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No.77 Autumn 2013 £3.95 UK / $7.99 US / $8.99 CAN

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My partner is a coppice worker and creates the most beautiful benches, gates and buildings from locally sourced timber. I am always amazed at the beauty of

such things and usually slightly jealous that he gets to work with such natural materials and make such lovely items from nature.

Luckily I have discovered a way to follow in his footsteps, albeit on a smaller scale ... I have found the craft of spoon carving.

Every household needs spoons, they are used daily for preparing and eating meals. So spoon carving is a brilliant way to get into wood working, as well as crafting something beautiful for your home that you enjoyed making and it is also an antidote to the world of plastic ... a step towards sustainable living.

With the right tools and very little experience, spoon carving is something you could probably pick up yourself. My partner and I decided, however, to spend a day in the woods on a spoon-carving course. Not only does this reinforce the skills needed to handle carving knives safely and efficiently, we also love the fact that attending an informal low-cost course like this helps support local woodsmen and green woodworkers who are at

the forefront of sustainable local woodland management.It was a beautiful day in one of our local Sussex woodlands,

surrounded by an area of sweet chestnut coppice, beautifully green and vibrant, and alive with the season’s early regrowth. Richard of Green Wood Creations, a local coppice worker, was teaching the course from his caravan. Not only does he live in the woodland, he lives in harmony with it, meaning he is best placed to manage the area for the landowner. I love seeing a coppice worker’s home peeking through the trees, the smell of the smoke drifting past and watching it twist from the fire into the sky between the branches.

There were five others on the course, so the day was mixed with laughter, story-telling and by the end, many a sore thumb. To top off the whole experience, we even made our own pizzas, using Rich’s homemade outdoor pizza oven to cook our delicious lunch.

First we were shown how to turn a piece of timber into a spoon blank. Although time limitations meant we couldn’t have a go at this stage ourselves, it looked fairly simple if you know how to use an axe safely.

the Art of

Spoon CArving

Rozie Apps visits her local sweet chestnut coppice and discovers the

delights of carving her own spoons

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www.permaculture.co.uk No. 77 29permaculturewww.permaculture.co.ukpermaculture No. 7728

Crafts

Limbs and branches are good to use as they are generally smaller than whole trunks, although special attention is required when selecting your ‘blank’ as knotty or twisted pieces will make the carving process very difficult. We used birch in the round, which was then split or ‘cleft’ in half to give a piece of wood about 23cm (9in) long and 7.5cm (3in) across. This was then made easier to work with by chipping off the rounded side of the wood, to leave a flat rectangle. Other suitable commonly found species for spoon carving include beech and sycamore.

If it is your first time spoon carving, you may want to draw a blank of a spoon onto your piece of wood to give you some guidelines. You can then use the axe and a series of ‘stop cuts’ to transform the blank from a large chunk of wood into a more manageable piece. Stop cuts are simply small cuts made with a saw in strategic places to stop your axe splitting the area of wood that is to become your spoon when roughing out the blank.

Once our blanks were prepared we all sat on logs in the beautiful sunshine and were shown how to carve. To carve the bowl of the spoon, a knife with a curved blade, known as a ‘crook’ or ‘spoon’ knife is needed and for the rest of the spoon, a straight carving knife is all that is required. They need to be sharp, which means you have to be very careful. I managed to finish the day without any cuts but a few others did go home

with a plaster to go with their newly crafted spoon.We were taught with the straight blade first, using different

strokes so that we would always work with the grain. This gives smooth, efficient, controlled cuts and reduces the risk of the knife cutting you. It is a brilliant feeling when you can neatly slice away layers of wood, watching the spoon start to take shape. Make sure to work with your hands, tools and wood to the left or right of your legs and not in between them because there are arteries in your thighs that you do not want to cut.

It is easy to get carried away with the carving, so be careful not to make the neck of the spoon too narrow or thin that it will snap. If you want a flatter handle it has to be wider to keep it strong and if you want a narrower handle it needs to have more depth.

Before we knew it, lunchtime had arrived and we each got to roll out the pizza dough and top it with a delicious array of cheese, chillies and greens. The outdoor pizza oven had been burning away all morning so it was nice and hot, cooking the pizzas in just a few minutes.

After the perfect woodland lunch it was time for carving the bowl of the spoon, which I was eager to try. At first it was difficult to keep my thumb out of the way of the blade. I couldn’t hold the spoon with my thumb under the bowl and it kept creeping up to the edge, which was right in the line of the knife blade. But once you have carved some depth, the

Previous page: Rozie and some of the spoons she has made.

Above: Using an axe to rough out the blank for a spoon.

Left: Rozie uses a controlled grip on a straight bladed knife to work the outer shape of one of her spoons.

© Tim

Harland

© John A

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Crafts

knife stays in the bowl and your thumb is a lot safer. You could try using the straight blade to get some depth before using the crook knife. This should give the blade of the crook knife more purchase on the wood and help avoid it slipping off into your thumb. The simple scooping motion across the grain is so satisfying. I could have sat there all day shaving off layers of pale smooth birch.

Sitting in the warm dappled sunlight, surrounded by the chirping of birds and the soft whistle of the wind through the trees was so relaxing it was easy to get lost in the rhythm. I was enjoying myself so much it was a struggle to make myself stop. Rich informed us that ‘it’s all too easy to keep carving away and end up taking too much off, leaving you with a very fragile spoon’. I could easily see why!

Finishing your spoon is a personal preference. If you want a more refined smoother finish you can leave your spoon to dry for a day or two and then sand out the marks left by the carving using 120 grit (or finer) sandpaper. Though oiling is not strictly required, I have applied several coats of raw linseed oil to my spoon to help keep it in tip-top condition. Other oils suitable for finishing spoons include olive oil and nut oil. If using linseed oil make sure you are using it in its raw form and not boiled/processed linseed oil as this contains stabilizers that can be harmful to us.

Our relaxed introduction to spoon carving was thoroughly

Left: Richard’s spoon carving course wasn’t just creative, it was also very sociable.

Above: Rozie using a hooked knife to hollow out the bowl of a spoon.

Right: Richard prepares some delicious pizzas for lunch.

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enjoyable and gave me the confidence to handle sharp carving tools and I’ve come away with a skill that will be with me forever. It is also a fantastic way to introduce young children to the joys of woodcarving in a safe, relaxing environment. It applies the techniques of woodcarving to something tangible for adults and children alike and is a great basis to go on and learn more skills. It’s also a great activity to include at village fetes, summer festivals and garden parties where, I’m sure, your local woodsman or green woodworker would be all too happy to set up shop for a day and pass on their knowledge to willing participants.

All that remains now is to wait for some drier weather so I can sit outdoors by a warm fire and carve more spoons and hopefully progress on to salad servers, butter knives and whatever else my permaculture mind can imagine

Rozie Apps is assistant editor at PM and Permanent Publications.

If you are interested in Richard’s spoon carving courses, visit www.greenwoodcreations.co.uk £35 for the day, including a delicious homemade pizza for lunch.

There are a wide range of woodcarving tools, books and dvds available from Green Shopping www.green-shopping.co.uk

http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=carving


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In 18th century England, cider was the finest drink you could serve to your guests, be they the great and the good in a stately

home or the working men and women in the fields and taverns of the shires. In some circles (the former) it was held in the sort of esteem we might reserve for fine wines today. Yet by the 1980s cider had associations with drunken schoolgirls behind bike sheds or tramps sleeping it off on park benches. Never seemingly had a once esteemed drink fallen so far from grace.

Thankfully today, cider is under-going something of a resurgence, which is good news, for it has much going for it and in many ways is by far the most eco-friendly of beverages. For in its purest form cider is literally fermented apple juice with nowt taken out and nowt added in, so if you grow your apples organically you have about as pure a product as you could hope for, and there are many reasons to feel good about cider.

greener Than beerIn terms of energy used in its prod-uction, cider is far more eco-friendly than beer, for beer requires consider-able quantities of grain that could have been used to feed people or animals. Whilst the process of prod-ucing beer uses large amounts of energy to heat up the wort, cider is a cold ferment process; apple juice is simply left to ferment, no heat required.

A similar comparison could be made with wine. I well remember staying with the late New Zealand permaculturist, Joe Polaisher, and him tutting at the amount of vineyards springing up in his area. “And all so that the rich people of the world can drink wine,” he exclaimed. Clearly he saw a far more productive use for the land than row upon row of vines.

In the old days, by comparison, a traditional orchard of standard trees with sheep grazing beneath was a form of dual purpose land use, taking two crops from the same space. There were also examples of multi- or inter-cropping orchards with fruit bushes and daffodils grown between the rows of trees, and all long before the words permaculture or agroforestry were born.

Queen of the Eco-drinks

C iderWade Muggleton

exorts us all to become cider drinkers

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Food and Drink

good for biodiversiTyTraditional orchards are also great for biodiversity and the landscape. Where I live in the borders of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire, orchards have long been a key feature of the area and part of the local scenery. So if you buy cider made from apples from a good old fashioned orchard you are supporting the retention of these wonderful landscape features and the rich wildlife that goes with them, as well as supporting another rare species, that of the native craft cider maker. Rather than drinking a fizzy, industrially

produced, alcoholic beverage from a multi-national conglomerate, seek out and support your local producer and so put your pounds back into the local economy, and maintain a traditional landscape at the same time.

WasTe noTIn any orcharding area, every autumn you will see countless apples rotting on the ground, such is the madness of agricultural economics in the current system that whole crops are considered not up to the grade or simply not worth picking. The beauty of cider is that once juiced it matters not how lopsided, large or small the apples were, what colour tone the skin had or if there was the odd blotch on them. So cider making is a great use of all those apples that might otherwise be rejected, wasted or left to rot.

Overleaf:From apple to alcohol – Cheers.

Above: Orchards are wonderful places – beautiful and productive.

Below: Boxes of organically grown apples awaiting scratting prior to pressing.


Food and Drink

conditioning’. It will perhaps be drier and sharper to the taste. One of the issues with cider as a subject is that it is a very broad spectrum: there are some superb ciders being made as well as some incredibly rough, almost truly dreadful brews and every shade between the two. Thus to say you do or do not like cider is dependent upon what you have tried.

If you do get the homebrew bug your results will vary, for factors like the weather, the amount of sunshine the apples received while growing, soil type and rainfall will all influence the juice and thus the cider. If you do have a slightly disappointing batch, do not throw it away, for warmed up with a few spoons of honey, some spices, a slug of apple juice and a few slices of orange and you can turn a mediocre cider into great mulled cider.

even good for youAs if all of the above were not good enough reason to partake of a glass of cider, there is now scientific evidence that it could even be good for you. Trials by the Institute of Food Research have found that traditional English cider is high in antioxidants and that in moderation (within the recommen-ded units per day) a glass of cider can have health benefits; half a pint containing the same amount of anti-oxidants as a glass of red wine.

It was long claimed to be good for us, John Worlidge in 1676 wrote of cider, “Constant use of this liquor hath been found by long experience to avail much to health and long life, preserving the drinkers of it in their full strength and vigour”. This has now

home breWWhen it comes to making your own, cider is probably easier to home brew than wine or beer. It really is suited to a rough and ready garden shed style of brewing. The simplest of ingredients – a quantity of apples, some sort of scrat and press arrange-ment (see ‘Making Cider from Scratch’ article in PM75) by which to extract the juice from the apples, a demijohn or barrel with an air lock, then just sit back and wait.

It is a myth that cider is only made from cider apples. Whilst some parts of the West Country have a tradition of very specific cider apples, in other parts of the country fine cider is made from the juice of cookers and eaters, so any apple can be used.

There is of course a difference between the fizzy industrialised cider and proper craft or homemade cider. The latter will be flatter, although you can get some sparkle in it by what is known as ‘bottle

Left: Pressing out the juice can be quite hard work but it is a joyful task.

Right:Pure apple juice – a simple wholesome product.

Below:A demijohn with an air lock and a bit of patience = cider.

been backed up by modern research.So if 2013 does give us a summer,

then on a balmy evening you can raise a glass of proper English cider and take good heart in the knowledge that you are partaking of the best of environmentally friendly beverages. Enjoy...!

Wade Muggleton is the Countryside Officer for Worcestershire County Council who regularly writes for PM. resourcesFor all things cider related including instructions on how to make your own see: www.cider.org.uk

http://www.cider.org.uk


Chris Warburton broWn suggests seven key Criteria to develop

permaCulture sCienCe

Permaculture

Science

?A

lthough permaculture is now nearly four decades old, and is practised by hundreds of thousands of people in at least fifty countries, published scientific papers that deal with it are almost nonexistent.

Searching Google Scholar using the terms ‘permaculture’ and ‘journal’ produces many passing references but less than twenty peer-reviewed articles with permaculture as their main topic. It is fair to say that permaculture science does not yet exist. This article sets out to consider why that is, what can be done to change it, and what sort of science we might want the permaculture movement to produce.

SCIENCEBefore addressing the issue of permaculture science, we need to consider what we mean by science in general. Three clear criteria define whether ideas are scientifically established: reliability, validity and generalisability. Reliability asks whether the research findings can be replicated by a different researcher applying the same methods to the same question. Validity asks whether the findings are an accurate and true representation of what was found; a study in which a researcher focuses only on findings which support their pre-determined ideas is not valid. Generalisability asks whether the results can be successfully tested in new settings, peoples or samples; a study based on one field in one season may well fail the test of generalisability. Permaculture science needs to pass all three of these tests.

When I ask members of the permaculture community ‘what is the purpose of permaculture science?’, people

generally answer either ‘to improve the practice of perma-culture by permaculture practitioners’ or ‘to build a strong body of evidence to convince people of the value of perma-culture’. Improving the practice of permaculture is rooted in a comparison between what permaculture practitioners are already doing and doing things differently, to see if the difference leads to improvement. Building a convincing body of evidence means comparing permaculture practice to conventional practice using robust criteria so that meaningful comparisons might be made. Each of these two approaches will lead to different research questions being asked and need different kinds of research methods. Both, however, can only be addressed through permaculture research.

RESEARCHResearch is any activity undertaken to provide an answer to a question, such as ‘which football team has won the league most often?’. Permaculture research is any activity undertaken to answer questions related to the practice of permaculture. Recent issues of Permaculture have included examples ranging from the incredibly ambitious: ‘Can Permaculture Feed the World?’ (Patrick Whitefield, PM72) to the much more focused: ‘Are Small No Dig Vegetable Growing Systems More Productive Than Digging Systems?’ (Charles Dowding, PM74). In fact almost every practitioner of permaculture is a researcher; if you have ever been inspired by something in this magazine to ask whether design changes to your garden or your house might make them more effective systems for providing you with what you want from them, and have then done something


Permaculture ?

practical to find out the answer, then you are a permaculture researcher. But if so many people are undertaking perma-culture research why is so little of it getting into the scientific literature? I think there are four answers to this question.

THE FOUR BARRIERS1 PeoPle

Firstly, there is an issue about the kind of people who are attracted to permaculture. Permaculture practitioners tend to be unconventional folk outside of society’s mainstream; they are doers who are investing their time and energy in projects. Moreover, many have an essentially intuitive commitment to permaculture; ‘I do what I do because it feels right’. I get the feeling that many permaculture practitioners like the idea of improving the scientific basis for permaculture but they lack the time, the skills or the inclination to devote to developing permaculture science. All this is entirely appropriate in a movement that seeks to change the world by doing. It does, however, raise problems for the development of permaculture science.

To meet this first challenge we need to find ways of harnessing the energy, passion and practical projects of the permaculture community while up-skilling people with simple research skills, without making excessive demands on their time.

2 ComPlexity

The second issue is that of complexity. Permaculture seeks to engage at a level of complexity that conventional science generally does not. If we want to compare food outputs from

conventional farming with those of permaculture, the standard comparison would be wheat yield per hectare. But this is a very poor comparator for permaculture growing; where con-ventional wheat growing is monocultural and the entire crop is harvested in a single day from fields of several hectares, permaculture growing is polycultural, with crops harvested over a prolonged period from small fields or gardens. Moreover, permaculture practitioners are generally interested in a far greater variety of yields than conventional farmers.

Participants in a workshop at the 2012 UK Permaculture Diploma Gathering identified 16 different permaculture yields: from biodiversity to the effect on personal happiness. Conventional science methods are capable of measuring each of these yields individually, but permaculture practitioners are interested in several of these yields at once; crop yield is only one part of the story. Even if we limit ourselves to looking only at crop yield we are not free from complex questions. Just weighing the apple harvest potentially misses some key yields: keeping quality, taste, length of harvest period, suitability for juicing (or drying, or chutney making), commercial value (possibly linked to techniques such as Community Supported Agriculture), quality of the fruit. Yields are also subjective: a grower might consider one sack of fruit from an apple tree with no labour a higher yield than two sacks from a tree that was pruned, cultivated and fed. Inputs of time, labour, fertiliser etc. need to be considered alongside yields.

To meet the second challenge we need to find ways to handle complexity. Simply trying to compare permaculture yields to conventional wheat yield per hectare actually misses the whole point of permaculture as a holistic, integrated system.

This leads directly to the third challenge: the philosoph-ical approach to knowledge taken by much current scientific research.

3 APProACh

Preparing content for the Permaculture Digest, I have found little of use to the permaculture community in conventional plant science literature. Because research papers are expected to show strong statistical significance, work has become lab-based, not field-based. Moreover, in order to avoid complexity ‘contaminating’ the results, there is an emphasis on the smallest units of analysis: genes, microbes, chemicals. This boosts conventional crop yields, but inevitably leads to interventions at a microscopic level and to GM crops.

If adopted, this kind of ‘rigorous’, lab-based scientific approach has the potential to undermine the key feature of permaculture – its basis in systems thinking and a holistic approach to life. Instead, we need to build on the scientific literature which places the growing of individual crops into its wider social and environmental context; research typically rooted either in low-tech, majority world agriculture (e.g. Agronomy for Sustainable Development), or in a consciously chosen whole-systems approach (e.g. The Journal of Soil and Water Conservation). In this regard (and in many others), there is a great deal we can learn from well established research disciplines like agroecology and agroforestry.

To meet the third challenge we must find a scientific philosophy and methodology that lends itself to holistic, systems-based approaches, focusing on the macro rather than the micro.


Permaculture?4 Funding

The fourth challenge is the minimal financial resources available for permaculture research. Although there have been some great small projects, including Masters and Doctoral theses, as far as I am aware permaculture has yet to secure funding anywhere in the world for a really substantial academic research project. The number of people employed on permaculture research is tiny. My own post, for example, is funded wholly by private philanthropy (thanks to Lush Cosmetics and Plants for a Future) and the projects I support rely on volunteer amateur researchers. This contrasts with the millions of pounds of research funding spent on conventional agricultural research. If permaculture science is to become established, it needs to attract substantial mainstream funding and partner with existing research institutes.

To meet the fourth challenge we need to secure research resources, which means convincing funders that we can deliver results, and demonstrating that permaculture can solve some of the challenges humanity faces.

THE SEvEN KEY CRITERIAI believe these are the seven key criteria of permaculture science:

1 It should produce results which are valid, reliable and generalisable.

2 It should either improve permaculture practice or generate rigorous evidence that can convince the sceptical.

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3 It should answer clearly stated permaculture-related research questions.

4 It should harness the particular strengths of permaculture practitioners while addressing their weaknesses.

5 It should deal with complexity.

6 It should focus on the holistic nature of permaculture and communicate the advantages of such a focus.

7 It should be properly resourced.

I do not believe that permaculture science exists yet. By this, I don’t mean that there is no research being undertaken which meets my seven criteria, because there clearly is. I mean that we haven’t begun to build a systematic body of scientific evidence that meets these criteria. Nor has the permaculture community created a vision for how that body of evidence could be created and disseminated. My hope in writing this article is to stimulate the debate and the activity that will lead us to our next steps in creating permaculture science

Chris Warburton Brown is the Research Coordinator of the Permaculture Association, email: [email protected] writes here in a personal capacity, the views stated do not necessarily reflect those of the Permaculture Association.

http://permaculture-research.blogspot.co.uk

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NEWSpermaculture

IPC11 CUBA: The World’s Biggest Permaculture Event Of The Year!What you need to know – How to book – How to support others

DEADLINESPermaculture No.78

EDITORIAL 16th August 2013

DISPLAYS 31st August 2013& CLASSIFIEDS

PUBLICATION 31st October 2013

Contributions and enquiries to:

PERMACULTUREThe Sustainability Centre

East MeonHampshire GU32 1HR, U.K.

0845 458 4150 or 01730 823 [email protected]

www.permaculture.co.uk

Key Events & Dates IPC11 Cuba

Pre IPC International PDC11 - 24 November 2013

Havana

Conference Dinner & Gala24 November 2013

Havana

International Permaculture Conference

25 - 27 November 2013Havana

Includes: Day 1 Permaculture in Islands, Day 2 Permaculture v Climate Change, Solutions for

the future, Day 3 Urban Permaculture, cities

become livable

visits to Urban Permaculture Sites 28 November 2013

Havana

Convergence29 November - 3 December 2013

Los Cocos, Mayabeque

Permaculture ToursFrom 4 - 6 December 2013Includes: Matanzas, Sancti Spíritus, the Bellamar Cave

and Trinidad

the support of the Australian Green Team and the Australian Conservation Foundation. Their efforts, along with other similar projects, contributed enormously to the degree of local food security communities, towns and cities in Cuba enjoy to this day.

Our Cuban hosts will share elements of these processes with those attending. They will also illustrate their responses to the impacts of climate change and demonstrate their hurricane-proof permaculture systems.

Importantly, the event’s steering group is working with the Eco-Cuba Global Exchange so as to pave the way for US citizens to be able to attend IPC11 and avoid embargo hazards.

The event’s website has information on travel, including a section for American citizens. It also has pricing and booking details for all of the activities available and advice on the accommodation options.

The programme for the International Permaculture Conference is almost finished. The proposed site looks to be the Pabellón Cuba in Vedado, which is in the centre of Havana. Some names already confirmed as speakers are: Robyn Francis, Tony Andersen, Albert Bates, Toby Hemenway, and others continue to be added.

For bookings email Harriet Walsh [email protected] and for all further information view: ipc11cuba.comq Permaculture is joining with the Permaculture Association in calling for donations to support delegates from less economically advantaged areas to attend IPC11, with a focus on African delegates.

To donate and offer your support please visit: www.permaculture.org.uk/donate

A working scene from a sustainable farm, just outside Havana

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The world’s biggest perma-culture event of the year, IPC11 Cuba, The 2013 International Permaculture Convergence, is taking place this November/December. But there is still time to be a part of the event yourself, or help support others to be there.

Over 100 Cuban delegates will be at the Convergence with between 400-500 dele-gates expected to attend in total.

As well as the legendary friendly company and world class music associated with the people of Cuba, this IPC is offer-ing a wide range of activities, including:q A 3 day Conference with the theme ‘Island Permaculture, Urban Permaculture, and Perma-culture & Climate Change‘.q A 5 day Convergence and visits to permaculture and sust-ainability sites in Havana and at two other provinces, so you can see examples of permaculture for yourself – Cuban style! There is an open request for presen-

tations at the Convergence (45 minutes and 1 hour in length). Contact [email protected] with your ideas and for further information. q A Permaculture Design Course facilitated by teachers: Ron Berezan (CA), Brock Dolman (USA), Paulo Mellet (UK), Eric Toensmeier (USA) and Cuba’s own Roberto Perez Rivero.

Permaculture arrived in Cuba in late 1993 through The Southern Cross Brigade an Australian and New Zealand solidarity group, some of whom were permaculturists.

By late 1995 Cuba was facing a serious economic crisis and the key goal was to increase food production as much and as quickly as possible. This was done by growing food directly under the feet of people, on family and community grounds.

Antonio Núñez Jiménez’s Foundation for Nature and Humanity, a Cuban NGO, worked on several projects with

IPC11 Cuba The 2013 International Permaculture Convergence

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permaculture NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF Vote For Permaculture!

Winning MMU student John Hindley

The All Ireland Permaculture Gathering takes place 13 - 15 September 2013 at Parvani Hall Fields and Gardens, Clargalway, Co Galway.www.parvanihall.ie

Peter Maragh is looking to introduce permaculture to a poor region of Jamaica. If you are a permaculture teacher who could help coordinate and help teach please email him: [email protected]

WeTheTrees has launched a campaign to help people fundraise for their PDC tuition: www.wethetrees.com/pages/fund-your-permaculture - design-course

The Permaculture Association’s AGM will take place on Saturday 9th November 2013, venue to be confirmed. www.permaculture.org.uk

The LAND Project has 10 bursaries which will support 10 projects with people who are experiencing disad-vantage. For details phone Alan on 08454 581 805.

Worth hearing! The 21st Century Permaculture Show on www.Shoreditchradio.co.uk If you don’t manage to catch it, fortnightly on Sundays 8pm, you can listen to as a Podcast on www.CloudMix.com/21stCenturyPermaculture

US Permaculture Convergence, Temecula California, 13 -14 March 2014, with Joel Salatin.www.permaculturevoices.com

The Real Bread Campaign launches Sourdough Sept-ember, Britain’s first national celebration of ‘wild yeast’. www.realbreadcampaign.org

We are sad to hear of the passing of three perma-culture people who have helped so many others. Maryse Anand Verkaik who set up the Cludees project in Scotland, Richard Clare who started the Sheffield Organic Food Initiative and the Permaculture Assoc-iation Isle of Man’s member-ship secretary Val Garland, we will miss you.

Permaculture has made it to the Top 10 of the most voted for companies in the annual PEA-ple’s Favourite Award.

The awards will take place in London this Autumn and are hosted by My Green Directory. They invite you to vote for your favourite Green SME which you think delivers the best environ-mental practice and products.

All we can ask, is for as many votes from PM readers’ as possible ... it is a chance to further raise permaculture’s profile.

The last voting round is a Twitter Voting Poll, which is using hashtags to count the votes (these get added to the previous voting rounds).

The tweet you need to send is: Our Top 10 PEA-ple’s Favourite is

A meeting in Bhutan between an international working group and the Alliance for Sustainability & Prosperity (ASAP: www.asap4all.org) who explore ways for us to create a sustainable future, has led to a New Development Paradigm (NDP) being presented to the UN.

The Gross National Happiness (GNH) policy is based on a combination of old wisdom and new thinking, which defines the happiness of the people within the integrity of nature as Bhutan’s central principle, as opposed to that of money (GDP).

The NDP’s framework aims to provide an alternative to the money-focussed economies of the world, while bringing back our planet’s wellbeing. With rising unemployment, the ongoing financial crises and an escalating loss of biodiversity they argue it is clear that the current system is not working.

The NDP is made up of five main elements; well being and happiness, ecological sustain-ability, equitable society, sustain-able economy and living and inclusive communities.

The ASAP is inviting global participation and need examples of what already works, to help lift people out of poverty and help solve the environmental challenges facing us. For full story: www.permaculture.co.u k / a r t i c l e s / s u s t a i n a b l e -approach-worlds-economies-centralise-happiness-and-well-being

The Changing Face Of Green Universities

#permaculturemagazine – they get our vote to win the 2013 @mygreendir#peaplesfavouriteaward

All retweets accepted – only one vote per twitter account.

All entries are free and must be received before midnight 24th September 2013.

For further information on the awards please visit: www.peaawards.co.uk and to see the other finalists (who are all lovely but please do vote for us!) please visit: www.mygreendirectory.info (‘vote’ tab).

Happiness Policy At UN

q 143 UK universities, more than ever before, participated in the People & Planet’s Green League 2013. Each university is awarded a degree-style classification based on its environmental manage-ment and performance.

Manchester Metropolitan University came out top this year. Members of their Urban Gardening Society, with the help of a grant from the univer-sity, made many changes, includ-ing encouraging both staff and students to use previously neglected spaces and ensuring that their raised beds are also wheelchair accessible.

The awards are the only independent league table to the environmental and ethical performance of UK universities and are credited with presenting climate change agenda to every Vice-Chancellor in the UK.

Plymouth University came second and Gloucestershire third.

The full results can be viewed here: http://peopleandplanet.org/greenleague

q A sustainable skills share scheme, Greeniversity, has been launched by groups in more than 25 cities and towns across the UK.

Originally started in 2010 in Peterborough, the city aiming to create the UK’s Environment Capital, Greeniversity now has groups in Bristol, Cardiff, and Birmingham.

Greeniversity helps people to share and learn new skills. Teachers are ordinary people who volunteer their time to host a class on their chosen hobby, be it permaculture, woodwork, growing food, foraging, knitting or bike maintenance, etc.

Often forgotten skills are becoming important during times of economic austerity. They also help improve people’s health, sense of belonging and reduce environmental impact.

Greeniversity classes are promoted online where people can sign-up to take a free class.

For further details please see: www.greeniversity.org.uk

Greeniversity students share skills

Man’s place on/within the planet?

Association SurveyThe Permaculture Association are hoping to gain insight into how PM’s readership perceive their work. If you are able to spare five minutes to answer this short questionnaire, they would be most grateful: www.s u r v e y m o n k e y . c o m / s /PermacultureAssociationSurvey

http://parvanihall.ie/the-permaculture-gathering-2013/


http://www.wethetrees.com/pages/fund-your-permaculture-design-course

http://www.permaculture.org.uk

http://shoreditchradio.co.uk

http://www.mixcloud.com/21stcenturypermaculture/

http://www.permaculturevoices.com

http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/

http://www.asap4all.org

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/sustainable-approach-worlds-economies-centralise-happiness-and-well-being

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PermacultureAssociationSurvey

http://peopleandplanet.org/greenleague

http://www.peaawards.co.uk

http://www.mygreendirectory.info/voting/pea-ples-favourite.php

http://www.greeniversity.org.uk


Photos © Manley Park Primary

Exploring the different textures and

smells of living tree barks

Investigating the structureof a birds nest

39

Charlotte Dean explains how tackling nature deficit disorder in young children helps them to develop empathy and ethics

Rewilding Children

During 2012, The Brilliant Seeds project delivered a year-long outdoor learning pilot programme with Manley Park Primary School in Manchester. We used permaculture principles and design tools to propose, design and deliver activities, and explicitly aimed to tackle ‘nature deficit’. We observed how regular

proximity to the living world, with opportunities to observe, explore and make, led to many of the inner city youngsters becoming observably more connected, ethical and creative in relation to nature – resonating with the ethos and methodology of permaculture design.

Permaculture teaches us that the first step in effective ecological design is to observe the territory. Only when we have taken a good long look at the lie of the land, considering whether its energy flows are harnessed as abundantly and efficiently as in nature, can we begin to interact with it to design and implement for the better. Into our awareness of how we sensually relate to the world swims the slippery fish of individual perception. How we observe our surroundings is highly personal, and also site and moment specific – in other words as diverse as nature herself.

We encouraged eight year-old pupils (Year 3) to use all their senses to immerse themselves in the school grounds. We taught them to ‘fox walk’ – to sneak up on other creatures and become more aware of their own presence. We aimed for them to broaden and deepen their perceptions of what is at play in the living world, and encouraged both personal and collective responses. Pupils gathered materials on a journey stick to write about in class and recorded sounds to create an outdoor orchestral piece. Each group performance contained sounds specific to the time of day

plus constants such as engine sounds from the busy nearby road. The following week Jasmine, 8, told us: “I was listening to different birds on the

way to the shops with my Mum, one sounded different to another one.”

Richard Louv’s 2005 call to arms, ‘Last Child in the Woods’, talks of the ‘know-it-all’ state of mind that access to pervasive media technology cultivates in children, as oppose to the wonder and awe provoked by visceral encounters with open-ended, infinitely variable real life. He discusses how replacing primary experiences and personal connections with standardised ones leads to an atrophying of touch, smell, attentiveness to detail and subtlety of perception, with disastrous results for children’s social, ethical, mental and physical development and attunement.


Education

Line drawings © Jane Bottomley

A first look at the fruits they had grown

GrowinG ‘resilience’In the spring, pupils made the acquaintance of a tree: touching bark with eyes closed, smelling trunks, guessing how long roots extended. For weeks afterward, a few children ran eagerly to sing to their adopted trees during playtimes. Collecting twigs, nuts and bark to use in sculptures; pupils became absorbed in textures, colours and tiny patterns. A week later one boy reported collecting the same bark on his walk to school. Year 3s went nest hunting and were invited to pay careful attention to the kinds of places and materials birds prefer as homes, and why, before groups designed and constructed nests of their own. Children expressed awe and respect for birds, weaving the delicate materials together was no mean feat with ten fingers. They revelled in getting dirty – fingers squelching into mud to glue feathers and moss, despite earlier squeamish-ness about ‘dirt’. The teaching assistant observed growing delight in taking risks and enjoying challenges – a growing ‘resilience’ as sheput it.

As the year progressed, we listened as pupils

squealed grasping nettle leaves and soothed the stings with plantain. We heard them complain about the smell of fox musk and enjoy the bright colours of the latest flush of fungi on the log seats. They picked wild garlic leaves for teachers and furtively enjoyed the sweetness of foraged strawberries. Children also generated questions during explorations and discussions: “Do fungi have feelings?” After a while they began to notice natural patterns repeating at different scales – a whirlpool in a map book, snail shells, the ‘story spiral’ in the edible garden.

cultivatinG ethics The ethics of earth care, people care and living within our means lie at the heart of the permacultural rationale, reminding us to re-situate ourselves within the interdependent webs of our local ecosystems. As we have seen, pupils’ increasing sensory awareness encouraged enquiry about habitats and their own place within them. Sitting in the ‘village circle’ space that they helped build, the children were invited to pass around a bean seed and consider its weight and texture. First one, and then more, began to hold the seed to their ears, exclaiming:

“It’s saying something!”“What’s it saying?”

“The seed says, ‘Plant me soon!”“The seed says, ‘Don’t squish me!”

As a sense of connection, enchantment and playfulness became palpable in the orchard and woodland, earth care became instinctive. Pupils tied up wishes for planted seeds and some boys were heard singing the tree song to nurture their newly planted berry bushes. After learning about the special qualities of ‘soil superheroes,’ pupils began to move worms, millipedes and spiders out of harm’s way instead of screaming in horror. Through providing both structured activities that encouraged connection and new skills,


Education

41

Winter sculpture made from found materials

Coming to terms with creepy crawlies

plus unstructured time for playful responses, children’s empathy and enjoyment of their non-human playmates and habitats increased.

A talking stick activity helped involve everyone in generating solutions to a community problem – how to protect seedlings from careless lunchtime feet? The talking stick is used by people rejuvenating Native American traditions across the UK and beyond, in a worldview that emphasises peace and interconnection and that places people firmly back within the natural order of things – the Medicine Wheel of Life. Children were invited to listen to the truth of their heart before speaking in turn, and to actively listen from their hearts, rather than ‘be quiet’ as others spoke.

Afterwards teaching assistants noted how engrossed was a group containing a number of typically disengaged children. Through generating ideas and solutions and acting as stewards of the natural landscape, pupils began to learn to balance the needs of natural ecosystems with the needs of people, and to consider everyone’s testimony equally.

In summer we worked with Year 6s to complement cross-curricular growing and pollination themes. Pupils linked clearing an area for new pollinator beds to their class discussions about whether real bees should be replaced by mechanical ones. They felt proud to be actively responding to a global problem increasingly covered by the media: the scary decline of pollinator populations. Through planting bee and butterfly friendly

plants, and using organic gardening techniques instead of weed-killer, children learned to minimise harm to the other species that humans depend on. “I was scared of bees ’til this morning Miss; now I’m not!” said one as we counted bees in the raspberry patch in the sunshine.

circular & Perennial natureThe pilot outdoor programme helped children appreciate circular energy flows, for instance in using their own abundant energy to capture and store leaves. These became food for worms and other creatures, generated mulch for future planting and provided wild classrooms for studying materials, decay and microorganisms. Shovelling compost ordered in for the first year’s planting, Year 5s began to understand the circular and perennial aspects of nature and why it would be the only batch we would ever need to import: “Oh Miss, wow! That is such a good idea, Miss, whose idea was that?!”

Permaculture teaches us to design our solutions; that potential yield is only limited by the imagination of the designer. Year 5 were reading Michael Morpurgo’s


Part of the school garden and meeting space the pupils helped to create

Education

book, ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’, in class so we used it to encourage design-based self-reliance. The orchard became the story’s ‘desert island’ where children explored the resources available for fashioning tools, gathering water and making food and shelter. Ideas included feathers and raspberries for pens, catching water off trees, making nettle soup and plantain salad and building dens from twigs and nettle twine. We discussed the ethics of killing squirrels and the concept of ‘microclimate’ – identifying warmer spots like the old brick wall and the steaming compost heap. Pupils told us about Miswak, a tree in Pakistan whose twigs are used as toothpaste.

what we learntLearning outdoors invited children’s participation, awe and often a wild energy and creativity that can often be stifled by classroom-based learning. The sensory and kinesthetic aspects of outdoor learning brought their own perceptual shifts and creative, pupil-led responses. Creativity lies at the heart of self-sustaining systems of all kinds, from developing neural pathways to healthy learning models and ecosystems. Encouraging creativity frees up children’s natural ability to solve the problems presented to them using the resources to hand. But we also observed how children’s increasingly direct and playful experience of nature led to a growing ethics of empathy, connection and mutual care. Without this renewed sense of ethics within education, the dire need for humanity to live more sustainably and

harmoniously with the rest of the biosphere will remain an unmet one, no matter how creative the learning is

Charlotte Dean and Nicki Dupuy from The Brilliant Seeds Project work with Manley Park Primary School in Manchester.

recommended readinGOutdoor Classrooms - a handbook for school gardens, by Carolyn Nuttal and Janet Millington, price £16.95, is available fromwww.green-shopping.co.uk

http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/outdoor-classrooms-a-handbook-fo-school-gardens.html


http://www.landyvent.co.uk

http://www.goodenergy.co.uk/affiliates/permaculture

http://www.lanzaroteretreats.com



Kids – dream big

We need your

dreams! PermacultureKids Zone

This is our page, not my page, so please send in photos/news/letters/drawings, and/or your puzzle solution to the email below. Let’s make these pages super-abundant! Please send your material to:

[email protected]

Elowen Waters editor

Here’s a great idea that I personally love! A tasty snack that is fun to prepare. First you have to make the popcorn maker. Attach a metal sieve (without plastic handle) to a long, strong stick using garden wire. Hinge a

second sieve to the first again with wire.Make a fire and reduce to embers. Sprinkle a layer of popcorn in the bottom

sieve, close the lid and hold over the embers. After a few minutes they will start to pop. Shake the sieve carefully until popping has stopped. Empty

into a bowl. Now heat some butter and honey in a pan and boil for a couple of minutes. Pour over the popcorn, stir well and enjoy.

Introducing The EditorI am 11 years old and I live at Pentiddy Woods in Cornwall, where I am community educated with my nine year old brother, Adeon. It is not just Mum and Dad who teach us but lots of people in our local community who have skills to share. I particularly love learning the violin, singing and reading. I help my Mum run a forest school here twice a month for families who want to raise their children more naturally.

We enjoy trying to live as sustainably as we can and live off-grid with a wind generator, solar panels, and compost toilet. We grow our own food including eggs and meat, plant trees and manage the woodland. Mum and Dad also run a natural burial site.

Ed

Welcome to the first Permaculture Kids Zone page!

Please do try this at home!



Kids Zone

¿

B C Y E E S H S D P G G S C G

I F A R G R P N G R T A Q H U

C G N T E A A I E Y G X M L B

Y W K U E L G E N E B E Q O D

C O W J D R N N S A A J P R L

L M Q O H H P U E D C A A O E

E S O H O I O I O E H H W P I

J W A U O H C W L U R Q M H H

E X S I N P N D E L S G K Y S

C E R E C Y C L E O A V O L F

R P E R M A C U L T U R E L H

Y R E W O P R A L O S F Q Y S

G E L V L T J B V D A L A S R

U T G G V L W O S R W N Y V C

I F B Q I Z W W Q X N X U A X

FUNDINg For YoUth ProjECtS!As part of the Permaculture Association’s 30th anniversary this year they are hoping to raise £30,000 from members and sup-porters to provide funds (grants of between £500-£2,000) for new projects/events led by young people in 2014. The plan is to have an event later next year to bring everyone involved to-gether to share what they did and think about what they want to do next. This is brilliant news! It would be great to report on this in future issues. If you have any ideas for projects contact: [email protected]

ALL thINgS grEEN WorD SEArChThere are 14 ‘green’ words hidden in the grid below. Can you find them all? Answers in the next issue.

letter: sweet treats I was sitting in the garden in the sun with my Mum and my little brother. We were playing a game of making ‘sweets’ from the garden. Our favourite three were:Sweet Cicely: The green seeds had lots of flavour – aniseed and sweet. The flowers were soft, sweet and delicious too.Chocolate Mint leaves: A bit like mint ice cream – cool and minty.Fennel leaves: Aniseed and sweet, but not quite as sweet as Sweet Cicely.We had fun making garden sweets. Try getting some for yourself!

Eva, aged 6

Super-abundance!It’s harvest time! Send in a photo of your super-abundance with a chance to get your photo and story in the next issue! Here’s a picture of our cucumber overload back when Mum didn’t realise that six cucumber plants was a bit much for a family of four! Wherever we went we took a basket of cucumbers with us and handed them out to complete strangers! We decided to only put two plants in this year!

Next IssueMusic review, wacky fashion,

competitions, your letters and much more!

Thank you for your letter, Eva. Have you tried fennel fronds wrapped in rose petals? My favourite! Ed.



http://thegreenparent.co.uk

http://www.resurgence.org

http://www.theecologist.org

http://www.thespark.co.uk

http://dark-mountain.net


Patrick Whitefield visits Rebecca Hosking and Tim Green’sDevon farm which is being designed to work like a natural ecosystem

ecologicalfarming


Tim Green discusses electric fences with Patrick Whitefield.Previous page: Sheep in metre high pasture.

The pastures are now diverse with species.Top: Rebecca Hosking inspects a high grown pasture.

Farming and Smallholding

“We question all received wisdom in farming,” said Rebecca Hosking as she and Tim Green showed me round their Devon farm this spring. They had only taken the land over from her father the previous autumn, so in many ways it looked much the same as it did before, but they’re very clear about the direction they want it to take and have already started down that path.

Mob GrazinG

They practise holistic grazing management, or mob grazing as it’s also called. The key is to keep the animals in a tight mob on a small piece of ground for a short time, typically one day, and then move them on. This means the pasture can be managed with much more precision and constantly increase in quality. When animals have access to a large area they eat the most nutritious plants and leave the rough, unpalatable ones which have little food value. This leads to a steady decrease in the quality of the pasture. But when they’re concentrated on a small area for a short time they eat everything equally. Meanwhile they give it an even dressing of manure and when they’re moved on it can start regrowing immediately.

Their first aim is to get the sheep grazing on longer grass rather than the short sward that they inherited from the previous management system. Longer grass means deeper roots, which means more organic matter added to the soil and more mineral nutrients brought up from the subsoil. It will also mean that the sheep eat some of the grass and trample some into the soil. By adjusting the size of the daily paddocks, Rebecca and Tim can decide what proportion of the grass feeds the sheep and what proportion feeds the soil.

Trampling in grass is an anathema to conventional farmers but it’s a key element in the holistic system. It’s a natural, home-grown source of soil fertility and it also helps to form a mat of fibrous material at the soil surface. This will keep the sheep’s feet off the soil, preventing lameness

and enabling them to be kept outside all year round without damage to the soil.

Electric fences are used to keep the animals on their small daily allotment of land. At first sight this looks unnatural but actually it’s much closer to the way wild herbivores graze than the normal practice of set stocking, where the sheep or cattle have access to a whole field over several days or weeks. A wild herd is kept bunched up by predators which range around and snap up any individual which strays. The electric fences are taking the role in the ecosystem formerly played by wolves.

Holistic grazing management has been developed by Allan Savory, from Zimbabwe, and has been put into practice by many North American farmers, though here in Europe it’s still little known.1 Rebecca and Tim are among a tiny band of pioneers trying it out.



HealtHy aniMals

“Why on earth did you choose Shetland sheep?” a neighbour asked them. “What are you breeding for, meat?” “We’re breeding for health,” Rebecca replied. Shetland are a naturally short-tailed breed, originating from the wild sheep of northern Europe, rather than from the Middle East, where the more commercial breeds are from. The ram is Icelandic, another short-tailed breed. Although you may see plenty of short-tailed sheep in the countryside, these have had their tails docked at birth – just the kind of intervention that Tim and Rebecca are moving away from.

Breeding is one element of animal health and the grazing method itself is another. Because the animals are moved on each day they’re always grazing on clean ground, never where they’ve recently dunged. Sheep suffer a lot from intestinal worms and this is a natural way of preventing infection. So Tim and Rebecca

don’t give the sheep any chemical wormers. Nor do they vaccinate them or treat lameness – they leave it to the natural immune system. There is some lameness in their flock at the moment but they’re convinced it will disappear as that fibrous layer of plant material builds up at the soil surface and keeps their feet out of the mud.

Nor do they assist lambing. Several lambs were born while I was there and they all popped out quite easily. How unlike all this sounds to conventional sheep farming!

aGroforestry

The electric fences mean that it’s easy to plant trees in the middle of the fields without having to protect them individually from the grazing animals. Wherever the sheep are the trees can always be on the other side of a fence. Over the past winter they’ve planted a network of mainly fruit trees, kindly donated by Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust,2 over part of the farm.

They also plan to plant fodder trees to provide the animals with part of their diet. This mixing of tree crops and pasture can be much more productive than either one on its own. Competition between plants of different shapes, sizes and annual cycles is less than between plants which are all the same, as they are in a pure pasture. There are some positive interactions too, such as fertility brought up from below ground by the tree roots and shared with the grass sward when the leaves fall. Where conventional farmers would see trees planted in pasture as production forgone, Tim and Rebecca see it as production increased.

They make no hay or silage. Winter feed comes in the form of foggage. This is grass which has grown in summer and been allowed to dry in situ. The only feed they bring in is just enough sheep nuts to train the ewes to follow a bucket. This makes it easy to move them, even down a public road with lots of junctions, which otherwise would need several people to block off the turnings.

Dung and other beetles have made a welcome return since the farm switched to ecological managment.

Minimal intervention at lambing – the only thing we do is pick them up to sex them.


increasinG diVersiTy

This year they plan to introduce goats and pigs. Apparently the Large Black breed can thrive on a diet of herbage alone, though it does mean they grow much more slowly. They’re also thinking about turkeys, and they plan for cattle the year after next. They will also increase the diversity of the fields by sowing extra grasses, clovers and herbs. The trick is to sow them in the paddock where the animals will be the next day, then they get trodden in.

“In the first two years profitability builds gradually,” said Tim, “as you’re feeding the soil more than the animals. Then, after year three or four the ‘golden acres’ effect really takes off and most farmers have found that as this happens they can increase the stocking rate by two to three times.”

One thing that impressed me was the enthusiasm and imagination that Rebecca and Tim bring to the task of turning farming wisdom on its head. Another was their humility in the face of the complexity of nature. They quoted Allan Savory, the originator of the system: “When you’re dealing with ecosystems, always assume you’re wrong.”

PasTUres new?Since Patrick visited Tim and Rebecca, they have decided to look for another plot.“After three years of tempered changes to our farm’s management we are now seeing the benefits to ecology and productivity beginning to take off. Unfortunately, just when the successes are beginning to snowball, we have found we have reached the limits of what my family are willing to allow to take place on this piece of land.” says Rebecca. They are therefore looking for a plot of land of between 100 and 300 acres. Not prime farming land – more the opposite – perhaps spent arable or pasture. Hopefully within a few years it will look quite beautiful, be full of biodiversity, teeming with wildlife, and be productive – quite unlike

A natural birth of twin lambs that happened during Patrick’s visit.Top: Forage flattened and dunged by sheep helps to feed the soil.


‘normal’ open farmland. If you can help please contact: [email protected]

In 2009, Rebecca Hosking, a farmer’s daughter, and Tim Green, a biologist, made a film, A Farm for a Future. The film dealt with food security in the UK and explored new ecological farming methods including those that are independent of fossil fuel, to increase food production. Both Tim and Rebecca worked for the BBC Natural History Unit producing wildlife films.

Patrick Whitefield teaches permaculture courses, of interest to both farmers and gardeners. You can see details of his courses, both residential and online, at:http://patrickwhitefield.co.uk

reFerences1 http://tiny.cc/allan_savory2 www.agroforestry.co.uk

mailto: [email protected]

http://patrickwhitefield.co.uk

http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html

http://www.agroforestry.co.uk


I am an organic no dig kitchen gardener, working in harmony

with nature to create ideal growing conditions for a wide range of vegetables, herbs and other edible plants. The key to growing vibrant, healthy and delicious plants that are more resistant to disease, pests and adverse weather conditions is the soil.

An annual dressing of an inch or two of well rotted compost spread on the undug, weed-free beds creates a well structured, energised soil full of beneficial flora, fauna and fungi. The mulch feeds the plants, conserves moisture and also provides a habitat for many beneficial and predatory creatures, such as black beetles. Timings

are an important consider-ation: many plants become sickly and prone to disease simply because they have been sown at the wrong time, when the conditions are not right for that plant (runner beans put out before the threat of frost is ended, for example). For undercover crops, consider watering, ventilation and basic hygiene; if you have piles

of junk hanging about then the risk of slug and woodlice damage will be high.

Good gardening and encouraging beneficial predators usually gives great results, but sometimes problems occur, perhaps because weather conditions make some pests and diseases more prevalent. Fortunately, nature has provided us with plants

No dig gardener, Stephanie Hafferty, explains how to makea variety of garden preparations to feed plants, prevent and

treat disease, and deter unwanted insects and other animals

I

Garden remedies

Chamomile

Lavender

Nettle

Tansy

Soapwort

Comfrey

Horsetail

Pyrethrum

Plant pictures © Shutterstock


Gardening and Cultivation

which can help boost plants’ resilience, deter or remove unwanted insects.

Growing and foraging for the ingredients and making your own remedies is an empowering skill and great fun too. Even though they are made from natural ingredients, only apply insecticide sprays early in the morning or later in the day in order to prevent bees and other beneficial insects from being harmed, and check your plants first for helpful predators, such as ladybird larvae. If possible, use rain or spring water to make these potions.

hanging bunches to dry in paper bags in an airy place for a few weeks. Horsetail becomes brittle when dry and easily crumbles, so may disintegrate if not dried in paper bags.

Horsetail is a powerful plant, rich in minerals, alkaloids and silica, used in some biodynamic preparations as well as extensively in herbal remedies. A natural fungicide, horsetail ‘tea’ is used to treat fungal problems including powdery mildew and black spot and makes a magnesium rich spray which can be applied directly to plants and as a soil feed. The spray helps to prevent damping off and rust; treat mildew on roses; treat peach tree leaf curl; can be used as a root dip; and is an effective, purifying cleaner for green-houses and cold frames.

Horsetail & CHamomile teasTo make the tea, take one cup of fresh horsetail (½ cup of dried), add three cups of water and boil for five minutes. Remove from the heat and cool, still covered, for six hours. Strain, dilute one part horsetail solution to five parts water, and pour into a clean spray bottle before use. Spray every two weeks. You can also spray as a preventative measure, should it seem likely that problems may occur due to

weather conditions.Ventilation is the best

preventative for damping off, however if it does occur sprinkle cinnamon powder over the affected area or make some chamomile tea spray (Anthemis nobillis or Matricaria chamomilla). Add a handful of flowers to three cups of hot water and steep for two hours, strain and pour into a spray bottle. An organic chamomile teabag in a mug of hot water will be fine too.

motH repellantPyrethrum (Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium) flowers make one of the safest and most potent insecticides for repelling moths, flies, ants and most flying pests. For pyrethrum spray, mix one tablespoon of flower heads with one litre of hot water, cover and steep for 24 hours. Strain and pour into a spray bottle.

inseCt repellentsGarlic spray acts as a fungicide and insect repellent. It is especially good for removing caterpillars from brassicas. To make a gallon of garlic potion, either finely chop a whole bulb of garlic and mix with two cups of water or whizz them together in a blender. Pour into a large jar and leave for two days, shaking occasionally. Strain into a bucket or similar large container and mix with

plant of tHe dinosaursAlthough it is a nightmare in the garden, I love foraging for horsetail (marestail, Equisetum arvense). A beautiful, highly invasive and incredibly resilient plant, it is extremely beneficial. With roots growing up to 10 feet into the earth and a history of survival stretching back over millions of years to the time of the dinosaurs, horsetail is extremely difficult to eradicate. I am trying various mulching and trowelling methods to do so from a polytunnel where I work, feeling hopeful for good results. I therefore never have living plants in my own garden and dispose of any roots with caution.

I gather basketsful throughout the growing season to make potions for the garden and my home (it is great for cleaning),

Dried Horsetail The author making a Horsetail solution

Dried Chamomile flowers for infusing



seven pints of water and one of soapwort solution to help it stick to the leaves (see recipe at the end of the article). Mix well and apply using a spray bottle. Treat affected plants once a week.

Chilli and garlic insect spray is a more potent insecticide. Always wear eye protection and con-sider those around you, including animals, before applying. Chilli is extremely painful if sprayed in the eyes or inhaled. Any chillies are fine for this. Whizz four chillies, four garlic cloves and half a cup of water in a blender or chop by hand and mix. Leave for two days, strain, then add ¼ cup vegan eco-friendly washing up liquid (or one cup soapwort solution) and mix. To use, add ¼ cup of garlic and chilli liquid to one gallon of water – more concentrated solutions could damage the plants, so don’t get

over enthusiastic.Chillies discourage

mice, squirrels and rats from eating pea, squash and other seeds either in the greenhouse or garden by chopping and sprinkling fresh or dried chillies around the seed trays. Dried crushed tansy leaves (Tanacetum vulgare) repels ants, fleas and flies. Southernwood and wormwood used in the same way deters slugs, flies and (allegedly!) also snakes.

Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis)

one sees at greengrocers, lined with kitchen roll or muslin. To make the spray, mash one cup of calendula leaves (½ cup dried) in ½ litre of hot water. Cover and leave for 24 hours. Strain into a large con-tainer and dilute with 1.5 litres of water. This keeps for about a week.

mammal deterrentsTo deter cats, mice and rats, make some gorgeous mint spray. Just steep a large handful of finely chopped mint (any variety) in a litre of hot water. Leave for 24 hours, strain and pour into a spray bottle. Use penny-royal in the same way to deter ants (dangerous for pregnant women).

Compost teasI forage for a lot of nettles and comfrey throughout the growing season (they dry well for winter use too). Although I rarely feed plants which are planted into the soil (the annual dressing of well rotted compost does this), for potted plants homemade liquid feed is a potent food. I used to make a liquid feed in a dustbin with water, very effective but so smelly. Charles Dowding has encouraged me to try this method, however, as it produces a powerful but less overpowering liquid feed: gather nettles or comfrey (or a mixture of both) and fill a large plant pot with the leaves, pressing down firmly.

spray repels leaf cutting and chewing insects. I grow a lot of calendula; it is a brilliant companion plant, the petals are lovely in a salad and you can make many valuable potions for your garden and body from the flowers. Dry the petals for the winter in those stacking blue mushroom crates

Dried Chillis

Garlic

Comfrey liquid maker

Preparing garlic for blending, it makes a good fungicide and insect repellent

Place on top of a bucket and cover. After a few weeks, a thick potent liquid will drip down. Mix with water at a ratio of one part liquid to 10 parts water. I like to make liquid feeds at the new moon, to harness the lunar energy, feeding the plants during the waning moon.

makinG soapwort solutionI grow soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) in a large clump in my garden, in a corner where it’s invasive nature will not affect anything else – alternatively, grow in pots.

Comfrey


Stephanie Hafferty works as an organic no dig gardener in Somerset, specialising in edible plants and those which can be used to make natural potions for the body, garden and home. She manages a kitchen garden on a private estate, has a highly productive domestic garden and allotment and is also helping Charles Dowding set up his new garden at Homeacres,

where they run courses. Stephanie writes for gardening magazines, contributed to Mark Boyle’s Moneyless Manifesto, creates popup festival gardens, give talks and workshops andis currently working on two books.

For more information about Stephanie’s talks and workshops see: www.StephanieHafferty.co.uk

Rock Soapwort

Common Soapwort roots and leaves


Soapwort contains saponins, which create a soapiness that has been used for cleaning for centuries.

All of the plant can be used, including the flowers which make a colourful addition to salad (but do not eat any other part of the plant, it is poisonous). During the spring and summer I harvest the leaves and stems, digging up some of the roots in the

autumn. Leaves, stems and roots can all be chopped and dried for use in winter or early spring, before the new lush foliage appears.

To make a soapwort solution, chop two hand-fuls of fresh leaves and stems (or one handful of dried) and add to three cups of water, with some rose petals, chamomile or lavender if desired. Simmer for 30 minutes, strain and store in a sealed container for up to a week.

Alternatively, chop two handfuls of fresh root, or one handful of dried root (it is better to chop it before drying) and add to three cups of water. Soak overnight, boil for 30 minutes, strain and store. Again, this keeps for a week.

Josh (see photograph bottom of page 53) uses soapwort solution to wash his dreadlocks!

http://www.stephaniehafferty.co.uk

http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/earth-pathways-diary-2014.html


a ray of light in

Lili Zandpour explains how permaculture

has become a powerful tool to uplift communities,

combat malnutrition and disease, and facilitate self-reliance

SOUTH AFRICA

Photos © Lilia Zandpour

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