We were amateur conservationists at that time and our focus was biodiversity. Then along came permaculture in the form of a Channel 4 documentary called In Grave Danger of Falling Food. Tim was smitten. Why couldnt we have our conservation project and eat it too? I wasnt so sure. I wanted to read about it and test permaculture out. But Tim had what I would describe as a brainstorm – he could see that conservation alone was not enough and his enthusiasm was relentless. He went on a forest garden course with Patrick Whitefield (a permaculture teacher and author) and the late Robert Hart (the pioneer of temperate forest gardens), and was soon working out a permaculture design for the whole site. Permaculture uses nature’s principles as its guide and the principle of stacking – using every niche and level to create different layers of plants – is most useful when designing a forest garden. In a natural woodland, for instance, the top storey might be oak, beech or ash, with a shrub layer of hazel or holly, and an under layer of bramble and other ground cover. We swapped this for walnut, apples, plums, cherries and hazel, on top of currants, gooseberries, goji berries, perennial kale and Himalayan rhubarb, on top of Nepalese raspberry, mint, wild strawberries ... to name just a few of our many choices.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 03:07:03 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015