Why Permaculture in the suburbs? Some quick thoughts. It seems like for a long time a lot of case studies on Permaculture were based on people moving out of built up areas and developing land in more remote areas where they could aim for self-sufficiency. That's great, but for most people the benefits from living in community, around other people and with services that can be delivered more effectively (and with lower impact) at higher density are more important. Plus, there isn't room for everyone to move out to rural locations, especially if we need to adapt quickly to a new emerging normal ..read more

All trees take time to establish. It's one of the challenges in designing a productive forest garden. Nine years into my project I'm still seeing yields increase in the tree fruit as the larger trees mature. Trees on more dwarfing rootstocks and those that are more heavily trained will reach much of their peak production a little earlier of course but it can seem like a long time to wait.  However, in some cases there are established trees that have varieties on we don't like or don't meet our needs. For example, it might produce a very short season apple that we can't use, store, swap o ..read more

The challenge with growing apples is what to do with the ones with imperfect skins that won't keep. I've been making dried apple rings a lot recently. I really enjoy them  but they take a bit of production even with the help of a manual peeling, coring and slicing machine. It also seems a real shame to throw away the peel which has all kind of health benefits ('An apple a day..' looks as though it has some truth behind it - see this for example  Unusual Immuno-Modulatory Triterpene-Caffeates in the Skins of Russeted Varieties of Apples and Pears). So last night I tried making apple f ..read more

I've always been interested in how we garden and how it might be different. I stumbled across books about permaculture in my teens in the 1980s and remember watching a video of Bill Mollison surrounded by a lush productive garden picking fruit where he lay. That idea of natural abundance lodged deep in me. I fell in love with that idea. I read a lot about permaculture and Robert Hart's amazing forest garden in the UK. I worked on a few farms and permaculture projects in summers between studying. I even started a course in sustainable agriculture but I didn't stick at it. I was coming to terms ..read more

I've always been interested in how we garden and how it might be different. I stumbled across books about permaculture in my teens in the 1980s and remember watching a video of Bill Mollison surrounded by a lush productive garden picking fruit where he lay. That idea of natural abundance lodged deep in me. I fell in love with that idea. I read a lot about permaculture and Robert Hart's amazing forest garden in the UK. I worked on a few farms and permaculture projects in summers between studying. I even started a course in sustainable agriculture but I didn't stick at it. I was coming to terms ..read more

The last time I wrote anything here was more than four years ago. A lot has changed for me since then and it's still difficult to explain it all. I left my marriage and my home. I left the garden I had been developing for more than 10 years. I couldn't tell you why, but I knew on some level that I had to. I'm still coming to peace with all of that, the feelings of grief, shame and regret but also the power of stepping into the unknown and the gratitude for the kindness and gentleness of others that heals. I haven't made sense of all of it but, I keep coming back to the need to tell the story ..read more

In Salisbury we are really lucky to have the Secret Garden, an amazing community garden project with a focus on wildlife, history, arts and education. It has recently been named by The Telegraph as one of the top 10 bee friendly gardens to visit in the UK and the fantastic city bee trail associated with the garden has won awards for its really clever way of promoting information about the range of wild bees in the UK. ​Yesterday the garden held a May Open Day to celebrate the opening of the garden for a new season. There were all kind of events on as part of the day from talks on the history ..read more

In Salisbury we are really lucky to have the Secret Garden, an amazing community garden project with a focus on wildlife, history, arts and education. It has recently been named by The Telegraph as one of the top 10 bee friendly gardens to visit in the UK and the fantastic city bee trail associated with the garden has won awards for its really clever way of promoting information about the range of wild bees in the UK. ​Yesterday the garden held a May Open Day to celebrate the opening of the garden for a new season. There were all kind of events on as part of the day from talks on the history ..read more

I have a shallow pool in a shady area at the front of the garden near the kitchen window. The original intention was mostly aesthetic - to reflect views of the garden and sky when seen from the kitchen. Over time though I've realised it serves other functions. It provides a great way of instantly telling what the weather is like. If it's raining there are splashing drops and ripples. If it's windy there are ripples on the surface. It reflects the sky and cloud cover and when it's really cold it freezes. All of that adds interest but it also provides a source of drinking water for everything fr ..read more

I have a shallow pool in a shady area at the front of the garden near the kitchen window. The original intention was mostly aesthetic - to reflect views of the garden and sky when seen from the kitchen. Over time though I've realised it serves other functions. It provides a great way of instantly telling what the weather is like. If it's raining there are splashing drops and ripples. If it's windy there are ripples on the surface. It reflects the sky and cloud cover and when it's really cold it freezes. All of that adds interest but it also provides a source of drinking water for everything fr ..read more