A permablitz is an informal gathering involving a day on which a group of people come together to create or add to edible gardens, share skills related to permaculture, build community and have fun! Anyone and everyone can come to a permablitz. Skill level and even physical capacity aren’t problems at all. We especially welcome budding permaculturists or gardeners. Just come and contribute any way you are able.
Come out to the farm and help us begin the installation of the FIRST edible forest garden in Naperville! The design covers a 130′ x 40′ existing tree line behind the Clow Education Center on McDonald Farm. It includes swales, berms, hugelkultur, rain gardens, mandala garden, metal igloos and arbors, stone and wooden bridges, and a lot of planting!
These will be days of learning, working, eating, community building, and fun. Food, water and iced tea will be prepared by us, but we welcome others to bring something to share.
For all of the details, click on the dates below and then register so we know you are coming! Looking forward to meeting you
Sunday, October 27th - Tree and bulb planting, sheet mulching
Saturday, September 14th - Swales, berms, hugulkultur
Saturday, September 28th - swales, berms, spillways, tree holes and Sheet mulching
Many of us have such abundance and live in areas where neighbors appear to be doing fine, but looks can be deceiving. According to the Northern Illinois Food Bank, 1 in 8 of your neighbors face hunger. Loaves and Fishes, a Naperville based food pantry, reports that 10.3% of DuPage County residents (nearly 100,000 people) are food insecure and has seen a 780% increase in groceries distributed from 2008-2013.
Much of the food provided by food banks and pantries is processed, which is often unhealthy and contributes to obesity. But they are working to add more fresh produce and locally grown options through community gardens, donations, and partnerships with local farmers.
The Resiliency Institute wants to do more than grow food to donate to food banks and pantries. We want to grow food security using permaculture. By replacing lawns with edible forest gardens and food forests, incorporating food forests into public parks and along public pathways, fresh fruits, nuts, and vegetables become abundant, free and available to everyone.
Michelle's Edible Forest Garden (May 2013)
Are you wondering what an edible forest garden or a food forest is? We have designed and installed a demonstration residential forest garden (14’x25’) in Naperville and are in the process of installing an edible forest garden (135’x40’) on The Conservation Foundation’s McDonald Farm.
Get involved growing food security by volunteering, donating materials or funds, or sponsoring the McDonald Farm Edible Forest Garden. You can also take our upcoming Food Forest Workshop to learn about permaculture, how to design, and get hands-on experience.
Together we can grow our way to food security.
We are designing and installing the FIRST FOREST GARDEN in Naperville, IL on The Conservation Foundation McDonald Farm!
A forest garden is a gardening technique or land management system that mimics a woodland ecosystem but substitutes in plants which can include edible, medicinal, fiber, dye, and fuel producing trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. Companions or beneficial plants are included as insectaries, pest confusers, dynamic accumulators, nitrogen fixers, and mulch plants. Together they create relationships to form a perennial forest garden ecosystem able to produce high yields of food for human consumption, ultimately with minimal maintenance.
The McDonald Farm forest garden will be a demonstration design for people to interact with and learn from and serve as an inspiration for transforming suburban lawns. We will also be using this project as a hands-on learning opportunity for our upcoming Permaculture Design Course, Food Forest Workshop, and Homestead Design Workshops.
We welcome volunteers who are interested in supporting this project and are available to donate skills and labor between August and October.
Enjoy the many photos Jodi and Karen took as they were collecting information for the site assessment.
 Treeline that will become the forest garden |
 Jodi identifying goatsbeard |
 Nodding Thistle |
 Barn Swallow |
 Treeline from another angle |
 Rain barrel and rain garden at Clow House |
 Mound of prairie dirt needing to be incorporated into treeline. |
 Rocks to move and find uses for |
 Area to be cleared once we get rid of the poison ivy. |
 Iris growing in the treeline |
 Nodding Thistle. Beautiful, but still a THISTLE |
 Karen found one of the farm residents: Bufo Americanus
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The Resiliency Institute is growing! As many of you know starting a new business takes a lot of time and energy, and sometimes more work comes at you than you planned to manage. Well, in addition to managing business start-up logistics and running the organization, we realized we needed to get the McDonald Farm forest garden designed so our upcoming Permaculture Design Course, Food Forest Workshop, and Homestead Design Workshop attendees could participate in the process and have a hands-on learning opportunity. Now how were we going to manage that?
Fortunately, the universe knew exactly what we needed and sent us Karen Vanek. Karen was a student in our Intro to Permaculture class and we were able to spend some time talking. It turns out that she is completing her Masters Degree in Environmental Studies with a specialty in Ecological Design, has a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC), and is certified in Regenerative Ecological Design. She also had experience designing and worked on a farm with a food forest. Wow, were we excited!
Karen is now working for us as a part-time Design Services Project Manager. Her main responsibility is to work on design projects beginning with the McDonald Farm forest garden. Karen is also assisting with the educational courses, so please say hello when you attend a class.
As Jodi and Karen were working diligently on the site assessment, Micah Slavkin connected with us and expressed interest in our forest garden project. Micah has a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a PDC from Hayes Valley Farm in San Francisco. He has experience working for a landscape architecture firm and as an AutoCAD drafter for a solar power service provider. Micah is passionate about reestablishing environmental well-being through permaculture design with a particular interest in using Illinois native edibles.
Micah is now working as our other part-time Design Services Project Manager. His experience and expertise have completed our skill-set and we now have a well-rounded team ready to take on the task of transforming our suburbs into resilient, permaculture communities.
Visit our new Staff page to read Karen and Micah's full bios.
Thank you universe, and welcome aboard Karen and Micah!
Jodi, Bill Lorch, and I spent the morning capturing a swarm of Italian honey bees. Thanks to my husband Dan for taking the photos!
