ALOTTMENTS - SUMMER - HOT BEDS AND STUFF

We've had a truly amazing Summer and Autumn here in Perth, Scotland. I've been so lucky to spend a lot of it outside gardening and also lucky to have a great bunch of gardening clients to work with here in Perth, also in Fife and at an allotment site in Dundee. Here's a few photos of the Dundee site where there's maybe seventy or eighty allotments altogether, it's been fascinating working there getting an understanding of the politics of a big site and what kind of help people need, and lots of fun too. 

The weather had left this polytunnel with a bit of lean to one side, so we just made the door with a bit of a lean as well

GET GROWING!

I read today that 80% of our fresh food comes from the EU. How secure is that? It's not difficult to grow some of your own stuff, salad is really easy for example, you'll be surprised what you can get from a tiny space. It doesn't just taste better, it's fresher, so more nutritious, you'll save some money, it hasn't been bathed in chemicals, possibly reared by semi-slave labour, and you're saving plastic waste and food miles.
PLUS you get an insight into growing food and how a mini eco-system works, and you'll have taken that all important first step from which you maybe learn more than any other.

This is our tiny garden in the little courtyard behind our flat. We wanted to keep some of our special herbs going so have got comfrey, sage, mint, verbena, valarian, thyme, penny royal, yarrow and a vine growing there.

SAVE YOURSELF WORK IN THE SPRING!

This is maybe the most useful tip of all! If you're planning to start a veg patch in the Spring, or are taking over an over-run garden, you can save yourself days of hard work simply by covering some of the ground over, killing off most of the stuff underneath. You'll still have to dig it over and weed it a bit, but it won't be anything like the work of digging it over from scratch in the Spring.

Mulching: i.e. covering new or bare ground over to reduce weeds. Can also be used to feed plants and improve the soil.

You can use covers like the one in the photo and take the whole thing up again, or you can use cardboard and let it rot away there, or a bit of both. Decent quality cover is better, that woven plastic stuff is a nightmare when it breaks down. Either way you'll have to weight it down.

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

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