WILDING - A huge ray of hope

This book is just the biggest ray of hope I've seen for ages...

I drive over to Dundee regularly to help two brilliant gardeners there and the journey takes me through wall-to-wall industrial landscape. There's acres and acres of polytunnels of strawberries and raspberries, and acres and acres of fleece covered veg. There's huge fields of just one cereal crop - running through them you can see the perfectly straight tracks of the colossal chemical spraying machines which we often see lumbering through Perth at the moment.

!! HELP SHARE LEARN & HAVE FUN !!

- OPEN DAY - PERTH COMMUNITY FARM -

- TUESDAY 10TH JULY -

There's going to be lots happening at this Perth Community Farm Open Day, check the main Facebook page to see what Craig and everyone is up to, also for directions.
I'm going to be setting up a wee demonstration RAISED BED, NO DIG and HOME FOOD growing area so people can see how easy it is to get growing.

Raised beds - no need to clear those weeds - just put down some cardboard, then compost, then get planting and sowing. We'll be making some beds on the day so you can see how to use handsaw, drill, screwdrivers etc.

You don't need much space, materials or equipment, and just basic hand tools. In a few weeks time you could be getting a delicious harvest of chemical free, plastic packaging free salad crops. Mainly you just need to set aside a wee bit of time and make a start!

This is another brilliant idea: square foot gardening - you divide up your space to get a succession of small yields rather than 1000 courgettes all at the same time and nothing else

Depending on time and who looks in I can also show people how to use and sharpen that wonderful gardening tool, the SCYTHE. There's also a brilliant orchard area and I'll be showing people round that and explaining how we plan to develop it into a full-on woodland garden area.

Craig becomes instant convert to the scythe

I'll be at the farm from 10 am to 1 pm then from 3 pm to 8 pm, so see you then!

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