John Valenzuela is a horticulturist, consultant, and permaculture educator.

He has been a lead permaculture design course teacher at the Bullock Family Homestead in Orcas Island, Washington, for 10 years, also having taught in Costa Rica and throughout urban and rural California. His special interests are home gardens, plant propagation, rare fruit, food forests, agroforestry, ethnobotany, and native ecosystems.

After living in Hawai’i for 15 years, he is now based in his original home state of California, where he maintains ornamental and edible landscapes and a small nursery, while sharing his passion for plants. John has served as the chairperson for the Golden Gate Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers Association.

2016 Convergence Workshop: Access the abundance of edible plant diversity: from backyard to global resources

Permaculture is “site specific”. Are the important characteristics of “a permaculture garden” circular lines, or things that might be more difficult to express in sound bites? We’ll take a participatory look at what are likely to be common characteristics for most permaculture gardens, no matter what the climate or resource base may be. We hope to help participants achieve clarity in how to take their garden to the next level, whether they are already gardening or planning their first.

A 20 minute intro: wild gardening defined, including ethnobotany and crop diversity, native allies, staple crops, hand tools, nitrogen and micronutrients, and compost, then ten minutes for feedback and questions, then the group will physically layout a small intensive garden using a proven fast, foolproof method. Then we’ll process the whole thing, taking the permaculture principles as a guide to review.

Presented By: Rick Valley