Permaculture Apprenticeship at ChoZen Retreat
I was a permaculture apprentice at ChoZen Retreat in Sebastian, Florida. ChoZen is a luxury eco retreat sanctuary nestled along the banks of St. Sebastian River and Nature Preserve. Their aim is to build a sustainable future for people and the environment in which we all coexist in harmony.
At Chozen I completed their 10 week permaculture apprenticeship program from March 2022 - June 2022.
I was under the guidance of master permaculturist and expert permaculture designer Terry Meer. Chozen is an eco retreat sanctuary nestled along the banks of St. Sebastian River and Nature Preserve. Their aim is to build a sustainable future for people and the environment in which we all coexist in harmony.
Elders Community Garden
& Composting Program
One of the projects I tended to from start to finish was supporting the elderly community that ChoZen supports called By The River. We built raised garden beds using amended soil, implementing the hugelkultur method, installing micro-irrigation,
We planted young plants we grew from seed and covered the garden beds with hay for water retention and protection from the sun.
Alongside building the community garden we implemented a composting program at the elderly community. We educated the elders about composting, the items that can be composted and what cannot be composted. We would pick up the compost weekly and add it to our master compost pile on site, reducing waste that went into landfills.
Retreat and Event
Production Support
ChoZen is a eco luxury retreat center and therefore retreat production is significant focus of the work there. During my time at ChoZen I was able to support one full retreat, overseeing the execution and care then went into making sure everything was tended to.
The ChoZen Staff all gathered weekly and shared space together as a team and it was lovely to be able to support the curation of this weekly space during my time there as well.
ChoZen also puts together educational workshops for the public to spread permaculture and sustainability education to the community. I was able to support the execution of a beekeeping workshop, fruit tree workshop, and mushroom cultivation workshop during my apprenticeship.
During my time at ChoZen alongside supporting the elderly community and retreat and workshops. I was able to contribute to ChoZen in the following ways:
Social Media content creation
Designing and building a plant nursery
Plant Identification and garden maintenance
Land observation and design
Community building events
