Permaculture Team Seed Ball Workshop

On Saturday, Dec. 13, the TJT Permaculture team ran a “Making Seed Balls for Desert Restoration” workshop. The team is embarking on a series of workshops currently geared just for members with the goal of getting everyone up to speed on different aspects of permaculture. Once we have accomplished increasing our own knowledge base, we will start to offer workshops to the public.

This workshop was taught by Permaculture Team members Jill Giegerich and Tim DeLorey, both of whom have their PDCs (Permaculture Design Certification). Seed Balls are an ancient no till technique of farming. Seeds are packed into penny sized balls of clay and compost, allowed to dry and then cast out onto the land where they sit protected until the rains come. Our seed balls used only local native seeds. Participants learned about the current interest in this technique for land restoration and erosion control. They also learned about the loss of native bunch grasses due to cattle grazing that has had a devastating effect on our desert environment. Tim and Jill got a lot of help from Ken Lair of  Lair Restoration Consulting who was kind enough to send us a package of Panicgrass seeds to include in our seed balls.

Everyone had a great time and there was talk of having quarterly Seed Ball making parties.