The lockdown situation has not only offered the opportunity to get on with sowing, planning and working on the plot, but also the luxurious chance to do some research.
I've signed up to this Free Online Permaculture course. What I've learned is that Permaculture is not just about gardening, but a whole way of living in harmony with nature. It's about following the patterns and relationships and diversity which happen in the natural world which allow ecosystems to support themselves, and not fighting against them.
Permaculture garden design is about planning a garden which works harmoniously with the plants, weather, water, soil and topography of your garden, and creatively attempts to mimic nature, with diversity of planting as key, and recycling, reusing, composting and taking advantage of the relationships between these elements. It all makes logical sense, and there's obviously loads more to it than that, but it's simplicity is wonderful.
I came across this wonderful chap in my research, his name's Patrick Whitefield, a Permaculture teacher. There are various videos of him teaching the theory and methods of Permaculture, but the best ones are when he is wandering around his garden chatting and giving you loads of great tips.
The video below describes how to collect seeds in the first part, but skip to the second part to see him talking about how he makes his compost - it's brilliant. His video on mulching and weeding is also excellent. He died sadly a few years ago.
I've also had time to look at Charles Dowding and his no dig method of gardening in more detail, and am relieved to see that on the beds I'm doing it on, I'm doing it pretty much right, but also that you need an awful lot of compost, far more than would be possible for me to make at home, as he recommends putting at least 10 - 12 centimeters of depth of compost on top of the cardboard This would be really expensive if you were trying to do all your beds with no-dig. I'll have to stick to mixed methods for now.
I'm also signing up for Edible Mach's Intermediate Growing Course which will run on Friday evenings from 5.30 to 7pm from 10th April. After all, knowledge is power and I need all the help I can get.
No comments:
Post a Comment