Gardeners, foragers and curious learners alike are being invited to roll up their sleeves this November for Cool Climate Permaculture 2025, a series of hands-on workshops at the Guyra Neighbourhood Centre Community Garden.
Over three Saturdays, 15, 22 and 29 November, participants will explore how permaculture, organic methods, regenerative agriculture and agroecology can thrive even in cooler climate regions. The event is open to everyone from seasoned gardeners and farmers to enthusiastic novices who want to dip their toes into sustainable food growing.
Owner of Highland Permaculture, Heidi McElnea, has designed the workshops in collaboration with the Guyra Neighbourhood centre with a real sense of community at heart.
“The real key outcome for the workshops was the bring New Englanders together to help them learn to grow their own food successfully in our region and hopefully make some great connections with other community members along the way,” she said.
Each workshop tackles a different theme. The first session focuses on “obtaining a yield” — techniques for getting the most out of kitchen gardens, exploring design principles, and enjoying a locally sourced lunch together.
In the second, attendees dive into mushroom cultivation with Shane from Uralla Gourmet Mushrooms, explore how to turn garden and household “waste” into resources, and even take home their own mushroom-growing kit (so bring a 5 L bucket with a tight lid).
The final session turns to greenhouse and glasshouse strategies to stretch the growing season, plus harvest skills: seed saving, preserving, fermenting, and sampling homemade condiments at lunch.
“Permaculture is based on natural processes, things like recycling water and nutrients, and the ways in which plants and animals interact – so these workshops are all designed to help people create resilient self-supporting gardens using plants that are comfortable in our climate,” said Ms McElnea.
“I want people to walk away from the workshops feeling better supported and more confident in their ability to grow their own food. Not only is there a lot of enjoyment to be had in the process, but also, it’s so important on a number of levels including combating the cost of living and increasing our resilience when it comes to disaster recovery.”
Ms McElnea has been running Highland Permaculture for approximately 4 years now.
“I’d describe myself as a sustainability facilitator,” she said.
“My background is in training and my main focus through my business now is to share knowledge and really encourage people to seize the opportunity to grow their own food and become more self-sufficient.”
When asked what her number one tip would be when it comes to setting up a sustainable garden, she said, “The first rule of permaculture is observe and interact.”
“What this means is that you don’t have to rush in, take the pressure away from yourself to do it all about us because successful gardens really aren’t about us – sit back and watch what happens in your garden, how it changes with the seasons, what are the reactions and interactions that it has with nature.”
“That observation and interaction with nature is honestly my favourite part of gardening.”
Workshops run from 10 am to 2 pm, cost $25 per session (which includes lunch and course notes), and are held in an accessible venue. Attendees are welcome to register for one, two or all three sessions, depending on their interest and availability.
This is more than just a gardening course; it’s a chance to build community, brainstorm creative approaches to growing in cooler regions, and share knowledge across skill levels. Whether you want to start your own food garden, reduce waste, experiment with mushrooms or master preserving techniques — there’s something here for you.
Spaces are available now via Humanitix — if you’re curious, passionate about sustainable gardening, or eager to learn from like-minded people, this is an opportunity not to be missed.
Read all the way through to the end of the story? So did lots of other people. Advertise with New England Times to reach New England locals who are interested and engaged. Find out more here.