 Mid May - My finished Edible Garden area A few months ago I started a new blog series to run alongside a year long design process I had started for the garden at my new home. Then the Coronavirus Pandemic became a very real thing and realising the scale of changes we were urgently going to have to make to our lives, I decided to make an edible garden ASAP. My main reasons for creating this garden at this time rather than continuing with the long term period of observation I was part way through, was to give myself an immediate project which I know from past experience would hugely benefit my holistic health and well-being, at a time of probably prolonged changes, uncertainty and grief. Given my existing health limitations plus the limitations of the pandemic “lockdown”, I designed my new garden to be as simple as possible to implement and to use as few bought in components as possible. In addition, this design aims to be easily changed or adapted for the long term when more time has been spent as planned on the observation and analysis phases of my original project. Here is a photo journey of my lockdown Edible Garden so far : - (PS - sign up to get my monthly newsletter to read more instalments about this garden design)  The first bed created is a keyhole type design chosen to maximise the growing area while providing good access. It makes full use of the south facing stone wall. I used empty beer bottles I'd been collecting for a rainy day for the bed edging.  I lined the bed with large sheets of reused cardboard then topped with a 3-4 cm depth of wood chip I had processed when some trees in a different area of the garden, had been pruned in March  I then created the "path" area using more cardboard and a thicker layer of woodchip. The metre lengths of tree branches to edge the second bed are again from the tree pruning work undertaken  The second bed edging was completed with more metre length branches. The bed was then layered with cardboard and wood chip in the same way as the first bed  I sank a bucket into the area near the back fence which gets equal sun and shade, as a tiny pond to benefit wildlife  I then placed some stones and a piece of branch in the bucket to allow insects to safely drink and provide a way in and out for any small mammals needing a drink  I then placed a layer of 6 month old partially composted materials from my composting system  ....and then a layer of bought in organic compost. Some of my neighbours joined me to buy a pallet of bagged compost to be delivered to our street, making things much easier for all of us with regard to the lockdown conditions of the Coronavirus situation as well as being financially cheaper to buy My finished Edible Garden area - the beds are topped with spiky twigs to deter cats and birds. All ready to get planting into now! The shady strip of grass at the right side of the area has had some perennial wild grasses and herbage seeds sown into patches of bare soil, as well as edible flower/pollinator seeds sown into the edge alongside the fence. The function of this small area is to mainly be a space for wildlife habitat.
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The second post in a new series of monthly blog posts sharing the journey through the design process in creating an urban permaculture garden at my new home. Wild Garden - Early DesignAbout 75% of the area for my new garden is North facing and adjacent to a busy road with congested traffic at certain times of day. Even before I moved into the house 6 months ago, I knew that these limiting factors meant that I would not be able to use this area of garden for food growing or spending prolonged amounts of time relaxing of socialising. Instead I have created an early design for wildlife habitat areas to be the dominant function in this space.  Showing the area of garden described in the text Ideally I would have observed the area for a year before making any design decisions but I have chosen to take advantage of the turf laid for the lawn being very new, (about 9 months old), and so ideal for sowing additional perennial flowers, herbage, legumes and grasses within the existing new turf. Before this happens I have also decided to prune back, (and in one case, remove), some existing mature sycamore and lime trees edging the lawned area and roadside to allow a lot of extra light onto the lawn and prevent the trees from overhanging the house roof. In addition I hope that having the pruning and resulting wood processing done just prior to sowing the new seeds into the lawn, will have the added benefit of creating more bare patches on the grass, enabling easier, successful germination and growth of the new perennial plants. Last week this work on the trees was successfully undertaken by local tree surgeons.  Abseiling tree surgeon in action!  It was great to get the work done on such a sunny day, I could immediately see the difference in light availability  The wood from the pruning work was processed on site into a variety of sizes of logs and then the smaller diameter branches either chipped for paths/mulches or left intact for creating wildlife habitat, all for other aspects of my garden designs.   Wild Garden - Seeds I ordered perennial flower, grasses, herbage and legume seeds for the lawned/grassed area of the Wild Garden and also some annual cornfield seeds for the borders. The perennial plants won't flower this year but the annual ones should do, creating some 'pop up' pollinator and other wildlife habitat while the longer term design implementation is established. I can highly recommend Emorsgate Seeds, (suggested to me by my good friend and ecologist Jan Martin), for a fantastic range of seeds and advice for ecological restoration in the UK, on any scale. I'm aiming to sow all the mixes of seeds at the end of March is the weather/ground conditions are appropriate Edible Garden - First Seeds Sown ....and then the first seeds for my Edible Garden got sown. These tomato ('Latah') and chilli ('Pretty in Purple' and 'Nigel's Outdoors' ) varieties from Real Seeds are some of my favourites and ones I had left over from last year. They'll be germinating and growing indoors until the summer.  I've also been researching info and ideas from Alys Fowler and Juliet Kemp for my pop up container garden design. These two books are great for designing gardens in a diverse range of small spaces. Sign up to my monthly newsletter to get further updates about how my garden design is progressing through 2020.
I'm really excited to be starting a permaculture design for an urban garden at my new home. In this new series of monthly posts I will be sharing some of my journey through the design process in creating my garden. Design Process - Permaculture Design CompanionThis will be the first land based permaculture design I have embarked on in several years and I'm really looking forward to using Jasmines Dale's recently published book, Permaculture Design Companion, as my guide for this project. You can read the review I wrote about this great resource, here .  Garden Design pin boardI've been thinking about the design for my garden since I first realised I would be moving into my new home, about a year ago. I have found that using a notice/pin board in my kitchen to collect all my initial thoughts, ideas, visions and wishes about my garden design has been a really effective way of collecting, storing and regularly reviewing all this information, as well as providing a great focal point for discussion and ideas sharing with friends and family who visit my house.  My garden design kitchen pin board! SectorsThis month I've also started undertaking some focused observations about how different sectors impact on the existing garden. I really like how sectors are explained in the #freepermaculture online course hosted by freepermaculture.com - "In permaculture, the term sector refers to any natural or uncontrolled influence that moves through your design site. And through sector analysis, you can anticipate and enact design decisions that will mediate, mitigate, and improve how those uncontrolled influences affect your site. Sectors could be wind, water, weather...they can be economic, social, biological, or any combination of the above. Every sector has needs, resources, yields, wastes, and relationships that influence the whole system. "  Sunshine on a South facing wall  Lawned area after heavy rainfall Next month Im going to be creating a "to scale" base map of the garden as it is at present, in addition making some major decisions about the mature trees already in the garden. Sign up to my monthly newsletter to get further updates about how my garden design is progressing through 2020.
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BlogWelcome to my new blog, born at the festival of Samhain 2018, the Pagan New Year. Here I aim to share regular everyday examples of how permaculture can provide healing and regeneration for ourselves, our communities and our planet. Search my Blog
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