PERMACULTURE!... Putting it into Practice

Maybe you've done some Permaculture study and reading and are now getting a bit overwhelmed by starting to put it into practice, or maybe you're well into a project but want to re-develop an aspect of it and have got bogged down in the detail... Or maybe you just need a bit of physical help with a daunting amount of work.
Either way, this is where Ruth and I love to help.
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
We've spent many years living, visiting and working on eco/permaculture projects, farms and gardens all over the UK and in Portugal and have now got a wealth of practical experience. We've made loads of mistakes! which is a particularly good thing, because we can help you avoid some of them yourselves...

Mistake 99 - taking on more than you have energy for. Ruth and I were actually thinking of developing that whole field behind us. We did do some interesting stuff with the two strips in the foreground though.

LITTLE AND LARGE
No project is too big or too small. Our clients' gardens range at the moment from a 8 foot by 3 foot patch to a vast walled garden, and we've planned for and worked on 100 acre farms, eco-villages, orchards and community gardens.
WOODLAND - THE CORE OF SUSTAINABILITY
My special interest is the woody aspect of a project, from planting trees, to renovating and managing orchards and woodland, setting up forest/woodland gardens, to making the things we need from local wood - not just raised beds and so on but also low impact housing homes and furniture.

Me at work on the verandah for the LogCabavan - it made a HUGE difference to have somewhere to sit outside

The LogCabavan itself, a static caravan clad with garden fence panels and insulated with waste plastic. The trusses for the extra roof are local poles and bits of palette

PRESERVING
Ruth is the one with the deeper knowledge of plants and also with the skills and experience for food preserving. Here in the UK we will do well to relearn these skills as soon as possible. With so much of food coming from abroad and are our local food yields coming mostly in quite a narrow part of the year, our food security is terribly fragile.

A shelf full of delicious jams, jellies, chutneys, pickles and the best maramalade ever - reminds me of my mum's larder

They may not taste of very much on their own, but courgettes/marrows absorb flavours brilliantly so are great for storing bulk

GET IN TOUCH!
So get in touch and see if we can help:
ianecowatt@gmail.com
07450 332 430

NEED ANY HELP?

Ruth and I have been delighted to find that all the experience we've picked up in our travels and work over the years on eco/permaculture projects, farms, small holdings and gardens around the UK and in Portugal is proving so useful now in and around Perth. The basic patterns of Nature's way are of course the same here in the city as they are half way up a mountain in Wales.

Fruit and nut area taking shape in Dundee

We've been getting pleasantly busy helping people with gardens of all shapes and sizes, ranging from small town gardens, to an allotment, to village gardens, (which tend to be that bit bigger), not forgetting lending a hand with Craig Barnett at the excellent Perth Community Farm

Perth Community Farm - inspiring stuff!

NEED ANY HELP?
We are delighted to give you whatever kind of help you need in your garden, whether it's with some of the heavier work, eg clearing veg beds of heavy weeds which can be a bit daunting on your own, or with advice on techniques and design, companion planting, biodynamics and so on, or just chatting over plans and ideas. A lot of my own work involves trees, whether it's woodwork for gardens or looking after fruit trees and orchards, or managing larger areas of woodland. Ruth is the one who knows more about individual plants, how to propagate them and what ones grow happily together. So do please get in touch if we can help at all! Text me: 07450 332 430 or email: ianecowatt@gmail.com

Get gardening!

The weather seems to have changed here overnight. The snow and ice have vanished and we've had some wonderful weather, time to get gardening again...

This is a garden I'm helping with in a village just outside Perth. My client there already has lots of great stuff on the go but just wanted a bit of help and advice to develop what she's doing further. I've been explaining a few of the ideas of working with Nature which Ruth and I have seen work so well during our eco travels: biodynamics, forest gardening and permaculture. It's brilliant that these can be applied at all scales - if it works for a farm it will work in your garden.

One area we are going to develop is the section down by the wheelbarrow in the photo above. This looks like a prime area to me, it gets plenty of light and has a handy stretch of fence to support climbing plants. We've started a narrow no-dig bed there for peas and beans. There's room for a fruit tree or two, I suggested planting a couple of nut trees further along as well. (I think nut trees will become more and more important at all scales as we move away from mono-culture grains through choice and necessity...) I've suggested that the area around the trees will be perfect for perennials such as herbs and fruit bushes, making a mini forest garden effectively.
Finally, I've been meaning to post up this photo of Ruth with a giant parsnip back at Barmolloch for ages.

It's always great to have Ruth on hand for advice. She's the one who does all the reading; she'll read three or four books about a plant before growing it, taking a kind of average of all the information and mixing that with her own intuition. Whereas for me, it's no doubt a man thing, but reading a book or a manual is absolutely the last resort...

A HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2018 TO ALL!

Ruth and I are happily settled in to our new home in Perth and looking forward to getting gardening in and about the Fair City.
JANUARY - PRUNING
If you're lucky enough to have a fruit tree or two, this is generally a good time to give them any pruning they need. I mostly come across trees that have been long neglected but find that even trees that haven't been cared for in years respond really well to the attention, coming back to abundant fruity life.

Pruning a damson tree back in the orchard we renovated at Treflach Farm - more about fruit trees and orchards here

In a year or two they can be providing you with crates of delicious, accessible fruit. Pruning can deal with any dead, damaged and diseased limbs and it's an opportunity to reshape and thin out entangled branches.
If you find yourself with fruit trees to look after I'd be delighted to work with you and show you what to do, the tools you need etc, or can just do some renovation work for you, do please get in touch.
MAKING A START
And January is also a great month to get started if you're planning to grow some veg and herbs. If you have a bit of turfy-weedy ground you're going to develop you can make life easier for yourself by laying down a cardboard mulch and compost in a no-dig system now and getting your patch ready before everything's goes crazy in Spring.

Starting a no-dig patch on my allotment down Brighton way. N.B. You still have to do some digging. Also, the carpet's just a temporary cover but the cardboard stays and rots away.

Then you cover the cardboard with compost and plant through it - this is used mushroom compost which worked really well. The sawn-off bottles work like mini greenhouses.

And here's one I did earlier... It's just magic to see the first shoots of your plants coming up

Again, I'd be delighted to show you what you to do and work with you a bit to help to get you going.
Just think about all that delicious, healthy, un-plastic-wrapped food you're going to be harvesting.... and do please get in touch :-)

mobile: 07540 332 430    email: ianecowatt@gmail.com