The 180 acres of mixed agroforestry, orchards, and construction bamboo at Whispering Winds is truly inspiring. It was great meeting the crew there, and getting to know the property. We had an intensive week of lectures focused around water catchment, natural building, site design, bio-dynamics, and grafting.
We learned how to air-layer for tree propagation, which is when you cut of about an inch of the bark from a branch and then wrap it in coconut coir and foil. The removal of the bark prohibits nutrients from traveling back down from the canopy to the roots, and the “skinned” area starts to produce roots. This type of propagation is useful for hybrid trees that don’t produce seeds. We also learned about whip, side veneer, bud, and wedge grafting. Jayanti, who is a talented arborist and grafter, was our special guest teacher this week. He has an alternative education history, and it was great to learn through his lens.
We went with him to Stephan Reeves property, where we recieved an excellent tour of Steph’s property and also fell a giant mango tree. Stephan does a lot of work with Jayanti in Kapahulu village, working on village design and management. I spoke with Stephan about possibly working together in the future for an ILC contract focused on village systems design. I am currently working on an agroforestry project in Uganda, and Steph has worked extensively in the country’s northern states. Maui has a way of bringing like minded people together.
I went to a popular locals swimming hole, and met Mara. Mara is the farm manager for the White Center Food Bank back in Washington. I actually live in White Center, and am excited to get to work with her on a new design for the upcoming garden expansion. We will be planning a 2 acre permaculture garden together. It’s amazing how all of this knowledge is starting to open doors for the future.
It was a great week, and I can’t believe that the PDC course is coming to an end soon. I’ve made a lot of good friends down here, and I hope to work with most of them in the future. I definitely am going to recommend this winter program to all my friends back at TESC!