Midwest Permaculture

Guest Instructors
for Midwest Permaculture

As Becky and I have expand our circle of friends in the permaculture community, we have found interesting individuals who have walked unusual paths, gained unique knowledge, and have become our friends.  In order to broaden the scope of our students permaculture education, we invite 2 or more of them to join us at each course. Here is a bit about each of these inspiring individuals. We believe you will truly enjoy whomever teaches at your course.                Bill Wilson

Milton Dixon
Urban Permaculturist, Wild Edibles Forager, Internet Technology Guru

Larry Korn
Permaculturist, Editor of 'The One-Straw Revolution', Educator

Larry Korn

Larry Korn is a soil biologist, an ecological landscaper, and is the translator/editor of one of the most influential books to touch the lives of scores on natural farmers, The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka As a young man, Larry spent five years in Japan, two of those with the author, Masanobu Fukuoka, on his farm in southern Japan. He lived in one of the mud-walled huts in Mr. Fukuoka’s orchard and performed farm chores with the other workers and students, learning all he could about Masanobu's unique form of farming. Pictured below: Larry in the field with Masanobu Fukuoka

Robert Rodale	Wendell Berry	Wes Jackson	Gary Snyder

The book was finally published in 1978 by Rodale Press (Organic Gardening fame) and it created such a stir, not only as an alternative farming text but as a spiritual journey as well, that it eventually went on to be translated into 19 other languages, including French, Dutch, Italian, Hindi, and Spanish. On two occasions in the 1980's, Larry toured Mr. Fukuoka around the United States, introducing him to many farmers and students interested in his philosophy of natural-farming techniques.

Click here for more on Larry, his ecological landscaping work, and his detailed impressions of Masanobu Fukuoka.

Bill Mollison with Masanobu Fukuoka

Kate Heiber-Cobb
Suburban/Urban Permaculture Designer, Educator, Organizer

- Co-Founder of Madison Area Permaculture Guild - Holds a Permaculture Design Course Certification (PDC) with Midwest Permaculture - Holds an Advanced PDC Certification (with Midwest Permaculture as well) - Owner of Sustainability on Stilts - her own permaculture design and consulting service. Kate also has years of experience in community organizing, group facilitation and small business administration.

In her permaculture business, Kate consults with individuals, businesses and organizations on how they might apply permaculture principles and design to their upcoming projects. In her personal life, she and her husband Tom are going about transforming their traditional suburban home into a beautiful and productive site.

As a teacher, Kate shares her real life experience from being a relative permaculture novice to becoming an active and accomplished permaculture designer with her own business. She helps make the broad and sometime overwhelming subject of permaculture understandable, practical and doable. As she tells her students, "Hey, if I can do this... so can you!"

Kate is available for consulting and public presentations at very reasonable fees.

Kate and Tom reside in Madison, Wisconsin
Email: seventhheaven@mailbag.com

Vicki & Ron Nowicki
Permaculture Landscape Designers & Contractors

Vicki and Ron have made their living creating beautiful, functional and useful landscapes for clients all over Chicagoland. With 30 years of experience, they are together, an unequaled team when it comes to permaculture design in the urban and suburban landscape.

The Nowicki's will share during a design course, many tips and ideas for the suburban and urban permaculturist. If you have a few minutes, and have been fantasizing about what you might do with some property of yours, link over to Ron and Vicki's website and take a look at the pictures of their home (called Circle GardenFarm) and other properties they have designed. Below are two shots of their home and yard (sure beats a lawn). Why not produce an abundance of food, shade, beauty and wildlife habitat on the land that surrounds one's home?

Ron is a Landscape Architect with an ecological conscience and has been designing sustainable environments for over three decades. He is a veteran of over 65 orbits of the sun which is a star that is the source of almost all of our power. He has a steadfast determination to help others conserve our clearly limited natural resources, restore the biodiversity of increasingly depleted and polluted landscapes and use non-polluting current sunlight and limited ancient sunlight as creatively as possible.

He and his wife Vicki [Masters in environmental education] have designed a passive solar home/office and have nurtured an organic edible landscape for over 30 years. They see the Land Community in which we all live as the community it is and not a commodity to exploited to exhaustion. They see that instead of being caught in the web of life they are a powerful part of that web and have used their power [knowledge] to evolve a balanced and healthy living environment through cooperation with and respect for the natural world. This showcase for sustainable living yields not only safe, affordable organic food but also yields dramatic energy savings and a richness of experience not attainable with conventional design strategies. Ron's primary motivation through his designs and teaching efforts is to leave for generations to come a legacy of health, abundance and beauty on our land through ecologically intelligent choices. This legacy can indeed become a reality through careful Permaculture Design.

For a paradigm - shifting experience that will change your life, Ron and Vicki offer afternoon tours of their Gardenfarm at the end of each month.
For more information go to: WWW.LIBERTYGARDENS.COM