Sustainable Living Practices Workshops

ORGANIC GARDENING & COMPOSTING

Using Earth-friendly techniques, we guide you step by step to create your own Organic Garden of nutritious and delicious edibles.  We discuss specific design and planning considerations and constraints, including benefits from passive water- harvesting techniques.  We’ll teach you the importance of composting, soil testing and preparation, seed propagation and transplanting, companion planting, efficient watering, using local varieties of edible plants,  creating useful garden structures, and how to overall nurture healthy edible crops.  You too can learn and practice these time-honored techniques and enjoy your own locally produced, healthy, organic food.

As Composting is the basis for growing the healthiest, most nutritious, and most disease-resistant plants, we’ll also teach you how to build your own productive compost pile.

At RAVENS-WAY WILD JOURNEYS we feel that it’s vital for more people to be growing, sharing, trading, and selling local, organic produce for the sake of better Human and Environmental Health .  In a world of increasingly hungry people with little or no access to healthy fruits, vegetables, and herbs it’s essential for all of us to participate with bio-regional Organic Gardens.

RAIN WATER HARVESTING

The American Southwest is renowned for its brevity of precipitation and its resultant aridity.  Thus, there’s no greater incentive for capturing, storing, and wisely using the little rainwater that makes it to our region.  At RAVEN’S NEST we’ve implemented a variety of Water-Harvesting Techniques all aimed at maximizing the benefits of our precipitation.  Through a combination of Passive Harvesting structures, such as berms, small check dams, and gavians we’ve begun to “plant the water” in the ground.  These structures pause the water long enough for it to soak more completely into the ground, thus benefiting a diversity of Native Plants.  As the plants increase and prosper, so too do a great variety of Native Wildlife Species. 

Additionally, we Actively Harvest Rainwater off of both our school and Abode.  At our school the rainwater pipes into a pond where some of it is pumped into our 20,000 gallon Rain Water Holding Tanks that in turn provide water for both Organic Gardens and Native Plant landscaping.  The pond itself is a mecca for Wildlife seeking to drink, bath, or feed.

We invite you to take a Rainwater-Harvesting Workshop with us and learn how to transform your landscape into a Wildlife haven, while decreasing harmful erosion.  We would love to visit your land (however large or small) and to act as consultants, devising an affordable and workable harvesting regime for your site.

WILDLIFE  RESTORATION  & HABITAT CREATION

Using a wide variety of tools and techniques you’ll learn how to transform your landscape - however large or small - into a Sanctuary for a wide variety of Wildlife.  Native plants, rock features, and water features -when artfully woven into the landscape - can serve as a magnet for Birds, Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Invertebrates.  We’ll also design a Strategy to Control and even Eliminate any Non-Native Plants that threaten the Biodiversity of your site.   With Habitat destruction rampant throughout the world - including the Southwest - your Land is even more vital as a Refuge for Native Plants and Animals. 

Using our own Wildlife Sanctuary as an example, we can help you choose and implement the best plan for your exact Environment, Soils, Drainage Patterns, Elevation and other site-specific factors.  In the end you’ll marvel at the amazing transformation your Land will experience, including the Wildlife You’ll encounter.  (Note: most of the techniques taught in this Workshop can also be applied to regions vastly different than the Southwest)

WILDLIFE HABITAT CONSULTATIONS

A detailed assessment of your existing Wildlife Habitat is a vital step towards creating improvements.  We will come to your property and determine how it rates in a wide variety of categories important to Wildlife.  The end result will be a Habitat “report card” designed to highlight the best qualities of your Habitat and those in need of help.  We’ll walk you through how we came to our conclusions and work with you to make any improvements that you may desire and that Native Wildlife may need.