegradable”.⁣
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We know what we’ll be trying to plant our seeds in this year! Comment below if you have any other brilliant seed planting ideas we might not know about.🌱⁣⁣
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Photo:

Have you ever been curious about what gives eggs their different colours?⁣
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beautifully explains the answer to this common question. Check out her page for all kinds of rainbow egg, chicken and farm life inspiration.⁣
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“Egg color is determined by genetics. All eggs start out white (calcium carbonate) in the reproductive tract. Depending on the genetics of a hen, she will deposit pigments onto the egg as it travels through her oviduct. Some don’t deposit any pigments. The entire journey for one egg through the oviducts takes about 26 hours.⁣
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Genetic difference in pigments, and crossing of breeds create varied shades and colors! Pink, plum, grey, and purple eggs are possible for mixes! Because egg colors are controlled by so many genes, they won’t always be consistent and may “wax and wane” over time.⁣
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Furthermore, bloom, the very last protective layer deposited onto the egg, can change the color too! White to pink, brown to plum and purple, blue and green to grey!”⁣
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Thank you, Amanda, for this wealth of information!⁣
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Photo:

If you need a bit of guidance on when to start planting certain seeds for your garden, take a look at these helpful regional planting charts from West Coast Seeds.

Regional Planting Charts It takes a lot of work to perfect the planting charts included here. To create these charts, we look at clusters of the most common average frost dates for a given area and estimate how many weeks make sense to plant seeds before or after the last frost. It’s a bit tricky, and it’s all about ave...

We’re in complete awe of this incredible photo taken by . Check out her page for more amazing bee photography and bee education!🐝⁣
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As Hilary explains, these bees are “festooning”.⁣
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“This is one of my favourite honey bee behaviours. Bees do this when they are building a new comb. They hang on to each other like little acrobats.”⁣
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Isn’t nature spectacular!?🐝⁣
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Photo:

Watch this video and learn how Liz Zorab turned 0.8 acres of compacted pasture into a bountiful and wildlife-friendly homestead.

Organic Self Sufficiency with Liz Zorab / Growing a nutrient-rich, abundant garden on a small budget Liz Zorab from Zorab - Byther Farm shares how she's turned 0.8 acres of pasture into a bountiful and wildlife-friendly smallholding.The transformation...

We’re so excited about this brilliant tip that we came across from . Most of us could probably use a little spring pick-me-up like this right about now.⁣
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“Did you know a fun way to bring the spring indoors a bit early is by placing bulbs in vases or jars and adding water? They can be rooted and ready to bloom before your outdoor plants are ready to go!”⁣
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Have you ever given this technique a try? And how stunning is this hyacinth flower?⁣
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photo:

A beginners guide to vermicomposting: the use of earthworms to convert organic waste into fertilizer.

Vermicomposting for Beginners - Rodale Institute Vermicomposting, or worm composting, produces a rich organic soil amendment containing a diversity of plant nutrients and beneficial microorganisms.