Coming Soon: The Treemendous Fruit Tree Retreet, February 2025!
Stay tuned for all the juicy details by signing up for our newsletter here.
What We Will Cover
- recognize the signs of hydrophobic soil.
- remedy this tendency, so that soil can become more hydro-fearless.
- learn about Traditional Zuni Waffle Gardens…are they mini-sponges? Come find out from Reyna!
- create soil sponges around existing trees/plants/roots, and how to do it in more open areas.
- tune in and ‘read’ the land, so that you can make effective decisions about placement of sponges.
- integrate and assimilate the information through art, reflective writing, and song.
The workshop will be held at Ts’uyya Farm in Albuquerque’s South Valley (address will be included in your confirmation email) on the unceded ancestral lands of the Pueblo of Isleta and Sandia in now-called Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“At Ts’uyya Farm, we grow more than just food, we cultivate connection, culture, and community. Rooted in Pueblo traditions, we practice sustainable farming that supports biodiversity, restores our land, and nurtures the health of both people and the environment.” Visit their website to hear more!
Wheelchair access: The garden and workshop are wheelchair accessible, but the bathroom/house are not.
- We are calling this alternately a Course and a Retreet.
- It’s a Course because we’re creating a practical and hands-on learning environment.
- It’s a Retreet because we’re building in time for quiet, self-reflection and creativity, so that we can rest, digest and integrate and hopefully mitigate overwhelm/overload.
- The fun name is to support us in inviting joy into our relationship with treees.
Teachers
Corva Rose
Corva Rose (she/they) is a certified arborist, meditation instructor, Permaculture practitioner, and swale enthusiast. Corva is devoted to weaving compassion and inclusion into gardening culture, habitat creation, and urban forestry. Cultivating joy, gratitude, and presence in the midst of this traumatic climate threshold is something that makes Corva’s heart smile.
maria mcCullough
maria mcCullough (they/she) loves to share and explore with beings through music, gentle movement, laughter, love and rest. maria is in a practice and study of sharing music to those passing through the death portal. maria is grateful to be living on Southern Tiwa Land and to be in a relationship-building journey with the land, water and beings here.
Reyna Banteah
Aimee Yen
Aimee Yen (she/her) Since moving to the high desert, Aimee has been learning to dance with the land, its creatures, and water. A weaver of community, her biggest passions are making it possible for folks to contribute their gifts and to feel a sense of belonging. She has a special way with cats, cat-like people, puppets, and systems. Aimee will be caring for and creating space for the kiddos at this workshop.
Hydro-fearless
- A bit frustrated or curious about the hydrophobic nature (repelling or resisting water) of our alkaline soils here in the southwest?
- Slightly baffled by the different Permaculture terminology – swales, sponges, infiltration basins – or maybe never heard of these fascinating remedies?
- Ready to learn about and help create some actual sponges for infiltrating rainwater, that can be used to help percolate greywater, flood irrigation, and other sources as well?
- Curious about the inner + outer resilience that can happen when we invite community, sounding/song, and movement into the mix?
Join facilitators Corva Rose, maria McCullough, Reyna Banteah, and Aimee Yen for this interactive, all-ages workshop!
We’ll be weaving together observation, science, Permaculture techniques, community collaboration, singing, laughter, multi-generational fun, and playing with mud. Yes, mud! This workshop will take place at Ts’uyya Farm in Albuquerque’s South Valley. We’ll be helping Reyna and Nate solve the issue of what to do with the blessed rain that comes off the roof of their tiny house, and how to make use of it within the established gardens adjacent to the house.
Kiddos of all ages are welcome – we will have a ‘home base’ for them with an arts/crafts/rest area and a dedicated carer so that they can come and go from the main workshop area as they wish. If you are bringing young/little folks, just register for yourself and list the kids you’re bringing in the space provided on your registration.
As we sit and work in the shade in the midpoint of summer, these 2 ½ early-morning cool hours will be a grounding and uplifting gift not only for ourselves, but for the world we experience, affect, and ultimately create.
Guest Teachers
Joran Viers
Joran Viers is a life-long student of nature and the natural sciences. He grew up in various remote locales where nature was always present and developed a great appreciation for the diversity of life on this planet. Viers considers himself a servant of, and steward to, the planet, and he approaches his work through the broad lenses of Ecology – the rigorous study of how living beings interact with the real environment around them.
Joran is trained in the biological sciences, with a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of New Mexico and a master’s degree in Botany from the University of Florida. He has worked for the last three decades in various facets of horticulture, sustainable agriculture, and arboriculture through practice, education and policy avenues. He is an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Board Certified Master Arborist and holds ISA’s Tree Risk Assessment Qualification.
When not working, Joran can often be found in his own garden and will most likely be barefoot. He also enjoys river running, camping, playing music with friends and hanging out with his kids and cats.
Joran will be leading us in the planting segment on Friday.
Graeme Davis
Graeme Davis is a certified arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), with a background in agriculture, horticulture, and entomology.
Graeme owns Flora Fauna Farm, a small fruit tree nursery located in Albuquerque. Flora Fauna Farm focuses on growing reliable and resilient plants in our unique ecosystem, including a diversity of fruiting trees and shrubs, useful native plants, and unique landscape plants underrepresented in the urban canopy of Albuquerque.
Graeme will be assisting with the pruning segment on Sunday, as well as introducing us to the underrepresented (we like to say weird, lovingly) fruit trees we can be growing here.
Tia Eusepi
Tia Eusepi is an orchardist and arborist with over two decades of experience growing fruit trees in our challenging New Mexico environment, including in Polvadera, NM. She has a background in organic orchard management, planting, pruning, diagnostics, and soil building. She has co-owned and managed Flygirl Trees with her friend, Sheila Rason, since 2015.
Tia is grateful to have worked with hundreds of tree stewards throughout the city, and continually notices that in a world of infinite possibilities there is so much more to learn.
Tia will be assisting with the pruning segments on Saturday and Sunday.
Sheila Rason
Sheila Rason is a certified Arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA). She has been working as an arborist and climber in Albuquerque since 2004 following a decade on the ground doing yard maintenance and tending to sprinkler needs. She has co-owned and managed Flygirl Trees with her friend, Tia Eusepi, since 2015.
When not up in a tree, Sheila can be found in the forest with her dog, Suki, tending a fire in the woodstove, or on a river somewhere. She is humbled to be asked to teach at this fruit tree class, knowing that knowledge is always broadened by such experiences.
Sheila will be assisting with the planting segment on Friday, and the pruning segments on Saturday and Sunday.
Jason McInnes
Jason McInnes brings the Retreet his 20 years of experience teaching classes, performing and building community through music. His passion for music education, performance and promotion is inspired by his life-long belief that music belongs to everyone and that, when lead with patience and a focus on a community experience, music is a tremendous source of joy for all. He is currently leading music classes at Senior Centers throughout Bernalillo County as well as guiding his Guitar Crew group guitar classes, at his home studio in the South Valley.
Jason will be playing music during lunch, as a way for folks to listen, enjoy, relax their concentration, and join in however they feel moved.
The Schedule
- Feb 27 – 4:30 – 6:30pm – Plants of the Southwest, North Valley, Abq
- Registration, orientation, tool sharpening
- Feb 28 – 9:30am – 4pm – Chispas Farm – South Valley, Abq
- Lunch noon-1p
- March 1 – 9:30am – 4pm – Chispas Farm
- Lunch noon-1p
- March 2 – 9:30am – 4pm – Chispas Farm
- Lunch noon-1p
- March 3 – 9:30am – 4pm – Chispas Farm
- Lunch noon-1p
- There will be opportunities at lunch and at the end of the day to participate in rest sessions with maria; enjoy/play music with Jason; create at the craft space; visit with the goats; or just find a nice spot to sit on the farm.
- There will also be opportunities to help with some basic set up and clean up during the retreet, and we thank you in advance for all of the ways you help!
- It’s really important that each person who attends finds a way to make the time to block off space on your calendar for the entire course, and to take care of yourself so that you can show up and be present.
- You will receive instruction and hands-on practice in the above areas (What We Will Cover).
- You will receive a folder of juicy materials.
- Each participant is required to outfit themself with a few necessary tools before the course begins. Even though this is a requirement, the benefit is that you will learn to use these, care for them, and live your life with them. See below under FAQs for more info on this.
- You will be invited to join our online Tree School Slack Space if this interests you, where you will have access to Corva and maria and the Tree School community – for encouragement, questions, and community building. On Slack, you will also find out about volunteering on jobs with Corva (see below, in this section.)
- You will receive a Certificate of Completion. (In future years we aim to have this course qualify for CEUs in different disciplines.)
- You will have the opportunity to join Corva on their jobs during 2025 if this interests you. In return for volunteering a few hours, you learn valuable skills, keep your practice going, and can have meaningful conversations ranging from work to horticulture to climate resilience.
- If you maintain contact with Tree School during 2025 through Slack, volunteering with Corva, or in some other way that connects you with Tree School as you continue your fruit tree care practice, you can attend the following year’s Treemendous Fruit Tree Retreet free of charge in exchange for helping guide the next year’s students. In this way, we can move deeper together – co-creating a learning environment where we are growing resilient communities and resilient fruit trees.
- You’re ready and excited to take a deep-dive into fruit tree pruning and care, so that you can share this with and bring benefit to others – your neighbors, communities, family, clients.
- You learn well with a mixture of verbal instruction, visual instruction, hands-on learning, community building, rest, and integration time with art, quiet, or music.
- You can commit to the entire retreat. You are open, curious, and happy to block off space on your calendar for all of this. And to take care of yourself so that you can show up and be present.
- You have any level of experience and you are open to learning.
- You are not able to attend the entire Retreet. It’s really important that each person who attends finds a way to make the time to be there for the entire course.
- You’re interested in learning about fruit trees primarily for yourself and your own trees. Of course, we want you to learn about your home garden, but Tree School is also about how our home gardens are connected with our neighborhood, the world, and our hearts. It’s this integration that builds deep resilience. If you aren’t nodding your head (or heart) to this, then this Retreet might not be a good fit.
- You’re looking for visual and verbal instruction only, you want a fast pace, and you get frustrated when there are gaps built in for integration of material.
Community Pricing:
This workshop is donation-based – a donation jar will be at the event, and you can contribute what you are able, through cash, check, or Venmo.
Our wish is that this donation-based sliding scale allows you to pick your payment amount in the spirit of equity, accessibility, generosity, and redistribution, while simultaneously inviting your conscious investment in a gardening culture that is working to create habitat infused with compassion, and supports this small queer business to operate sustainably.
If you can pay more, you’ll help cover the cost for someone else who needs to pay less. If you can’t pay anything at this time, you are equally welcome here! No one is keeping track of who does/doesn’t contribute.
We are operating in the spirit of trust and openness.
All funds collected will be divided between the teachers.
25 2 adult registration spots available.
🧡 Register Here 🧡
30 6 Spots Available
Note: if you are here to sign up and registration is full, and you really would love to come,
please click here to get on the waiting list. We will be in touch when space opens up!
Note: if you are here to sign up and registration is full, and you really would love to come, please click here to get on the waiting list. We will be in touch when space opens up!
The next Playshop will be in February, 2023
To stay in touch and get notified as soon as the date is announced, sign up here for our newsletter; (newsletter peeps get first crack at registration!)
As a welcome and thank you for your trust, you’ll get our Pruning Guide,
called Slowing Down to Connect.
Curious about our past Playshops?