Emerald City is both my business and my philosophy for transforming our future. I have been an activist for many years trying to spread permaculture in our community and working for social justice. I have found that through my work I can help others willing to take the leap to transform their lives through transforming their space. By creating sustainable and beautiful human habitats, I am helping to create the opportunity for my clients to engage in a sustainable lifestyle through a home garden taylored to their needs. My clients will then be on the front lines of the fight to save our planet and the effort to reverse climate change and the means will be right out their back door.

These are some of the services that I provide to my clients:

*homescale permaculture assesment, design and implimentation
*forest garden design
*whole farm design
*ecological trouble shooting

But it can't stop there...We can't just make ourselves a pretty garden and think that we have done enough. We must engage in the community to make changes to our towns and cities so that others can also reap the benefits of permaculture. For this reason, I am also actively working in the community both on practical sustainablility efforts such as community gardening as well as more visionary efforts aimed at redesigning our region. Working at both levels, I am able to have an effect on the micro and macro level, help individuals and the communtiy at large.

Micro:

*Urban and Suburban Permaculture education especially focused on practical skills
*The Peoples Garden Project: a community garden aimed at connecting with, sharing with, and learning
with an African American church and community
*Finger Lakes Seed sales: aimed at getting heirloom and unusual edibles, natives, medicinals and
utilitarian plants diseminated in our local area
*Local Food Night at the ABC Cafe: to utilize more local ingredients and meet the demand for local
organic food

Macro:

*cofounder of the Finger Lakes Permaculture Network, predesesor to the Finger Lakes Permaculture
Institute which created and hosted numerous educational social events and networked a regional
community of like minded people
*the Emerald City Project: a visionary publication which imagined Ithaca in the year 2030 as it could be if
we moved in a more ecological direction
*Green Star council: sufferd through a year or Robert's Rules so that I could be a voice for low income
working class customers and insert deep ecology into the discusion whenever possible
*Connect Ithaca: working on projects like cooperative neighborhood blocks and sustainable public
transportation

What services can I offer the community?

*Hands on Permaculture education for individuals and groups especially the working poor
*Group facilitation aimed at developing neighborhood community projects
*neighborhood scale permaculture design and implimentation
*activist project coordination

A walking tour of the Northside will first lead us from the neighborhood 'third place' Gimme! coffee along Cascadilla Creek on Lake Ave. The creek is a beautiful greenway, wildlife corridor and bike street exemplifying the benefits of green corridors through the heart of the city. The sound of running water, the beauy, the value of volunteer wild cherries, mulberries and black walnuts to wildlife, the watery habitat; all contribute to the neighborhoods bordering the creek. The corridor runs from the headwaters in ellis hollow through cornell and finally to the farmer's market and in the future could be enhanced as a transportation spine featuring greenery and fresh air.

Turning left onto Monroe Street, out first garden can be found at #111. I have been working on this garden for two years now and have been excited to see trees growing rapidly and the soil improving almost before my eyes. The first sight here is the perrenial garden between the sidewalk and the street. Kale, Jerusalem artichokes, sage and oregano provide both food and flowers for the neighborhood and the neighborhood honey bees who reside in their hive on a second story rooftop a block away on the first block of First St. Alfalfa and baptisia add nitrogen to the soil and aid other plants in green leafy growth; the alfalfa also digging deep with it's fiberous roots dredging up deep nutrients and breaking up compacted soils. Hidden within the tangled plants is a hazelnut tree which will provide protein in the coming years to both humans and squirells.

The side yard, once a small lawn, is now a thriving bed for tomatos and herbs thanks to sheetmulch. Sheetmulch has become something of a permaculture trademark. The technique uses cardboard, compost and brown mulch to build soil and kill weeds without disturbing healthy soil structure. The result is healthy fiable loam which just gets better and better. A rustic trallis supports the tomatos growing there and was built from apple wood pruned from the old cider tree in the back yard. A young American persimmon will one day dominate the yard and provide an exotic flavor to the household cusine

Around the opposite side of the house one can find a young paw paw tree just at the end of the mulched driveway. Paw paws are a native fuit with tropical flair gaining in popularity here in the northeast. They have many advantages to traditional orchard fruits, namely 0 pests and diseases, suckering and spreading habit and no maintnence requirements. A bed nearby has recently been transplanted with blueberries and strawberries.

The backyard provides a cool, peaceful and magical setting for relaxation and food growing. Although hard pruning will reduce the tree cover over the coming year, this garden is an example of a forest garden. Paw paw, currents, raspberries, hazelnuts and serviceberry are low maintnence fruits filling empty niches and many perrenial edibles, native plants and tasty weeds fill the small yet bountiful yard with diverse edible treats. A patio which is under construction will eventually serve as a potential community space linking neighboring back yards.

next time... down 1st Street, the People's Garden Project, the Community Gardens and the Ithaca Farmer's Market