IN_PERSON
Summer Burbsteading Camp:
Transform Your Suburban Yard into a Food Forest
A 5-Day Morning Intensive for Teens & Adults
Dates: June 8th - 12th
Time: 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Location: The Barn 2825 8th Ave. Fort Worth, TX 76110
VIRTUAL
The Summer Burbsteading Camp:
Transform Your Suburban Yard into a Food Forest
A 5-Day Evening Intensive for Teens & Adults
Dates: July 7, 14, 21 & 28th
Time: 6:05 PM – 9:05 PM
Location: Your Place
The Summer Burbsteading Camp:
Transform Your Yard into a Food Forest
5-Day Summer Intensive for Teens & Adults
The Summer Burbsteading Camp: Transform Your Yard into a Food Forest
5-Day Summer Intensive for Teens & Adults
There are over 43 million acres of lawn in North America and combined, our lawns are the fourth-largest agricultural land holding in the country. During the Great Depression, 40% of America's food came from farms and gardens, but today, less than 4% is grown by Americans. We have lost the skills to put food on our table, relying entirely on shopping while our own properties could be designed to provide for many of your needs.
What is Burbsteading?
Burbsteading is an intensive, 15-hour workshop designed to take you step-by-step through the principles of Permaculture Design, practices of Market Gardening and Natural Farming to create resilent and abundant urban and suburban homesteads.
You will learn to design a system that:
Catches Water: Harvests rain and survives drought.
Builds Soil: Creates fertile, living earth without chemicals.
Captures Energy: Works with the sun and wind to reduce maintenance.
Cycles Wastes: Turns kitchen scraps and yard trimmings into gold.
Raises Animals: Integrates chickens, bees, or rabbits (where zoning allows).
Produces Abundance: Grows food for your table, with surplus to sell or barter.
By the end of the workshop, you will walk away with:
A Custom Site Design: A tailored map of your specific property.
Tailored Plant Lists: Exactly what to grow in your zone.
An Implementation Plan: A step-by-step timeline to make your design a reality.
The Property Toolkit (Included in Tuition)
Every student receives a toolkit to start their transformation immediately:
A Plant Guild (3 Plants): Comfrey (Dynamic Accumulator) + Your Choice of Longevity Spinach OR Sunchoke (Calorie Crop) + Your Choice of Elderberry OR Goji Berry (Medicinal/Superfruit). This is your first step toward a full backyard food forest.
Bokashi Starter: Turn your kitchen scraps into "liquid gold" fertilizer.
Natural Farming Amendment: A bag of "Good Tilth" compost blend to kickstart your soil.
Design Binder: The Guild Builder Workbook, blank property maps, sector analysis charts, plant lists, and planting logs, everything you will need to design your burbstead.
Farm-Fresh Breakfast: (In-person only) Homemade muffins, fresh fruit, iced herbal tea, and coffee served daily at 8:30 AM.
The 5-Day Workshop
Day 1: Sense of Place and Permaculture 101
Welcome.
Sense of Place & Observation. Get to know your bio-region and your space. The week before, you will have an emailed assignment for observing and taking an Asset Inventory. We will go over those outcomes — what do you already have? What are your limitations?
Permaculture 101. Learn the core design principles and the systems approach to planning for production and abundance. Understand relative location, multiple functions, energy preservation, and small-scale intensive systems.
Sun & Weather. Growing food in harsh climates. How to work with crazy seasons and plan for a four-season harvest.
Takeaway: A completed Site Analysis Map and Asset Inventory in your binder.
Day 2: Soil Frameworks & Planting Better Water
Review.
Soils. Overview of natural and regenerative farming. Learn about regenerating soils with phytoremediation, mycoremediation, and bioremediation. Discover inexpensive ways to build living soil, and cycle wastes through multiple composting methods (thermal, vermicompost, and Bokashi).
Hands-On Lab: Bokashi. Start your own Bokashi system. Learn how to ferment kitchen waste - including grease, meat, and dairy into fertilizer!
Water. Learn the many ways to "plant water" within your landscape: swales, rain gardens, cisterns, and ponds. Build a simple A-frame tool to survey and map the contours of your property. Discuss water purification, remineralization and restructuring methods.
Takeaway: Your Bokashistarter, a contour map of your property, and a Water Management Plan.
Day 3: Useful Plants & Propagating
Review.
Perennial Food Plants & Adaptive Plants. How to design food forests and guilds for succession harvesting. Learn the 7 layers of a food forest (Canopy to Root) and how to combine wild plants, calorie crops, nutrient-dense foods, fruits, herbs, and perennial vegetables into cooperative ecosystems.
Market Gardening How to plan and grow for your own needs first, then expand to sell or trade surplus. Learn succession planting and how to calculate what your family actually needs.
Propagation. How to make "free" plants by seed, division, stem cuttings, grafting, and layering. This is the skill that turns one plant into dozens — the secret to filling your food forest on a budget.
Takeaway: A Draft Master Plan for your backyard food forest and the skills to multiply your own plants.
Day 4: Urban Animal Husbandry & Caretaking
Review.
Urban Animal Husbandry. Decide which animals you should raise, their shelter needs, fodder plants, and feed recipes. We cover backyard poultry, aquaponics, beekeeping, keeping mini goats, and how to work within city zoning laws.
Appropriate Technology. Learn low-tech and no-tech ways to meet some of your needs and keep costs down — or survive a power outage. Solar dehydrators, rocket stoves, simple greywater systems, and more.
Seed Saving & Preserving Harvests. Learn when to save seeds and how to store them for the next season. Preserve your harvests in the ground, in makeshift cellars, and by canning, freezing, and fermenting.
Takeaway: Animal & Systems Assessment for your property and a seed-saving starter guide.
Day 5: Putting It All Together
Review.
The Master Design. Using Google Maps, your plant/animal lists, your understanding of rainfall, winds, sun patterns, priorities, and limitations — finalize your complete site design. Learn how to keep good records and plan for each season. Break off in groups of five and work on finalizing your designs.
Raffle for Fig Tree, Design Presentations - Certificate of Completion, Pick Your Plant Guild, Personalized Implementation Plan — a step-by-step timeline to transform your yard over the next 3 months, 1 year, and 3 years.
Takeaway: A finished site design of your property, complete with tailored plant lists, a planted guild to take home.
Investment & Registration
Standard Tuition: In-person $295 / Virtual $250
Parent & Child Duo Special: In-person $500 / Virtual $400
Former Students : In-person or Virtual $25 / With Guild Kit $50
Included in Tuition:
15 Hours of Instruction Covering All 12 Burbsteading Modules
Live Planted Guild (Comfrey + Choice of Spinach/Sunchoke + Choice of Elderberry/Goji)
Bokashi Start composting Day 2)
Custom Property Design Binder (Maps, Sector Analysis, Plant Lists, Implementation Timeline)
Natural Farming Soil Amendment
5 Days of Farm-Fresh Breakfast (In-Person Only)
Certificate of Completion
Start this summer with a plan to grow where you are planted.
Questions? Email kirsten@goodtilthfarm.com
IN_PERSON
Summer Burbsteading Camp:
Transform Your Suburban Yard into a Food Forest
A 5-Day Morning Intensive for Teens & Adults
Dates: June 8th - 12th
Time: 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Location: The Barn 2825 8th Ave. Fort Worth, TX 76110
VIRTUAL
The Summer Burbsteading Camp:
Transform Your Suburban Yard into a Food Forest
A 5-Day Evening Intensive for Teens & Adults
Dates: July 7, 14, 21 & 28th
Time: 6:05 PM – 9:05 PM
Location: Your Place