Mountain Gardens / Apprenticeships

"So, to remember our changing garden, we
Are linked as children in a circle dancing..."
-- Auden

    I have openings (housing) for 6-8 full-time, live-in apprentices, from mid-March to late October. I'm also open to shorter stays (WWOOFers, college students on break, etc.) - but you may have to bring a tent to sleep in. (Part-time apprenticeships are discussed below)
    Full time means 30 hours / week, plus a share of the chores (like cooking, cleaning up, firewood). I provide room and board - basic staples, mostly from our neighborhood food coop, plus what we grow & gather. Sorry, no stipend.
     The work is extremely varied and creative, including in addition to the herb growing, seed saving and medicinal preparations mentioned elsewhere on this website, vegetable garden and food preservation, rough carpentry, cob, bamboo and rockwork, maintaining and upgrading photovoltaic and irrigation systems, wildcrafting, library research, mapping and record-keeping and all the varied tasks which compose a 'simple' lifestyle. Recent projects as well as our advanced apprentice program, are described at news
    The botanic garden, research library & apothecary, and adjacent natural environments add up to a unique educational opportunity, which I created for myself but delight in sharing.
    If you are interested in applying, please email or post a letter describing yourself, educational, employment and relevant life experience, skills and interests, and objectives / goals in working here, as well as any dietary requirements or food avoidances. (Our diet is generally vegetarian by default, although we enjoy wild game when occasionally available)
    A visit prior to making a commitment is best for both of us and required except in unusual circumstances.
Sorry, no dogs.

Part-time apprenticeships: I am very open to people who live in the area (we are about 1 hour from Asheville) and would like to apprentice one (or more) days / week, but not live here. Housing is limited, but interesting work is not. Most of the time, it should be possible to accommodate particular interests (garden-making, medicinal herb cultivation, herbal preparations, etc.)

__________________________________________________

APPRENTICE PROGRAM (2009)

I have been having apprentices at Mountain Gardens for more than ten years. At first, the intention was the same as most farm / garden apprentice programs: to get help for the tasks that we do in exchange for providing a learning opportunity. For many years my goal was to have three or four apprentices. Recently, I have been exploring the 'carrying capacity' of our facilities, having six and sometimes as many as eight interns. At the same time the focus has been shifting, with education becoming more central to my goals, to the point where I have begun thinking of Mtn Gdns as primarily a school.

From the very beginning of Mtn Gdns, 35 years ago, my goal has been to develop, demonstrate and promote a radical alternative way of living on earth, which I call Paradise Gardening; and over this time I have only become more convinced of the importance and urgency of this work. Turning 65 last year of course adds another dimension of urgency.

Elsewhere on this website, you can find plenty of information about the philosophy and how it works out in practice here. Over the years, I have assembled an extensive collection of resources (books, tools, apparatus, plants) which, combined with our situation (adjacent to the National Forest, at the foot of the tallest mountains in eastern N. America) make Mtn. Gdns. a unique laboratory to develop a truly sustainable way of living. If your idea of a good time (the best time) is to integrate your mind, body and spirit in such an endeavor, in the company of like minds, I invite you to join us.

At this point and going forward, I envision Mtn Gdns as an ever-shifting community of individuals dedicated to developing and maintaining a Paradise Garden, and learning how to do it by doing it. Thinking in terms of an 'apprenticeship program', I realize, has blinded me to the much more appropriate community / fellowship model.
Why community? Because we all have 'social needs.' Because working together with friends on a common, shared project is among life's greatest pleasures. Because developing and maintaining a Paradise Garden is a group project. Because the basic unit of human society is not the individual, or the family, but the band.




"So, to remember our changing garden, we Are linked as children in a circle dancing..." -- Auden I have openings (housing) for 6-8 full-time, live-in apprentices, from mid-March to late October. I'm also open to shorter stays (WWOOFers, college students on break, etc.) - but you may have to bring a tent to sleep in. (Part-time apprenticeships are discussed below) Full time means 30 hours / week, plus a share of the chores (like cooking, cleaning up, firewood). I provide room and board - basic staples, mostly from our neighborhood food coop, plus what we grow & gather. Sorry, no stipend. The work is extremely varied and creative, including in addition to the herb growing, seed saving and medicinal preparations mentioned elsewhere on this website, vegetable garden and food preservation, rough carpentry, cob, bamboo and rockwork, maintaining and upgrading photovoltaic and irrigation systems, wildcrafting, library research, mapping and record-keeping and all the varied tasks which compose a 'simple' lifestyle. Recent projects as well as our advanced apprentice program, are described at news The botanic garden, research library & apothecary, and adjacent natural environments add up to a unique educational opportunity, which I created for myself but delight in sharing. If you are interested in applying, please email or post a letter describing yourself, educational, employment and relevant life experience, skills and interests, and objectives / goals in working here, as well as any dietary requirements or food avoidances. (Our diet is generally vegetarian by default, although we enjoy wild game when occasionally available) A visit prior to making a commitment is best for both of us and required except in unusual circumstances. Sorry, no dogs. Part-time apprenticeships: I am very open to people who live in the area (we are about 1 hour from Asheville) and would like to apprentice one (or more) days / week, but not live here. Housing is limited, but interesting work is not. Most of the time, it should be possible to accommodate particular interests (garden-making, medicinal herb cultivation, herbal preparations, etc.) __________________________________________________ APPRENTICE PROGRAM (2009) I have been having apprentices at Mountain Gardens for more than ten years. At first, the intention was the same as most farm / garden apprentice programs: to get help for the tasks that we do in exchange for providing a learning opportunity. For many years my goal was to have three or four apprentices. Recently, I have been exploring the 'carrying capacity' of our facilities, having six and sometimes as many as eight interns. At the same time the focus has been shifting, with education becoming more central to my goals, to the point where I have begun thinking of Mtn Gdns as primarily a school. From the very beginning of Mtn Gdns, 35 years ago, my goal has been to develop, demonstrate and promote a radical alternative way of living on earth, which I call Paradise Gardening; and over this time I have only become more convinced of the importance and urgency of this work. Turning 65 last year of course adds another dimension of urgency. Elsewhere on this website, you can find plenty of information about the philosophy and how it works out in practice here. Over the years, I have assembled an extensive collection of resources (books, tools, apparatus, plants) which, combined with our situation (adjacent to the National Forest, at the foot of the tallest mountains in eastern N. America) make Mtn. Gdns. a unique laboratory to develop a truly sustainable way of living. If your idea of a good time (the best time) is to integrate your mind, body and spirit in such an endeavor, in the company of like minds, I invite you to join us. At this point and going forward, I envision Mtn Gdns as an ever-shifting community of individuals dedicated to developing and maintaining a Paradise Garden, and learning how to do it by doing it. Thinking in terms of an 'apprenticeship program', I realize, has blinded me to the much more appropriate community / fellowship model. Why community? Because we all have 'social needs.' Because working together with friends on a common, shared project is among life's greatest pleasures. Because developing and maintaining a Paradise Garden is a group project. Because the basic unit of human society is not the individual, or the family, but the band.	APPRENTICE PROGRAM 2010 This year, I am dividing the apprentice program into three eleven-week sessions, with a one week break between sessions. You can apply for any one, two or all three sessions; you can also take a session and then, by mutual agreement, join the following session. ( I'm counting on at least some continuity, otherwise it will be tedious to teach how everything works here, where everything is kept, etc. three times.) The work commitment is 6 hours / day (9-12, 2-5), M-F. Weekends off, plus up to three workdays off per session. If you need more time off than that, or can't arrive for the first day of a session, please apply for a different session. Session 1: March 1 - May 14 Session 2: May 24 - Aug 6 Session 3: August 16 - Oct 31 UPDATE 7/1/10: We are now halfway through the second session, with 8 apprentices here. Third session is full, unless we have an unexpected cancellation. I don't really have space for WWOOFers until probably autumn (Sept-Oct), although returning apprentices and friends can always be squeezed in. Others are welcome for a short visit (1-2 days) to check it out, with the possibility of applying for next year. ___________________________________________ A PARADISE GARDEN COMMUNITY At the moment, there is one other 'permanent' (i.e. open-ended, long term) resident here, Steve. Steve lives in an inspiring house which he built for himself last year: an earth-covered cob dome which cost him about $100 (see pix and info elsewhere on the website). Steve is our builder - any projects / problems with buildings are Steve's department. (He's also a big help with plumbing, wiring, felling trees when necessary, and many other things.) Most of Steve's time is his own. When Mtn Gdns has a project which needs him, he's on it; otherwise he works on his own projects (mostly developing his cob building techniques). The last few weeks he's been doing a carpentry job for neighborhood friends and I've hardly seen him. My vision of a Paradise Garden community is a band of individuals, dedicated to the common, shared project, each taking responsibility for a particular aspect of the work. These are the niches which I find most relevant here: Gardener: overseeing propagation and planting, garden design, nursery and seed collection Herbalist, formulations, extractions, med. herb harvest, possibly prescribing Water: streams, ponds, wetlands; rainwater harvesting & storage, plumbing & irrigation Bamboo and woodland crafts: garden walls, trellises, baskets, willow crafts Cob & stone: garden walls, sculptures, masonry stoves Fruit: growing, pruning, harvest; espalier, bush fruit, vines Alternative energy: solar and hydro, wiring, electric system solar oven, hot water Soil fertility, compost making , cover crops, insects & disease problems website, photography, design, mapping, data recording, publishing Food: new crops: wildfood, oriental tonic foods; menu, food preservation, fermentation Education: outreach, workshops, tours, publishing, theatre Beekeeper honey & honey products, royal jelly All of these should be able to generate private income for the individual (The assumption is that if you live in a Paradise Garden, with housing, food, medicine, and utilities (lights, phone, internet) provided, you won't need a whole lot of money), as well as a share to Mtn Gdns: Although our goal is to detach ourselves from the $$ economy, and reattach our lives to the local ecosystem / Gaia, we still have to earn some money: for what food we can't grow, phone, taxes, tools & supplies - this is also a community project, and the various and interesting ways I have developed by which we earn income are also described elsewhere on the website. AN EVER-SHIFTING COMMUNITY Meanwhile, while waiting for these perhaps mythical long-term residents, the reality is that those who come are here for a gardening year (or less). So, we will pretend. Everyone will take on one or more of these roles (assignement based ideally on your experience, or interest and willingness to learn - please indicate preference(s) when applying). So that the next person who takes on your role can build on what you've done and learned, we'll be starting a book for each niche, an 'operating manual' and journal. This could be a handwritten or we could use the computer, in any case apprentices for 2009 should anticipate quite a bit of writing / data entry (it's a good way to learn). Which leads to A SCHOOL The goal of our ever-shifting community is to develop a Paradise Garden and live in it, and to learn how to do it by doing it, and to share what we learn. I have assembled an extraordinary collection of resources. We are all students and all teachers. Learning - developing your knowledge and skills - should be your primary reason for coming. Preference will be given to applicants who bring new skills and knowledge. Having completed at least one gardening apprenticeship (or equivalent life experience) is a prerequisite. ******************************************* VISITING / WWOOFING If we have room, you are welcome to visit for up to 2 weeks, extendable by mutual agreement. Visitors should anticipate sleeping in a tent.

(about) (products) (information) (ordering) (apprenticeships) (workshops) (pictures)