Written by Farm Volunteer, Jamie Skey
Indeed, it took its own sweet time, but, finally, spring has sprung forth. And on Saturday, it was out showing off its true colours – the sun soared, roasting us in all its majestic, face-reddening glory, while the sky was a clear and blue like a freshly squeegeed window.
What better time, then, to realise volunteer co-ordinator Ruth’s long-harboured plans to build an herb-spiral garden. This classic design – blueprinted by the ‘father of permaculture’ Bill Mollison – is a fantastic way to grow a diverse array of herbs in various microclimates, ensuring all the while that the herbs are easily watered and harvested.
Owing to Ruth’s sizeable ambition, this was never going to be an ordinary, modest-sized spiral. From the off, her plans were grand, so it was a good job two engineering graduates (Jamie and John) were at hand to envisage it all. They made the measurements – two meters from the centre to the outer curl – and, thanks to their brilliant 3-D imaginations, mapped out in their minds how the walls would be erected.
It was left for the rest of us to get cracking with preparing the materials. One of Sutton Community Farm’s greatest virtues is that it sources and utilises whatever materials, however shabby, are at hand. So we stockpiled old bricks and rubble for the wall. The wooden stakes of a discarded wire fence were recycled as measuring posts, the wire itself re-used as binding. Thus, in one glorious afternoon, the skeleton of the spiral garden was duly erected…