Our Permaculture Approach
2022 will be our eleventh year to offer a summer permaculture internship. If you are interesting in applying for this year's internship, visit our internships page. To learn more about what our internship is like, check out the garden blog where our interns have posted their reflections. We continue to learn what it really means to be applying a permaculture lens in the context of an intentional community. Come learn with us!
The Songaia Garden is a learning garden above all else. We strive to create a space where humans can learn to grow food, care for soil, benefit their surrounding ecosystems, and bolster their personal and community resilience for the times to come. The food produced in the garden and orchards feeds into our community meals program, reducing our impact and our reliance on global food systems. Abundance is donated or given away.
The Songaia Garden is a learning garden above all else. We strive to create a space where humans can learn to grow food, care for soil, benefit their surrounding ecosystems, and bolster their personal and community resilience for the times to come. The food produced in the garden and orchards feeds into our community meals program, reducing our impact and our reliance on global food systems. Abundance is donated or given away.
Garden History
Newly laid out keyhole garden paths 2011
The garden began as a small organic garden plot more than 25 years ago and has evolved into an important focus of our work towards sustainable community. In 2010 the Biogaians took a field trip to the Bullock Family Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island and started to orient our garden development along Permaculture lines. We established the PIGs (Permaculture Intention Group), began shifting our orchard plantings into food forests and studying and applying permaculture principles as much as possible.
Keyhole garden Spring 2012.
In 2011 we invited Jenny Pell, a Permaculture Design teacher from Seattle to facilitate a design workshop for the community. At the conclusion of the workshop we decided to focus on improving our Permaculture approach to the garden, develop the orchard edges into food forests, turn one quarter of the garden into a keyhole design and to ponder the water flow on the property.
Each year we attend the Northwest Permaculture Convergence. At the conclusion of the convergence in 2010 we gathered in small groups by location. There we found wonderful colleagues committed to permaculture who lived nearby. Out of that meeting was formed the Sno-Isle Permaculture Network (SIPN). Which has since been renamed Permaculture Woodinville. This has been one of the most delightful and nurturing connections. In 2015 we began to meet the first Tuesday of each month at 21 Acres. To find out about the many permaculture related programs offered there, you can join the Permaculture Woodinville Meet-up group. This group has since disbanded, however, our collaborations with 21 Acres continue to overlap in meaningful ways.