Caitlin Bergman Creating the Permasphere
Authentic Passion
Caitlin Bergman knows permaculture.
She lives it, she feels it, and she shares her authentic passion with others in her role as designer, instructor, and lead permaculturist at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. The enthusiasm Caitlin exudes for her subject couldn’t possibly exist in a purer form. Caitlin “does permaculture all day and dreams about it at night.”
A graduate of the University of Hawaii, Caitlin earned a degree in Botany, with a focus on Ethnobotany. While at UH, she researched native forest restoration, focusing on soil seed bank and community structure studies at Lyon Arboretum. She also did a year-long study on the unusual produce found within Honolulu farmers’ markets.
Since being hired to work as a propagation specialist two years ago, Caitlin has served as interim-curator of the LA Arboretum’s Grace Kallam Garden, and is concurrently the curator and designer of both the Vegetable Garden and the Permasphere, The Arboretum’s new permaculture garden. She received a certificate in permaculture design and has become a popular spokesperson at the Arboretum.
Current projects include designing Pasadena City College’s first permaculture garden, mentoring Barnhart School (a local elementary school) with the creation of a permaculture garden to serve as a teaching tool for students, as well as creating a food forest at Chateau Colombier, a bed-and-breakfast in Provence, France. Caitlin’s largest project at the moment is the creation of the permaculture garden at the LA County Arboretum & Botanic Garden.
The Arboretum’s permaculture garden has been designed to harvest rain. The placement of this garden is deliberate. It is to serve as a water retention garden whose primary function is to capture runoff from the compost area at the Arboretum. Currently, water flows freely from the piles of cut vegetation destined for mulching and redistribution throughout the Arboretum’s many gardens. When water flows out of this area, it flows rapidly down internal access roads, through the parking lot, onto busy Baldwin Avenue, and continues down to the ocean. Now that the permaculture garden is in place, water will enter the garden and be stored in swales carved out of an area that used to be a simple patch of flat dirt. Swales are channels on contour in which water pools. The water collecting in these gentle contoured areas percolates into the soil. Barrels will also be used to harvest water. These barrels will hold both rain water and gray water. Caitlin estimates the Arboretum will be able to capture hundreds to thousands of gallons of water and reduce street runoff which is the source of 70% of all the pollution entering the ocean.
In addition to serving as a rain garden, the permaculture garden will serve as an outdoor classroom. Visitors to the Arboretum will learn how to create food forests at home and learn how to prepare the food and other useful products growing in their urban forests. There are plans to build a cob oven in the new garden and this will enable visitors to learn new green building techniques as well.
What is permaculture exactly? The word “permaculture” is derived from the word perma meaning “permanent” and the word culture which refers to human culture or agriculture. This word was created by two Australians who use it to refer to “permanent culture” and “permanent agriculture” (Hemenway, 2009). Permaculture is about sustainability. It is a systems approach to creating a sustainable landscape for humans and other animals. Permaculture isn’t about planting a specific type of plant. It is about creating an “ecological garden” (Hemenway, 2009) that encourages biological processes observed in nature. Naturally occurring events such as the accumulation of leaf litter that creates habitat for earthworms (and eventually nutrients that will be used by plants) are allowed to happen. Caitlin constantly reminds people that Mother Nature does not own a weedwacker, a rake, or a rototiller. She explains that “permaculture is about unity and support of each other and of nature. Monocrops we depend on in agriculture (and in our gardens) are forced upon nature. Because this system is working against nature, it can not be separated from herbicides, pesticides, and a tremendous amount of work.”
Caitlin is documenting the progress of the new rain garden on her blog SayPermaculture.com. She has also documented the development of the Peacock Food Forest that was created in 2008. Be sure to read about this lush forest located near the Arboretum gift shop.
Would you like to learn more about creating a sustainable homestead? Save these dates!
Los Angeles Garden Show
LA County Arboretum & Botanic Garden
April 30 – May 2, 2010
9 AM – 4 PM
Visit the Permashpere! The new permaculture garden will be open this weekend. Demonstrations, lectures, hands-on activities and cooking lessons are planned. Also, attend Caitlin’s presentation, Enter the Permasphere: Portal to Permaculture in Ayres Hall on May 1 at 2:00 PM.
Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Course
LA County Arboretum & Botanic Garden
Saturdays, May 8 – June 26, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
This 72-hr, hands-on course will cover: urban food forestry, landscape design, habitat restoration, rapid soil rebuilding, earthworks, sustainability, food production, rain and grey water use, and community integration. This course is open to anyone with an interest in sustainable, solution-based design. Cost: $200 non-refundable deposit due by May 3, 2010, plus $1000 tuition for this certificate course.
Water Harvesting
LA County Arboretum & Botanic Garden
Saturday, May 22, 2010
10am-12pm
Learn how to contour the earth to create water-collecting swales in the urban landscape. Also learn how to harvest rain water and how to use rain water and grey water at home.
Caitlin asks EE Week Readers:
How does the Earth design gardens? Do we garden like nature? If not, what could we change to garden naturally?
Literature Cited
Hemenway, Toby. 2009. Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. Second edition. Chelsea Green Publishing. Learn More
ArtPlantae Today 