A Lake County District supervisor who is an organic farmer will talk about permaculture Sunday at Benicia Public Library in the latest presentation in a series organized by Benicia Community Gardens.

That group also is accepting applications through Saturday for a free seed demonstration.

Denise Rushing, who is in her second term as Lake County District supervisor, is an engineering graduate of Stanford University, where she studied alternative energy and environmental science. She received a master’s degree in humanities from Holy Names University, Oakland.

In her career, Rushing has led several energy-efficiency technology companies, including several startups.

She has been vice president of business development for Sage Systems, Alameda; vice president of sales and marketing at CellNet Data Systems, San Carlos; and director of PG&E’s award-winning energy-efficiency program.

Rushing co-founded Rockhaven Eco-zoic Center, a certified wildlife habitat and interfaith eco-spiritual center, in House Springs, Mo.

She moved to Upper Lake to live, work and write at Dancing TreePeople Farm Community, which she founded and has developed programs described as transforming the human inner landscape, and where ecological design has been applied to human systems.

It’s also where she and her partner, Loretta McCarthy, grow organic walnuts and tends to an organic garden and orchard in the type of ecological agriculture called permaculture.

After living in the area 18 months, Rushing said, she sought public office in 2006, and was elected to her first term as supervisor.

She described her platform as one of justice and environmental stewardship. She said her decision to run came about after applying ecological design principles to what she called the “living system” of local governance.

She also has advocated for the renewal of the land, the watershed, and local communities.

Since her initial election, the area has won the California’s Green Summit Environmental Leadership Award two years in a row, with both technical projects — such as the largest public solar installation in the western United States — and local park structures built with volunteer labor that used local, natural materials.

Rushing has since been re-elected to her second term.

She is the mother of two young adults, a licensed private pilot and a registered mechanical engineer.

Her first book is “Tending the Soul’s Garden: Permaculture as a Way Forward in Difficult Times.” In it, she applies lessons she has learned about ecosystems to human communities.

Her most recent book is “Entrepreneurs and the New Story: Essential Earth Wisdom for True Prosperity.” This book looks at the role of entrepreneurs in creating what has been called “a whole new chapter in Earth’s unfolding story.”

Rushing will be speaking to the public at 3 p.m. Sunday at Benicia Public Library, 150 East L St. Those interested may visit her website, www.deniserushing.net.

In other permaculture news, Saturday is the last day for Benicia homeowners to apply for a free “Seed Plot Food Forest” demonstration and for 2015 installations.

Seed Plot Food Forest is a seven-layer type of permaculture, and Benicia Community Gardens’ model is based on plants that thrive in the Bay Area, with moderate water use, high yield and multiple functions by each plant to create a vigorous, healthy ecosystem that provides food, supports native habitat and builds up the soil.

The program has limited the size of seed plots to a standard 1,600 to 2,000 square feet. Once the seed plot is established, it can be expanded horizontally by increasing the planting area, as well as vertically, such as through potato towers.

Each plot can have six trees, up to 28 shrubs and up to 80 small plants.

Once Saturday’s deadline is passed, applications won’t be processed until fall 2015 for 2016 Food Forest installations.

Those interested may apply through the community gardens website, www.BeniciaCommunityGardens.org.