The workshop price includes a pocket forest starter kit of 10 trees and shrubs. Attendees can add on from there. 

Our ground prep will be guided by the principals of what has been termed the Camu Method and not the Miyawaki Method. The Camu method is a human powered approach with little-to-no large machine use or external inputs. It’s also much more financially affordable.

We will cover pocket forest siting, plant selection for your site and goals, ground preparation, planting day, and upkeep like watering and plant protection. You’ll go home with a plan for your own property and practical skills learned with a team at the training site. You will be able to replicate the process in your yard or with your community.

CONTENTS OF THE ON-SITE WORKSHOP

1. Pocket Forest Siting. Instruction will be both desk and experential. We will cover soil/sun/shade mapping, plant identification of present species, digsafe and property boundary considerations, etc.  We will go outside and use an A frame to establish rainwater runoff patterns for water harvesting before talking about several ways to harvest water for your forest. Teams will present several projects areas from the site as final presentations.

2. Plant List. Attendees will determine their pocket forest contents with this knowledge and attendee goals.

Identify why the attendee wants to plant trees: firewood production, habitat, family perennial food production, privacy, be a guardian to a chestnut tree, beauty, citizens science opportunities, cooling/shade, rainwater retention, hill stabilization and more.

Attendees will then choose a kit that best meets their site and objectives from a set of four kits.

3. Ground preparation and materials (e.g. wood chips) acquisition. Your class prep work will be to go out and dig a shovel into your soil and take records on what you find. We’ll take this data to create a plan for your ground preparation goals. Based on your plant choices, you’ll design the shape of your plot.

4. Planting day. We’ll step back a few weeks to make sure that your planting day is successful. You’ll mark out a tree map and use flags to identify where you’ll plant each plant to evenly distribute canopy levels.

5. Plant Protection – fencing and other options. We’ll talk about critters, your risk tolerance and budget.

6. Maintenance from first summer and onward. Let’s talk about watering, weeding and pruning! Hint: once established, the forest works itself out.

Build Your Community

Attendees will be encouraged to work as a group for ground preparation and planting day and securing tools/materials in bulk. 

Attendees will be encouraged to practice citizen science and keep a record of their Forest for future home owners. Additionally, they will be encouraged to meet as a group in the future and be open to hosting (or opting out of) a Pocket Forest Tour for their community. 

Logistics

The workshop is four hours in length. 

The workshop is to be held in the spring or summer and will cover planning for spring siting and ground preparation and autumn planting. Fall workshops are also possible and we will focus on rapid project management.

The sponsoring group will provide a location with wifi, a whiteboard and projector or screen so that attendees can view a presentation. All attendees need a laptop computer for mapping, project planning and other research.

The sponsoring group will collect all payments and pay 1 acre of trees nursery, llc. based on attendance numbers. The sponsoring group should have insurance to cover events. This keeps the cost low for attendees.

Attendees will provide their own snacks and refreshments (unless refreshments can be provided by sponsoring group). 

The location must include access to an outdoor area where attendees can practice siting lessons.  

Minimum of 10 attendees, maximum of 20. The sponsoring group may add onto the fee in order to support group requirements. Up to 45 minutes of travel each way is included. The group will manage autumn plant pickup from the nursery.