Hi!

After much deliberation, Steve and I have decided to reduce the frequency of workshops to once every other month. For those of you who have prepaid but who have postponed taking the workshop due to other obligations and time conflicts, please set aside the time to attend a workshop in Southern CA as soon as possible. Steve and I are planning to take Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy on the road.

We know folks are busy, overscheduled, preoccupied, and distracted. We also recognize that folks have their own processes and timing when it comes to recognizing whether Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy has value for them. There's no point to "pushing the river".

There's a system to landscape and garden success. That system happens to coincide with saving money, time, energy, and resources. It also happens to coincide with 'greening' for sustainability. Permaculture is integrated seamlessly into that system, so attendees will be receiving an introduction to permaculture without having to commit to a design course intensive. (If you happen to have already taken a design course but have encountered difficulty applying it to your context, Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy connects the dots to make permaculture more practical and usable.) To make that system work well, someone has to understand how things are connected from macro (i.e. watershed and geographic scales) to the micro (i.e. your container garden, back yard, front yard, community garden, etc.).

The choice is simple:
No context + limited understanding + "I know that already" attitude + desire for instant gratification = hit-and-miss success or failure repeated ad infinitum.

or

Context + expanded understanding + applied knowledge + willingness to learn + patience = garden & landscape success.

Here's to more connection, depth, and authenticity in your life,

Wendy Talaro, M.A.
mastermind and founder of Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy

NativeScape Development Corp. headquarters in Pacoima, CA

pt. 1 Day and Date: Saturday, June 12th
pt. 2 Day and Date: Saturday, June 19th
Time: 9A-2P both days
Address: 10849 Ralston Avenue; Pacoima, CA 91331

Additional info: Firm deadline for registration is Saturday, June 5th, no exceptions. Free residential street parking available.

Just a taste of what you will learn:

* The myriad (and surprising) ways that the quality of your life is intertwined with your local community, watershed, state, nation, and the planet and why these connections matter every day, i.e. applied systems thinking
* Ten common garden and landscape myths and misconceptions that often lead to expensive or difficult-to- remedy errors
* The one important key theme common to all high quality, ecologically literate garden and landscape design
* The steps of a systematic approach to landscape and garden project management that saves you time, money, and water while preventing wasted effort - very important for DIY homeowners and organizations on tight budgets
* How to do a site analysis and assessment within an urban/suburban context - this is fundamental to successful and site/climate appropriate garden design
* How to identify the best location(s) for your vegetable garden and what to grow now

You will benefit from attending this workshop if you are:

* Feeling stuck or confused because you're beginning a sustainable, organic garden or landscape project
* Redesigning or expanding a garden and you want specific help and guidance
* Getting rid of your lawn and not sure what to put in its place
* Designing your own rain garden, drought tolerant CA native garden, food forest, edible landscape, container or rooftop garden, or an organic vegetable garden plot
* Going crazy with ongoing garden and landscape problems and need ways to solve those problems for good
* Trying to save water, time, effort, and energy on your garden or landscape
* Yearning for more beauty in your surroundings
* Telling yourself you're a bad gardener or that you have a "black thumb"
* Doing any combination of the above

First of all, stop blaming yourself for not knowing what it would take to make your garden thrive.

No garden or landscape is indefinitely sustainable or maintenance free. Remember that sustainability is a process, not a fixed goal. Strive to become as sustainable as possible with the means you have available to do so. Baby steps are valuable precisely because they aren't as daunting!

It has been said that a "really good" gardener leaves a lot of dead plants in his or her wake due to trial and error. We shorten that learning curve (and help you save a lot of plants' lives and money) by teaching you how not to kill those plants in the first place.

If you want to learn the foundation of how to make your garden as sustainable as possible while enhancing your gardening success, register now.

Important registration information:

* Visit http://fruitstonuts.wordpress.com/workshops/ for registration details
* Bilingual instruction in English and Español with real time translation is available
* Enrollment is strictly limited on a first-come, first-served basis to 16 individuals. A minimum of 4 individuals is needed for the workshop to carry.
* This workshop is prerequisite for the site analysis practicums, Right Plants in the Right Places, and From Stumped to Pumped: Great Garden Results GUARANTEED. All of these classes build on the practical, real world material covered in Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy.

If you have further questions, please call Wendy @ 310.329.5719 or Steve at 818.302.9699, or send an e-mail to fruitstonuts@yahoo.com. Para preguntas en Español, llame Esteban, marque 818.302.9699 or coreo electronico steve@gogreennsd.com.