While getting ready for this weekend’s Introduction to Permaculture Course, here’s a blog from permaculture teacher Liz Darley on the last permaculture course at our farm.
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The wind blew (surprise surprise!), but the sun shone bright as the beginnings of our belated spring/summer was in full evidence, it was mid May and the first of our permaculture weekends at the farm. An eager group gathered in the packing shed, which had been beautifully converted from veg business into teaching, sharing and learning space.
After finding out who we all were, Liz the lizard and Ruth the rabbit(!) we delved into permaculture. There was a real buzz in the world cafe as three groups explored each of the permaculture ethics; earth care, people care and fair shares. We all enjoyed not just looking at, but also touching and feeling some of natures great patterns ranging from the tiniest beet seeds to a preserved piece of shark skin. We saw spirals, waves and branches and looked at how these different patterns overlap, interweave and are present in both space and time.
One very hearty lunch later we set off to explore the farm more fully, and then spent a blissful hour observing nature at work from our individual ‘sit spots’. As the afternoon wore on we started to unpick a couple of really valuable tools used in permaculture design, including a zones/sectors analysis of Tooting.
The second day we put a lot of the theory into practice with some really exciting, but challenging design work. Two groups worked on designing two different spaces outside the shed; the farm’s ‘zone 1’. There were some really novel ideas including a German raised bed system called a hugelkultur designed to allow mothers and toddlers to plant and grow veg at different heights, a polyculture of many fruiting bushes in a hedge designed to act as a windbreak and some great ideas for an outdoor kitchen.
At the end of Sunday I left the farm tired, but energised after a very inspiring two days spent sharing new ideas and inspiration with a lovely and enthusiastic group of people. I look forward to the next one in July.