![]() ![]() The same thing that’s going on in your permaculture garden can now happen in your mind. Under this model, learning isn’t the magical absorption of new concepts it’s the intentional linking of new ideas to existing ones, and if you can increase the edges between two subjects you can create the potential for even more connections. I also started developing an ecological model of education that treated individual curricular outcomes as elements in a more significant cross-curricular network. Working on these projects meant using practical and creative problem-solving to achieve math and science learning outcomes, and seeing disconnected ideas from different silos come in the service of new and novel systems was really exciting. The students and I designed a couple of food forests and built Canada’s first high school aquaponics system. In 2010, a chance encounter with the principal of Jasper Place High School led me to a teaching contract and the creation of a permaculture club and school food forest. The PDC was helpful in giving me the tools needed to expand my work. At that point, I knew what I wanted to do but needed some more hands-on experience. We kept in touch, and I decided to do my PDC with him and Jesse Lemieux in 2009. Not long after that I ran into Rob at a Permaculture Convergence at Olds. I had no idea what I was doing but running around the city planting with great people was one of the most formative things I have ever done. ![]() The first thing I did was start the Edmonton Guerilla Gardeners. I was nearing the end of my time in Mexico so it got me thinking a lot about how I could partner with nature when I got back home to Edmonton. So I thought, why fight nature? Why not partner with it? Could you imagine? If nature could do this despite our best efforts to oppose it, what could we achieve if we worked with it? I remembered thinking about how we spend so much time and energy beating back nature, but ultimately in vain. At one point the guide turned to me, pointed at a tree-covered hill, and said, “that there’s a pyramid under it.” I remembered being in awe at the sheer regenerative force of nature, taking back our human landscapes. I was teaching in Mexico at the time, and I remembered walking through the jungles. That’s on a whole other level, like terraforming. I never really bought into that, and then here’s this guy who’s transforming deserts into forests. I think we have this cultural narrative that human beings are a disease on this planet and that we ruin anything we touch. My first real connection with permaculture came at around 2006, when I saw Geoff Lawton’s “Greening the Desert”. That was probably the earliest hint that something like permaculture would appeal to me. Even then, I had a sense that there had to be a better way – after all, nobody had to weed the forest around our forts. I always liked nature I spent a good chunk of my childhood playing in the forest and building forts with the neighbour’s kids, but I don’t think I caught the gardening bug until later in life. My mom had a beautiful vegetable garden, and my dad had a bit of a tree nursery. ![]() I grew up on an acreage outside of the city – both of my parents were really into gardening and landscaping. This month, we’re featuring Dustin Bajer – educator, designer, master gardener, self-described network nerd, and founder of Public Ecology. Ecotone permaculture series#Welcome to “How Permaculture Changed My Life”, our blog series that features personal stories from students speaking on how permaculture shaped their careers and their lives. ![]()
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