The May Whatcom Permaculture Meet-up, in partnership with Regenerate Whatcom, will be a special treat indeed! The event will include a bicycle tour of various properties in the neighborhood that practice permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and good ole fashion gardening!
We are pleased to invite you to the upcoming Birchwood Permaculture Bike Tour and Potluck on Saturday, May 30th, from 2:30 PM to 6:00 PM. Organized in collaboration with Whatcom Permaculture and Regenerate Whatcom, this neighborhood event features a rolling tour of local permaculture properties. Seven host stops are confirmed, offering real-world examples of intentional land use, ecological design, and food production.
How to RSVP
If you plan to attend, please send an email directly to Julian and David to help us estimate headcount for the potluck.
Please ensure your reply includes both organizers:
* When: Saturday, May 30th, from 2:30 PM to 6:00 PM. Please arrive at 2:30 PM to get situated; the tour will start promptly at 3:00 PM. * Where: Starts and terminates at 3116 Pinewood Avenue. * Parking: Because street parking is not permitted in the immediate neighborhood, please park your vehicles at the nearby Birchwood Elementary School parking lot and walk or bike over to the starting point. * The Route: Participants will travel by bicycle between properties within the neighborhood. * The Stops: Each location will host a mini-meetup or short tour focusing on distinct themes, possibly including hemp building, hügelkultur, swales, and biochar. * The Potluck: Our starting location serves as the central hub. You can drop off potluck dishes here before the ride begins. We will return to this site at the end of the tour to eat and socialize. If you’d like to participate just in the potluck, expect it to start circa 5:00pm.
Note: A follow-up email will be sent prior to the event detailing the finalized bike route, specific stop locations, exact times, and the full schedule of discussion topics.
Meet Your Hosts & The Neighborhood History
The tour originates and concludes at the home of Julian Kapoor, Julie Miller, and their family. Julian and Julie are California natives and former evolutionary ecology researchers who relocated to Bellingham in 2022 to focus on climate change mitigation, public health, and to find more intentional community. They chose Birchwood specifically for its unique urban agricultural history.
In the early 20th century, much of the Birchwood neighborhood was intentionally platted into long, deep lots to allow working-class families to sustain themselves with backyard orchards, gardens, and livestock. This design left a legacy of deep backyards and mature fruit trees that makes the area highly suited for modern permaculture integration.
While managing a 6-year-old and a 1-year-old has kept Julian and Julie’s large-scale property adjustments on a gradual timeline, their 0.3-acre site features several active polyculture experiments. It provides a realistic look at the early, foundational stages of planning a food forest. Julian’s recent focus on producing and utilizing biochar will serve as the demonstration theme for this stop.
David MacLeod
miles58@yahoo.com
Birchwood Neighborhood, Bellingham, WA
3116 Pinewood Ave Bellingham,
WA
98225United States+ Google Map
Permaculture in the Neighborhood! Regenerate Whatcom & Vivaculture Institute present:Happy Valley Permaculture Project walkabout
Come join as we visit 3 neighborhood Earth Repair Projects:
The Oasis Collective Home Food Forest Garden
The Back 40” WWU’s living water purification ponds andJeff’s Sequoia Forest
“The Outback Farm” WWU’s Fairhaven Forest garden and permaculture plantings
Outback Farm Plan
Friday July 31st, 2026 5-7pm
Meet behind Buchanan Towers Dorm off of Bill McDonald Parkway and 25th St., South Bellingham
We will begin our tour walking through WWU’s “Regional Ponds” natural treatment project to clean their parking lot run-off stormwater. We can also witness the transformation of these public lands towards a Sequoia giganteum climax forest.
We will then visit the Oasis Food Forest Garden. This small urban yard of a collective living home has been tended by a variety of community permaculturalists and gardeners over 20 years. Come see a productive urban food forest and enjoy a locally harvested snack.
After that we will return to campus and visit the 50+ year old Outback forest garden, a maturing and evolving food forest.
The whole journey will be about a half mile leisurely walk. Meet other interested earth stewards and share ideas about making urban spaces more fertile and diverse.
The Permaculture Meet-up April 24th will be a special gathering to celebrate the land we are on, Spring, and gathering in community to dream a future into being. Join us, between the labor of spring and the blaze of summer, to break together, learn from the land and see what emerges. We will gather at 4, walk the land and then gather around a campfire to share food and talk.
A Hands on Educational Event! On a developing rewilding project.
When- SUNDAY NOV. 23
Time- 11am -3pm
Where- 5351 DINKLE RD. off E Smith rd.*
LAND TOUR
SOIL BUILDING
WILLOW FOREST PREPERATION
The work party will take place at the rewilding project of Hunter Lydon. The project began in 2020 and, in 2022, hosted an Earthworks class led by Brian Kerkvliet.
Come see the value in bringing water onto land and lend a hand with soil preparation for future plantings.
11 – 12: Land tour
12 – 2:30: Sheet mulching, woodchip spreading,
2:30 – 3: Regenerate Whatcom plans and future events.
Address: 5351 Dinkle(google)/Dinkel (street sign)
It’s a wet set, a seasonal wetland, so please bring rain boots and clothes to get dirty in. Water and snacks are not a bad idea too.
Its a raw site with no structures or bathroom. There is a spot to relieve yourself under the cover of trees, though.
Interests at your site gardens, herbs, events, community
A Free gathering time for People interested in Permaculture and Integrated Land Management to come together and discuss ideas. This month, come visit the Birchwood neighborhood to see the social permaculture community of our host, Nicole Wires, who says, “We are building a limited equity housing cooperative on 1.2 acres of land in Birchwood with shared cooking, cleaning, childcare, gardening, and more! We’re doing creative income sharing practices and ensuring our housing is permanently affordable. We are also building a community space for events, workshops, and to house infrastructure for disaster preparedness and community resilience.”
After the tour we invite you to stay for a potluck, and discussion about Regenerate Whatcom’s efforts to engage in “social permaculture.”
Bring something for the sharing table: seeds, plants, books, snacks.
2722 Birchwood Ave., Bellingham, WA
BRING A DISH TO SHARE (and your own plates and utensils) FOR A POTLUCK!
Free
Nicole Wires
510-279-8416
nwires@gmail.com
Birchwood Neighborhood, Bellingham, WA
3116 Pinewood Ave Bellingham,
WA
98225United States+ Google Map
Bring your plants seeds, garden abundance or preserves to swap and mingle with other Permaculture enthusiasts.
An opportunity to experience permaculture and meet other practitioners. Visitors can see first hand an established permaculture system and ask questions. See how the permaculture design system has relevance to the challenges we face and to creating communities and environments that are resilient.
If you are planning on attending the tour please consider carpooling with others. Folks with plants to sell or swap can arrive at 12:30
Guided tour will be from 1-2. Self guided tour and plant sale/swap will be from 2-4. Look forward to seeing you all!
We will also have a place to trade or gift plants and seeds to other attendants. To sell or trade you can show up a little early say 12:30 and set up. You can bring a table or display on the ground or the back of your car or truck.
An opportunity to experience permaculture and meet its practitioners. Visitors can see first hand an established permaculture system and ask questions. See how the permaculture design system has relevance to the challenges we face and to creating communities and environments that are resilient.
Now in its 14th year, International Permaculture Day has grown rapidly from its roots as an Australian initiative to a global day of permaculture celebrated in over 35 countries.
If you are planning on attending the tour please consider carpooling with others. Folks with plants to sell or swap can arrive at 1:30 Guided tour will be from 2-3. Self guided tour and plant sale/swap will be from 3-5. Look forward to seeing you all!
You can shop for plants ahead of time and we will have them ready for you to pick up. There will also be a place to trade or gift plants and seeds to other attendants. To sell or trade you can show up a little early say 1-1:30 and set up. You can bring a table or display on the ground or the back of your car or truck.
Imagine Permaculture
We offer these tours to further develop the connection between the farm and the community. Tours are a great way to learn and visit the farm and pick up some permaculture food at the same time. See first hand what it takes to turn a landscape into a productive, vibrant, resilient, regenerative system. We will show you what makes Permaculture and Biodynamic farming systems thrive in food abundance at the same time as we regenerate the land, create habitat, clean and store water and build soil! Tours generally cover land, water, nutrient, biomass and animal management systems. Nursery Plant sales and more. This may be altered according to people on the tours interest and questions.
large scale systems
describing water connections to earthworks course students
Resilient Whole System Design Strategies
Inspiration Farm is an 11 acre homestead styled farm founded in 1994. Integrating Biodynamic and Permaculture practices in relation to annual & perennial food systems, animal husbandry, appropriate technology, land/water nutrient management.
Birchwood Neighborhood, Bellingham, WA
3116 Pinewood Ave Bellingham,
WA
98225United States+ Google Map
Interests at your site: gardens, orchards, silvoculture, peri-urban homesteading, water management, community, chickens
Site description: Queen Mountain Homestead (QHM) is an 8-acre intergenerational family home and educational demonstration site nestled on the western flank of Bellingham’s Queen Mountain. In the spring of 2016, after a decade+ of designing, building and maintaining permaculture landscapes across Washington (and internationally), we became the designer-stewards of our forever home.
Over the last 8 years, we have practiced phased implementation of abundant gardens and orchards; operated a silviculture system with American Guinea Hogs and a large flock of chickens; managed beautiful native forests dealing with climate change; and grown and expanded a strong human community of family and friends.
With a background in urban landscaping and gardening, our site offers not only tangible examples for small scale rural homesteading, but also showcases techniques appropriate for urban and suburban backyards.
A Free gathering time for People interested in Permaculture from Whatcom County to come together and discuss ideas.
Here are some ideas for topics to discuss at this months gathering.
Water,
Seed Saving
Pruning trees
Community organizations.
What is the plant of the month?
This months meet up will be hosted by… Julie and Julian
We invite the Whatcom Permaculture group to visit our home in the Birchwood neighborhood. We just moved onto this ⅓ acre property in July and are in the early stages of design and planning. In this gathering, we would like to share our ideas and vision for how we want to transform the property, but we are especially eager to get an outside perspective from others with more experience or those at a similar stage as we are. Ultimately, we would like to convert what is mostly lawn into a food forest of mostly perennials (but also some annuals mixed in).
Currently, our main focus has been clearing out (and repurposing) the objects and plants that we don’t want and making as many observations as we can (about light, drainage, soil, wildlife, indicator species, etc). What has your process been for transforming a property from scratch? What has your process been for getting to know your property? What have you been keeping track of and how? How have you dealt with removing established invasive, like ivy and blackberry?
In line with “getting to know your property,” we both have expertise in animal biology (especially birds and insects), and could also hold a skill share in biodiversity monitoring if people are interested. Over the long term, we are interested in monitoring how biodiversity (i.e. the number of different species and their abundance) changes over the years as we build out the property.
Event details:
Where: We’re located at 3116 Pinewood Ave. We have limited parking at our house, but there’s abundant parking in the lot at Birchwood Elementary School, just down the street. We’ll prepare something for folks to snack on and will have a share table set-up (for resources, seeds, snacks, drinks, etc.)
When: Friday, March 31st, 2023 4-7 PM
Hope to see you there!
Julie and Julian 408-316-3148
Don’t forget something for the sharing table: seeds, plants, books.
Join other folks interested in permaculture for an informal discussion. How can we move Permaculture forward here in Whatcom county. How can we as a community form guilds of different skill sets, aid in promoting permaculture related events and work within our community to install permaculture systems such as food forests, lending libraries, speakers forums and cooperative nurseries. Come bring your idea to share!
