Build Your Own Natural Swimming Pool Self-Watering Greenhouse

2 COMPETITIONS & MANY READERS OFFERS permaculture

F R E E G r e e n S h o p p i n C a t a l o g g u e 2 0 U K s u 11 b s c r i b s e l e c e r s & t s t o r e s o n l y

PLUS Build Your Own FEEL-GOOD Natural Swimming Pool IDEAS TO HELP YOU and a THROUGH THE WINTER INCLUDING: GreenhouseSelf-Watering How To Boost we show you how! Your Immune System Growing Winter Vegetables Recipes for Outdoor Choosing an Energy Efﬁcient Cooking in Winter Woodburning Stove No.66 Winter 2010 £3.95 UK / $7.99 US / $8.99 CAN

t t l l e e n n PERMACULTURE MAGAZINE t t y y e e s s m m e e n n i i f f o o L L i i r r Feeding Your Dog : : v v n n r r y y E E o o r r g g o o e e / / t t d d a a n n As Nature Intended C C a a

INFORMATIVE ARTICLES  NEWS  COURSES  CLASSIFIEDS  BOOK, DVD, TOOL & PRODUCT REVIEWS

E D B Y R T E H W p m E O S . P U .. N c u l tu re i s e r m a g P o r c re a ti n a m e wo rk f e th o d Contents o v a ti v e f r p ra c ti c a l m a n i n n f l v i i n g; a , bl e wa ys o a r m o n i o u s FEATURES su s ta i n a c a l l y h n g e c o l o gi th a t c a n r d e v e l o p i e s ys te m s 33WINTER IMMUNE BOOSTERS FROM KITCHEN & GARDEN e f f o f i c i e n t a n d p ro d u n yc twi v h e re . Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal explore y a n yo n e , a the useful remedies to be found close at hand. be u se d b 77DIY NATURAL SWIMMING POOL David Butler recounts the experience of creating his own.

1212OUTDOOR COOKING IN WINTER! Trish MacCurrach extols the virtues of cooking alfresco, even in the depths of winter.

n n 2020EDUCATION FOR A HANDMADE FUTURE e e r r e e G G Maddy Harland explores the stunning new i i m m T T & & Woodland Classroom built by Ben Law. g g i i n n k k s s o o H H a a c c c c e e b b 2323A WOLF IN DOG’S CLOTHING e e R R Rebecca Hosking and Tim Green, makers of © © the highly respected ‘A Farm For The Future’ 23 film, turn their attention to the health of our REGULARS domesticated dog population. 1616 Solutions! 2929CHOOSING A WOODBURNING STOVE 1717 Product Reviews Maddy Harland explains the benefits of a woodburning stove and the process she went 3737 Permaculture News through to choose the stove of her dreams. 6363 GGENEN News

3434SACRED FORESTRY 6565 Letters Reforestation of the sacred mountain of 6969 Reviews Arunachala, in South India, has been resoundingly successful. John Barrie Button explains his 7272 Courses r r e e t t l l permacultural approach to the challenge. u u 7777 Classified Exchange B B i i d d v v a a D D 4343GROWING VEG THE INCAN WAWAYY 8080 Subscriptions & Renewals © © Steve James adapts an ancient farming 7 method to create a self-watering greenhouse.

4747HOW TO GROW FOOD IN WINTER Janet Renouf-Miller explains how you can create a harvest of fresh, nutritious food throughout the cold months.

5252THE SITTING ROOM SESSIONS Brian Boothby sings the benefits of taking live music back home.

5555GROWING TOGETHER Louise Cartwright describes a way of growing food on a large scale, as a community.

6060DESERT TO OASIS Karen Olsen tells the story of living permaculture legend, Scott Pittman. 52

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Welcome PUBLISHER PERMANENT PUBLICATIONS to Permaculture Magazine Hyden House Limited The Sustainability Centre, East Meon Hampshire GU32 1HR, England 6 6 Tel: +44 (0)1730 823 311 4 4 i i o o d d t t u u Email: [email protected]@permaculture.co.uk S S Web: www.permaculture.co.uk

EDITOR Winte Winterr is coming in the northern hemisphere and we have been preparing for the Maddy Harland short days and the cold. The summer and autumn glut of vegetables is over andand FOUNDING EDITOR any we could store are safely racked in a cool room. Cold frames have been moved Tim Harland from the melon crop and now shelter the salads until a hard snap wipes them out.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER The meadows are cut, fruit trees and bushes are mulched with the cut and new bulbs John Adams have been planted. The greenhouse has been resown with crops that will hopefully fill the hungry gap next year. The raised beds are sown with next year’s garlic and ADVERTISING, MARKETING & MEDIA Tony Rollinson broad beans. The woodstore is full. It’s been hard work cutting, splitting and stacking the seasoned wood but there is nothing more satisfying than sitting by a warm stove ONLINE EDITOR Mark Anslow and passing the dark evenings together, preferably sharing stories by candlelight. The publishing cycle turns as well and we pause and review the year. This one SUBSCRIPTIONS Hayley Harland has been busier than any before. Not only have we ppublishedublished four issues of PM,, we have also produced two new films. One presented by Ben Law and filmed by ACCOUNTS Carolyn Pennington Undercurrents, Roundwood Timber Framing , introducing and explaining this new,,new low impact architectural vernacular ( see p.22 and 70). It is abundantly practical ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT Sam Blanchette and inspirational, taking building back into the local community and we hope it will encourage people to make their own beautiful structures from local materials. CONSULTANT EDITORS Patrick WhWhitefield,itefield, Chris Marsh, Michael Guerra, The other film is by David Butler and is a step by step guide to making your own Andy Goldring, Hildur & Ross Jackson, natural swimming pools ( see p.7). It shows every detail of construction for larger Max Lindegger, Dieter Duhm, Vandana Shiva, scale pond making and gives the know-how to create healthy aquacultures, so clean Helena Norberg-Hodge, Jonathan Dawson you can swim in them yourself. SPECIAL THANKS This year, we have also produced Ben’s latest book by the same title as the DVD, Pete & Emma Cooper, Pete Ellington, Rebecca Hosking, Tim Green, Martin Crawford, Roundwood Timber Framing , plus Simon Fairlie’s controversial and scholarly text, Georgina Norfolk, Patrick Harland Meat. This urges everyone to eat far less of the stuff and, if you do, farm or buy it in

UK & WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTOR as low an impact and responsible way as possible. I have to admit it has been good COMAG to see this – essentially a permaculture book – beibeingng talked aboutabout in all the UK Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE Tel: 01895 433 600 broadsheets, plus the New YYorkork TimesTimes and Time Magazine. I have no doubt that the debate will run on and on. Three more books will also be in print by the end of the US & CANADIAN DISTRIBUTOR year, Gaian Economics, David Holmgren’s Permaculture – Principles and PPathwaysathways Disticor Magazine Distribution www.disticor.com and Sepp Holzer’s P Permacultermaculture,ure, an extraordinary exploration of his way of farming. This autumn, we were joined by Mark Anslow, former editor of The Ecologist,, COVER PHOTO © David Butler who is working with us to relaunch PM online this winter. This will allow us to publish weekly permaculture news, reviews, articles and designs – all at www.permaculture Printed on Lumi Core Silk .co.uk. WWee will also gather our blogs and our film media under one roof and offer FSC Certiﬁed mixed credit material Printed by Warners Midlands plc, you new blogs from prominent permaculturists. Our aim is to create the best possible FSC certiﬁcation number permaculture information service, both for newcomers and for seasoned practi- TT-COC- 002452 tioners. Behind the scenes, we have completely relaunched Green Shopping online COPYRIGHT (www(www.green-shopping.co.uk).green-shopping.co.uk) to provide you with a secure,secure, efficient and useful © All writings are the copyright of Permanent Publications and/or individual contributors. All rights reserved.reserved. service for books, tools and products that we persopersonallynally recommend and use. No part, written or visual, of this magazine may be PM reproduced, except for short credited and sourced 2010 has been a year of intense activity for all the team. We have watched passages for criticism or review, without written the world slide more deeply into recession and many people and organisations permission of the publisher. experience financial difficulties. We have noted extreme weather events, the DISCLAIMER subsequent suffering of millions and the lack of global political will to deal with The opinions expressed in PMPM are not necessarily those of the publisher. Whilst the publisher takes every care climate change. All these and other events have fuelled our passion for what we in checking the validity of information given in articles do and made our resolve more steely. We have scrutinised our work and stretched and other contributions, it cannot accept responsibresponsibilityility for its accuracy or liability for any form of damages ourselves further in our attempts to raise our standards, learn new skills and incurred by the use of any such information. absorb new ideas. We feel passionate about our work and privileged to be able to produce positive, life affirming and practical media. We hope you enjoy this magazine and the cutting edge thinking in its pages. We wish you well for 2011 and ask you to stick with us for the journey.

Maddy Harland and the Permaculture Magazine Team

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W INTER IMMUNE BOOSTERS from

KITCHEN & GARDEN Julie Bruton-SealBruton-Seal and MatthewMatthew Seal exploreexplore thethe usefuluseful remediesremedies to be found close at hand

n the cold dark days of winter we SOUPS IMMUNE–BOOSTING SOUP are much more prone to sniffles, GINGER & ONION SOUP Research in Japan and China has Icolds, ’flu and other infections. Chop up three onions. Sauté in a established over the last half century W Wee tend to spend moremore time indoors little oil until ttransparent,ransparent, then that shiitake and reishi mushrooms than out in the fresh air, and we are add three cups of water or vegetable are strongly immune-supporting and not getting the benefit of vitamin D stock. Add three teaspoonfuls of display anti-cancer activity. from strong sunshine. Luckily, there grated fresh ginger. Then, add ttwowo What is fascifascinatingnating are plenty of remedies available from cloves of garlic, pressed or chopped is that new research the garden and pantry that can keep finelyfinely,, one freshfresh chilli, chopped suggests ordinary us healthy and fight infections. finely (or one teaspoonful of dried edible mushrooms Kitchen immune boosters include chilli powder) and one small stick share, to a greater onion, garlic, chillies, ginger, pepper, of cinnamon (or one teaspoonful of extent than hitherto thyme, marjoram, cinnamon, cloves cinnamon powder). realised, the immune- and horseradish. The hot spices Bring to the boil and simmer supporting and cancer among them are especially helpful gently for a few minutes, then treating qualities of the to keep the lungs and mucous serve. explicitly medicinal membranes clear. There is nothing mushrooms. For like a bowl of hot soup to comfort example, a 2009 in cold weather, and there are all study of 2,000 sorts of recipes that will help your immune system. Here are a few of our favourite recipes:

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Chinese women found that those BARLEY SOUP The vinegar is good for head- who ate fresh mushrooms daily Put in a saucepan: three cups water aches (rubbed onto temples and were 64% less likely to develop and ½ cup barley. Simmer for half an swallowed in small amounts), as a breast cancer; those who combined hour. Sauté one onion (finely diced), general antiseptic and for cleaning daily mushrooms with green tea 1 teaspoon minced garlic, and ½ cup kitchen surfaces. reduced their risk by 90%. of sliced mushrooms until cooked, A 2008 pappaperer reported in then add to the barley soup. Add FOUR THIEVES VINEGAR vitro trials of white miso, tamari or sea salt to taste. There are as many recipes for Four button mushrooms Add ½ cup cchoppedhopped parsleyparsley and a Thieves vinegar as there are enhanced matur- handful of chopped chives or spring versions of the myth. Basically, in

ationmarrow of bone antigen onions,longer cook forand about then serve.a minute fourearly thieveseighteenth were century arrested France for cells. If someone is very weak stealing from the homes of dead and ill, strain the soup and plague victims. They were given just give them the broth. their lives and freedom in exchangeeexchang for the recipe they used to keep free of the disease. The recipe entered VINEGARS the official pharmacopoeia, and it Cider vinegar is still sold in France today as Le has its own vinaigre des quatre voleurs.. antiviral The essential ingredients are properties, vinegar and garlic, and then you can and is a good add other aromatic herbs and spices preservative for as available: rosemary, sage, oregano, herbs to fight mint, lavender, cinnamoncinnamon,, cloves etc. infections. Here Some people like to add an onion, are some easy recipes for and horseradish or hot chillies. © © J J u u l l i i e e thyme vinegar and for the It is worth making quite a big B B r r u u t t o o n n - - S S e e a a l l famous ‘four thieves’ vinegar..vinegar batch. Use roughly equal parts of crushed garlic and each of a selection THYME VINEGAR of four or five other aromatic herbs. Thymol, the main essential oil inin Put in a jar large enough to hold Other research is ongoing into thyme, is twenty times stronger them and cover with red wine the antibacterial, liver protective, than phenol (carbolic), the standard vinegar (or cider vinegar). Seal and hypoglycaemic and immuno- medical antiseptic. Thymol was put in a warm place for two or modulating potential of mushrooms. first isolated in Germany in 1725 three weeks, then strain and bottle TTakeake a dozendozen or so shiitake and has been in pharmaceutical use for use. mushrooms or button mushrooms: ever since. It was used to medicate use fresh if available (you may bandages and made a local anaes- Y Yourour thithieveeves’s’ vinevinegargar can be usedduse have grown your own), or soak thetic for dentists. Chewing fresh or several ways: dried ones in water until soft. dried thyme leaves at home brings Slice and set aside. Chop one ◗ small onion, slice one carrot and oremergency inflamed pain gums. relief for toothache TTakea akeday. a teaspoonful several times slice one potato. Heat olive oil inin Thyme’s rich chemistry includes a pan, sauté the mushrooms, then tannins and phenols that make it ◗ Add to salad dressings. add the onion. As onions brown, bitter medicinally, but it also contains add in carrot and potato, plus an uplifting sweetness that can be ◗ Use a tablespoon in the bath. one clove of chopped garlic and tasted and smelled. In ancient Rome a teaspoon or so of grated ginger. thyme was a mainstream remedy ◗ Use topically as an antiseptic on Add momorere oil as needeneededd to brown for melancholy. Numerous varieties the skin. all the vegetables, then add stock of thyme are grown iinn gardens, or water (quantity depending on and any of them can be used but ◗ Use as a topical sprasprayy for dis- whether a more solid or liquid few are as medicinal as common and infecting kitchen surfaces. result is desired). Bring to the boil, wild thyme. add soy sauce or miso to taste, and/ Pick enough fresh thyme ssprigsprigs or salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 to fill a jar (use at least 464g or 1lb HONEY minutes and serve hot. size); crush the herb in a mortar. GARLIC HONEY If you are congested and catarrhal, Put into the jar and cover with a Peel a whole head of garlic. Mince add some hot chillies or black wine, cider or fruit vinegar. Keep the finely by chopping or squeezing pepper to the soup to help clear the closed jar in a sunny spot for at least through a garlic press. Put in a mucous membranes. a month, then strain off the vinegar. mortar and pound until the garlic

44 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

begins to go transparent. Spoon into ST JOHN’S W ORT before being strained, bottled and a jar with 225g (½lb) of honey. Stir St John’s wort has powerful anti- labelled. Echinacea tops and root will well, seal and label. It can be used viral properties, and has the added need to infuse for about two weeks, straightaway or will keep for months. benefit of lighting you up from as will St John’s wort flowering tops. inside with some summer sunshine – Y Youou can use thethe colourcolour as a guideguide – Dose: Half a teaspoonful daily as a just what’s needed on a dark chilly when most of the colour has gone tonic or preventative. For acute day in wintewinter.r. ToTo make suresure you out of the herb and into the liquid, infections, take half a teaspoonful have the right species of St John’s it is ready to strain. St John’s wort up to six times daily. This can be wort, Hype Hypericuricumm perforforatupe ratumm, hold tincture should be a lovely bright taken directly, or taken with ginger a leaf up to the light. The medicinal red colour.

infantsand lemon and teayoung or cider children, vinegar. rub ontoFor lookspecies like has tiny tiny perforations oil glands, inwhich the the soles of the feet. leaf. Both Echinacea and St John’s GLYCERITES Garlic honey can also be used wort can be prepared as tinctures, Some herbs are better preserved as directly on the skin for bites, and as which will keep for a year or more. glycerites, as the glycerine preserves a wound dressing for cuts and grazes. the fresh taste of the herbs better than HOW TO MAKE A TINCTURE alcohol. Elderflowers and berries, roses For making your own tinctures, and lemon balm are tastiest when TINCTURES vodka is one of the best alcohols made as glycerites. ECHINACEA to use. It has no flavour of its own, Echinacea is one of the best-known and allows the taste of the herbs to HOW TO MAKE A GLYCERITE immune-stimulating herbs, and it is come through. Whisky, brandy or rum Vegetable glycerine is extracted from easily grown in the garden. Three can also be used. Most commercial coconut or other oil, and is a sweet main species are used medicinally, tinctures contain at least 25% alcohol. syrupy substance available from herb- with Echinacea purpurea being the The process is straightforward: alists and some chemists. It is particularly most common and easiest to grow. you simply fill a jar with the chosen good for making medicines for children, With this species, the floweringflowering tops herb or herbs and top up with alcohol, and for soothing preparations intended are used in addition to the root, so you or you can put the whole for the throat and digestive tract, oror don’t necessarily have to dig up your lot in the blender coughs. A glycerite will keep well as entire patch to make your Echinacea first. The mix- long as the concentration of glycerine tincture. A good quality Echinacea ture is then is at least 50% should make your mouth kept out of to 60% in tingle when you the light to the finished taste it. infuse product.

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Glycerites are made the same way Ju Juliliee BrBrututonon-S-Seaeall isis Master Herbalists,Herbalists, a co-organiseco-organiserr of as tinctures, except the jar is kept in a medicicalmed al heherbrbalalisistt the annual HerbFest gathering, and the sun or in a warm place to infuse. and photog photograprapher.her. editor of the quarterly journal, The She is a council Herbalist. Matthe Mattheww Seal isis a writererwrit AN ANTIVIRAL member of the and frefreelaelancence edieditor,tor, andand a former FORMULA Association of director of the Society for Editors This is a tasty mixture to and Proofreaders. TTogetherogether ward off viral infections. Julie and Matthew have Make each part over written Hedgerow Medicine next summer and ((2008)) and Kitchen

plantsautumn are when in season, the Medicineember 2010). (Sept- and then combine Contact them at: them in roughly www.hedgerow equal parts or to medicine.com taste. Combining tinctures and glycerites RESOURCES improves the flavour Hedgerow of the final mixture. Medicine and Combine elder- Kitchen Medicine berry glycerite, St by Julie Bruton-Seal Joh John’sn’s wortwor tinctutit ncture,re, & Matthew Seal, both lemon balm gly- £16.99 are available from cerite or tincture www.green-shopping.co.uk and rose or call us on 01730 823 311. glycerite. Selfheal Kitchen Medicine is is tincture can featured in the reviews

also be added © Julie Bruton-Seal section on page 71.

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All photos © David Pagan-Butler

David Butler recounts the DIY NATURAL experience of

creating his own SWIMMING POOL

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round ten years ago, my partner Alison and I were luckylucky enough to buy an old derelict barn with two acres of land in Norfolk. AThe barn is still to be fully renovated but we have been living there in its half built state for the past four years.years. My energiesenergies have been diverted to a far more exciting building project: three years ago I started making our swimming pool.

CONCEPTUAL BEGINNINGS I have always thought that it must be possible to build a swimming pool that doesn’t use chemicals to keep it clean. One summer, I had seeseenn our water butts either choked with blanket weed oror turninturningg peagreen with other algae. Except for one: the neglneglectedected one with couch grass growing in it. Pulling up the floating mat of grass revealed stunningly clear water. I read a book on reedbed seweragesewerage systemssystems and realised it was basically the same biology as my couchcouch grass water butt algae killer. Instead of reeds taking out the nutrients, it was couch grass. Surely it must also be possible to use other plants to clean a swimming pool? Searching the web to confirm the originality of my concept dashed all pretensions of genius. It had all been thought of before. Peter PPetrichetrich had been making them, along with others, for twenty years over in Austria anandd Germany.Germany. His company, Biotop, had made hundreds of them. I couldn’t afford to have a pool built professionally, so building it myself was the only option. At that time, in 2007, there was very little information available for self-build swimming ponds, so it was all a bit of an experiment.

SWIMMING POOL ZONES The Natural Swimming Pool (or Swimming Pond) is divided into two equal area zones: one zone for plantsplants,, the regenerationregeneration zone; and one zone for swimming. The plants have only sand or gravelgravel to grow in so Above:: their only chance of getting nutrients is to take it from the water. Then The natural hopefully the algae, like blanblanketket weed, have little left to feed on. The swimming pool regeneration zone is separated from the swimming zonezone by a submerged is enjoyed by the wall. This is to stop the plants colonising the wholewhole pool. whole family. PLANNING & DIGGING Left:: I decided on a swimming area of 4.5 x 11.5m (15 x 38ft), about 2.2m Removing a (7ft) deep, with a shallow 3m (10ft) wide regeneration zone all around floating mat of it. I needed an area roughly 20 x 15m (66 x 49ft). I chose one corner grass in a water of the field sheltered by a bramble filled bund. II was also able to align butt reveals clear it north – south, forming a pleasant sun trap at the south side against water below. the bund. I hired a man with a digger for a few days and eventually I had Below:: a basic shape. My original intention was to build thethe wall from sandbags Swimming area filled with sand anandd clay from the hole. But this was a disaster. When defined by block- it rained the bags became squidgy,squidgy, and started slithering and slumping work wall. until the wall gently collapsed. I tried again, thisthis time filling them with clean sand. These were more stable but the sunlight started to turn the synthetic sandbag material into something no harder than tissue paper. They split and sand trickltrickleded out like 25 kilogram eggegg timers. The wall was punctured with sandbag-sized empty husks and heaps of sand.

BUILDING THE BLOCK WALL I reluctantly had to start again, this time digging out some foundations for a concrete block wall. I flung the sand from the sandbags into the mixer to make the concrete for the foundation. After a week I had built a block wall on the foundation, with solid 440 x 215 x 100mm (17 x 8.5 x 4in) concrete blocks, five courses, to just over 1m (39in) highhigh.. The void behind the wall was packed with sand and rammed with a tamper (a heavy metal lump on the end of a broom handle), left to settle, and rammed again over a period of weeks. This was to make sure the outward pressure of the water was not going to push the wallwall over.

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The land was free draining, containing some clay butbut mainly stonystony and sandysandy.. This meant I could lay the liner (with(with an underliner)underliner) on a llayerayer of building sand laid directly on the pool subsoil floor. If it had been a waterlogged site then the floor would have had to be concreted to stop ground water coming up and ‘floating’ the liner in a completed pool. This concrete box approach is used by some professional installers, as there is very little chance of it going wrong – but at a cost: a lot of resources and a lot of cash, £50k to £60k for a natnaturalural swimming pool is not uncommon. Outside the swimming zone the pool floor was formed into a giant basin shape and cocompactedmpacted with a petrol engineengine driven WackerWacker plate from a local tool hire company.

LINING THE POOL My greatest expense was the pool liner. It was also one of the hardest purchasing decisions. There is so much conflicting advice around, a lot of it from manufacturers claiming superiority of their product. Pond liners come in various thicknesses and materials. A thicker liner is obviously stronger and more expensive but it is also heavier to manipulate. I opted for 0.75mm EPDM from Flexible Lining Products. Although I think this was more a random choice born from Above:: a frustration of indecisionindecision,, it seems to hold water,water, howeverhowever,, so not a bad Laying out the decision in the end. fleece under- The liner was going to be buried in shingle containcontaineded in a 0.3m (1ft) lining. The deep ditch around the perimeter of the pool, and formed into a curtain pieces were drain. This keeps water run-off from the field from entering the pool joined together and introducing nutrients, which would encourage algae. So, taking by heating the

this– the into most account, expensive I needed bit of a plastic liner 26 I havex 20m ever (85 boubought. x 66ft).ght. It cost £2,300 blowedges lamp.with a

UNDERLINING Right:: A fleece underliner,underliner, from thethe same supplier,supplier, was laid in strips over the Insulating whole floor and walls of the pool. As part of some film research I was around the doing, I had just been to see TThehe Swimming Pond CompanyCompany install block walling a pond in Suffolk and I pipickedcked up a vital tip. The fleece underliner, before the 26m supplied in a roll, is laid in strips. It needs to be stuck to the next strip (85ft), half ton to form a blanket over the whole pool area. Strips can be bonded to roll of lining each other with a blowlamp. A very quick sweep of the flame along was unrolled the edge melts a few fibres, so pressing this onto the edge of the next into the pool. sheet makes them stick together. Below:: THE LINER The liner finally When the underunderlinerliner was compcomplete,lete, the liner was brougbroughtht next toto unfolded into the pond basin by a frifriendlyendly farmer with a TTeleportereleporter (a tractor with place. a large retractable hydraulic arm) and placed onto a small scaffold rig. The roll was suspended on a scaffold pole threaded through the cardboard former the supplier had rolled the liner ononto.to. Now it could be pulled and unrolled rather like a toilet roll, but bigger. The liner was 485kg (1,069lb) and it bent the scaffold pole. Nonetheless, my partner and I managed to roll it out. A 226m6m (85ft),(85ft), half ton snake of liner folded like a concertina. W Wee ‘rippled’ it along, inch by inch, with a fence post held between us and under the folded liner using a sort of peristaltic motion, rather like the pump in a dialysis machine. W Wee thenthen unfololdedunf ded thethe lilinenerr and

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wafted the edges up and down to get air under to help it ‘fly’ over the whole area. I recommend you get as many friends as possible to help. It still would have been hard work even if there werewere ten of us.us. It was about this time when I spoke to Michael Littlewood and he sent me his book,book, Natur Naturalal SwimminSwimmingg Pools, A Guide for Building g Buildin ..11 It was great to have some real information at last. I had made paper models of how the liner should be folded within the shape of my pool. This was very helpful because I knew what shape I was aiming for and where the big folds should come.

OVERLINING & DRAINAGE When the liner was in place and as many creases shuffled out of it as possible, a fleece overlineoverlinerr was laid on top. On top of this sand bags filled with a weak sand cement mix ((1010 parts sand, 1 cement) were placed immediately above the concrete wall defining the swimming zone. The wall was effectively conticontinuednued up with moremore sandbags to a height of around 400mm (16in). Each row of sandbags pushed back about 25mm (1in) compared to the row below, making the wall lean outwards against the ballast it has to retain. Flexible drainage pipe was laid around the wall and then buried in Above:: shingle. The pipe terminated by emerging through the sandbag wall Overliner in and into what would be the swimming area. This ultimately helps thethe place and water circulate below the roots of the regeneration zone. If necessary,,necessary planting areas a solar powered pump can be fitted but my pool waterwater,, so far, is perfectly defined by tyre happy without any artificial circulation. walls. I put a geotextile membrane over the shinglshinglee and cocoveredvered it with many tons of the stony sand that had been excavated from the hole :: LeftSoil being added damageto make thethe variouspool. This linings. was Aroundall done the by handpool Ibecause put up amachines chestnut wouldpaling to the planting fence. This is for safety; keeping children or visitors from straying near areas. The the pool. It also helps as a windbreak while the newlynewly planted bushes swimming zone and trees are too small to contribute any resistance.resistance. is separated off by a low FILLING THE POOL NATURALLY sandbag wall. Then it was just a matter of letting the pool fill with rainwater. I ppumpedumped it from the water butts around the house as well. Even with this add- Below:: ition it still took about a year to fill up (over here in East Anglia we The finished don’t get that much rain), but it was well worth waiting for. If I had natural swim- used tap water the pool could have been more prone to algae problems. ming pool. The This is because of the phosphorous that is added to mains water,water, which planting zones is effectively a fertiliser. Having said this, commercial installers use and swimming mains water, but their pools then rely on powerful circulation pumps, zone are clearly and filters, including phosphorous filters to help remove the impurities defined. in the water.

Costings

2,3002,300 liner 700 underliner/over 1,000 diggers 500 shingle 400 block 200 cement 900 other stuff £6,000 Total

DVD COMING SOON! David Butler’s DIY Natural Swimming Pools DVD is to be published shortly by Permanent Publications.

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PLANTING UP It was deeply satisfying eventually putting plants into the sand. I had to select them to be ‘soft rooted’. I sought guidance from Michael Littlewood’s book. And today, the iris and R Ranunanunculculusus,, lilies and curly popondweedndweed are all doing theirtheir job wonderfully. Most of the pool and the bank I have just left for wild plants to colonise and the sandy banks are now home to some beautiful tiny native flowers, as well as my friend, couch grass, some of it growing below the water line. And, so far, I have not needed to artificially pump the water around at all. The plants and animals keep ththee water crystal clear. Chemical free!

A MEETING OF MINDS While I was building this pool, I made a film for BBC East ‘Inside Out’, on natural swimming ponds, and I was privileged enough to meet professional pool builders and Peter Petrich himself.himself. As well as the Above:: interview and filming, I had the opportunity to discussdiscuss at length some This under- of my non-conventional ideas on natural pools. I thought he would water picture dismiss them, but instead, he was very supportive. It was heartening. demonstrates I also spoke with Michael Littlewood. He, like me, also believed that the excellent some commercial companies make their pools far mormoree complicated water quality than they need to be. achieved.

NATURAL POOL BENEFITS Right:: Building my own natural swimming pool has been my mostmost rewarding Much of the experiment. Three years in the making, the ecoecosystesystemm is stabilising planting is and the water is sparkling clear. Just like that couch grassed water beautiful as butt. I even became fitter than I have ever been with all that digging. well as useful. An Andd ththoseose coucoupleple of yeayearsrs of hahardrd workwork ripripplplee awayaway withwith everyryeve splash of a bathing swallow, and each sight of a kingfisher hunting Below:: for water beebeetles.tles. And, of course, there is the joy of swimming in Enjoying the soft rainwater! YouYourr skin feels soft and healthy and your eyes don’t pool. sting with chlorine. One day I think we will look back and wonder how we ever thought it was reasonable to let our children swim in anything other than natural water

David Butler is the directordirector of of BBC BBC East ‘Inside Out’ programmeOut’ programme and with his parpartnertner Alison and four children, Jasper, Theo, Felix and Otter are enthusiastic newcomers to permaculture. They live in Norfolk in anan old barn with two acres and thirty chickens.

RESOURCES Before building a pond, seek planning advice from your local planning authority on whether you need to apply for planning permission. For excelleexcellentnt guides to creating ponds, see: www.pondconservation.org.uk/advice/makeapond

Peter Petrich’s company website: www.biotop-natural-pool.com

Where David sourced his lineliner:r: www.flexibleliningshop.co.uk

The Swimming Pond Company: www.theswimmingpondcompany.co.uk

11 Natu Naturalral Swimmin Swimmingg Pools: A Guide for BuilBuilding ding by Michael Littlewood, price £39.95 + p&p, is available from www.green- shopping.co.uk or 01730 823 311.

Next Issue My latest project: project b: buildinguilding a sauna, using a wood burner gas bottle stove, so the pond comescomes alivealive in the winterwinter as a plungplungee pool.

www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine 1111

y experience of living in Serbia for seven years tells me that we all need an outdoor kitchen. M At the moment mmineine consists only of a tripod, a hanging enamel kotlich/cooking pot, a grill with three chains to hang from the tripod and miscellaneous enamelenamel OUTDOOR bowls and utensils. An outdoor kitchen can be anythinganything from what I have described, in a corner of the terrace, to a covered area, with maybe two walled sides to keep out the prevailing wind and rain, maybe a partial roof covering, COOKING sink with running water, work surfaces and chimney. I can’t

outdoorwait to have kitchen! my own place so I can really make a decentdecent

The kotlich is a double dipped enamel cooking pot withwith IN an attractive grey and white easy to clean enamel inside. I never clean the outside and my kotlich lives in a bag ready for any adventure. Cooking with a kotlich is really straightforward and can be as sophisticated or as simple as you wish. W INTER!

TRISH’S TIPS

◗ Keep a good supply of wood.

◗ Make sure there is some liquid or oil in the kotlich when you hang it over the fire, and start slowly. It is Trish MacCurrach easier to build up the fire than damp it down. extols the virtues of ◗ Use more liquid in a stew than you would normally; cooking alfresco, the kotlich cooks by reduction. Once it is boiling, a meat stew will take about 1 hour and 20 minutes to even in the cook, vegetables much less. depths of winter

◗ Keep an eye on your cooking and stir regularly..regularly Don’t let it get dry.

◗ TToo clean, refill kotlich with water,water, hang over the firefire By October, apart from a few leeks, some sprouts and for 5-10 minutes and wipe clean. Don’t use brillo kale, my small plot is looking a bit sad. Pride of place unless you have a burning episode. still are pumpkins and gourds. I grow types with firm, dry and sweet flesh that are excellent for making ssoups,oups, If you have any windfalls or surplus fruit stored in your pumpkin pie and chutney,chutney, or delicious just roasted. deep freeze get it out, light a fire and get preserving outside. Each plant has many fruiting bodies, maybe five or six

Theyou keepkotlich all is that perfect sticky for mess jam outmaking of the not kitchen! least bec Uausese all tiedeach! up, They or takemaybe up simpler,a lot of roomjust planted but can inbe a trained big spspace aceand your favourite recipes but just do it outside for a change. and left alone.

Above: Kotlich cooking in the snow.

Left: AuthoAuthorr TrishTrish MacCurrach cooking at her simple outdoor kitchen.

Right: Preparing to make pumpkin soup.

Far right: Welsh lamb hotpot just waiting for the dumplings to be added.

1212 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

W ELSH L AMB HOTPOT There are many locals supplying WelshWelsh lamb near us,us, and nothing can beat it. At this time of the year we want to make the most of what is in the vegetable plot, mostly onions, roots, brassica and squash. So here is a recipe for Welsh Lamb Hotpot with dumplings, using seasonal vegetables.

For an 8l kotlich, roughly: Garlic

21 swede/gourd onions 2-3 carrots 2 leeks/celery stalks/cabbage/chunks ooff marrow 400g (14oz) chopped lamb Stock, and maybe beer or cider to fill kotlich TinneTinned tomatoes,td omatoes, optional 2 tbs sweet paprika Chilli to taste Sour cream and chopped mixed herbs to garnish

Gather whatever you have in your veg patch. At least three types taken from the list above. A simple measurement is to start with the kotlich approximately half full of solid ingredients – veg and meat – then fill to the top with stock/liquid. Chop the onions and garlic into small pieces, throw them into some oil, then ssimmerimmer while stirring (until(until browned) over a small fire. Add dicdiceded lamb,lamb, stir in, bbrowningrowning quicklyy,quickl , thenthen add stock, tinned tomatoes (optional) and bring to the boil. All Allowow to boilboi forfl or ½ hhouour thehentr n addadd larlargege chchununksks of popotatato.to. Afte Afterr anotheranother ½ houourh r addadd yoyourur finelyfinely cucubedbed vegetablvegetables,es, and the beer or cider.

All photos © Trish MacCurrach Wh Whenen ththee meatmeat is neneararlyly cocookokeded (a(apppproroxiximamatetelyly 1½ hohoururs)s) add 2-3 tablespoons of red powdered sweet paprika. The PUMPKIN SOUP potatoes will by now be letting out starch as you stir, which, A creamy smokysmoky-tasting-tasting soup, forfor chilly days outside.outside. plus the sweet paprika, will thicken the hot pot. Season with salt and pepper and chilli if you like it peppery. 60g (2oz) butter Serve with sour cream stirred into each portion and 6 rashers smoked streaky bacon, finely chopped sprinkle with fresh chopped herbs. 0.9kg (2lb) pumpkin, cut into chunks The dumpling recipe is on the side of the suet pack.

3 largemedium tomatoes, potatoes, skinned cut into chunks greatLast time effect. I mixed They chilli should into be my added dumpling to the mixture pot about to 1l (2pt) water or more 45 minutes before the end. Salt and pepper A little milk if necessary 3 large tablespoons of double crcreameam A handful of chopped fresh heherbs,rbs, to garnish

The quantities can be doubled. Always make sure the potatoes and pumpkin are well covered with liquid. Fry the finely chopped bacon in the butter gently. Throw in the chopped pumpkin, potatoes and skinned tomatoes, (tinned tomatoes can be used instead), covercover with the liquid and boil until well done. Whiz up, put ooverver the fire again to reheat, add milk if necessary and finally the cream. Serve piping hot withwith herbs and fresh bread. A delicious alternativalternativee is to leave out the baconbacon and instead fry up onions and curry spices. Sprinkle withwith coriander before serving.

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Left & right: Beautiful sweet fudge. Making it outdoors over an open fire minimises clearing up.

Centre right: Some of the ingredients for making chai. It makes a pleasant, warming winter drink which can be enjoyed by all ages. Far right: A seasonal occupation for the hardy – making marmalade in the snow.

A S WEET TREAT So here is a chai recipe which is great for an outdoor I have tried something new and sweet in the kotlich, great winter evening event with friends. I drank it first at a to make for presents on a warm autumnal day – fudge. small festival in Devon and fell for it. It may be easier just It is quite painstaking and you need to manage the fire to make mulled wine or cider but this is a little different well to prevent burning. However, I was able to makemake and the children can drink it too. There are loads of chai quite a large amount in a much shorter time than I would recipes on the internet and they all include a mixture of have done inside on the cooker. It was amazing how little the same iingredientsngredients in differing amounts. Very muchmuch clearing up I had to do afterwards. No sticky surfaces or a case of adapting to taste. saucepans to clean. C HAI F UDGE Tea of your choice You will need: Cardamom pods, crushed a little 0.9kg (2lb) brown sugar Cloves 0.3l (½pt) milk Cinnamon stick 110g (¼lb) butter Fresh root ginger,ginger, sliced 3 tbs powdered chocolachocolatete (optional) Black peppercorns Vanilla essence Bay leaves Vanilla bean, cut up Soak the sugar in the milk for an hour. Nutmeg Melt the sugar in the milk over the fire, slowly. Kotlich ¾ full of water Add bbuttutterer and bribringng to tthehe boil,boil, stistirr regularegularlyrly and Honey or brown sugar to taste twizzle kotlich to prevent burning. Adjust height. Heat for 10-15 minutes to reach ‘boiling point’, try Try mixing a small amount first with a little of each spice not to splash mixture up the sides of the pot. in your favourite tea, in a small pan. When you decide

sink,The test sides by droppingwill start intoto crystallize a bowl of andcold thewater. centre It should will itwhich in your flavour kotlich you for like greater predominantly numbers. thenVanilla reproduce is very form a soft ball when you handle it. expensive so you might decide to leave that out! When readyready,, take off thethe fire and leaveleave to stand for a Simmer for at least 15 minutes then raise the kotlichkotlich so few minutes. it is just keeping warm and serve. However, I’m sure it Ad Addd twtwoo dropdropss of vanillavanilla essenceessence and beat with a woodwoodenen does not matter if it simmers for a little longer. spoon or hand whisk. Mixture will become creamy and start to set. M ARMALADE Quickly pour into a buttered tin and leave to cool. It does W Wee will always remember ourour first year in HerefordshireHerefordshire not need the fridge. as the year of the big snow,snow, when we made our marmalade In two hours it will be set and you can cut it into squares. outside. I did chop and prepare the Seville oranges inside It will keep for several weeks in a sealed jam jar. Ours and sterilised the jars in my oven – but apart from that, usually gets eaten or given away within the week. we sat in the sun stirring the marmalade and waitingwaiting for setting point to be reached. We were in our thickest winter W INTER W ARMER woollies, drinking coffee and feeling exhilarated. Choose any There are many opportunities to celebrate outside in autumn of your favourite marmalade recipes but for a change add and winter. WWee all love Harvest Festival, and children some chopped fresh root ginger or some grapefruit skins. enjoy Bonfire Night – in fact they love any chance to go outside after dark, look at the stars and hear the noises of Cooking outside regularly throughout the winter might the night. Don’t forget Christmas Day and Boxing Day. be a challenge. However, if you choose simple things to

1414 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

cook, always have a supply of suitable wood and are well for ththee kotlich,kotlich, new placesplaces to taketake it to cook, and developindevelopingg organised, then you will not only save money by cooking the Outdoor Kitchen brand. TTrishrish demonstrates ‘Kotlich off-grid but will give your family a different perspective on Cooking’ and has even been a ‘cafe’ at a small green festival. life, a sense of resilience and adventure R ESOURCES Trish became an avid outdoor cook while working in Serbia Cool Camping Cookbook by Tom Tuke-Hastings & for several years where cooking on a kotlich is a common Jonathan KKnight,night, price £12.95*£12.95* sight sight.. She recrecentlentlyy movedmoved to HerefrefordsHe ordshirehire with her husbahusband,nd, who is a forester, where they live in rented accommodation Serbian Kotlichs, Tripods & Grills – individual items and and have a smallsmall vegveg ppatchatch.. “For me KotlicKotlichh cocookinokingg sets from £29.95 to £89.95* combines several key elements. Being outside, growigrowing,ng, preparin preparingg really fresh foodfood and using lessless energy.”energy.” TTrishrish * Available from www.green-shopping.co.uk oror call us spends much of her time thinking up new vegetable recipes on 01730 823 311.

www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 1515

germinate in the greenhouse. The germination rate was fantastic compared to what I was used to. © C h n i a W n i Once they were growing well I d / h S u t t r e t s c o wheeled them out into the garden. k The crop was amazing for such a small Permaculture Magazine Readers’ Solutions area, with plentiful thinnings and then large carrots, often up to eight ounces each, with no sign of carrot fly. EASY FREE COLD FRAMES the bees to do their thing. When the Place two 6 x 2in (150 x 50mm) green buds show I can close it and boards cut to the size of the window, open the window. The screen keeps front and back. On the back board out the slugs and also keeps the robins add a 4 x 2 (100 x 50mm) or from their share of the bounty. another 6 x 2 if depending on the Rick Brannan, Bainbridge Island, USA pitch you want. Nail them together with a short 4 x 2 on each end. Next SHOPPING FOR CARROTS?! nail on 6 x 2 end pieces flush with I have tried unsuccessfully to grow the ground. To get the angled piece, carrots for many years. I have just set a 4 x 2 on the ends and draw struggled with germination at 900 or snap a line, cut and nail in place. feet in Cumbria when the last frosts Next build a 4 x 2 frame for the are often into June. I have also tried window to sit in and attach it to the many approaches to trick the pesky base with hinges. I used salvaged carrot fly to no avail. However, hinges from an old door. They’re finding an abandoned shopping

ratedmade easilyof heavy by removingbrass, can thebe sepa-door thattrolley carrot got mefly cannotthinking: fly knowinghigher than W Wee enjoyed a very dry couple offo pin (making the cold frame easier to about two feet and a shopping months at the beginning of summer transport in two sections) and they trolley’s base is about that height, followed by the usual Cumbrian were free. maybe it held the answer. monsoon after mid-July. I feel this The slider works well at maintaining I lined the sides with post-election method of growing is very suited toto the temperature because I can slide it campaign billboards and used a our northern British climate and is open to control the heat build-up on permeable lining taken from my definitely one I shall be using again. sunny days. Strawberries are perma- children’s old sandpit for the bottom. Next year I shall be experimenting nent residents with enough room left I filled it with a mix of three parts with different soil/sand mixes. My only for tomato, cucumber and other sand to four parts compost to three disappointment in this year’s plan was tender starts. When the strawberries parts garden soil. After sowing the not being able to wheel it around to bloom I prop the top open to allow seeds in the trolley I set them off to my neighbour’s to water when I went on holiday as it was so heavy! Maybe I should try replacing the wheels with larger ones... Jane Corrie, Cumbria

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Every contributor published on our next Solutions page will receive a FREE copy of one of the following:

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Please send your solution/s, stating your book preference, to:

The SustainabilityPERMACULTURE Centre, MAGAZINE East Meon, Hampshire GU32 1HR, U.K. Email: [email protected]

1616 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

PRODUCT

Reviews

POWER STRUGGLES energy bulb has an output equivalent Top left: My studio lit by the Solar It’s October, cloudy and raining, so why to a 45W mains one but it seems a lot Mate1 kit. The solar panel is just am I outside testestingting solar products? brighter than that when surrounded by visible at bottom right of the window. W Well,ell, to see if they are really viable to darkness ( see above). The makers claim use in winter. I have got three prod- you can enjoy up to 7 hours light every Below: PowerPlus Eco-powerstation ucts out here in the rain with me, a night and while I am a bit sceptical about and Albatross solar panel. that, it certainly does charge well even in low light conditions and should be able to provide enough light to do routine tasks every evening. If you need more than thithiss there are bigger SolarMateeSolarMat kits (see www.green-shopping.co.uk)).. Being based on a leisure battery these kits can of course provide many hours of light or power as a one off in an emergency. With winter power cuts in mmind,ind, I tried using the solar charged battery as an emergency power source. By attaching a 300W mains inverterinverter ( (www.maplin. co.uk),),I was able to get my combi-boiler gas central heating to run. I estimate that with the heat turned right up and the boiler fired up in bursts of an hour

foror soa coupleas required of days I couldwith a keep bit of warm solar

Solar Mate 1 off grid lighting kitkit,, charging in between ( Note: do not try aa PowerPlu PowerPluss Eco-powerstaEco-powerstationtion a andnd a this unless you are confident about all PowerPlus Albatross solar panel. the safety aspects involved ). Alternatively The Solar Mate 1 consist of a 5W rigid it would for instance, power a low energy solar panel, a 9W 12volt long life bulb, lamp, laptop computer and modem for bulb holder, wall switch, cables fuses, many hours. etc. Everything you need to set up a Ano Anotherther way of providprovidinging emeremergengencycy mini off grid lighting system in a stable, backup and general portable power is shed or polytunnel, eexceptxcept a 35 -70Ah, the PowerPlus Eco-powerstation (also 12volt leisure battery (I got mine from called an Elephant) which is a neat unit www.alpha-batteries.co.uk).). that resembles one of those jump-start The system is easy to rig up, though kits garages use. Indeed it can be used to I would have liked a bit more wire, and do this if required. There is a lot more the resulting light is very good. The low to this unit than that though, it has a 14000 LUX led flashlight, and from its Ab Abovovee: Solar Mate 1’s solar panel charg- Ab Abovovee: Solar charged battery and 300W 12Ah battebatteryry can output 12V,12V, 5V USB, ing well despite the inclement weatherweather.. inverter running my 135W combi-boiler. and 230V AC via a built-in 100w mains

www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 1717

inverterinverter.. It can be charged via a mains in my opinion a nicer display, a two adapter, a 12V power supply, its hand year memory and user friendly software. cranked dynamo or by a suitable solar It’s down to personal choice. panel llikeike the PowerPlusPowerPlus Albatross. TheThe Albatross Albatross flexible solar panel panel OLD FAVOURITES & NEW ONES TOO had no trouble charging it despite the I now own three of the Helle sheath knife awful weather and the rather loose range so I think it’s fair to say I llikeike them. adaptor supplied for the purpose. In The latest, thethe Hel Hellele EggeEggenn,, has has the same tests it was quite amazing to see an tri-steel super sharp blade as the others 11W mains uplighter running from but has a curly birch handle that just fits

beenthis portable a real powercut powerpack would and have had been it theIt hand didn’t so reallywell, that need I hadtesting to have but I one. used very comforting (it should be able to Abo Aboveve: Owl CM160 (left) and Current it to make kindling to test the wood burn- keep this up for 6-7 hours). As well as Cost’s Envi ( rig rightht), go head to head. ing capability of aa Ho Honeyney StoveveSto .. This This is a lights it can power a wide range of mains hexagonal back-packing stove made of appliances providing they pull less than Since trying anan AlertM AlertMee ((www.alertme. stainless steel which packs flat into an 100 watts (unfortunately this rules out com),),howeverhowever,, which has no display but incredibly thin wallet. It can be fired by the gas central heating trick) and charge feeds data directly into the internet most cooking fuels from hexamine tablets your mobile phone etc., via the USB. so you can view realtime and historical to a gas burner but its real claim to fame TTalkingalking of phones, if your house phone data via Google Powermeter,Powermeter, I realised is its ability to work as a woodburner. relies on electricity to work, it won’t in what was needed was a monitor which Having tried several small wood- a power cut but the Eco-powerstation had the attributes of both. So I was burning devices over the years I was could resolve that. intrigued to try thethe Current Cost Envi very doubtful this would work. Boy, These two products were never monitor which not only displays current was I wrong! This little stove lit easily intended to compete but the Power usage bbut,ut, via a USB cable, can down- and then really went for it boiling my Plus is a portable unit (you could even load data to a computer, which if internet soup before I even had time to stir it carry it around to keep your portable connected, can be displayed in Google. properly. It’s just amazing, it didn’t tool batteries charged up or take it The best of both worlds has arrived. scorch the log I stood it on and when camping), has more charging methods Then, with just days to spare before cool, packed away into my pan set. It and is also an ideal stand-by unit for this went to prpress,ess, Owl announce the will certainly get a lot more use in the powercuts, etc. The SolarMate is a fixed Owl CM160 which also has a USB future. An instant favourite product. unit which should provide useful light port for data download. They sent me Another favourite which has been on a day to day basis. It does however one and I set it up beside the Envi and re-released is Burgon & Ball’s PPottingotting use a much larger battery which could plugged them both into my netbook. Scoop..ItIt has all the old functions; a usefully be borrowed in the eeventvent of Surprisingly this worked and I could curved pointed nose for digging, a scoop a power outage. dispdisplaylay bothboth sets of data side by side.side. shape for carrying soil, serrated edges Envi was displayed via Google whileilewh for cutting roots etc., and seed dispens- MORE POWER STRUGGLES the Owl’s data was displayed via its ing notches, only the size has changed I am still convinced that one of the best own windows software which came with slightly. This hand tool is a must have ways to save electrical energy in the home it on a CCD.D. Both units work wellwell and item for any gardener whether they own is by being able to see how much you are have only minor pros and cons. I like just a couple of pots or a couple of acres.

youusing. will If youknow regularly my favourite read this monitor column is adaptorthe Envi’s for porting the display to Google, and the mainsseven Indispensable. thethe Owl. Owl. It It has an easy to read display year battery life of the sender unit. On John Adams which my whole family take notice of. the other hand the Owl is cheaper, has http://tiny.cc/pmreviews

Ab Abovovee: A joy to use, the Helle Eggen knife. Abov Abovee: The incredible Honey Stove. Abo Aboveve: Burgon & Ball’s Potting Scoop.

1818 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 1919

EDUCATION FOR A HANDMADE FUTURE

heheSustainability Centre was a was to bebecomecome an educational charity,,charity project inspired by Agenda 21 The Earthworks Trust. T in the early 1990s. A redund- When TTimim and I visited the site in ant Naval Base on top of the South the mid ’90s, conventional foresters Downs was to become an ‘executive’ told us that this neglected squirrel housing estate with the remaining and deer damaged plantation was one third of the site – 52 acres of worthless. Ordinarily it would be neglected plantation – gifted to what clear felled, but to retain ‘amenity value’ the Trust was advised it should

© © Top: The woodland classroom has fell and replant in blocks. Something T T mmi i HH a naturally inviting quality. in my heart sank at the thought a a r r a al l nn d d Left: Dipped roof on the north end. of a woodland being so worthless.

2020 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

regenerating as the softwoods are felled. I was still, however, yearning for something more to express the creativity and innovation of good permaculture design. I wanted a Ben Law building. In 2008, a local charity approached

e e the centre with an offer of funding s s o o R R y y n n linked to our educational programme. n n e e P P Mary Lewis, the manager of the © © Centre, immediately suggested an outdoor classrclassroom.oom. WeWe have aa Top: The sloping site makes the struc- successful educational programme ture appear to float above the ground. and were desperately short of space. Above: Builder Ben Law. It seemed natural to contact Ben and ask for his input. He quickly came up with a design that would use the Maddy Harland timber on the site – mainly Lawson explores the stunning cypress (called Port Orford cedar in the USA) and Douglas fir – and

would sit in the woods, opening out newClassroom Woodland into the woodland. The roof was to e e be curved like the hull of a ship and s s o o R R y y the north end was to have a cordwood n n n n e e built by Ben Law P P

wall with a cob fireplace. © ©

© Tim Harland Drawings were made and planning was applied for. Because the classroom Above: Cordwood and cob wall, is open-sided its woodland site wasn’t earthen floor and Rumsford fireplace. I was sure Ben Law would see more a ‘development’ issue and building Below: Looking up from inside. here than just firewood and wood- regulations were a little more relaxed. chip for a biomass boiler. Ben came and taught an ONC Over the years a biomass boiler was (Open College Network) course onon indeed installed to heat the Centre’s woodland management and identified buildings and wood is harvested for the trees required for the building as it. Another part of the site has become part of the training. They were felled a popular and well run woodland from within 200 metres of the build burial site. Children play and learn in site and then we waited until May

d d the woods, and owls nest there too. this year for the Roundwood Timber n n a a l l r r a a New trees are being planted and Framers and four apprentices to arrive H H i i m m T T orchids and other flora are naturally and start the build. © ©

www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 2121

In the meantime, Ben finished his be substituted for many componentstscomponen always my dream to have one of latest book with us, Rou Roundwndwoodood TTimbimberer of a building usually reserved for oak. Ben’s buildings at the Sustainability Framing , whilst we raised the funds Ben and his roundwood timber Centre, but what is more heart- to make a professionally produced,produced, framers trained apprentices during warming is to see the reactions of step-by-step film ( see box below)) the build and volunteers helped our numerous visitors, young and about this buildingbuilding method, usingusing the make the cordwood and cob wall old, from all walks of life. They too constrconstructionuction of the classroom as the and earthen floor that surround the are captured by its magic. It gives me main example. Stacking function in energy efficient Count Rumsford hope for a handmade future true permpermaculturaculturee designdesign style!style! fireplace. TTrainingraining local people to The build was finished in late July build from local materials is important Ben Law is a woodsman and round- 2010 – just three months after it was to Ben. He doesn’t want to win work wood timber framer. He runs a variety started – on time and on budget. It isis outside his bioregion and needs more of courses and open days. For more extraordinary. Ben turned forestry on roundwooroundwoodd framers. Since finishing, information see: www.ben-law.co.uk its head by using our slow growing, one apprentice has emigrated to light-deprived softwoods and crafting timber frame build in Canada, another Ben’s new bookbook , , Roundwood Timber them in the round. His design combines has returned home to Greece and Framing,Framing, an andd DVDof the same title old traditions with new technologies a third set up a roundwood timber are nnowow availavailableable (see box below).below). and ideas, building from timber framing business in Dorset. Ben is alsoalso authorauthor offo The Woodland produced as locally as possible – and RoundRoundwoodwood timber framing itself Y Year,ear, The Woodland House and and The eschewing concrete foundations, is becoming a new vernacular in W Woodoodlanlandd WWay.ay. cement, steel pins and skips to take architecture and is as low impact and the rubbish away at the end of the ecological as you can get. This is Al Alll ththee ababovovee are avavaiailalablblee frfromom process. The classroom itself has a permaculture design at its best: Green Shopping. Order online at:: Lawson cypress frame that sits on intelligent, ecologically sustainable www.green-shopping.co.uk oror by pits of scalpings capped by reclaimed and involving the local community. phon phonee on:on: 0173001730 823 311. Y Yorkork padstonepadstones.s. TheThe floorfloor joistsjoists are It is also fluid, adapting design to Douglas fir and roof shingles and local trees and materials, and looks Fur Furththerer ininfoformrmatatioionn ababououtt ththee floor boards are locally sourced ahead to our needs and resources in Sustainability Centre: western red cedar – another locally the future. It is ultimately beautiful, www.sustainability-centre.org abundant and durable wood that can making our hearts sing. It was 01730 823 166

ROUNDWOOD TIMBER FRAMING The NEW Book & DVD

ROUNDWOOD TIMBER FRAMING BOOK This deﬁnitive manual marks the birth of a new vernacular for tthehe 21st century. Over 400

colouranything photographs from a garden and shed step-by-step to your own instructions woodland guhoideuse. youyou TThishis through practical the ‘how building to’ book of will unquestionably be a benchmark for sustainable building usingusing renewable renewable local resources and evolving traditional skills to create durable, ecological and beautifulbeautiful buildings. ISBN 978 1 85623 041 1 Hardback 168 pages £19.95

ROUNDWOOD TIMBER FRAMING DVD This DVD perfectly accompanies the book. Ben presents the step- by-step design and build pprocessrocess for a locally sourcedsourced beautiful roundwood timbertimber framed building, as well as showinshowingg other examples of builbuildsds including houses, a shop and a small outhouse. Also includes guidanceguidance for the creation of cordwood walls and rammed earth ﬂoors. Highly informative and inspiinspiring.ring. ISBN 978 1 85623 057 5 60 minutes PAL Region 0 £19.95

“Arguably Britain’s greatest living woodsman.” Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Order today either online at “Ben Law is a national treasure!” www.green-shopping.co.uk Felix Dennis or call 01730 823 311

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A WOLF in

DOG’SClothing

© Rebecca Hoskins & Tim GreenGreen Rebecca Hosking and Tim Green, makers of the highly respected ‘A Farm For The Future’ film screened onon BBC2 BBC2 in 2009,,2009 turn their attention to the health of our domesticated dog population.

o much of permaculture design is about recognisirecognisingng the social organisations, trade networks, politics... The applications obvious, but in our muddled up world of advertising, are endless. YYetet as we sat by our computers researching,researching, theorisitheorisingng Sself-delusion and false promises, this is, bizarrely, and designing, our new best friend, a border collie, lay at our seldom obvious. A wake-up call is usually required. Being feet somehow immune to our new found common sense. from farming stock, ours was the sudden realisation of the madness of fossil fuel dependent agriculture and the Above: Young Dave learning rapidly approaching limits to growth. Our search for to herd. The sheep recognise solutions led us to discover holistic farming and then took him as a type of wolf, so why us to permaculture. don’t we? With our newlynewly disdiscovecoveredred permaculculturaperma turall mindsemindset,t, we’d sit and apply the rules of ecology and natural systems to d d n n a a l l r r increasingly broad subjsubjects;ects; the ecology of the forforestest and veg Right: Tim Green and a a H H i i m m patch could apply to an entire farm, the whole of agriculture, Rebecca Hoskins. T T © ©

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The Rules of the Wild A Healthy Diet It was clear to us that our herd of cattle were reallyreally a herd of W We ae allll liliveve busybus liveives,ly s, so uundendersrstantandabdablyly we ddelelegaegatete the oddly patterned wild ox and our hedge-lined fielfieldsds were open responsibility of devising a healthy diet for our animals to scrub woodland arranged roughly into rectangles. So why the specialists. As most of us are on a budget, this means we couldn’t we see that our young collie, Dave, was just a wolf trust the pet food manufacturers with their teams of scientists in dog’s clothing? and the global purchasing power to source nothing but the Every breed of dog from a Pekinese to a Great Dane is a best ingredients to formulate the perfect balanced diet for ‘all domesticated strain of grey wolf. They may differ dramaticallydramatically your pet’s needs’. in appearance but inside they are still wolves and the rules However, your pet’s health is no more the principal concconcernern of the pack still apply.apply. In the wild, wolveswolves live in the way that of the big pet food manufacturers than human health is the suits them best and we should never fall into the trap of main concern of a chain of burger bars. Make it cheap, sell thinking that a life with us primates is an improvement. lots, make a profit... This isn’t a conspiracy theotheory,ry, it’s the W Wee are merely a less-than-perfect less-than-perfect substitute substitute for the pack. prevailing business model. When we take on the responsibilityresponsibility of being a pet owner we Like the majority of pet owners, we trusted the pet food take on all the responsibilities of the pack leader and, for people and the ‘wholesome meaty goodness’ of our dog’s food... the well-being of our dogs, we should strive to reproduce until he got sick. Poor Dave’s problems were serious and (as best we can) everything a wild pack provides. complicated. At only 11 months old he began having huge life- The absolute essentials are love, shelter, exercise, water, threatening seizures. Dogs can have seizures for many reasons, discipline and healthy food. Every good pet owner providesprovides so we set about trying to identify the cause and started on a the first five without a second thought. Getting thethe sixth journey of discovery that went far beyond canine epilepsy..epilepsy one right, however, requires considerably more than a W Wee knew that dogs could have health problems but we were second thought. in no way prepared for the sheer range and ubiquity of canine illness. Dogs everywhere, it seems, have diseases of the joints, bones, heart, liveliver,r, kidney,kidney, immune system, eyes,eyes, ears, skin, teeth, gums, digestive system, nervous system; not to mention cancers and behavioural disorders. These conditions are not limited to aging dogs or those inbred for the showroom;showroom; sturdy mongrels and young pups are suffering as well.

Does What It Says On The Tin?! W Wee beganbegan askingasking whetherwhether this had anytanythinghing toto do withwith the commercial food we are now feeding our pets. I set about deciphering words like ‘extracts of vegetable origin’, ‘meat derivatives’ and ‘oils’ on a kibble packet and, after a few hours of code breaking, I had a list of ingredients in plain English. W We’de’d been feeding feeding Dave a cocktacocktailil of low-gradelow-grade cereacereall grains, miller’s chaff scraped off the mill floor, woodchip, and diseased meat mixed with the old fat from restaurant fryers, all preserved with powerful anti-oxidants (banned in the UK for human consumption) proven to cause cancer, liver failure and neurological damage amongst other ailments. This wasn’t

Royalsome bargainSeal stamped basement on the food packet! either; this had Her Majesty’s

Euthanised Snacks – North America-Style In North America ‘mammalian meat and bone meal’ – a key animal component in pet food – is known to contain the ground up remains of euthanised cats and dogs – collars, name tags, microchips and all – horrific! W Wee couldn’t say if this junk food diet was the cause of Dave’s illness but it most certainly wasn’t helping. So what to do? The first reaction is to search around for a better brand of food. 80% of the world’s pet foods are manufactured by just four

© © P P companies – Mars, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble and Colgate- y y s s h h nn y y Palmolive – so you can be y y MM a a x x Left: The natural diet for fairly sure that most brands mmi i V V a a j j a wolf is raw meat. To are much of a muchness. c c h h s s e e a al l v v o o maintain health, they will There are a few independent v v i i c c h h eat almost all of a kill companies left that make a S S / / h h u u t t e e t t including bone, skin and better pet food but this is still s s r r o o t t c c k k the internal organs. processed food.

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The Natural Diet (paunches frozen separately) and had a stack of frozen meaty W Wee were determineddetermined to finallyfinally apply the rigoursrigours of ecologicalecological lamb bones courtesy of the local organic butcher. Then finally thinking to our dog’s diet and bring it as close to a wild-type – and this isn’t for the faint hearted – we’d occasionally pop diet as we could manage. The glaringly obvious clues are in a down the local slaughterhouse and pick up a couple of complete dog’s physiology and anatomy. A dog’s carnassial teeth are one sheep paunches that the slaughterman was more than happy of its defining features; these have evolved over countless to part with. We cut up the stomachs into meal size portions millennia to shear raw meat off the bone and cruscrushh them into and froze them in pots with some of the lovely grassy gravy digestible chunks. from inside. This is known as green tripe and reallreallyy is magic It has a thick muscular gut to protect itself from bone food for dogs; you’ll be pleased to know it is also available shards, and very strong stomach acid to dissolve bone and commercicommerciallyally,, pre-frozen. The only things we ended up payingpaying destroy the pathogens found on scavenged meat (as welelll as for were additional rabbits from a local shooter and a few antiseptic saliva). Dogs can manufacture their own vitamin C, lamb hearts, livers and kidneys from the butcher. which is deficient in a pure meat diet and their whole digestive system extracts energy from animal protein not carbohydrates.carbohydrates. The Effect Unlike you, your dog is very much a carnivore. So did this diet cure Dave? No, sadly it didn’t. Dave’s The observation of wild canine behaviour is the otherother great condition was progressive and we simply ran out of time. source of information on how to feed our domestic friends. That’s not to say the dietary change was a failure, far from it. For instance, you don’t see wild dogs cooking their food. The In the three months we had Dave on a wild-type diet we simple act of cooking meat tends to destroy much of its saw some remarkable improvements in his overall health nutritional value. Obviously we’re not suggesting this is why and condition. wolves don’t have barbecues, merely that the way pet food is Withi Withinn days his ratratherher manic manic behbehaviaviourour had stastabilbilizeizedd produced is totally at odds with their evolutionary history and and he became a much more obedient, attentive dog. dietary requirements. After a pack has made a kill, the first thing they eat is the stomach. This is a very important component of the diet as the stomach of a herbivore contains large amounts of partially digested vegetable matter along with a host of digestive enzymes a carnivore cannot produce iitself.tself. Plant matter is very rich in various vitamins and minerals but members of the dog family are unable to digest them in their natural state. The herbivores’ gut does the work for them but also breaks down phytic acid which is found in most vegetable matter and which dogs and other carnivores are unable to digest. Phytic acid is referred to as an anti-nutrient and actually binds with essential vitamins and minerals in a dog’s stomach and prevents them being absorbed. As an aside, the heaviest source of phytic acid is cereal grains and soya which both make up the bulk of commercial dog food.

Replicating the ‘Wild Diet’ What to do with aallll this information is not as easy as you may

onthink. what We they can’t want send so ourwe havedogs toout compromise to kill a deer somewher and feaste. Effectively replicating a wild diet is a task not to be taken lightly and I urge you to exhaustively research the options yourself before you start. The most useful resources we found to guide us are listed at the bottom of this articlarticle.e. Living on a farm, we had access to a fair few rabbits, so for us that was a good place to start. As far as we could tell a small whole raw rabbit contained just about everything Dave needed in all the right proportions: guts, pre-digested vegetable matter, fur, bones, muscle tissue, organ meat, all perfectly balanced for a small carnivore. Feeding time was suddenly enjoyable and the entire bunny was demolished. Occasionally we’d throw him

a reasonably fresh road-kill Right: Dave finishes off the n n e e r r e e pheasant, which went the remains of a fresh road-kill G G m m T T i i & & same way as the rabbits. pheasant. These along with s s i i n n k k s s o o Even on a farm rabbits aren’t rabbits, green tripe, hearts, H H a a c c c c e e always available so we’d fill livers and kidneys formed b b e e R R the freezer when we could the basis of his new diet. © ©

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© R e This page: b e c a c (inset) Sick Dave – after a seizure he would lose his H o s k ni memory and would sit like this for days. s & mi T G er e (main) Dave after changing his diet – two days after a n seizure – memory back and full of life.

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Als Alsoo within within days days his coat coat bebecamcamee super super glglossossyy and hehe completely lost that dog smell we assumed was normanormal.l. His teeth became pearly white and any signs of gum disediseasease and bad breath disappeared. This is actually very important as tooth and gum problems are the single commonest disdiseaseease in domestic dogs and are the precursors to a whole host of secondary ailments and untimely deaths. The reason his dental condition improved so drastically was the chewing of tough raw meat, bones and fur.fur. These are nature’s toothbrushes for wolves and wild dogs. Other things we noted were that his milmildd skin allerallergiesgies cleared up after a week, his eyes became brighter,brighter, gums became noticeably darker (indicating possible anaemia before) and, for those of you interested in such things, his poos were transformed into small, hard pellets with next to nono odour and absolutely no affinity for the soles of your shoes.shoes. For a while, even the severity of his seizures was reducedreduced and Weaning Your Dog he recovered from them in hours rather than days. Off Commercially With all the vet billsbills foforr tests,tests, medicationsmedications and emergeemergencyncy treatments, our dear little Dave was as costly as a short Produced Food university course, but what he taught us was priceless. WeeW may have lost him but every dog we have from now on will If you decide to wean your dog off commercial be much happier and healthier as a result; and if youyou can apply food there are some very important things to the same detaildetaileded thinking to your pets as you do nownow for your remember: permaculture garden, then so will yours 1. Do your research – there is a minefield of After retiring retiring from full-tim full-timee film-makifilm-makingng Tim andand RebecRebeccaca information out there, some good, some bad. have quietly continued to live and work on their familyfamily farm. Triple read, double check and cross reference By sstudytudyinging the rulruleses ofof naturenature aroundaround tthem,hem, rediscoverediscoveringring everything. You are the one ultimately responsible so someme of ththee lolostst arartsts of fafarmrminingg anandd exexpeperirimenmentitingng withh wit and this is the welfare of your best friend we’re the latest advances in ecological agriculture it is their aim talking about. If you’re not certain then consult to create a resilient farm that is both ecologically and a holistic vet or canine nutritionist. economically sustainable. They both fully admit it is a lifetime’s work. As an aside and hopefully a happy ending, 2. Beware the human food chain – your dog they have a new working border collicolliee puppy on the way can deal with a lot of bacteria that would be – he will be callecalledd Wilf. Tim and RebeccaRebecca will be travetravellinllingg harmful to us, but our industrial meat chain up-country to collect Wilf at the end of October. can culture pathogens dangerous to your dog. Select meats and bone wisely and know where Resources they come from.

Invaluablewww.ukrmb.co.uk yahoo forum for fledgeling raw feeders splinter3. Never andfeed rupture your dog the cooked gut. bones; they could

www.dogfoodproject.com 4. Avoid bones with sawn sharp edges. Bones www.rawmeatybones.com broken at the joints are much safer.

nni i e e s s www.dogtorj.com t t 5. Don’t feed ‘bite-size’ bits of bone or carcass, © © R R e e d d these could be a choking hazard. As a rule of p p h h www.rawfeed.com o o o o t t g g thumb go for something the size of your a ar r p p h h e e dog’s head. r r www.ukrmb.co.uk S S / / h h u u t t e e t t s s r r o o t t c c 6. Don’t rush it – your pet may have been on junk www.truecarnivores.com/greentripe.shtml k k b b a a c c food for a while and a change to a healthier diet k k g g o or r u u could come as a bit of a shock to their system. The Complete Herbal Book for the Dog Dog by Juliette De Bairacli nn d d © © Levy; second-hand copies available from Amazon in variable DD Make the changes gradually. a a nn e ei i l l condition, from £4.67 - £25.00. K K o o z z r r e e nn 7. Do even more research – the Resources at the e ei i ww s s k k end of this article were a great help to us (be sure The Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog & Cat byby i i S S / / h h u u t t to study the FAQs). Juliette De Bairacli Levy; second-hansecond-handd copies availableavailable from e e t t s s r r o o t t c c Ama Amazonzon in vavariariableble cocondnditiitionon, f, froromm £8.8.45£ 45 - £2£27.97.99.9. k k

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JOB OPPORTUNITIES atat Permaculture Magazine Accounts Manager

& Admin/Sales Assistant

Accounts Manager Full Time Post £19,000 pa An exciting exciting opportun opportunityity to join awarawardd winning winning greegreenn publishe publisher,r, Permanent Publications, publishers of Permaculture Magazine, an international book list plus our e-commerce site www.green- shopping.co.uk. The ideal candidate will have experience of sales and purchase ledgers, credit control, bank reconciliations, month end VAT returns, customer service plus general office skills. Attenti Attentionon toto detaildetail and a woworkingrking knowleknowledgedge of SSageage AccountingAccounting required. Flexibility, good communication skills and a passion for the environment essential. Admin/Sales Assistant Part Time Post £6.50/hour The position will be providing support to the Accounts Manager on various tasks, such as purchasing, general accounting and administration tasks plus customer service. Flexibility, good communication skills and a passion for the environment essential.

Send CVs for either position by 29 October 2010 to: Job Application, Permanent Publications, The Sustainability Centre, East Meon, Hampshire GU32 1HR Tel: 01730 823 311 Email: [email protected]

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Choosing a Woodburning Stove

Maddy Harland explains the benefits of a woodburning

stove through and the to choosedecision-making the stove processof her dreams. she went

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All photos © Gail Harland

guess most of us have a W Wee have a woodburner inin Above:: a stove that wasn’t too ‘olde dark green secret, a naughty the ‘snug’. It is 30 years The new stove worlde’, yet fitted in my I carbon guzzling habit we’d old, about 25% efficient and has improved cottage, and I wanted to bebe rather keep to ourselves. Ours belts out the heat in the small comfort levels able to cook on it. I also was the open fire in our living room. We can cook on and considerably wanted it to be installed byby room. We live in a nineteenth inside it (with the help of an and the Eco-fan local people who knew their century flint cottage and the old biscuit tin). on top helps to stuff. Lastly, I wanted to be Inglenook fireplace is the sort There are a lot of stove distribute heat able to see the flames so that of size in which you could manufacturermanufacturerss springing up inin around the my connection with Fire was roast a small goat. 24 years Britain and for good reason. room. not sacrificed in the quest for ago we added a fire basket and A new generationgeneration of stovesstoves greater eco-efficiency..eco-efficiency a cast iron back plate from a has appeared, inspired by I pondered on whether I local forge to theoretically belt the efficiency levels of our should plumb in a back boiler the heat out, but in reality Scandinavian friends, changes to heat the water, but I decided our fireplace was like an old in legislatilegislation,on, and by clean that the layout of the house Jaguar car: CClassiclassic but greedy..greedy burning designs pioneered by made this too complicated When the firefire was lit it guzzledguzzled Clearview Stoves. (and expensive). In time, my logs and was maybe 10% I wanted a fuel efficient old 25% efficient woodburner efficient, i.e. 90% of the heat modern stove that was at in the other room, located went up its capacious chimney. least 60% efficient or more Right:: directly below the hot water When it wasn’t lit ththee central and one that was British Opening the tank, will be replaced with a heating was heating the sky..sky made to a very high standard, front air vent, new stove plus back boiler. It was wonderful for roasting not manufactured in Eastern which is only Then there will be little chestnuts, lovely for toasting Europe or beyond and just used to get the need for any central heating bread, useless for heating a house. assembled in Britain. I wanted fire started. in the house.

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Which Stove? Below:: single large glazed door that the firebox to initially draw Y Yearsears ago I visited ourour friends, Clearview can warm the whole house. in air at the front. It can be Angi Angie ae andnd AndyAndy PolkeyPolke iy inn stove air flow The stove itself is a heavy steel gradually shut down as the W Waleales andas nd admiradmireded theirirthe diagram. construction, welded inside fire fully catches. Below the Clearview StoveStove,, a toasty and out for durability. If stove is an adjustable lever that smokeless stove with a large any parts brebreak,ak, Clearview allows air to draw into the fire- glass front. My research led will replace them. They are box via the preheating channels me to another company too, committed to the long life of adding oxygen above the fire Dunsley Heat,Heat, who who have an the product and will upgrade for secondary combustion. excellent reputation and make models and add back boilers W Wee pposiositiotionedned the flue atat smokeless stoves that are at if required. the rear of the stove so wewe least 70% efficient. I am sure The Vision 500has two have a large flat top to cook there are more up and coming controls. The wheel at the and heat water on. If space is stove makers, but these two front of the stove is opened an issue you can pipe the flue have been around for years fully on lighting. This allows out of the top. The firebox and have been tried and tested by friends. The most important aspect Downward draft to a good woodburner is ‘washes’ glass – that it is smokeless and has a keeping it clear of tar double burn system. This means the stove is designed to allow a fresh supply of oxygen above the fire. When you burn wood in a hot stove woodgas is release. Add oxygen and the gases are burnt that are otherwise sucked up the chimneyy,,chimne creating secondary combustion and producing extra heat as well as reducing emissions. Rotary vent at front – Clearview add ananotherother clever used to create a draft design by heating the supply to light ﬁre only of air before it reaches the fire box by drawing the air through channels next to the box in the hot stove. The gases ignite, creating a beautiful aurora borealis effect and also Bottom air intake – pre-heats air that produces double increase combustion and combustion in the top of stove above the logs efficiency. Added to this, they developed the air wash system. This basically draws air from has a refractory lining and takes above the fire over the glazed 38cm (15in) logs. All the hinges door, preventing tar depositing and door catch are adjustable on the glass. which means you can maintain Clearview pioneepioneeredred these air tightness throughout the designs and they are passionate life of the door seals. about energy efficiency. They also talk to people on the the inStallation phone. All this, plus their Focus Stoves came and did a local installers, Focus Stoves, survey with a full explanation who make all the additional about the process, safety and parts required for the instal- building regulations. Since lation, are just up the road 2002, a fixed vent to the from me. outside is required for allall W Wee measmeasureuredd up the room stoves over 5kW to avoid anandd Clearview Clearview helpehelpedd mmee carbon monoxide poisoning. choose their Vision 500. 500. That in itself can be difficult This is a 8kW stove with aa in a flint cottage with 45cm

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(18in) thick exterior walls! We who are passionate stove solved the problem by venting users. Some heat their houses though the porch door and and water entirely with their then the porch wall which is wood-burners. They don’t a modern construction. use logs but are urban The installation itself was foragers, using bike trailers to painless.painless. Focus Focusinstalled a find untreated waste wood, register plate in the fireplace tree prunings and broken which has a layer of insulation pallets for fuel. on it. The difference was The initial investment of a immediate – no more howling stove is expensive but with gas gales down, and suction and oil bills rising every yeyear,ar, draughts up, the chimney! besides house insulation and They also installed a fireproof double or triple glazing, a heat shield over the beam modern cleanburning wood- above the fireplace as it was stove would be my number within 450cm of the sstovetove one eco-renovation purchase itself (another regulation). nownow.. It is a pure pleasure toto Then the stove itself was live with. I wonder how we installed on the brick hearth ever lived with that draughty with a 1mm flue pipe that old open fire joins the stove to the liner. This is a 0.12mm thick twin coStingS wall flexible liner, made of Once I get the stove fired up Clearview Vision 500 £1,269 several layers of stainless steel. I have to add just one or two Focus Installation £1,400- It was lowered down the logs an hour and it maintains a 1,600 (depending on model of chimney and capped with a constant temperature between stove, length of chimney etc.) stainless steel chimney net. 150 to 200ººC, depending on This stops birds nesting in your how much I load the firebox. uSeful contactS chimney and the rain pouring It can go hotter. Clearview Stoves, Dinham down the flue. Focus Stoves W Wee cutcut all our ownown wood House, Ludlow, Shropshire manufacturer all these parts. and season it, exposed to sun SY8 1EH W Wee werewere isissuesuedd witithw h a and wind but not rain – the Tel: 01584 878 100 HETAS certificate at the end top of the pile is covered. Two W Web:eb: www.clearviewstoves.com of the installinstallation.ation. Without years is ideal. It’s hard work one, the stove does not meet but more fun than the gym. FocFocusus Stoves Ltd, Station building regulations and, if If you use wetter wood the Approach, FFourour Marks, Alton,,Alton you have a chimney fire, you stove is forgiving (unlike some Hampshire GU34 5HN are no longer covered on your other makes) but it means you Tel: 01420 561 010 house insurance. You also need to burn more wood to W Web:eb: www.focusstoves.co.uk need a carbon monoxide alarm generate heat. I calculate that Focus work within a 35 mile with a seven year battery in we are using at least 60% radius of their factory iinn the room. In addition, to less wood than in our open Hampshire and supply register satisfy building regulations it fire days. The house is warmer plates and flues to the trade. is also necessary to fit a data even when the stove is unlit plate detailing any changes to because the chimney is now Dunsley Heat Ltd, Bridge Mills, the hearth or fireplace as well sealed, and we’ll inevitably Huddersfield Road, as details of the liner fitted. save on gas. Holmfirth, Yorkshire The Clearview double glazed HD9 3TW So hoW doeS it burn? front is easy to keep clean. I Tel: 01484 682 635 The stove is easy to light. The wipe the glass with damp W Web:eb: www.dunsleyheat.co.uk vents are easy to manage. newspaper and a little ash There is a rotary grate for from the fire once a week to Look for ‘I Love Woodstoves’ riddling and a stainless steel remove any tiny traces of tar. group on Facebook for practical ash pan inside. I empty it Used properly, it shouldn’t Above:: advise and enthusiasm! about once a week and it is ever tar over. So far I haven’t Maddy’s dream surprising how fine the ash left the fire in overnight as the comes true. A film detailingdetailing ourour installatioinstallationn is. Everything is burnt, unlike house is warm and it is easy to Starting up the so you can see for yourself, the old open fire that left get it started again the next day. Clearview will be available soon at: lumps of charcoal in the ash W Woodstooodstovesves aren’taren’t just for Vision 500, www.youtube.com/user/ bed (appreciated by the dogs). country cottages. I have friends woodburner. PermacultureMedia

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SACRED FORESTRY

Reforestation of the sacred mountain of Arunachala, in South India, has been resoundingly successful. John Barrie Button explains his permacultural approach to the challenge.

n 1989 I was asked to co-ordinate a had little to do with the kind of actions overseas projecprojects.ts. “Write“Write yourself a letter,” reforestation project in south India, which thethe Rainforest Rainforest Information Centre Centre she advised, “about all the things you I specifically, the sacresacredd momountainuntain was usually was involved. This is because think you are going to do over there. Aru Arunacnachalhala,a, recognirecognizedzed asas Shiva Shivain the the arid and barren region where the As many as you can think of. When form of Light or Fire. As the legend holy mountain stands is far removed you have finished this list, put it in an relates, Shiva, Lord of Destruction and from rainforest. However, the letter envelope, seal it up, and place it safely Recreation, was asked to adjudicate an pointed out, if the forests outside the in the luggage you take with you. Don’t argument between Vishnu (Lord offo receding rainforests of India were not open if for at leleastast three months. Even Preservation) and Brahma (Lord of enhanced, then there would be little longer would be better.” Do nothing, Creation), as to who had precedence. chance of ensuring the survival of those observe everything – –MasunobuMasunobu Fukuoka. Having manifested Himself as aa rainforests themselves. A good point. Inspired by Bill’s advice, I had images column of the pure light of conscious- I bought my plane ticket. of great chains of pilgrims passing seed- ness, Shiva bade both of them to find lings up the mountain, our forest growing His limits; one to seek the lowest ADVICE & MOTIVATION rapidly tall with the abundance of their point, and the other the highest. Neither Having done plenty of tree planting but enthusiasm. The problem is the solution.. apparently was successful, and in their with no experience of projects beyond I imagined that my presence would be awe of Shiva’s brilliance, they pleaded my own neighbourhood, I sought all the irrelevant after a couple of years. with Him to take a form less dazzling, advice I could find. My original teacher which mere mortals could then behold. of permaculture and dear friefriend,nd, Bill Shiva agreed and transformed Himself Mollison, suggested that if I didn’t have into the form of the mountain Arunachala, volunteers, thethenn I wouldn’t have a which has been venerated ever since. project. His implication was that if local people didn’t believe in the aims of the A CALL TO ACTION project enough to offer their services, The request for help from the small and then it had little chance of success. radical rainforest action group which I Observe and interact.. was associated with in Australia, arrived The other wisdom which comes to in the form of a very poetic letter which mind, was offered by a woman with acknowledged that reforesting Arunachala long experience working with various

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REALISING THE CHALLENGE The local librarian assured me other- suggested approaching the main I still recall vividly my first view of the wise. Having studied old texts, there temple. Temples are often constructed mountain, seen through the window were abundant records of great forests on springs. In this case, several. Not of the bone-shaking bus. We were still on the mountain, which had been re- only did it harbour this abundance, 20 kilometres away and the dusty haze nowned as a source of diverse medicines but the traditional design of the blurred any detail beyond the distinctive and a sanctuary for wild animals.. temples consists of many walled shape. Drawing closer, my perspective Observation over time.. All this,this thout, hough,gh, compounds focusing inwards to the sharpened. It was so barren, brown, was negated by photos dating back sanctuary. PPerfecterfect protection.protection. Further- dry, and almost devoid of vegetation, almost a hundred years which depicted more, the temple authorities control much less trees. The work would start barren slopes with no more vegetation 50% of the mountain, and a lot of land from zero. than there was on my arrival. around it. The full significance of the fire manifestation of Shiva came to light. STEPPING FORWARD PLANTING & GROWING The mountain ablaze was a common W Wee rairaisesedd a nursesery nur ry nonetethel non helesess,s, They were happy with our proposal to sight, deliberatedeliberatelyly lit to encourage the watered from an open well in a secluded create a nursery while refurbishing the grasses used for thatching, and to backstreet. For all it was worth, our compounds with gardens that had not discourage any trees or shrubs that first two significant plantings on the existed for many years. WeWe selecteddselecte may impede their growth. Not to mountain were both abject failures. our plants to supply their needs in mention the pyromania inspired by Wh Whatat the flamesflames did not claim,claim, the goatstsgoa flowers and coconuts, as well as those coming to the mountain to pray certainly did. “If you have no problems, planting sacred constellations long for divine intervention to dissolve debt, buy a goat,” sasaysys one Sufi wisdom. WWee neglected. In the following years we deliver a son, cure a hernia, or an infinite did not even need to buy our problems. raised between 200,000 and 350,000 number of other earthly needs. Mistakes are tools for learning .. saplings for planting on and around Shiva in his form of Fire was honoured One of our small team of volunteers the mountain, and for sale to service with matches and cigarette lighters. inspired a major step forward. He the wages of our growing workforce. Aru Arunacnachalahala was littlittlele moremore thanthan a greatatgre Optimize edges.. In this case, it was the mound of rock. social edge between the spiritual and earthly life; for the first time local CONFRONTING SCEPTICISM people volunteered their support in Even the task of growing seedlings to significant numbers. Make Make the least plant on the desolate mountain was farfar change for the greatest effect.. from simple. In a district where the Our next planting was much smaller local population often had to line up in area. Use small-scale intensiveintensive systems.. for hours at a public tap just to get their W Wee selected our planting sites carefully,,carefully most essential household water needs, where the least likelihood of fire lavishing water from a private well on casualties lay, where we might zealously plants to raise a nursery was hardly guard our vulnerable young ones.ones. Use likely to nurture all that enthusiastic relative location.. Ah, hard-earned support I had dreamed of.of. success. Our trees grew, planted with “Give yourself up to the mountain, the monsoon’s first drops. We had Shiva will prevail” was advice I heard selected well, choosing the hardiest more than once, offered by the spiritual species that would need the least seekers who flocked to the mountain. watering, if any. Multiple elements I was there to work, to get the task serving every function.. done, not to adhere to any doctrine or superstition. “Arunachala is a Fire CAREFUL SELECTION mountain, and has always been rocks. W Wee pplantedlanted at least 80 differentdifferent species Y Youou can’t grow a forest on ArunachalaArunachala,”,” including shrubs and groundcovers, other sceptics declared. fast-growing pioneers, and climax

Top left: Arunachula clothed in green What is Permaculture? after years of being barren rock. Permaculture is an ecological design system. Using nature as its guide, Bottom left: The mountain as it Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, looked in the 1980s. permaculture’s co-originators, Above: Carrying seedlings up the tohave guide developed the design sets process. of principles The mountain for replanting.

i i o o essence of many of these (in italics)) g g o o G G Right: Villagers tackle one of the ﬁres v v are found in this article. e e D D that frequently threaten the trees. © ©

www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 3535

swarm up the mountain to beat out the fire before it can grow. The mountain is not yet fully forested by any means but it will be. The sceptics are silent now. The biggest limit to abundance is creativity

John Button, an Australian, has worked and plplayedayed withwith permacpermacultuulturere for 30 year years,s, designinging,design , teaching,teaching, consultingconsulting and implem implemententinging divdiversersee projecjects.ts. pro Hi His affffaiairas r wwitithh pperermamacucultltureure bebegagann in the late 70s when, having bought 33 hectares (82 acres) of degraded cattle land, he realised he knew almost nothing about what to do with it, an andd waswa insnspipiredis red to paparrtiticicipapatete inin a species. Use and value diversity, follow stumps. People can actually harvest the workshop byby Bil Billl Mollislisonon. Mol . Having natural succession.. Fruiting species, fuelwood from pioneer trees already built his house and planted a botan- trees for timber, plants for medicines dying off, and abundant medicinal icaicall rainforest fantasy of 2,000 species, and other uses. Each element performs plants are thriving. Obtain a yield .. he was then asked to consult and multiple functions.. It is now more than 20 years since teach. He has worked in India, the Every plant was bunded with a micro- our first small failures.. It has taken a Ph Phililipippipinenes,s, ThThaiailalandnd,, InIndodonenesisia,a, catchment arc to catch and localise lot of work, as all projects do at first. Holland, Germany, the Canary Islands, water, silt and organic material. Tree Transformation requires energy from Ru Russissiaa anandd ItItalaly,y, where where he moststlyly mo ‘smiles’.Catch and store energy.. I heard somewhere. Many firebreaks have lives, with his partner agronomist, some foreign pilgrims complaining been cut by the different groups that Fran Francecescscaa SiSimomonenetttti.i. that all the trees were sspoilingpoiling the have grown on the inspiration of the sunset view from the mountain. Ah, first successes. These days, when the Y Youou can email JohJohnn at: disgruntled whisperings of success! first traces of smoke on the mountain [email protected] After less than two years, when a fire are seen, watchmen with mobile broke out amongst our plantings, local phones quickly alert small armies Or visit his website: villagers spontaneously extinguished of school and college sstudents,tudents, who nuke.johnbutton-permaculture.net the fire. They knew the plants would be more value to them than rocks and TTopop: Part of the reforestation viewed grass. Real genuine success – the locals from the one of the pilgrims’ paths up were volunteering. Creatively use and the mountain. respond to change.. Right: Author, John Barrie Button. BIODIVERSITY RETURNS Animals and birds not seen for years Below right: KattuShiva tree nursery are now becoming commonplace. in the courtyard of the temple. We create nothing; we can only support the conditions for creation to take Below left: Mountain of Medicine place. Humility, always.. Great bamboo meetings led to the reintroduction of groves not seen for tens of decades medicinal plants. are now regenerating rapidly. The great trees that once covered the mountain Below centre: A talk circle ensures are regenerating from their long-ravaged everyone’s views are heard.

i i i i o o o o g g g g o o o o G G G G v v v v e e e e D D D D © © © ©

3636 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

permaculture NEWS

BEN LAW’S OUTDOOR Sell Out London Permaculture Festival CLASSROOM OPENS – 2011 Date To Be Announced

Photographs by James Piers Taylor, London Permaculture, http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/naturewise/

The Duchess of Norfolk & Ben Law at the Opening Ceremony The Woodland Classroom at thethe Sustainability Centre was officiallyofficially openopeneded byby Georgina, Duchess ofof Norfolk on 21 September 2010. Permanent Publications and the staff of ththee Sustainability The main hall during the London Permaculture Festival at the Cecil Sharp House was often full to burstingbursting Centre were joined by film- makers, Undercurrents and a wide The 1st London Permaculture around 80 attendants in total. selection of representatives from Festival turned out to be a great This time the festival’s crew and NGOs and local and national success, writes Stef Geyer of the workshop holders alone out- government,environmentalists, London Permaculture Network. numbered that total! timber framers and transit- Over 850 people from all We really couldn’t have taken ioners. A trailer from the new over London and beyond filled any more people. The main hall Roundwood Timber Framing the Cecil Sharp House and was crammed with groups and DVD was shown (available fromfrom gardens to capacity. It showed projects of all shapes and guises www.green-shopping.co.uk).). the level of interest that can be showing off what they are up Earlier this year Ben’s pre- mustered even in London’s quiet to. The hall also played host to London-grown plants on sale vious build, thethe Lodsworth Lodsworth Larder mid-August period, and it high- music, demonstrations and a

Heritage(see PM 6363),Award), won 2010 the Sussexfor the islighted the right that time now to more publicise than ever the could‘permaculture proved aquestion popular time’ feature. that otherother,to offer, the it’s heat knowledge from the analysisto each best community building. growing achievements of the The film and workshop of what was missing will, I’m For the latest developments permaculture and transition co- spaces were often packed to sure, keep us warm all winter. at the Sustainablity Centre callcall mmunity in and around London. their limits (these included a web As it was our first event it 01730 823 166 or view: www. One of the most memorable link talk by Patrick Whitefield) was a steep learning curve for sustainability-centre.org things said to me at the festival and people over-flowed out into the newly created co-ordination was frfromom Andy Goldring, CEOCEO the gardens or joined Chris team, we had no idea of how of the Permaculture Association.Association. Hedley on his herb walk around many people would turn up, so DEADLINES Apparently last time London the venue’s immediate vicinity. we were very happy that it went Permaculture Magazine No.67 had a Permaculture gathering We worked with the idea mostly to plan. However, we (about 10 years ago) there were that we would offer a space for unfortunately did commit the EDITORIAL 22 November 2010 whoever wanted to do a talk, cardinal sin of running out of DISPLAYS 30 November 2010 workshop or stall which fits in cake at the festival! We’ll make & CLASSIFIEDS with our vision of permaculture. sure we have a whole team PUBLICATION 24 January 2011 The only things that we sought dedicated to that next year. Contributions and enquiries to: out were local organic food and For details on how to attend PERMACULTURE MAGAZINE a programme for children. or take part in next year’s festival The Sustainability Centre Everything else came in from view:view: www.londonpermaculture. East Meon Hampshire GU32 1HR, U.K. all corners of London over the few com and of course keep reading 0845 458 4150 or 01730 823 311 months preceding. The event was Permaculture Magazine www. [email protected] Chris Hedley’s popular herb walk really a chance for our community permaculture.co.uk

www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 3737

NEWS IN BRIEF Wide Range Of Activities At Permaculture Convergence

The Permaculture AssociationAssociation Photographs by Jay Ashton, Permaculture Association is compiling a list of forest gardens that will be planted this winter to help connect learners and volunteers with opportunities for practical experience. A research project is also planned to record designs, planting schedules and long term yields. Tell Many of the 360 attendees at the 2010 Permaculture Association Convergence,Convergence, Lambourne End, Essex them about your project by contacting them at:research@ The Permaculture Association’s The new Diploma System 5 For further information view: permaculture.org.uk 2010 Convergence was held at was launched (new applications www.permaculture.org.uk Jagran Jan Vikas Samiti, a Lambourne End in Essex, a 53 are welcome) and there were non-government organis- acre venue discovered during reports on proposed polyculture ation in Rajasthan, India the Association’s LAND Project. research trials and community are in need of volunteer The Association’s CEO, Andy supported agriculture. permaculture students or Goldring, reports that 360 people With 100% of people saying graduates to help them. For attended. The programme featured that they would “thoroughly details view: www.jjvs.org workshops, talks, presentations recommend” the convergence to and permaculture practicals such a friend, we can say we were Access a map of traditional as scything, rocket stoves and pleased. A lot was learnt, new craftspeople in the UK at www. a magniﬁcent dragon cob oven. plans were hatched, and we can heritagecrafts.org.uk/map.html Core theory looked at everything hardly wait for the next one. The Low CarboCarbon Tn Trustrust (www. from ethics to design tools, while It really does feel like we areare lowcarbon.co.uk) has won thethe people care sessions offered a breaking through to a new level Green Building category of the range of powerful tools for use globally. Memberships are up Sussex Eco AwardsAwards for for its in life and work. The education substantially, and following email Earthship Brighton project. group looked at the Association’s discussions from Australia, it The Awards board sited it as strategy, future thinking and seems like it is bursting at the “a case study for eco-living.” Low Carbon Farming initiatives. seems over there too. This year’s event got the thumbs up The trustees of Emerson College have handed over the deeds for the building and Work here at PM Haiti, Chile, Tibet Relief Projects the 20 acres of land around it, securing them as an education As part of our expansion desperately need donations and and research centre dedicated Permaculture Magazine / / volunteers and this CD is one to biodynamics, permaculture Permanent Publications are way to make a contribution. and sustainable food production. looking to recruit an Artists such as Bob Dylan, View:View: www.bdacollege.org.uk Accounts Manager and an Gorillaz, Coldplay and Dizzee Administration Assistant. Worth seeing! Gaia Theatre Revival by Rhythms Del MundoMundo Rascal are given the trademark The positions are based at is the third collaboration with RDM Afro-Cuban twist. PointCollective’s (pictured) play is Tipping on at the Sustainability Centre, Artists Project Earth (APE) For further details of how APE East Meon, Hampshire. which promotes permaculture and are supporting some of the Hamilton House, Stokes Croft, See the advert on page Bristol, 1 - 11 December 2010. supports the relief efforts in Haiti, remarkable permaculture projects 2828 of this issue for details Chile and Tibet following this year’s in Chile view their website and For further details please call on how to apply. 07932 074 201 or view catastrophes in these regions. this link: www.apeuk.org/260- www.gaiatheatre.org Each of these regions still Transition-Chile Hollywood Star Joins Permaculture Design Course

Students on a recent Perma- solutions are some of the best culture Design Course led byby tools we have for creating a Darren Doherty in AustraliaAustralia viable and thriving future”. were delighted to be joined by Over 3,000 copies of each Daryl HannahHannah,, the Hollywood issuissuee of Permaculture Magazine star of ﬁlms such as Kill Bill,, are now sold in New Zealand and Splash a andnd Blade Runner .. Australia (where permaculture

wellDaryl, known who for heris nowcommitment just as featuresbegan). Look from out the for forthcomingAustralian to environmental issues, told practitioners, teachers and Permaculture Magazine “in“in writers who have helped deﬁne these critical times permaculture permaculture in these pages. Ned, Eliza, Darren and Daryl

3838 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk gg

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BOOKS MAGAZINES DVDS TOOLS OUTDOORS HOME & GARDEN SOLAR & WIND-UP CLEARANCE

Welcome to the new-look Green Shopping website and catalogue supplement Green Shopping is run by the team at Permaculture Magazine. As Permanent Publications Purchasing from Green we also specialise in publishing permaculture books. Our aim is to offer you inspirational PermacultureShopping helps Magazine support books, tools, products and DVDs to help you live more sustainably. We hope you like our new look Green Shopping and enjoy shopping with us.

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THE GARDEN AT THE END I LOVE MY WORLD OF THE WORLD DVD Chris Holland Gary Caganoff Far beyond a collection of outdoor learning This is a deeply moving film about the activities, Chris takes a holistic view of our nobility of the human spirit amid the horrors global environmental crisis and presents a of war. Made in 2004, it records perma- heartfelt as well as intellectuaintellectuall response to culturist Rosemary Morrow’s return to it by taking young people outside to learn Afghanistan after 30 years absence, working with Mahboba’s and play, and play to learn. Full of bushcraft, Promise, a small NGO. It compares her understanding of past environmental art, nature awareness and social and agricultural structures with the present. She explores outdoor play activities, as well as mentoring how social and ecological design can restore a nation suffering tips, this book is for parents, play rangers, forest school learners, from malnutrition and the loss of the majority of its adult teachers, uncles and aunties... actually anyone who loves this world

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THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR CHRISTMASSY FAVOURITE THINGS

Tony Rollinson Maddy Harland

Kelly Kettle – just a The Garden at the totally classic product End of the World and now in Stainless – this DVD about Steel. KKC-SS3 £55.00 Afghanistan moved me deeplydeeply.. Full of insight The Power Of and human dignity. Community – – DVD-GEW £19.95 How Cuba Survived Peak EcoFan 800 – a beautifully Oil – a DVD that engineered product that shows you what improves the heat distribut- you can do as ion from youryour an individual, a woodburner. community or as a whole CF-EF800 country. DVD-PCH £14.95 £114.95

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CHOSEN BY THE STAFF HERE AT PERMACULTURE MAGAZINE

John Adams Hayley Harland

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POWER PLUS ECO-POWERSTATION SOLAR MATE ONE Inputs: 100-240V AC, 17V DC, 5W solar panel, 12V long life 40W hand wind-up dynamo or optional equivalent bulb, switch and ﬁtting solar panel (T(TAN-ALBA).AN-ALBA). Outputs:Outputs: kit (requires a 35ah -70ah 12V 230V AC, 12V DC and 5V DCDC USB leisure battery not included). An emergency/portable power pack Lights an area of up to 16m22 with a range of inputs and outputs. (148ft22). Ideal for use in sheds, As well as low voltage DC it can run small stables, greenhouses, etc where mains electricity is not available. AC appliances and even jump start a car. TAN-SM1 £89.95 Reviewed on page 17 TAN-PPE £149.99 Reviewed on page 17 SUBSCRIBER’S OFFER £85.00 Saving £4.95 Code: TAN-SM1/PM65

POTTING SCOOP HONEY STOVE Overall: 260mm (10.2in). Packed flat: 150 x 150 x 10mm (6 x 6 x6 x Scoop: 135 x 60mm (5 x 22in).in). 0.4in) Total weight: 339g (12oz). Stainless steesteell with wooden handle. Stainle Stainlessss Steel.Steel. MadeMade in the UUK.K. Burgon and Ball have replaced the very popular American Soil A versatile wood burning backpacking Scoop with this slightly smaller Potting Scoop. It has the stove which will work in a number of same great features, a digging point, good carrying capacity, configurations, with a wide range of serrated edges for cutting roots and built in seed dispensers. pans and several fuels types. Folds flat A must for any keenkeen gardener. gardener. into a small pouch when not in use. BBL-WTMS £19.95 Reviewed on page 18 BPL-HON £37.50 Reviewed on page 18

HELLE EGGEN KNIFE BUCK DIAMOND SHARPENER Blade: 100mm (4in), Stainless Size: 102 x 26 x 6mm (4 x 1 x 0.25in) Steel, HandleHandle:: 115mm (4.5in),(4.5in), A handy pocket sized 750 grit diamond Curly Birch, Leather Sheath. sharpening stone from the famous makers Has the traditional look and feel of Buck Knives. Puts a fine edge on knives, of a Norwegian knife. The unique small tools and even fish hooks. Can be triple laminated stainless steel used dry or water lubricated. Comes makes for a razor sharp blade which holds it’s edge. The handle with a nylon pouch fitted with a belt loop. fits the hand comfortably and the knife is a joy to use. WB-BDS £19.95 WB-HEL75 £62.50 Reviewed on page 18 SUBSCRIBER’S OFFER £17.95 Saving £2.00 Code: WB-BDS/PM65

GATCO MILITARY CARBIDE SHARPENER To order any of the items in this supplement either use the Size: 72 x 2828 x 6m6mmm (2.7(2.755 x 1 x 0.25i0.25in).n). order form in your Green Shopping catalogue 2011, order online A lightweight sharpener that quickly at www.green-shopping.co.uk www.green-shopping.co.uk oror by phone on 01730 823 311 restores an edge to most knife blades. (international:+44 1730 823 311.) WB-MCS £14.95 N.B.N.B. Subscr Subscriber prices quotedquoted in green green aand nd Reader’sReader’s Offer prices prices GATCO DOUBLE DUTY SHARPENER quoted in blueblue cancan only be used for phoned orders and do not Size Size:: 72 x 68 x 11mm11mm (2.75(2.75 x2x2.7.7 x 0.4in)0.4in).. apply to orders made online. Postage and packing charges apply A handy pocket knife sharpener that features both carbide tips and ceramic unless otherwise stated. Online book orders over £15 are however postage & packing FREE for all UK customers. Discounts valid rods for a ﬁner ﬁnish. WB-DDS £14.95 until publication of next issue, but may be altered at our discretion.

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GROWING VEG THE INCAN W AY

Steve James adapts an ancient farming method to create a self-watering, temperature stabilised greenhouse

All photos © Steve James

ood growing inin Scotland’s Scotland’s cool climate is always a WISDOM OF THE INCAS challenge, especially living at 240m (800ft). JourneysJourneys Arche Archeologisologiststs uncoveruncovereded networksnetworks of metre-demetre-deepep water-er-wat Fsouth of the border in spring and autumn seem like filled channels between beds, raised high enough above time travelling. You can almost see the waves of blossom the water level to let the roots breathe. The numerous and leaf fall sweeping slowly up and down the country. interconnecting chanchannelsnels were home to various edible fish, I was therefore intrigued by discoveries made by archaeo- and extended over thousands of hectares, creating a micro- logists reconstructing how the ancient Inca farmed 3,650m climate that protected the crops from seasonal droughtdrought by (12,000ft) up in the much more inhospitable region around soaking into the beds, and from the year round frostfrost danger Lake Titicaca.Titicaca. by releasing daytime heat stored in the water. AquaticAquatic plants grew abundantly in the channels, and fish manure settled as silt. Each year they would scoop plants and silt back onto the beds. Showing a rare practical interest in his subject, ClClarkark L Erickson, an agrarian archeologist, encouraged the locallocal Quechua to try these techniques for growing their ownown crops, with the stunning result that yields immediatelyimmediately increased tenfold. Impressed, local farmers started re- adopting the more sophisticated ways of their ancestors.

TTopop: Plants thrive as their W ATER, W ATER EVERYWHERE roots reach down to ﬁnd the These days we have poly- underground water (visible tunnels and greenhouses, under the walkway). making it possible to enjoy fruit and vegetables that Le Leftft: The Incan inspired green- would otherwise be impossible house is the right side of the so far North, but they do ‘twist ‘n’ twang’ workshop have one major drawback – (( see PM6565) behind the house. no rain. In Scotland that hits

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particularly hard, as you stand, hosepipe in hand, deafened by below instead. As it turned out, this created an extremely dry the thunderous roar of yet another downpour on the polythene soil surface, which inhibits slugs and weed germination.germination. just above your head. Something is not joined up here. Isn’t A drdrierier atmospheatmospherere isis alalsoso llessess conduconducivecive to thethe manymany this a sin in the permaculture bible? Piped water additives are moulds and fungi which thrive in the typically muggy another concern, as is the difficulty in going away for extended environment under cover. A critical part of this system is periods. Unless you can arrange for someone to do the water- having sufficient depth of soil (20cm/8in) to ensure the ing for you, two or three weeks away in the height of summer plant roots can make their own choices between warmth, is often unthinkable. So I started musing, how could I get the rain back inside? Catching it as it comes off the roof is the first issue. There are, I believe, self-adhesive gutters you can attach to a polytunnel directly, though I have no experience of them. A greenhouse is nonormallyrmally simple to rig up with gutters. As I had alalreadyready built aa gutteregutteredd polytunnel (see PM65), I thought here was the chance to give it a go. My partner Eilidh had previously experimented with burying polythene underneath air and water. They can sense Above: Section through the a bed to help it hold water longer on her allotmentallotment.. Initially it beneath them and reach growing system. appalled at the thought of sour soil and drowned roots, I was down into the ever damper surprised that it seemed to help quite a bit withoutwithout injuring earth until their thirst is Below:: (left) Excavating the plants. It still needed a lot of water hauling to fill, so the satisfied. Tomatoes in partic- the water storage tank; prime requirement for the mark II was a self-filling mechanism! ular headed straight for the (right) Liner made of pieces borders by the walkway, closest of scrap plastic sheeting, THE EXPERIMENT to the free water, and spread water inlet and blocks for All these variousvarious threadsthreads came togethertogether inin the experimentexperiment many feet along it. the walkway. which is effectively a large sunken bathtub with the sky tap left running. Rain comes in one end, soaks sideways under THE METHOD the beds and any overflow runs out the far end. Rather than I began by digging out the shape of the tank, unearthing use some form of sprinkler or seep hose system, which would plenty of rocks in the process that would later form the probably need a powered pump to work well, I rememberedremembered rubble infill. You could well use a more flat bottomed tank, the Inca and decided to try gravity, letting water come up from or indeed build the whole thing up above ground. I chose

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Abov Abovee:: (left) W Walkwalkway,ay, edging boards and rock layer; (right) Finished beds ﬁlled with soil.

Left: Plan and section showing water, inlet, outlet and storage tank.

Rig Rightht: Rotatable elbow on the overﬂow allows adjustment of the water level.

would leak, but very slowly, and the worms and beasties could wriggle their way in if they had a mind to, particularlyparticularly as it would be the warmest place around. So, first a layer of skipped carpet on the bottom to avoid further punctures, then three layers of the poly covering the whole area of the greenhouse and stapled to a single plank edging running around the perimeter at ground level. Since nothing would grow underneath the walkwaywalkway, itit, seemed sensible to store the bulk of the water there, and while I was at it try and trap some warmth by making it slatted so the sun could shine in and heat it up. This light and warmth has encouraged mosses and algae to grow in the dappled shade, and attracted spiders and toads. In time maybe a whole eco- subsystem may evolve under here! Stored heat is more erratic, as fresh rain flushes out the warmed water, usually of course on cooler days, but it does mean the reservoir never gets stagnant.

sloping sides to test the widest possible range of soil moisture. CHANNELLING THE W ATER I could have used a perfect membrane to ensure a completely I laid two lines of reclaimed concrete blocks directly on the watertight tank, but I’ve always been taken by the way worms poly, with approximately 10cm (4in) gaps as level as I could, love to party in old polythene lying about in the gardengarden (I guess to carry the central walkway, and hold back the soil. Resting it’s warm and wet between the layers) and I had a stack of the on top of these are two 7.5 x 5cm (3 x 2in) battens, with damn stuff. Odd shapes, odd rips and punctures – notnot pretty,,pretty the edging boards and walkway slats nailed to them. The and not really much use for anything else. Several layers downpipe from the gutter runs under the beds and emergesemerges compressed together under the weight of the soil andand water between the blocks under the top end of the walkway.

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Peas, broad and French beans, courgettes, calabrese, several sorts of tomatoes, basil, leeks, coriander, pumpkin, cauliflower, lettuce, kale, red mustard, cabbage, walking onionsonions,, sorrel, nettle, grass and creeping buttercup, all did well. Obviously a serious grower would use such a system to ease their workload rather than replace it. If I had watered during the driest periods, pinched out trusses etc., given them all more love and less apologies I’m sure the yields would have been greater, but as a result of total and absolute neglect, I think they’re pretprettyty encouraging. I had thought the central water channel might encouraencouragege slugs, but damage was surprisingly slight, with micemice proving a greater threat in the midst of a hard winter, climbing the brassica stalks and nibbling out the hearts, the wee souls. The pumpkins probably did best, with half a dozen double-double- fist sized specimens as well as the champion illustillustrated.rated.

IN CONCLUSION I haven’t run this experiment long enough to tell the long- term effect on soil condition, but it is not really very different from growing in pots or on benching. As long as care is taken to feed and refresh the soil periodically,periodically, I don’t seesee why it should be any less successful. This system is not the answer to everyone’s prayers, but as The outlet was a standard Above: Most plants did a way of lessening the need for visits to a distant allotment, 150mm (6in) drainpipe, which really well despite being water bills, the impact of hosepipe bans and fretting about empties into the rushes nearby. unwatered throughout the I fitted a 90º elbow which is growing season. theyour rain darlings back onwhile the you’re ground awayaway, may, thenbe worth less time the slightspent troubleputting easily rotated to control the involved in construction high water level inside. To Belo Beloww: Steve James with keep the walkway dry I set it his prized pumpkin. Steve James built his own luxury low-impact ecohome in about 1cm (0.4in) below the Scotland, complete with a 9 x 7m (700ftt(700f 22 ) workshworkshopop and tops of the concrete blocks. Rocks fill outside of the blocks. greenhou greenhousese growinggrowing space..space Any coarse rurubblebble would do, to roughlyroughly the expectedexpected water level to let the water freely percolate under the beds, avoiding RESOURCES a completely waterlogged base to the soil which might turn Pre-Inca agriculture: anaerobic or leach nutrients and minerals. www.sas.upenn.edu/~cerickso/articles/Exped.pdf I collected many fine molehills from the surrounding grazing, mixed with compost, sheep manure and basalt rock dust. More pictures:pictures: www.envisioneer.net This soil mix was piled directly on top of the rubble, in contact with the water at its base approximatelyapproximately 20cm (8in) deep, and made to slope slightly from the edges to the centre (’cos it looks nice). In dry periods the water under the walkway almost disappears as it is drawn up by the plants and evaporation. HoweverHowever,, although the surface is a dusty desert, dabbling your fingers in the warm topsoil shows the darker, damp soil beginning no more than 2cm (0.8in) down in even the hottest periods (bearing in mind this is Scotland).

BEING CRUEL TO BE K IND? I wanted to see what this system could do, so my heartless procedure was to water in individual seeds and transplants when first introduced, and once or twice again in thethe next few days if they looked like they needed it. After that they were on their own. Apart from this lulling into a false sense of security, and some minor weeding, the entire greenhouse was unwatered by human hand from April right through to the following spring, and as you can see from the photos, almost everything thrived. The garlic was the only total failure, several bulbs were planted along the outside edge high above the shallow (south) end, where it was just too hot and dry, even for this sun-lover. Cacti would do well here!

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HOW TO GROW FOOD IN W INTER

Janet Renouf-Miller explains how you can create a harvest of fresh, nutritious food throughout the cold months.

ith the help of a bit ofof W INTRY BENEFITS have been sown in spring but little is cover, and carefully se- There are a number of advantages to ready to eat. lected varieties of seeds, growing vegetables in winter: Wit is possible to grow vegetables and • Vitamins aandnd minerals are harder herbs all year round in the United • Mature overwinteredoverwintered veg keeps to obtain in winter, especially vita- Kingdom, and presumably therefore growing until December under cover, min C. Having something fresh from in other temperate countries that stands for the winter then comes the garden can make a big difference. have frosty winters. away fast in February. They can be In my corner of Scotland, away picked for much of the winter. There • Fresh organic produce is more from the sea and up in the hills, there might be lean pickings in January but expensive in winter. Therefore winter is only one month of the year that there is usually something – perhaps veg saves you more money than can be guaranteed to be frost free a bit of kale, land cress, claytonia, summer veg. Rocket, radishes, salad and that is July. Most years we can- lamb’s lettuce, herbs and carrots. leaves, parsley and mint are all expen- not grow courgettes or runner beans sive in winter yet easy to grow at home. outside without cover. • Later autumn sowings will over- In our case, experimenting has • The groungroundd is as well growinggrowing paid off and we often have more quicklywinter as again seedlings in February that get and going are something as sitting there empty. produce in winter than in summer. ready long before spring sowings. Last year by the end of winter we This eliminates the ‘hungry gap’ Above: Tatsoi, cress and chickweed were fed up with salad! – that period of time when seeds growing for winter salads.

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stuff took over. We had lamb’s let- so keep cutting, making sure you leave tuce galore from February till the a bit of green to keep the plant alive. end of April. They will eventually stop growing Don’t forget that if you have a but will stand over the winter, and conservatory, food plants can be start to grow again in February. grown there in pots during the Later sowings will be part-grownnpart-grow winter. Windowsills in the house at the end of the season. They are tend to be too dark for plants that poised to finish growing in spring are going to be there for any length and to follow on from the earlier of time but work fine for salad sowings. This two stage process sprouts (see later). means you will still be harvesting right up until the spring-sown SOWING vegetables begin to mature, and you Start sowing again from mid July will seldom be without some garden onwards, as the ground is cleared by produce. other crops, then continue until the weather gets too cold. That usually means GET PROTECTION until the end of Any protectioprotectionn that you can give August in the plants over the winter will help north or Sep- them, although there are a number tember further of things you can grow with no south.

polytunnelprotection atgives all. theA greenhouse best protection or willThese grow sowings at and plenty of indoor space. We cover different rates. some of the plants with polypropyl- Sowing in suc- ene floating mulch inside the tunnel cession actually or greenhouse for extra insulation. works better at the end of the year Cold frames are another good than it does in spring, when all the EVERY ‘EARLY ’ IS ALSO A ‘LATE’ option and a layer of floating mulch sowings tend to catch up with one Seeds that are described as ‘early’ onon or bubble wrap can be used on top another. the packet can also be sown at the end of the plants inside the frame. Simple Earlier sowings will be ready from of the season for overwintering. There home-made frames work fine. Do August to late SepSeptember,tember, anandd can be is the odd exception, for example remember to remove the bubble used as ‘cut and come again’ crops parsnips. If in doubt, experiment. wrap and start watering again in the from then onwards. The more you Conversely, anything that says it is a spring. cut them the longer they stand, ‘late’ also usually works as an ‘early’. Floating mulch laid over the soil outside gives weather proofing on its own and can be weighed down with bricks or stones. It prevents mud from being splashed onto salad crops as well as giving frost protection and making plants grow faster. W Wee had great success last yearyear with an old caravan window found in a lay-by which we put on top of some lamb’s lettuce. Lamb’s lettuce will grow outside all winter without protection but that which was covered was ready first, in early February. Once it was finished, the uncovered

Above left: Lamb’s lettuce in a cold frame.

Above right: Planting mint in a box.

Right: Close up winter sowing.

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This year we obtained some onion sets that according to the bag were for autumn sowing. They were reduced to 50p when purchased in February. Half were sown outside in March and the other half in cold frames. The cold frame ones were ready to eat by June and the others followed on a couple of weeks later.

START SPROUTING Once it is too cold to sow in the greenhouse, move indoors and sow seed trays of peas, cabbage, broccoli and kale on a south facing windowsill. These can be cut as seedlings once they are two to three weeks old and added to salads and soup. Grow salad sprouts in the normal way too, in a salad sprouter or sieve. The quickest ones are chick peas and A variety of lettuclettucee from ThompsonThompson bother much with claytonia or with lentils. Red cabbage sprouts add and Morgan called ‘Freckles’ is good lamb’s lettuce and land cress. some colour to winter salads. for autumn sowing. It is hardier Pak choi, Chinese cabbage and than most and slugs don’t like it. other similar Chinese greens need to W HAT TO GROW IN SUCCESSION W Wee have kept plantsplants going all winter be sown after mid July or they will

rocket,Perpetual lettuce spinach, and chard,radishes parsley, can all underLand bubble cress andwrap lamb’s in a cold lettuce frame. orgo coldto seed. frame. They Slugs are lovebest themin a tunnel so be sown at four week intervals from are wonderful, hardy salad crops keep an eye out for damage. July onwardonwardss for both a winterwinter crop which will stand outside all winter and some seedlings to overwinter for in pretty much any weather. Leave a fast take off in spring. Chard is less plant of each to go to seed and you hardy than perpetual spinach so if will have a steady supply of plants at you only grow one of them, grow different ages and stages springing the spinach. up everywhere. The radish ‘long white icicle’ Lamb’s lettuce is sown from July does well and can be used as a onwards but you only need to sow vegetable as well as in salad. It will it a couple of times, once indoors stand for a long time in winter and once outside, to get a supply undercover. for months. It is expensive to buy and you often see it in those bags ofof ready-washed salad. Land cress can be sown from spring until September, but will stand Garlic can be planted at most for months from a single sowing times of year but July plantings if picked regularly. It has a similar work well and are ready the following taste and appearance to watercress. July July.. WeWe put single cloves back in the As well as using it in saladsalads,s, make a ground whenever we harvest some mineral-rich soup using a watercress and have it dotted all around the soup recipe. garden, to pull as required. If none Claytonia is another easy winter is ready, the green tops can be cut salad crop, although it does need and used. a bit of cover. If you have a Spring cabbage can be used as a polytunnel, greenhouse or cold cut and come again crop as well for frame it will keep going all winter, full sized cabbages. and will self seed. Slugs do not Carrots (stump-rooted) do well on most soil and will stand in the Left: Field beans plants and seeds. ground for a long time, to pull as needed. Above right: Polytunnel and frames. Celery is easy to grow pretty much anywhere. Sow it after mid July for Right: Harvested blue salad potatoes. winter crops, or it may to go to seed.

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There is no need to earth it up. We provide greens until well past mid- have been sowing a culinary celery summer. If you let a couple go to seed, variety unknown, for several seed, they will self sow and cross with years with great success. It can also each other giving some interesting be sown in September and the small variations. We had a lovely purple plants will overwinter and start sprouting kale this year! growing again in the spring. W Wee usually grow springspring cabbage. Leeks, as most gardeners will It lasts in the ground most of the already know are planted in spring summer and we are still eating and ready in autumn. They will stand spring cabbage, sown last year, as I in the ground all winter and can be write this in August. Most people eaten until the first shallots are ready grow too many cabbages and kale in the spring. They are in many ways plants. 12 cabbages means one more useful to the winter gardener for each month of tthehe year, which than onions, being very hardy and is enough for most of us. Most easy to grow. gardeners grow kale, cabbage and Kale can be sown as usual in purple sprouting broccoli, but may midsummer for a winter crop or inin not get the most from them. YYouou September for a second, later crop. can juice winter greens and also Sow kale and broccoli again under use them in salads; you can freeze cover in early spring for some cut cabbacabbage,ge, kale and leeksleeks chopped up, or frame and then transplanted back and come again tender leaves to add to they are then ready to use. outside when the weather improves. salad. In fact, you can sow it pretty Field beans are like smaller broad Instead of discarding any ‘rogue’ much any time and have plants at beans. They are hardier though and potatoes that come up in the wrong different stages of growth for a year do better over winter. Sow them in place, transplant those too.

weatherweather,round supply., although It will the stand variety most ‘Nero’ youspring lift and the againpotatoes. in mid To Augustsave the after MOVING THINGS INDOORS with elongated, dark leaves is less seed, pick a few mature pods and AT THE END OF THE SEASON hardy than the curly leaved varieties. leave them on a windowsill to dry. When it gets coldcolder,er, dig some plants Jerusalem up and replant them undercover. artichoke tubers Alternatively puputt a cold frame or can be planted some floating mulch over them. Dig from spring to up mint roots and lay them length- mid-summer for wise in a box or seed tray, covering a crop from them with compost or soil. Under- November to cover or indoors on a windowsill, January January.. When they will shoot all along their length. you harvest Partly grown spinach and chard can them, resow a be moved successfully as can lettuces few of the tubers and other salad crops. in a different Experiment and see what works spot for next for you. Who would have thought year. you could transplant potato plants, Beetroot or use the celery seed off the kitchen will overwinter shelf? outside but does better under- Janet Renouf-Miller is a fibre artist; Kale pesto, made from tender cover, so put some in a cold frame. she teaches spinning, dying, crochet young leaves is tasty and freezes It does not like acid soil. and knitting, and runs simple living well. Just use a recipe for basil pesto. Parsley and rocket can be sown workshops. She became interested in Purple sprouting broccoli can be in September under cover. Small gardening as a small child when she sown in June or July and grown over seedlings will stand over the winter had her own little plot, on which she the winter for an early spring crop. and grow on in spring. Slugs like preferred to grow vegetables rather The leaves can be eaten as well as parsley, so use organic slug control than flowers. the heads. Leave the old kale and as needed. http://downshifterdiary.blogspot.com broccoli plants in the ground in Potatoes can be planted in pots in a greenhouse or polytunnel and will R ESOURCES spring and they will continue to be ready in a few weeks. Just keep The Winter Harvest Handbook by Above left: Spring cabbage. back some seed potatoes to sow in Eliot Coleman, price £24.95 available the autumn. Potatoes can also be from www.green-shopping.co.uk Abo Aboveve rigrightht: Purple sprouting broccoli. planted very early in a polytunnel or call us on 01730 823 311.

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THE SITTING ROOMSESSIONS

Brian Boothby sings the benefits of taking live music back home

magine the scene: 20 or 30 of your friends and acquaintances gathered in the intimate and congenial setting of a sitting room, a yurt, or even I a bender. It’s been a cosy evening, with hot chai and home-made flapjacks, wine and fragrant olives. The candles are bright in the lanterns, a palpable sense of community and celebration has developed as three expert musicians weave an acoustic tapestry of songs, tales and music, transporting you to far off places and also to the inner spaces of the mind and heart. Clearly the musicians themselves are also deeply moved, delighted to play every note knowing that your participatory listening has honoured their craft. Such was the scene at our house in Derbyshire in last April. We were celebrating the launch of my first solo album for 15 years, with four such concerts over the span of a weekend.

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R EAL M USIC With few exceptions, mainstream media decrees that music is better if it’s loud, image-driven, marketable and played on the most prestigious stages, and who’s to deny the undoubted thrill of witnessing a brilliant band performing at that level? However, there are so many alternatives to this. For centuries, classical music has thrived and excelled in the pindrop silence of rapt listening; and jazz musicians the world over have refined music to explore those startling intervals and unusual rhythms which demand true listening. For many like myself, seeking an authentic expression of music and song, there is always the homely truth of folk, roots and world music, the non- exclusive shared oral tradition, linking us back to real human experience and the very roots of human sound... Permaculture in art.

M AGIC M ELODY It is not just a question of doing things more simply, nor is it a desire to create new art forms or dismantle preconceptions. It’s simply that despite the undeniable power of playing electric through a massive PA, and despite the inescapable logistics of how a few musicians get to reach as many people as possible, and notwithstanding the infinitely longer time it takes to build a following when only playing to a few dozen people at a time, for me there is just no equal to what happens when people listen with complete attention to a musician in full flight, giving every ounce of their being. Magic happens. This realisation happened for me years ago in a big bender on a

storieswindswept and Beltanesang, knee camp, to kneewhen or we heads gathered on laps, round inner the eyes burner, catching told pictures in the flames. The vast sense of history and the tribal memory flooded through and connected me as never before to my ancestors on this land, all having done exactly this since the dawn of humanity. This later became the driving motivation behind the Music Spaces which developed at the Big Green Gathering and which still continue on the Healing Field at Glastonbury Festival.

SITTING R OOM S ESSIONS Here it is again, surfacing stronger than ever in this latest stage of my own musical journey. Judging by the overwhelmingly positive response from the 74 people who came to our four ‘Sitting Room Sessions’, it is also something that’s crying out to be reinstated in living spaces all over the world. For me it is not just a question of bringing back the sing-song round the old joanna, or giving everyone a chance, though it is that as well. It’s also to do with the way we listen and the way we honour our poets and musicians. By inviting them into our gatherings, sharing what they have to offer and thereby acknowledging their raison d’être and their trade, we reconnect to our own roots and bring more creativity to our communities. Performers aren’t gods for pedestals as the media seems to suggest, just skilled human beings offering a journey and seeking fulfilment. Similarly, you don’t have to wait for Mean Fiddler to arrange it, you too can be promoters

If you would like to experience this, live at a settee near you, email Brian on: [email protected]

To sample video from the sessions, visit: www.myspace.com/brianboothby

For more music and information: www.brianboothby.co.uk

www permaculturel co ukkk No 66 Permaculturlle Magazine ii 53 www.www.permaculturewww.permaculture.co.ukpermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturePermaculturree Magazine 535353

5454 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

Growing Together

Louise Cartwright describes a way of growing your own food on a large scale, as a community

ommunity Supported The relationship between Above:: I set up the scheme, after Agric Agriculturulturee schemesschemes CSAs and their members is Louise completing a Masters degree (CSAs) are radically mutually beneficial because Cartwright in Product Design. I was different to supermarkets the steady income, which is harvesting lucky enough to spend a year and the average veggie box a result of members paying potatoes with studying in Canada, where I scheme because they are upfront means that food can a Kippax CSA met an enterprising young Creliant on a membership base be grown throughout the member family of growers based in of committed individuals seasons. As a result, members and families. Members of are able to see where, how CSAs pay upfront for their and who grows their food. produce and often take CSAs originated in America as part in organised field days a way for small scale farmers and social events to help to compete with the food grow their own food. This giants and CSAs are now commitment means that rising in popularity in Europe. the growers have a reliable income even if there is a glut Short History of of one crop or another crop Kippax CSA

havehas failed. a large The group growers of people also CSA,The story near ofLeeds, how wasKippax set up is Right:: to call on during the busy one of idealism, ‘jumping in The ﬁrst months when everything with both feet’, coupled with potatoes of the needs to be planted. disregard of any ‘nay’ sayers. year going in. www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine 5555

varieties of all of the produce because we believe that it increases resilience and it’s fun to hear the members exclaim “What? You can get purple carrots?!”. We also try to save seed wherever we can and are increasing our knowledge to do this more effectively.

How We Grow W Wee grow all of ouourr food using organic principles, but we aren’t certified yet because we can’t afford the expense.expense. W We e arare ke keeneen for members to have their say about the permaculture design for the site. One of the numerous benefits of having a membership base is the amalgamation of skills and experience which Caledon, Ontario. They had just Above:: skills coupled with his great can be shared and put towards started a CSA, which involved A Kippax CSA practical brain meant that the a design. another unknown word, veggie box. scheme could stay off grid. As well as declining to use ‘permaculture’. This sowed the pesticides, herbicides, and

finishedseed in my my mind, degree and I spent when two I W WeWhate grow We all Grow of the ‘staples’,‘staples’, poweredfertilisers, machinery. we also avoid This petrol- weeks completing a perma- i.e. potatoes, root veg (carrots, means that we have to be very culture design course. After the parsnips), brassicas (cabbages, creative and inventive with our course I spent many months purple sprouting broccoli, weed control. To combat the volunteering in France to under- kale, Brussels sprouts, swede, onslaught of weeds that seem stand the ins and outs of CSAs turnips) legumes (broad beans, to come up overnight we have and similarly permaculture. French beans, peas) spinach, devised a no-dig bed system. On my return to England I Below:: chard, beetroot, squashes and To start a no-dig bed, we get was offered a job as a grower Raised no-dig a variety of salads. We also out all of the noxious weeds in atat Swillington Swillington CSAand a room beds filled with grew more exotic food this an area, and mark out the bed with a friend in Ledston Luck well rotted year including peppers, chillies, using cardboard. We then put village. As it turned out, Led- manure in the aubergines, cucumbers and a thick layer of well-rotted ston Luck was devoid of any polytunnel. melons. We grow different horse manure (at least two shops or amenities and was surrounded by arable farming land. I contacted the local farmer whose land abutted the village and casually asked if he had any land he wouldn’t mind renting out.out. As it happened, the farmer had 0.4 hectare (1 acre) of set-aside which was gathergatheringing dust; thus Kippax CSA was born. There was one small snag with this arrangement however: the site had no access to mains water or electricity. I also quickly discovered that working an acre of land with

willjust ais forkincredibly and a lothard of work.good- To rectify this sticky situation, I commandeered Neal Stanley as a partner. Neal’s joinery 5656 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

Left:: This, coupled with mulching, Members on no dig beds and the pond a well-earned situated on site, will see us break by the through any dry spells. To multifunctional cook food at Kippax CSA and cabin. create energy we use a rocket stove and a bicycle generator (( see boxes).).

Our Permaculture Design Using the polytunnel as an example of how we implement permaculture, we built the Below:: raised beds out of discarded Rainwater pallets to maximise space and harvesting. to reduce cost. We decided to use raised beds to increase yield years old) and straw or hay on and reduce soil compaction. top. We also start no-dig beds Recycled cardboard bike boxes using just cardboard and hay. were used to line the beds, to For these beds, we plant ensure that weeds were supp- straight into the soil instead of ressed and to minimise water the manure layer and add evaporation from the edges. extra mulch in the form of The beds were filled with organic broad beans and sunflowers. well-rotted horse manure from

threeCrops year are rotation: grown usingwe rotate a nitrogena local stable for tothe provide hungry enough plants. legumes, brassicas and potatoes. To make the best use of W Wee groupgroup the oniononion familyfamily withhwit the space and to increase the legumes and root crops field we have devised a water the growing area, the raised with the solanaceae family. harvesting system, which beds were made with a point. Crops such as courgettes, sweet- catches rain water off the This allows easy access with a corn, Swiss chard, spinach and polytunnel and the on site wheelbarrow and means that most salads are planted wher- shipping container, fondly we are using every available ever convenient, as they pose nicknamed ‘the cabin’. We space. The polytunnel has little problem for the rotation. currently have a 3,000 litre multiple functions including W Wee also grow green manures (660 gallons) water capacity. raising delicate plants, dry- such as scarlet clover, crimson cloverclover,, broad beans, phacelia and sunflowers. The broad beans, sunflowers and phacelia Rocket Stove are used as a green mulch. They are put down on the he rocket stove is a modern version of an areas that we want to convert old idea, so called because of the jet flame and roaring sound when fully loaded with to no-dig beds and the clover T fuel. It is basically an insulated chimneychimney.. The is grown as a living mulch in stove used at Kippax CSA comprises a stainless between the brassica beds. steel chimneychimney,, which was cut from a flat sheet with a grindergrinder,, then clamped in a vice and bent Practical Cultivation with wooden blocks and hammer. Techniques To optimise the space in the The chimney is made in two parts and fixed polytunnel we have built a together in strategic positions with stainless steel series of raised no-dig beds bolts to withstand the heat and to reduce warping. The chimney is housed in an old vegetable oil tin which we filled with well from a take away shop which is packed tightly rotted manure. In subsequent with building grade vermiculitevermiculite insulation. Another years we intend to top up the shortened vegetavegetableble oil tin sits on top of the

usebeds a withvariety green of compost manures teasand ‘skirt’chimney which above pots the and other pans tin are to loweredform an downinsulating into. (comfrey and nettle) for the The pans sit on bolts fixed through the skirt to more hungry crops. To water allow air flow from the chimney. the polytunnel and the entire www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine 5757

Left:: can wash up and prepare food Contact Us Planting design hygienically. All of the off-cuts Kippax CSA is currently look- for the whole from the various shelves were ing for more members. If you ﬁeld. used to power the rocket stove, are interested in being part which was used to provide of a sustainable and inclusive meals for members on our first food supply, please contact field days. Louise and Neal on W Wee are constantly experi-experi- Email: [email protected]@gmail.comm menting with different tech- TTel:el: 07870 994 354 niques to decrease labour and or 01011313 262 3981 increase productivity. Kippax W Web:eb: www.kippaxcsa.co.uk CSA is currently at the end of its second year and we fully expect Louise Cartwright is one of the failures as well as successes. head growers of Kippax CSA. W Wee feel that any failuresfailures will She also works part-time for make our system more resilient the Permaculture Association as as we learn from them and the Network Co-ordinator of develop new techniques into the LAND project. The LAND ing clothes, storing wood and the design. A good design is project is a four year project growing heat loving crops. never finished, but constantly funded by the Local Food Another exampexamplele of perma- evolves and develops. The scheme which aims to create culture design is the cabin. The beauty of a CSA is that members a publicly accessible England- cabin is used to store all of our can have an input in the wide permaculture learning tools, equipment, and produce, growing process and the and demonstration network. and is used as a makeshift overall design. This creativity

shelveskitchen. and Neal tables made using a series old of trulyand ingenuity sustainable will food result supply in a Forwww.permaculture.org. mormoree information see: pallets for tool storage, and he which will be resilient to change uk/land or email: network@ even fitted a kitchen sink so we in the uncertain times ahead permaculture.org.uk

Bike Generator

The generator is connected to a 12V leisure battery which powers lights in the cabin which are required for share pickpick up during winter months and also to power an mp3 player for social occasions. The lights are 5 watts (LED’s would be moremore efficient but we already had these) and are powered directly from the batterybattery.. We use an inverter clipped onto the battery for anythinganything requiring usual household electricity and anything with a plug that cannot be converted to 12V. Inverters are inefficient and take lots of power but allow intermittent use of normal household items which generally require cycling during use of the item (as with an mp3).

he lights in the cabin are powered using a bike generatorgenerator.. The bike generator is also Tused for social gatherings to play music. It is definitely a good keep fit piece of equipment because as soon as you stop pedalling the music disappears!

The bike generator at Kippax CSA uses a bike stand with the back wheel of a road bike sitting directly onto a roller connected to a 12V DC

generatorgenerator.attached to. There the bike would stand normally roller butbe ainstead fly-wheel a small aluminium coupling (made as a favour at Leeds University) joins the roller to the generatorgenerator.. 5858 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 5959

DESERT T

Karen Olson tells the story of living

cott and Arina Pittman milk, eggs, greens, vegetables, the wetland is teeming with live in the village of and fruit. To keep their 60 life. So is the Pittmans’ house. S Jacona, just nonorthrth of foot diameter mandala garden Santa Fe. Their home is part of growing, they use a drip- IN THE HOUSE a unique 10 acre co-housing irrigation system and plenty of Along with their 2 year-oldyear-old son situation. Legally, the houses straw mulch. They regularly Sasha, the Pittmans live in a are considered condominiums.condominiums. soak the orchards, lavender hybrid strawbale/adobe structure While the houses araree owned field, and a fenced rotational that took six years to build. individually, residents – who pasture for heirloom poultry Scott Pittman, who also has have agreed to two bylaws with water from a traditional three grown children, says the stating there will be no biocides irrigation canal – called an house is right for the climate. or violence on the property – acequia – that has continuously “It operates just like it is have some shared assets, flowed through the property supposed to: warm in winter, including land. That’s where since 1706. An abandoned cool in summer.” Additional Scott and Arina Pittman have swimming pool has been turned winter heating needs are met their Lots of Life In One Place into a three-season green- through passive solar and a permaculture demonstration house and goat-milking space. Russian masonry oven. farm. “Because of this structure, The property is also home The house is built around a we have way more land and a to a 5 acre wetland restoration courtyard enclosed with a higher quality of life than if project that the residents – and roof, giving the Pittmans a we didn’t pool our assets the goats – like to walk around. climate-controclimate-controlledlled space for together,” says Arina Pittman. Pittman and Bill Mollison Above:: growing bananas, fig trees, “We wouldn’t be able to own designed the wetland using the The arid cherimoyas, and citrus – and this piece of land, to plant chinampa, a Mesoamerican New Mexico giving small birds a place to fruit trees and have goats.” floating garden, as a model. landscape live. The plants in this 600 In a lush oasis surrounded by Austr Australianalian Doug DurroughDurrough andnda surrounding foot green space get water dry scrubland, the farm provides his cousin dug the large ponds the Pittman’s from an underground Watson nearly all of the Pittmans’ meat, and snasnakedked channel.channel. TTodayoday,, property. W Wickick pumice filtration system 6060 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

O O ASIS

permaculture legend, Scott Pittman

that handles all of the home’s Shirley MacLaine’s ranch, says Pittman. “Combining black and gray wastewater. he has enjoyed working on the wisdom of these retired Together, this integrated the restoration of a riparian farmers with the energy and indoor system provides food, watershed. “Over the course good intentions of young humidifies the air, and creates of a few years,” he said, “we beginning farmers could a heat sink that helps modify saw an intermittent stream engender a huge amount of interior temperature. start to run year-round in the goodwill in this community.” When designindesigningg their home, upper reaches of the watershed Pittman and the Permaculture the Pittmans also limited electro- and vegetation return along Institute are currently working magnetic fields, used no toxic with concomitant wildlife.” to develop a program with the materials, and sourced their Pittman was recently asked Oklahoma National Guard to materials locally. “We used all by two different Navajo (Diné) help people in Afghan villages natural materials which gives our groups to create programs, develop more effective agricul- home a wonderful ambience,” one for land restoration and ture and pastoral practices. Pittman says. the other to give youth skills “I have always thought that for right livelihood so they the military could be an CLOSE TO HOME can stay on tribal lands. He incredible force for good if In addition to his own also wants to create a program used to restore environmental property, Pittman has worked in his local community to damage and to provide support on many design projects connect older farmers who to third world people who are and education programs no longer have the energy to trapped in a continuing cycle around New Mexico. At the Above:: farm their land with young of disease and poverty,” says Seeds of Change Farm in El The Pittman’s farmers who can’t afford land Pittman. Guique, he used permaculturepermaculture property 13 and equipment. “There is a design techniques to enhance years after imple- lot of land in my watershed ON THE HORIZON the company’s mission to menting their that is sitting fallow, covered On top of all his work in the provide open-pollinated permaculture in weeds, because the owners physical world, Pittman is seeds to the world. At actress design. can no longer care for it,” working on a book about the www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine 6161

Left:: have found that people are The irrigated incredibly moved in their hearts pasture used for and share that change with sheep, chickens their classmates and with me. and dairy goats “T“Teachingeaching permaculture contains a var- has given me the wonderful iety of health opportunity to be my genuine giving herbs, self with less and less trepid- brambles and ation. This in turn gives my fruit bearing students the opportunity to forage plants open up and be who they for people and are. The whole process is honey bees, as incredibly liberating and, well as all the I believe, the way learning above animals. should happen.”

implicit lessons of perma- course is often referred to as culture. “While the visible and a ‘life changing’ experience, invisible structures of perma- and it is. I believe that we draw culture are what we speak some of the most dedicated about and use as examples in and ethical people in the world classes, there is the unspoken to our growing tribe. It is spirit of permaculture that, passing strange to me that in my mind, is what gives it most people look at perma-

itpower has grown and is allthe over reason the that nique.culture We as aare gardening far more tech- world with no help from the change-orienchange-orientedted than that. dominant culture or One might even go so far as to Right:: governments,” he says. call it culturally revolutionary. Abundance at “The Permaculture Design In every course I have taught I the oasis.

THE SCOTT PITTMAN STORY

Scott Pittman grew up on a ranch in West TTexas,exas, spent four years in the U.S. Air Force in Turkey, and fought for civil rights while in college. He started a construction and woodworking business in Santa Fe, New Mexico, then tried his hand as an organic farmer. He was introduced to permaculture at a short workshop with Bill Mollison in 1985. That encounter inspired him to fly to Nepal to take what was supposed to be one of Mollison’s last courses before retirement. The next year, Pittman started traveling the world with Mollison teaching permaculture.permaculture.

Pittman, who just turned 70, has now taught around 200 Permaculture Design CertificaCertificatete courses, including polyculture design for sustainable, small-scale cacao production in Haiti, energy-efficient housing design in Siberia, community-livingcommunity-living necessities like waste management and community organizing for the Landless Workers’ Movement in Southern Brazil, rainwater harvesting methods in Guatemala, and a course in Ecuador that was attended by well over 100 participantsparticipants representing a cross-section of the ethnic, cultural, and institutional diversitydiversity of the entire country..country

One of Pittman’s gifts to the world of permaculture is his ability to work with differentdifferent communities. “He works with indigenous people, Hollywood stars, local ranchers, government officials and college kids,” says Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden. “I hardly know anyone who is able to bridge those cultures so easily.”

Over the years, Pittman has also constantly been working at home in New Mexico. He is the director of the Permaculture Institute, which he founded with Bill Mollison in 11997997 as the sister organization to the PermacultuPermaculturere Institute of

theAustralia. Institute’s He started website) the andPermaculturPermaculture co-foundede Drylands the Permacu Journal lture (now Credit defunct, Union butwith the Manuel archives Abascal. will soon It’s nowbe availa tetenn bleyears on old and has over $5 million in assets. And he’s designed numerous propeproperties,rties, including his own withwith his wife Arina. Hemenway calls the property “a marvel of permaculture design”. 6262 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

GLOBAL ECOVILLAGE NETWORK NEWS

GEN News In Brief Kogis Visit Ecovillage Permaculture Helps To Change The World Tamera:Tamera: A Model for the During the summer of 2010

Future written by resident Change The World (CTW), a journalist Leila Dregger, Norwegian based NGO, focuses on the current state organised the first Permaculture of work at Tamera in three Design Course north of the core areas: permaculture Arctic circle at Kvaløya, close to and water landscape, solar the city of Tromsø. technology and peace edu- The course was held on cation. See the a advertise-dvertise- Sami territory, an indigenous ment onon page page 64 for details group which traditionally were of how to order from www. very much self sufficient and green-shopping.co.uk living in a close relation with nature. The modernity of DamanhurDamanhurhostedhosted the Global western living has changed this Ecovillage Network Europe relationship a great deal, Members of the first arctic PDC General Assembly and the something that the Sami Ecovillages and Sustainable representatrepresentativesives in the course organising and supporting events, Living Conference, July 2010. A KogKogii IndianIndian PPriestriest would like to reverse. They wish courses and partner organisa- Over 150 participants from to use permaculture as a tool to tions engaged in permaculture, nearly 30 countries and 6 Belgian Ecovillage Kasteel face the various challenges that sustainability and sustainable continents attended. Damanhur Nieuwenhoven was recently globalisation and climate education in Africa, Latin America also participated in the 10th visited by a group of Kogi Indian change bring. It is hoped that and Europe. anniversary Earth Charter Priests from Columbia. The visit they will be able to spread the A few weeks after the Arctic event in June 2010 at the was part of an event organised permacultural way of working PDC, CTW broke further new Peace Palace in the Hague, by the Total Health Foundation with nature in order to strengthen ground on the other side of thethe Netherlands. Read more to launch a new film and their cultural roots. world, with the first Transition about both events at: www. promote support for preserving The participants were awarded Town Trainings in Chile. damanhur.org indigenous ways of life at The a Permaculture Design Certification, A first event was organised Farmers of San José de International Indigenous Peace as recognised by the Nordisk with the National Network of Apartadó, Colombia, have Summit. Permakultur Institut. Municipalities for Sustainability created The Global Campus The Kogis live in the moun- and drew over 30 participants. of Mulatos in the jungle near tains of Columbia and until A second course was held in their village. Focal points are recently avoided contact with Santiago and more than 40 co-operation with nature, civilization, preserving an activists from Chile’s alternative development and application ancient way of life. Their high movement took part. of sustainable technologies, priests, or Mamos, are chosen These are great examples of the building of functioning at birth for a special life attuned how NGOs can contribute to communities, compassion to a deep knowledge and union. Examining coastal ecosystems facilitating new processes towards and reconciliation. View: They see themselves as a sustainable future. They help www.grace-pilgrimage.org humanity’s elder brothers and Change The World is an empower new world changers guardians of the planet and international organisation founded to make real differences in their work towards healing the whole, in Norway by Latin American and own countries. not only their own tribe’s needs. African sustainability activists. Read more about CTW at: SUBMISSIONS The visiting Kogi Mamos Its members are engaged in www.world-changers.org DEADLINE expressed their approval of the for submissions to ecovillage’s activities and held Permaculture Magazine No.67 a healing and cleansing ritual 30 November 2010 with the residents of the castle. To contribute to the A resident said: “In the middle Global Ecovillage Network of all the activity of the event, pages contact: the Kogis shone like an island David Yekutiel of peace and simplicity”. Email: [email protected] Read more about the Kogis at: Web: gen.ecovillage.org www.totalhealthfoundation.org and view all of the latest The publishers reserve the right developments at Kasteel to select, edit or delete material according to the space available Nieuwenhoven’s ecovillage at: www.kasteelnieuwenhoven.be Participants make a circle at Chile’s first Transition Town TTrainingraining www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 6363

Dutch Ecovillage Build Spanish Eco-Housing More Visitors At ZEGG GEN-Africa Emerging

Several Festivals took place this The GEN General AssemblyAssembly summer at the ZEGG community held in July at DDamanhur,amanhur, ItalyItaly,, in Germany. Each had a differentntdiffere recognised the importance of theme, but all had one thing in the growing network of common, more visitors came Ecovillages in Africa by awarding than ever before. its annual excellence award to The season started with the GEN-Senegal for its ground- Whitsun festival, entitled The breaking work with the

Yoga on Valdepiélagos village green participantsEmpathy Experiment, went on a journey where forSenegalese Ecovillages. Government A special Initiative award Seventeen years after its from the country of blaming was also created for South African initiation, the last houses of each other to the island of Khula Dhamma Ecovillage. Valdepiélagos Ecovillage have empathy. 10 days later in the During the GA, African and Laying the foundations at Brabant been purchased and occupied Come Together Song Festival European ecovillage leaders The ﬁrst building of the new by families joining the Eco- more than 350 people joined to met and discussed strategy for Ecodorp Brabant in southern housing project near Madrid. It sing and celebrate community the future of GEN-Africa. Holland, a passive energy eco- now has a total of 30 families through the gift of music. In the Guidelines for the recognition building, is rising near the town with 80 people altogether. ZEGG Summer-camp guests from of indigenous and traditional of Den Bosch. A team of The co-operative endeavours 17 different countries shared villages as ecovillages were volunteers and future ecovillagers to ﬁnd a balance between the aspects of community life. compiled by representatives have been laying foundations individual and the community. View more information at: from India, Thailand, Senegal, and erecting the roundwood The project is self-funding and www.zegg.de Congo, South Africa, Turkey frames for the building which maintains two communal bank and Italy. will be constructed entirely of accounts, one for matters per- In future, Ecovillage Design waste and renewable materials. taining to the houses them- Education (EDE) courses are The current group consists selves, and the other for the planned in English and French of about 250 people who wish communal spaces, the green to take place in South Africa and to establish an ecovillage but zone, the reserreservoirvoir,, the parking SenSenegaegall as well as variouvariouss net- volunteers are welcome! area and the streets. working and fundraising events. Follow their developmendevelopmentt at: For more details see: www. For further details please visit: www.ecodorpbrabant.nl ecoaldeavaldepielagos.org Hundreds having fun at ZEGG www.genafrica.org TAMERA A Model for the Future Leila Dregger

If we want peace on Earth, we have to nd out what

peace really means. The Tamera Peace Research Village, founded in 1995, is developing a convincing model for a future world society.

This inspiring book describes Tamera’s ground-breaking work in permaculture and water landscape, Hardback solar technology and 136pp peace education. UK: £18.95

Order from: www.green-shopping.co.uk or call 01730 823 311 6464 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

A PRODUCTIVITY QUESTION Patrick Whitefield and Simon Fairlie make a persuasive case for livestock as part of permaculture farming in their articles in PM65. A part of © M Lopes / Shutterstock PatrickPatrick’s’s article that resonated with me was his misgivings about planting trees on productive grassland instead of stocking it with ruminants. This is something I did on my holding smart humans always have to a crisis: and the accelerating loss of biodiversity (as described in PM51) and have adapt, adapt... and adapt again. But pour in, the debate intensifies, and slightly regretted ever since, so I’d temporising and ad-hocery is not the only real certainty would seem endorse Patrick’s advice to think likely to take us anywhere we want to be the ultimate demise of our carefully before planting trees! to be. For that we need is a way to consumerconsumer-based-based culture, along with aa One of the problems here is guide, structure and make sense ofof considerable amount of nasty collateral government policy, which is willing the state of things. damage to the environment. The time- to pay us to plant trees but unwilling W Wee need a narrative,narrative, which goes scale of the changes, the degrees of to let us move onto land to look after something like this: we have received severity, and the effects of all this on livestock. But I do wonder if there’s a Call to Adventure, albeit not one living conditions are less certain, and another side to the story. You don’t that we wanted. This call has been make for a heady brew of conjecture, get much food value per acre from thrust upon us by the Earth because tailor-mtailor-madeade to trap the ‘sensitive’ ruminants fed purely on grass (the we have failed to respect it or each into confusing swings of hope and equivalent of about half an allot- other; hence we are now in peril. fear. Naturally we hope for a sea ment’s worth of potatoes, by my This adventure has two possible ends: change in attitudes that will save us, calculations). And, as Ben Law points one is disaster for all; the other is and naturally we fear the inherent out in 65, there will probably be finding our sustainable niche within danger of chaos and anarchy; but if an increasing PM need in the future for the Earth’s system. This quest will be we allow ourselves to be governed by timber, and the closer it is to where a desperate, continuing process these swings of emotions, the picture it’s needed the better. So why not lasting many generations. will become ever less clear, and the experiment with stacked systems? For the adventure to end well, opportunopportunityity for any genuine positive I can imagine various possibilities each generation must now take its action will be lost. – pollards and standards over grass successors into account. In taking Whatever the scascalele of the unfold--unfold for ruminant grazing; cropping each step on the way we must respect ing catastrophe, I suggest that it can leaves for tree hay; pigs or poultry the planet (Earthcare) and each actually be embraced as an oppor- raised extensively under standards. other (Peoplecare). If these things are tunity to bring about fundamental In earlier times there was a tradition not done the quest will end badly, changes in the human condition. The of wood pasture commons in Britain, because it is our failure to do them gradual development from cave man doubtless because ordinary people so far that has left us looking down to computer man has evidently been needed to get multiple outputs from the throat of species extinction. made in response to environmentaenvironmentall the scarce land resource available to But a successful outcome will be a challenges, and it could be that we them. PerhPerhapsaps this is a design lesson new harmony with the Earth and its are due for an update. This is a we can apply today. I’m still prepared other inhabitants, one which can last process, as it ticks on through time, to believe I did the wrong thing in somewhat longer than the industrial- of which we are all a part; and we planting my trees, but I’m planning consumer era. can, if we choose, make a conscious to experiment on a small scale with Permaculture, modified to meet contribution. These days there are some of the systems I mention above. the changes encountered on the many references to ‘lifeboats’ as a I’d be interested in sharing ideas and journey, will give practical expression symbol of preserving meaningful experiences with anyone who has to the framework. In this the perma- essentials, and perhaps we are all similar interests. culturist is rather like the shaman capable of building and piloting our Chris Smaje, Somerset who is summoned to a burdensome own personal lifeboats. healing mission they may not want I agree wholeheartedly with REQUIEM RESPONSES but can’t refuse. PatrickPatrick’s’s belief that ‘our aim must Patrick Whitefield’s review of Brian J FearnleyFearnley,, Suffolk Requiem for a Species ( ( PM65) deserves a few words in response. In his review of Requiem for a SpeciesSpecies,, Patrick concluconcludesdes on the basis that all PM65, Patrick Whitefield posed

remainingwe can do timenow onis to Earth ‘make as ourpleasant oursome ultimate very pertinent aims in questionspractising as to Write us a letter and if we publish it k k we’ll give you a £10.00 voucher to spend c c t t o o r r s s and wholesome as possible’. Palliative permaculture, and as to whether we e e t t u u with the Green Shopping Catalogue. h h S S / / permaculture, we might say. In fact, might need to reassess those aims. e e m m Email: [email protected] o o H H J J we will respond to climate change as As the reports on climate change © © www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 6565

be to make our remaining time on permaculture is a movement uniquely • Get solar panels (any day now!). earth as pleasant and wholesome positioned to explore and to share • Learn canncanninging skills using jam jars as possible’, but I feel the need to the potential for a more naturally – this was a really useful tip. point out that this should not be wholesome and enjoyable lifestyle. • Use urine as a liquid feed in the taken to be a defeatist or an escap- Jim Thomas garden – another great tip. ist attitude. ‘Wholesome’ is the • Keep going because we know operative word, and to explore one’s PROMISING PALLETS there are others like us out there, personal potential for wholesome Having taken inspiration from therefore we are not completely enjoyment through the earthwise John Adams articlearticle inin PM64 about mad! practice of permaculture is to open making an Adirondack chair from Thank you and keep up the good up a perspective that looks beyond a recycled pallet, I made a similar work. the narrow-minded nature of anxiety chair using ‘free’ wood scrounged Janet Renouf-Miller into a world of creative opportunity. from the waste bin of a furniture This is a journey well worth making company. The wood used is a hard- AN OILY SITUATION for its own sake, with any by-product wood similar to teak. I decided to W Wee try to cook anandd eat at home as that might eventually help ‘save the use slatted seat rails and a slatted much as possible as this is the planet’ being of course a happy and back, all edges have been cham- cheapest and most ecological option, useful bonus. fered to improve the appearance but when I make our own tempura As a sustainable movmovement,ement, and lighten the weight. Neverthe- (deep fried veggies or fish in permaculture should be prepared less the chair is heavy but should batter), I end up with a lot of frying to negotiate any future changes in prove incredibly durable. I look oil. I wonder if there is a respon- our cultural structure. As authori- forward to more inspiring articles sible and clever way of disposing ties inevitably exert more control, from John. of it, except for making biodiesel? we would likely face a loss of the Mar Markk BowmaBowman,n, CumbriariaCumb I usually pour it onto the compost freedoms that we have come to take heap, although I am not sure if this is

findfor granted. ourselves Subsequently, adrift in an anarchywe could PMI have INSPIR been ATIOinspiredN by PM for many thatthe right perhaps thing I couldto do. try I also and thought burn it the character of which we cannot years. We have a filing system for the on the bonfire. I have searched the begin to imagine. We simply don’t articles we want to use in the future internet and browsed many books know what will happen. We live in and keep them in poly pockets. about composting, yet none of these a world that values permanency, and Living in a simple suburban new sources told me how to dispose of the illusion of permanency is wear- build bungalow, we grow large used cooking oil. Am I the only ing thin. We clearly need a sense of quantities of fruit and vegetables in a person in the whole world who ends meaning, without which our energies fairly small garden on a hill so steep up with frying oil? Surely not. run low and we become frustrated that our veg plot is the same height Andrea PPaulini,aulini, Oxfordshire and ineffectual. as the roof of the house! Every inch Permaculture, as a fast-evolving of space is used; we have nine LETTER CORRECTION PM65 network of people and shared prac- cordon apple trees along the fence InIn PM65 we printed a letter by tices, achieved through the medium and a four hoop polytunnel. Aman Amandada Hunter,Hunter, entintitletlede ‘d ‘PuttPuttinging of modern communications, is an Here are some of the things PM A PrPriceice On SustaitainablSus nablee ProperPropertyty’.’. exciting movement. It provides a has inspired us to do: HoweverHowever,, during the editing model with which to approach a time • Grow veg all year roundround in Scotland.Scotland. process a word was added, which of upheaval, along with techniques • Make sauerkrautsauerkraut – great recent regrettably impacted on the and systems with which to engage in article on this. content of the lettletter.er. Please note meaningful action. It is something of • Garden creativelycreatively in a hilly place the correction below, with our a great adventure, and – for the time (much of which only had subsoil apologies: being, at least – there exist plenty of left 10 years ago thanks to the I thihinkt I nk we all rearealizlize te thathat mostt mos possibilities to experiment with alter- builder who erected the house). pr propoperertyty foforr sasalele in ththee UKUK isis native methods and ways of life. • Install a wood burningburning stove.ve.sto randomly priced by estate agents Some people are braver than • Grow coppicedcoppiced willow on waste based on what they believe the ‘market’ others, some have more resources, ground behind our garden and use will yield, and that the majority of some are more educated, and some when needed, for fuel and structures. home ownersowners are are paid nowhere near more talented, but anyone who really • TTurnurn our front garden into anan the price that they are asking for the wants to do so can find a way to awesome strawberry bed that property they wish to sell. Perhaps it make meaningful changes in his or yields 1-2kg a day for six weeks is time to look at what a sustainable, her personal life. It takes courage every year (now productive for per permacmacultultureure-in-inspispiredred pripricincingg

patterns,and enthusiasm but there to changeare enough familiar people • Buildeight years).networksnetworks and relationships struct structureTo myure mind, for housingho someusing people shouldshoul dare look planning like? making the choice for it not to be with those around us to swap to make an awful lot of profit from a just a lonely shot in the dark. The produce and obtain waste wood basic human need, and that doesn’t methods are basic and accessible and for our stove. match with permaculture principles. 6666 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

S GM FREEZE CAMPAIGN t a L e r t t e r In one of the greatest modern campaign success GM Freeze is a campaign stories, Britain has remained virtually GM free trying to prevent this

commerciallyfor seven years. in GMthis country,crops have and never there been have grown been commercialisationcommercialisation,new wave of GM trials, by raising and very few field trials of experimental varieties. This awareness among MPs who will have to vote any new was the result of a grassroots campaign that to an legislation on the subject into existence. In the 1990s, unprecedented degree integrated solid political a well-coordinated and well-informed campaign lobbying with direct action. convinced the great majority of MPs of the benefits Most organic growers remember being convinced of keeping Britain GM-free. The campaign worked that GM seed was bad. Yet because of the successes last time because it exercised economic and public in the 1990s, there is now a whole new generation leverage in the fields, and political understanding who may not know the story, or what has emerged among the supermarkets and MPs. A similar approach since. In Canada, organic oil seed rape can no longer would promise success this time round. Which is be grown because of the pollen pollution from where we hope you can help. GM varieties. Seed contamination througthroughh cross- Following the recent election, the Genetic pollination has demonstrated that the coexistence of Engineering Network finds that the political GM and non-GM varieties is simply impossible. understandinunderstandingg of GM among parliamentarians is GM seeds are patented, which has allowed biotech no longer there. According to some estimates, nono companies to sue farmers for theft of intellectual more than ten MPs now even have a basic grasp property rights if their crop accidentally becomes of the issues. MPs rarely respond to emails and contaminated. HundredHundredss of farmers in America meetings proposed by anyone other than their own have lost their farms following legal action by constituents, so this is work that can only be done by biotech companies after accidental contamination many people in their own localities. with GM patented pollen. The patents allow the The GM Freeze aims to close this awareness gap. biotech companies to own all future generations of The campaign, supported by such institutions as seed, effectively privatising fertilityfertility.. This clearly has FriendFriendss of the Earth, the Soil Association and Elm implications for anyone’s seed saving. Farm Research Centre, is looking for people who are GM crops with in-built pesticide were very interesinterestedted in becomingbecoming a GM pen friend to their MP..MP effective in the short term, but soon serious concerns Y Yourour role would be simple and supported.supported. GM FreezeFreeze emerged about the effects the toxins were having on will forward clear, solidly backed research in regularregular predators and other non-target species like butterflies. but not too frequent chunks that you then forward to Many of the pest insects meanwhile have already your pen friend MP. developed resistance to the toxin through natural By engaging with responses, and ideally raising

exposureselection. toThe these long toxins term forhealth secondary implications and tertiary of ensurethe issues that in those person in atpower an MP’s both surgery, understand we can the consumers (e.g. permaculture people and their implications of this technology and its importance to chickens!) is still unknown..unknown their voters. This is a timely intervention that needs In our new British government, pro-GM National people with a solid understanding of the importance FarmFarmersers Union members dominate the Department of land and food, which we, as permaculturists, do have. for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). If you can help, please contactcontact www.gmfreeze.org Heading up this group of intensive agriculture fans is either by emailing [email protected] or phone Caroline Spelman, who believes there is no conflict 0845 217 8992. of interests between her current job as the minister Tomas Remiarz, in charge of GM crop policy and her former role as a London lobbyist for biotechnology. Recently, changes in EU legislation were proposed which would allow GM crops to be fast In each issue our star letter tracked through the approvals process. Up to 16 wins a £5 book credit and a varieties are waiting to be rushed through, many book. This issue, Tomas which carry serious safety concerns. If successful, Remiarz receives a copy of commercialisation of the first GM crops in the UK Roundwood Timber Framing could be as little as two to four years away. by Ben Law. www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 6767

6868 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

and would urge anyone who has an interest in this subject to read the book. I hope it will kick start a new debate about how Reviews we feed ourselves and that meat and dairy might just return to the susustainablestainable position of being an extravagance that is reserved more for special occasions rather than demanded every day for every meal by the majority. Richard Barnett cco-chairso-chairs New ForestForest Transition www.newforesttransition.org

SEPP HOLZER’S PERMACULTURE A Practical Guide For Farms, Orchards & Gardens MEAT animals, and crops are now grown speci- Sepp Holzer A Benign Extravagance fically to be fed to animals to give us food. PermaPermanentnent Publications, 2010 Simon Fairlie It’s a very inefficient process energy-wise 230 x 156mm, 240pp PermanePermanentnt Publications, 2010 resulting in about 10 calories of energy £19.95 230 x 156mm, 336pp being put in to get one back out in the £19.95 form of meat protein. Additionally, the intensification of animal farming reduced livestock to mere commodities that were treated with increasingly horrific methods. I still find it amazing that most people who express concern for animal welfare are prepared to countenance what goes on in order to allow them cheap meat and dairy products. The environmental impact of this development is immense as was summarised in the United Nations report ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow’. Fairlie calls into question I recently had an email asking me if I could the validity of its finding that 18% ofof recommend anyone successfully practising

As a vegan I approached this book rather global CO22 emissions result from animal permaculture on a farm rather than on aa warily on account of its title but as I read processing (you can’t call it farming any domestic scale, or any books about the same. it I abandoned my caution and found more) but the fact remains that it is very Without a moment’s hesitation I directedirectedd myself nodding in agreement at most, harmful and uses an unsustainable level her to Sepp Holzer and to this book. As if not all, of its key points. My veganism of resources quite apart from being far as I kknownow there’s no better example is not borne out of a rigid belief that barbaric. Amazingly the UN report, of farm-scale permaculture anywhere in humans are not meant to eat meat but rather than suggest we all cut down our Europe than his farm, the Krameterhof, rather it stems from a complete abhor- meat consumption, actually suggests a high in the mountains of Austria. rence of the cruelty and inhumanity that growth in the level of intensive farming While the surrounding mountain sides goes on in an effort to satisfy people’s especially in the developing world. are covered in dark monocultures of spruce, enormous carnivorous demands, coupled Given that we have to do something the Krameterhof stands out like a beacon.

willwith speed a growing up our despair process that of suchdevastating activity Fairlieradical aboutlooks theat theway concept meat/dairy of veganismis produced, beds,It’s an ponds, intricate waterways network ofand terraces, tracks, raisedwell the planet we live on. and works it through to its logical covered with fruit trees and other productive I was encouraged to see that the central conclusion. Would it matter, for example, vegetation and with the farmhouse neatly tenet of Simon Fairlie’s new book was that if we no longer had cows and pigs and nestling amongst them. The farm is not ‘we can’t go on like this’! His reasoning sheep? The answer (which I have never just and integrated part of the natural world, is largely the same as mine. In the past, really delved into too deeply up to now) it’s also where Sepp Holzer and his wife the amount of meat and dairy products that is ‘yes’. TTakenaken back to the basic level as VVeronikaeronika make their living. It has taken a were consumed was more or less governed already described, the presence of these great deal of skill and knowledge to achieve by the resources available. The number animals is an important aspect of our this, and these things don’t come easilyeasily.. of pigs in a community would depend ecosystem and they can exist without Right from his childhood, when his mother pretty much on the amount of waste food placing undue strain on energy demands gave him a small plot for his first garden, and crops available. Pigs are great food as well as being treated with respect and he has observed, questioned and experi- recyclers. The number of other animals high standards of animal welfare. mented. After a lifetime of permaculture would be restricted to the availability of This book is an immense academic farming he knows the natural world like land after staple crops such as wheat and work and Simon is to be heartily congrat- few other people do today. vegetables had been catered for. ulated for his attention to detail and his This book is a treasure trove of his But then came a change: Population knowledge. He presents the argument for knowledge and skill with full of colour growth, wealth and subsequent demand reducing meat/dairy demand in a new photographs and diagrams on every page. for animal food products outstripped the way that has really given me cause toto It contains plenty of detailed information, supply and broke the ‘permaculture’ type think long and hard. I am not about to such as extensive lists of fruit varieties he equilibrium. The result was that extra start eating animal products again, but I recommends for permaculture, and details resources had to be put into rearing can only concur with his overall thesis of how he manages water and microclimates www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 6969

Reviews

on this steep and chilly mountain farm. vested on or near the building site. The advantages: a roundwood pole cut A word of warning here: what works for entire structure, or skeleton, of the building straight from the forest is considerably him on his Austrian mountain will not is built with wood that has not been to a stronger in its natural form than an necessarily work for you on your own land. sawmill; nor has it been transported a equivalent sized beam of sawn timber, Here in Britain, for example, we have a great distance. Not unrelated to all this is but without the embodied energy from cloudy maritime climate, in strong contrast the fact that these buildings look good milling; small-diameter poles often not to Austria’s continental climate. WWee lack from the outside and feel good to be valued in commercial forestry are often the sunshine which is such a key element in within. The aesthetics of natural building. ideal, as is the use of coppice timber; and the way he creates favourable microclimates. Full disclosure: I wrote the Foreword roundwood poles retain the form and This is not to negate the value of the to this book, so I’m already a fan. But character of the original tree, creating an book for people who live outside Austria. when I saw the actual book, as opposed aesthetic both elegant and rustic. – far from it. Much of the detailed inform- to the electronic files I’d viewed before- The DVD shows Ben to be not only a ation is highly relevant in any temperate hand, I was surprised at how beautifully skilled woodsman and builder – the link countrycountry.. But even more valuable than thethe it all came out. The photography is great, between the management of the woods information the book contains are the atti- the color is good, and the book takes you and the construction of the building is tudes it teaches. Its message is not ‘this is step-by-step through planting and tend- emphasised throughout – but also a very how you do it’ but ‘this is the way you think ing trees; the tools needed; the joining clear and methodical communicatorcommunicator.. The about how to do it.’ Sepp Holzer’s way is methods for this type of construction; as whole process is enthralling, as Ben takes the way of the future. In the fossil fuel age well as floor, wall, and roof techniques. us through the build from foundations, we’ve been able to impose our will on the In the last part of the book are photos frame-raising, shingling the roof and mixing land by throwing cheap energy at every of the sequential construction of seven cob and clay plasters for the fireplace, problem. In the future that option won’t different round pole buildings. The hor- and I had a sense of being involved in the be open to us any more. We’ll have to tread ticultural barn at PestalozPestalozzizi International whole project myself. Along the way Ben the more subtle path, the path which Village is a beauty. introduces us to some of his team, and patiently observes nature and seeks to Not everyone can build like this. local characters he has worked with such imitate it. That future may not be as farfar Y Youou need to be where treetreess grow,grow, and as Peter Hindle of Ashencrafts who off as we think. have some land. But for those who do, helped develop rounding planes for P Patrickatrick WhitefWhitefieldield is a permacultupermaculturere auauthorthor this book lays out the path for a more making the oak pegs used to fix the poles and teachteacherer.. www.patrickwww.patrick-whitefield-whitefield.co.uk.co.uk sustainable method of construction, for togethertogether.. I had at first thought they were learning a trade, for using one’s own made on a pole lathe, but Peter had a still ROUNDWOOD TIMBER FRAMING hands and local resources to create a more ingenious solution for the challenge Building Naturally From Local Materials good-feeling, nice-looking sheltershelter.. of making the 300-400 pegs required for Ben Law Lloyd Kahn is the authauthoror of Shelter , , such a building: a lathe for turning the PermPermanentanent Publications, 2010 Homework & & Builders of the Pacific wood in the rounding planes fitted to a 252 x 226mm, 168pp Coast. www.shelterpub.com Robin Reliant gear-box. £19.95 In the DVD we also pay several visits toto ROUND TIMBER FRAMING DVD woods from where the materials originate. Building Naturally From Local Materials Ben explains his philosophy of architecture Permanent Publications/Undercurrents, 2010 emerging out of the woods themselves, 80 mins, PAL Region 2 proposing that an architect might work £19.95 more with the woodsman to design around what is available, the natural forms of thethe trees defining the form of the buildings. Although natural curves can be utilised, for example the use of curved trees to

W Woodlandmakeoodland cruck-framed ClassroomClassroom buildings, featfeaturedured in in thethethe DVD whole Lawson Cypress trees are steam-bent in order to make the sweeping If I’d had Ben Law’s book Roundwood curves around the roof. Timber Framing when I was learning to The use of Lawson Cypress is a fasci- build in the ’60s, I’d have been inspired nating detail, a durable and strong timber to plant and tend trees suitable for house more commonly infamous as a hedging framing and several buildings could have plant prone to becoming hopelessly over- been framed by now as a result. That’s This stunning video, which accompanies grown in suburban gardens. Ben also shows just one of the unique features about this the book, Roundwood TTimberimber FrFraming aming ,, us around hazel and chestnut coppice, beautiful new book: a step-by-step process takes the viewer stage by stage through and discusses anotheranother,, lesser-known tree, for creating your own building materials. the construction process of the Woodland Robinia pseudoacacia, the black locust, Another unusual feature here is use of a Classroom at the Sustainability Centre, which may become more widely found in modified cruck frame in all the buildings Hampshire. Ben Law is probably best British forests in the future. shown here. This construction method known for his first roundwood building, Many details of construction are shown, consists of two or more ‘A-fram‘A-frames’,es’, and his own house which featured in the including the mortice boxes for making was used in medieval times for houses, Grand Designs series a few years ago. supports, use of ratchet straps for holding barns, and halls. Ben has adapted it Since then he has built several roundwood the beams in place while fixing, laths and structurally to triangulate and therefore timber framed buildings, refining his tech- clay plasters for the wall, and much more. brace rectilinear buildings. niques and developing a new vernacular The shingles are handmade by a local The posts, beams and crucks of these in sustainable low impact construction. craftsman from western red cedar. Extra buildings are round poles, usually har- Using timber in the round has several features are included on tools, the off- 7070 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

Reviews

grid WWoodlandoodland House, frame-raising and botanical information, their political relates this to lamps and appliances, covers Ben’s slideshow. history and their medicinal traditions wiring and fittings, planning an off-grid Roundwood timber framing is clearly worldwide. The medicinal actions of the system, the installation process, and the a skilled job, and building a structure like plants and the reasons why the treat- management, maintenance and servicing the Woodland Classroom involves a whole ments work, are covered clearly with an of your system. There are also chapters team and indeed support from the wider easy to follow scientific base. on designing large off-grid systems and communitycommunity.. Many of the tasks such as This is the best book I’ve seen on this solar energy resources. Only the most use of shaving horse and draw-knife, or subject and I just want to buy it for everyone basic grasp of physics is necessary to stripping bark from the poles where they are I know! It encourages and inspires us to understand this book because it is clearly cut in the forest, are immediately accessible join in, to become part of this rich heritage written by a hands-on practitioner. and could provide inspiration to learn and to experiment with developing our Solar Domestic Water gives a complete more to anyone. The DVD has something own medicines and recipes. It empowers overview of the subject, describes various for everyone. It works as a top rate instruc- us to realise that we don’t need to go out systems for hot and cold climates and tion video, a documentary describing the and buy expensive alternative medicines, explains how they work. Then it describes creation of a marvellous community we can make them ourselves from ingred- various collectors on the market and offers building, and a celebration and resurrection ients we have in our kitchens. This book a little on self-build collectors (I would have of the connection between trees, woods, is a great resource, an inspiration, a thing liked more). The rest of the book tackles buildings and community.community. Visually delect- of great beauty and healing. Everyone testing efficiency, choosing the right system, able throughout, anyone who loves trees should have a copy in their kitchens! and adding additional components like and natural building, and who is looking Glennie Kindred is the author of numerous piping, tanks and circulation pumps. for a new vision for the building industry,,industry books, including Hedgerow Medicine. There is also a section on heat exchangers will love this DVD. and non-solar back up systems. The book Graham Strouts, is a teacher of perma- STAND-ALONE SOLAR ELECTRIC finishes with designing a system, sizing culture and Natural Building at Kinsale SYSTEMS and installing it and includes case studies College of Further Education www.zone5.org Mark Hankins from the UK, USA and Australia. If you Earthscan, 2010 are going to spend thousands of pounds, KITCHEN MEDICINE 260 x 195, 234pp, Hardback euros or dollars on a system, read this Household Remedies For Common £34.99 book. It will give you a thorough grounding Ailments & Domestic Emergencies in the subject and prompt you to ask the Julie Bruton-Seal & Mathew Seal SUSTAINABLE HOME right questions of your installer. Merlin Unwin Books, 2010 REFURBISHMENT Last on the list is Sustainable Home 248 x 192, 224pp, Hardback David Thorpe Refurbis Refurbishmenthment. At last, a sensible book on £16.99 Earthscan, 2010 eco-renovation that is full of useful facts. 260 x 195, 174pp, Hardback Dave tells us to draught-proof, insulate, £34.99 double or triple glaze, eliminate thermal bridges, install passive stack or mechanical SOLAR DOMESTIC ventilation first and lastly supply renewable WATER HEATING energyenergy.. Then he tells us how to do it. HeHe Chris Laughton explores products and materials, analyses Earthscan, 2010 their performance, offers strategies, and 260 x 195, 246pp, Hardback explains terminologyterminology.. There are chapters £34.99 on passive solar houses, windows and natural lighting, cooling and heating, water management, electricity efficiency (and PVs), even recommending old

Kit Kitchechenn MediedicincineeM is a wonderful rich harvest fashionedThis series drying is pitched racks. at just the right of medicinal remedies made from ingred- level for non-specialists – detailed, well ients found in our kitchens – and a treasure illustrated, full of information yet readable. trove of interesting stories, history, quotes, Y Youou can buy similar books cheaper but medicinal facts and recipes – with a cosmo- you won’t get the level of detail or the politan feel. It is beautifully presented clarity of explanation and illustrations. and every page has sumptuous photos Maddy Harland taken by Julie herself. But this is no coffee table book. It is packed full with sound medicinal understanding and Retrofitting a home or installing renewable recipes we can all make using simple technology is neither simple or cheap. I have All reviewed book and dvd ingredients found in our kitchens. therefore been waiting for detailed, access- titles are available to I really like the way it is laid out. ible books on these subjects for years. purchase from The Green Despite every page being crammed with Earthscan bill these volumes as expert Shopping Catalogue unless information, it is easy to follow and a handbooks and they do not disappoint. alternative contact details, delight to use, and it has a good ‘quick They will also save you from making costly or an ISBN, is given at the reference by ailment’ section at the back. mistakes and are well worth the cover price. The book includes familiar spices, fruit, The Solar Electric guide gives an over- beginning of each review. vegetables, drinks, condiments and many view of the subject, explains how solar www.green-shopping.co.uk other things found in our kitchens. It trans- electrical systems work, then describes the ports us into a deeper and richer relation- differing cell modules, batteries, inverters, 01730 823 311 ship with them by providing us with their controllers and how to manage load. It then www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 7171

CORNWALL FRANCE NEW ZEALAND WORLDWIDE Venue Venue:: Keveral FarmarmF Venue: Permaculture Permaculture Eden Venue: TTakaka,akaka, NewNew Zealand Venue: Worldwide Worldwide Dates: 15 - 31 July 2011 Dates: 11 - 26 June 2011 Dates: Various 2011 Dates: Various 2011 Led by: Bryn Thomas, 2 - 17 July 2011 Led by: Brian J WestoWeston,n, BSc. Ag., PDC Led by: Online Klaudia van Gool, Bill Knight Led by: Steve & Fiona Hanson Email: [email protected] Web: www.Pe.Permarmacultu www cultureVisreVisionsions.com.com Phone: 01579 346 487487 Phone: +33 254 064 523523 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] NIGERIA YORKSHIRE Venue: PermaPermacultureculture Design Course Venue: Shefﬁeld DEVON GLOUCESTERSHIRE Dates: NovembeNovemberr - December 2010 Dates: 12 - 13 December 2010 Venue Venue:: Monkton Monkton Wyld CourCourt, BridpridportortBt, Venue: Ragmans Lane FarmrmFa Led by: John Button, JJanan FFischerischer Led by: Suzi High, Joe Atkinson DatesDates:: 22 January - 6 February 2011 Dates: 12 - 25 June 2011 Phone: +49 3 089 208 488488 Phone: 0777 62537 743743 Led by: Designed Visions Led by: Patrick & Cathy Whiteﬁeld Email: bueroberlin@permakultur- Email: [email protected] Phone: 01271 817 509509 Phone: 01485 832 317317 akademie.net Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] YORKSHIRE NORFOLK Venue: University of Bradford DEVON HAMPSHIRE Venue: Little EllinghaEllinghamm Dates: Spring 2011 Venue Venue:: Coombe FarmFarm & WWoodlandsoodlands Venue: SustainabilitSustainabilityy Centre, East Meon Dates: 6 - 18 June 2011 Led by: Andy Goldring, Suzi High, Trust, Tiverton Dates: TBA 2011 Led by: Richard Perkins, Dr Ute Kelly, Ros Coulton Dates: 11 - 20 March 2011 Phone: 01730 823 166166 Richard Farnborough Phone: 01274 233 210210 Led by: Designed Visions Email: [email protected] Phone: 07539 973 170170 Email: [email protected] Phone: 01271 817 509509 Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected] Venue:IRELANDKinsale Further Education College NORTHUMBERLAND Venue: YORKSHIRE Hollybush ConservationConservation DEVON Dates: Annual course Venue: The BurBurnlawnlaw Centre,Centre, Hexham Centre, Leeds Venue Venue:: High HeathercombeHeathercombe CenCentre,tre, Led by: Graham Strouts Dates: November 2010 - March 2011 Dates: 26 February - 3 July 2011 Newton Abbot Phone: + 353 214 772 275275 Led by: Wilf Richards 23 July - 7 August 2011 Dates: 6 - 21 November 2010 Email: [email protected] Phone: 01434 345 359359 Led by: Andy Goldring, Niels Corfield, 2 - 16 April 2011 Web: www.bwww.burnlawurnlaw.org.uk.org.uk Joanna Dornan, Led by: Designed Visions IRELAND Joe Atkinson Phone: 01271 817 509509 Venue: CELT, CELT, East Clare,Clare, Co.Clare PEMBROKESHIRE Phone: 01132 047 726726 Email: [email protected] Dates: Various Venue: The LamLammasmas ProjecttProjec Email: [email protected] Led by: Various Dates: 11 - 24 April 2011 DORSET Phone: +353 61 640 765765 Led by: Jasmine Dale, Jodie TTellamellam YORKSHIRE Venue Venue:: Monkton Monkton Wyld CourCourt,t, Email: [email protected] Phone: 07990 684 040040 Venue: Pottery Lane StrensallStrensall Charmouth, Bridport Email: [email protected] Dates: 17 - 29 April 2011 DatesDates:: December 2010 - March 2011 KENT 1 - 13 August 2011 Led by: Designed Visions Venue: RiflRiflemaemansns CotCottagtage,e, FavFaversershamham PORTUGAL Led by: Richard Perkins, Phone: 01271 817 509509 Dates: 17 June - 2 July 2011 Venue: Varzea da Goncala Sam Trousdale Email: [email protected] Led by: Designed Visions Date: 9 - 27 March 2011 Phone: 07539 973 170170 Phone: 01271 817 509509 Led by: Lesley Martin Email: [email protected] DORSET Email: [email protected] Phone: +351 282 995 060060 Venue Venue:: Ourganics EvolvingEvolving Systems,,Systems Email: [email protected] Dorchester KENYA Dates: Weekends Venue: Nyumbani VillageVillage and SCOTLAND Led by: Designed Visions Badilisha Ecovillage Venue: Kilmartin House Museum, Argyll PERMACULTURE TEACHERS! Phone: 01271 817 509509 Dates: 6 - 19 December 2010 Date: Various weekends 2010 Did you know we offer each of Email: [email protected] 4 - 18 March 2011 Led by: Angus Soutar your new permaculture students: Led by: WarrWarrenen Bush & loclocalal teateacherschers Phone: 01546 510 278278 A A FREE recent back issue of PMPM,, EAST SUSSEX Phone: +1 8058 867 239239 Email: [email protected] 25% OFF all books published Venue Venue:: Brighton Brighton & SussexSussex ccountryountrysideside Email: [email protected] by Permanent Publications and Dates: February - May 2011 SOMERSET 10% OFF other books, DVDs, Led by: Alex Penn,Penn, Bryn Thomas, LANCASHIRE Venue: Frome & ccountrysideountryside tools and products from Jen Beaufoy, Daniel Holloway, Venue: Variousus Vario Dates: January - June 2011, weekends Kate Hamilton, Pippa Johns Dates: Various weekends Led by: Stephen Pritchard, www.green-shopping.co.uk Phone: 07746 185 927927 Led by: Angus Soutar Gladys Paulus, Chris Smaje Contact Tony on 01730 823 311 Web: wwwwww.b.bririghghtotonpnperermamacucultlturure.e.coco.u.ukk Phone: 01254 771 555555 Phone: 01373 467 884884 oror [email protected] Email: http://westpenninepermaculture. Email: [email protected] ESSEX org.uk/events Venue Venue:: The Apricot Centre,Centre, LaLawfordwford Dates: October 2010 - June 2011 LONDON Led by: Hannah Thorogood, Venue: Variousus Vario COURSE LISTINGS Marina O’Connell Dates: Various 2010/2011 Please present all course listings with exact details as shown Phone: 01206 230 425425 Led by: Graham Burnett in listings above at least 3 months in advance of the course date. Web: www.apricotcentre.co www.apricotcentre.co.uk.uk Email: [email protected] PermacultPermacultureure Intro/Design Courses are listed FREE.. To cover administration costs Special Courses listings cost £10 per entry.. LONDON Courses compiled with the assistance of Venue: Waterside Waterside Centre,,Centre Courses are also listed on our website for approx. 3 months from publication at: the Permaculture Association (Britain) Tottenham Marshes www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk Tel: 0845 458 1805 Dates: Various 2010 UK: 0845 458 4150, Overseas: +44 1730 823 311, Emaill:: [email protected] Tel: 0113 262 1718 Led by: Various Advertising yyourour courses means that online subscribsubscribersers can view your listings via: Phone: 020 7272 1950 Web: www.permaculture.org.uk www.exacteditions.com/exact/magazine/409/460 Email: [email protected] 7272 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

INTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE SPECIAL COURSES

AUSTRALIA SCOTLAND AQUACUL AQUACULTURETURE DESIGN INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABLE Venue: PePermarmacultcultureure PaPathwthwaysays, Eu, Eudlodlo Venue: Kilmartin House Museum, Argyll Venue: VosgeVosges,s, N.E. FFrancerance LIVING Dates: Various 2011 Date: 30 - 31 October 2010 Dates: Various 2011 Venue: Varzea da Goncala Led Led by: Sonya Wallace & guests Led by: Ed TTyler,yler, David Blair Led by: Laurence, HutchinsononHutchins Date: Various 2010/2011 Phone: +61 754 573 961961 Phone: 01546 510 278278 Phone: +33 (0)565 421 610610 Led by: Christine Christine Lewis Email: permaculturepathways@ Email: ecologicalfi[email protected] Phone: +351 282 995 060060 yahoo.com.au SCOTLAND Email: [email protected] Venue: Kilmartin House Museum, Argyll BEN LAW AVON Date: 27 - 28 November 2010 Venue: Ben’s wwoodland,oodland, WestWest Sussex MORE THAN HATHA Venue: WinWindmidmill HillHll ill CitCity FarmFy arm, BrististololBr, Led by: Jane Wilding, Angus Soutar Dates: Various 2011/2012 Venue: Gers, SW FranceFrance Dates: Various 2011 Phone: 01546 510 278278 Led by: Ben LawLaw Dates: Various Led Led by: Ruth O’Brien Phone: 01730 823 311311 Led by: Danuta Karpinska Phone: 07949 294 364364 SCOTLAND Email: [email protected] Web: www.radhacaudet.co www.radhacaudet.comm Email: [email protected] Venue: Kilmartin House Museum, Argyll Date: 29 - 30 January 2011 BUILDING SUSTAINABLE MUSHROOM CULTIVACULTIVATIONTION BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Led by: Lusi Aderslowe, Angus Soutar COMMUNITIES Venue: Brighton Brighton & SSussexussex ccountryountrysideside Venue: LILI, RedfieRedfieldld CommunitCommunity y Phone: 01546 510 278278 Venue: BrightoBrightonn & SuSussexssex cocountrysuntrysideide Dates: 7 - 8 May 2011 Dates: Various 2011 Email: [email protected] Dates: Various 2011 Led by: Brighton PermaculturPermaculturee Trust Led Led by: Bryn Thomas Led by: Brighton PermacultuPermaculturere Trust Phone: 07746 185 927927 Phone: 01296 714 184184 SOMERSET Phone: 07746 185 927927 Web: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk Email: [email protected] Venue: Frome Web: www.brightonpermaculture.co.uk Dates: 13 November 2010 OCN SUSTAINABLE WOODLAND DEVON Led by: Gladys Paulus, Debbie Powell COMMUNITY ORCHARD TRAINING MANAGEMENT Venue: TTrillrill Farm, AxminsterAxminster Phone: 01373 467 884884 Venue: Stanmer PPark,ark, Brighton Venue: Sustainability Centre, East Meon Dates: 19 - 21 November 2010 Email: [email protected] Dates: 24 & 29 May 2011 Dates: Rescheduled, early in 2011 Led Led by: George Sobol Led by: Brighton PermacultuPermaculturere Trust Led by: Ben LawLaw Phone: 01297 631 113113 SOMERSET Phone: 07746 18 59 2727 Phone: 01730 823 166166 Email: [email protected] Permaculture In 5 Days Email: [email protected] Venue: Maiden CroftCroft Farm CRAFTS, CONSERVATION & DORSET Dates: 22 - 26 July 2011 SUSTAINABLE LIVING PERMACULTURE AT YOUR PLACE Venue: Dorset CenCentretre for Rural Skills Led by: Patrick & Cathy Whitefield Venue: Denmark FFarm,arm, CeredCeredigionigion Venue: YYourour Place Dates: 8 - 9 January 2011 Phone: 01485 832 317317 Dates: Various 2010-2011 Dates: Whenever Led Led by: Designed Visions Email: [email protected] Phone: 01570 493 358358 Led by: Sustainable Sustainable Designs Phone: 01747 811 099099 Web: wwwwww.sha.shared-red-eartearth-trh-trust.oust.org.rg.ukuk Phone: 08454 582 638638 Email: [email protected] USA Email: [email protected] Venue: Several locations,locations, Mid WWestest EARTHED - COB BUILDING DORSET Dates: Various 2011 Venue: Various PERMACULTURE EDUCATORS Venue: Kingcombe Environmental Centre Led by: Mark Shepard, Wayne Weiseman Led by: Annabel Fawcus, Venue: Friland, DenmarkDenmark Dates: 4 - 6 March 2011 Phone: +1 8152 562 214214 Alan Cameron-Duff Dates: 22 - 29 October 2010 Led Led by: Designed Visions Email: [email protected] Phone: 07917 361 580580 Led by: Andy Goldring Phone: 01300 320 684684 Email: [email protected] Phone: +45 86 680 505505 Email: offi[email protected] WALES Email: [email protected] Venue: Nr CardigannCardiga EARTHSHIP BRIGHTON TOURS EAST SUSSEX Dates: 28 - 30 January 2011 Venue: Stanmer HoHouse,use, Brighton PRACTICAL COPPICING Venue: BrightBrightonon & SSussexussex countrycountrysideside Led by: Angie Polkey Dates: 1 & 3 S3 Sundayunday of eacheof ach month Venue: Sustainability Centre, East Meon Dates: Various 2011 Phone: 01974 831 300300 Led by: Low Carbon Network Dates: 23 - 24 October 2010 Led Led by: Pippa Johns, Jen Coglin Email: angand@permaculture. Phone: 07974 122 770770 Led by: Darren Hammerton Phone: 07746 185 927927 freeserve.co.uk Email: [email protected] Phone: 01730 823 166166 Web: www.brightonpermaculture.co.uk Email: [email protected] WALES ECO OPEN HOUSES FRANCE Venue: Centre for Alternative Technology Venue: Brighton & HoHove,ve, East SusseSussexx PRUNING OLD FRUIT TREES Venue: La BBranderande WoWoodlandodland, PoitiersP, oitiers Dates: 4 - 6 March 2011 Dates: Various 2011 Venue: Stanmer Park,Park, BrightoBrightonn Dates: Various 2011 Led by: Angie Polkey Led by: Brighton PermacultuPermaculturere Trust DatesDates:: 15 - 16 January 2011 Phone: 02076 106 452452 Phone: 01974 831 300300 Phone: 07746 185 927927 18 - 19 January 2011

Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] FESTIVE WILLOW CRAFT Phone:Led by: 07746Bryn Thomas 185 927927 KENT Venue: Sustainability Centre, East Meon Web: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk Venue: Near CantCanterbury erbury WEST SUSSEX Dates: 5 December 2010 Dates: Last Thursday monthly Venue: Cowdray Chapel,Chapel, Midhurst Led by: Ganesh RURAL CRAFTS Led Led by: Jo Barker, John Rudgard Dates: 14 - 15 May 2011 Phone: 01730 823 166166 Venue: NrNr.. Montignac, Dordogne, Phone: 01227 832 569569 Led by: Designed Visions Email: [email protected] France Email: [email protected] Phone: 01271 817 509509 Dates: 2011 monthly Email: [email protected] GARDENING & COOKING FOR Led by: Diane Hammill LONDON LIFE & A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Phone: 07814 313 161161 Venue: Cecil Sharp House, NW1 WEST YORKSHIRE Venue: Primrose EEartharth Centre Email: [email protected] Dates: 13 - 14 November 2011 Venue: Horton Horton VillageVillage Hall,Hall, BradfordBradford Dates: April and October 2011 Led Led by: London Permaculture Network Dates: 6 - 20 November 2010 Led by: Paul & Jan Benham SUSTAINABLE LAND USE Phone: 07776 184 666666 Led by: Suzi High Phone: 01497 847636 Venue: Ragmans LaneLane Farm, Email: [email protected] Phone: 07776 253 743743 Email: [email protected] Gloucestershire Email: [email protected] Dates: 24 January - 4 March 2011 PEMBROKESHIRE GREEN WOODWORK & Led by: Patrick Whiteﬁeld, Venue: The LamLammasmas ProjecttProjec WEST YORKSHIRE CHAIRMAKING Joe Newton, Mike Gardner, Dates: 3 - 6 December 2010 Venue: Hollybush Centre,Centre, LeedsdsLee Venue: Brookhouse Wood, Herefordshire Sarah Pugh Led Led by: Jasmine Dale, Jodie TellamTellam Dates: 29 - 30 January 2011 Dates: Various Phone: 01594 860 244244 Phone: 07990 684 040040 Led by: Suzi High Led by: Mike Abbott Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Phone: 07776 253 743743 Phone: 01531 640 005005 Web: www.liviwww.living-wood.cng-wood.co.uko.uk WILLOW DOME CONSTRUCTION PORTUGAL WEST YORKSHIRE Venue: Brattleby HouseHouse Farm, Venue: VarzeVarzeaa da Goncala,Goncala, Algarve Venue: HullHull HURDLE MAKING Lincoln Dates: Various 2011 Dates: 26 - 27 February 2011 Venue: Sustainability Centre, East Meon Dates: 20 November 2010 Led Led by: Christine Lewis Led by: Suzi High Dates: 20 - 21 November 2010 Led by: Jason Hadley Phone: +351 282 995 060060 Phone: 07776 253 743743 Led by: Darren Hammerton Phone: 07969 533 504504 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Phone: 01730 823 166166 Email: [email protected] www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 7373

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Sustainability in Action 7474 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

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GENERAL cont... GENERAL cont... PERSONAL

OFF-GRID B&B – as far as we know, the only one DUNCAN, YOUNG 54, calm, jovial, very FRUIT TREES. Quality fruit trees – in England. SmallholdSmallholding,ing, workshops, vegetarian practical & realistic, self-reliant bloke, into veg apples, plums, pears, cherries, etc. food, en suite rooms, local craftsman made and soft fruit growing, coppice, chickens and a delivered direct to you from the growers furniture, organic bedding, incredible wildlife. cat, has 1.75 acres near Inverness. WLTM busy, – Walcot Organic Nursery. Sustainably Children welcome. North Pennines AONB. fun, tolerant lady to share the future. Apparently grown, competitively priced & Soil 01388 537 292. Web: www.slackhousefarm.com attractive, fair, slim and 1.75m. Please phone Association certified. AvaAvailableilable bare- 01667 453 501 or email duncanstuart2020@ rooted when dormant. Detailed catalogue SEASIDE HOLIDAY HOUSE. Superb for family btinternet.com available. Phone 01905 841 587 or online holidays and romantic hideaway breaks, 1 at www.walcotnursery.co.uk minute’s walk from sea. Cosy Victorian house EARTH WISE SINGLES. Find friendship and in Seaview, Isle of Wight, sleeps 5. Next to romance with people who practice Earthcare, wetland wildfowl reserve on one side and Peoplecare and Fairshare. Free to post your WEBSITES, ONLINONLINEE SHOPS, INTRINTRANETSANETS – wooded estate on the other. Sizeable games profile. Free to send messages. We make it easy £250 inclusive of design, setup, personal tuition room/kid’s zone at end of garden. Accessible by for you to connect! wwwwww.EWSingles.com.EWSingles.com and hosting. Established 2003, with dozens of public transport. Bike hire available. Contact: satisfied customers, we specialise in easy amend- tim@[email protected] forfor PM readers’ off- PROPERTY & LAND it-yourself websites for permaculture projects, season discounts. WWeb:eb: wwwwww.oaksatseaview.oaksatseaview.info.info charities, green businesses, craftspeople etc. TTel:el: BARGAIN HOUSE FOR SALE. Spacious 07729 103 263. Email: peter@ethicalinternet. THE ECOLODGE – a simpler way to relax. Set ecohouse in alternative hamlet in Southern co.uk Web: www.ethicalinternet.co.uk alone in woods & meadows, near Lincolnshire Spain. Ideal place for small permaculture coast and wolds. Sleeps 4. Short Breaks £180. communitycommunity.. One acre orange and olive orchard HOLIDAYS One week £360 Discounts for returners, train with veggie garden and water rights. Includes and bike travellers. Contact Geri Clarke 01205 smaller self contained annexe with own garden BEAUTIFUL, RUGGED PEMBROKESHIRE. 870 062/871 396. Web: www.ecolodge.me.uk now only £125,00. For more information see Two eco-friendly converted barns on small- www.cathylotus.co.uk holding. Each sleeps 4. Coastal path 2 miles. Tel: WES WEST CT CORNORNWWALLALL – B– BEAEAUTIUTIFUFULLLLY RY RESTESTOREOREDD 01348 891 286. Email: holdays@stonescottages. GRANITE BARN near Lands End. Peaceful BLUEBELL WOODLANDS FOR SALE. Essex/ co.uk Web: wwwwww.stonescottage.stonescottages.co.uks.co.uk rural eco retreat 5 miles from Penzance, 10 Suffolk border, near Sudbury. Mature oak and minutes walk from Boscawen-noon stone circle. ash with hazel understorey. Varied habitat,

COTTAGEBRITTANY. on COSY developing COB AND permaculture STONE bySurf two beaches wood withinburners 3 andmiles. sleeps The between barn is heated 2 and 4.25ponds, acres good for access.£45,000. 6.25 Further acres details for £58,000 call 01223 or smallholding. Sleeps two. WWoodood stove. Private 6. Reduced rates for lowlowerer occupancy. WWildild food 208 035 or view wwwwww.treesandbees.me.uk.treesandbees.me.uk woodland. Close to Dinan and beautiful foraging and yoga workshops available to book beachesbeaches. T. Tel:el: +33 296 274 465. Websites: www. during your stay. Phone Caroline on 01736 810 CHIOS ISLAND – GREECE 2400m22 land for brittanycountrygite.com and wwwwww.permaculture.permaculture 156. Email: [email protected] or see www. sale, 500m from sea, mastic and olive tree inbrittany.blogspot.com fathen.org for further information and tariff. surroundings, sea view, caravan on permanent base with pergola, shower toilet storage facilities, CORNISH STRAW BALE BARN ON ORGANIC WES WESTT DODORSERSETT,, PEAPEACEFUCEFULL SESELF-CLF-CATATERIERINGNG water, no electricity, young fruit and mastic SMALLHOLDING Self-contained studio with organic garden cottage. Axe valley countryside trees, 3km from lively village, shops, post office, kitchen, shower & woodburner, compost loo views. Near Marshwood Vale and Lyme Bay. etc. ‘Blank canvas’ for creativity. EE35,000. Also, outside (treebog style). We grow organic veg & Sleeps 2+2. Ideal walking and sketching. Art 355m22 plot (builds 200m22)) EE24,000, two storey are trying to live as sustainably as possible. tuition/ceramics. Tel: 01460 220 201. Email: renovated 1741 stone house 150m22 EE185,000 Energy from wind-turbine, solar panels & [email protected] in traditional village. Details tel: +30 2271 061 woodburners fuelled by our managed woodland. 119. Email: katkalam@[email protected] Beautiful location. Would suit 1-2 people. £200 OPPORTUNITIES per week inc food. TTel:el: 01726 844 867. Email: COTTAGE FOR SALE – Ireland – £72,500/ [email protected] Web: www.cotna.co.uk COMPETENT WOODWWOODWORKING/BUILDINGORKING/BUILDING// pp86,500. See: wwwwww.ballinamoreco.ballinamorecottage.webspace.ttage.webspace. GARDENING volunteers, male or female virginmedia.com EXCITING HOLIDAY SELF-CATERING needed in return for good food and comfortable accommodation in Yorkshire. Flamborough room on Greek island garden estate, perfect DISS, NORFOLK. 2 bed end of terrace cottage PeninsulPeninsularar – house sleeps 8, cliff walk to RSPB outdoor weather, salvaged oak, good creative in private lane. New Scan woodburner and DG. Bempton sea birds, nature reserve – 100,000 fun at the handbuilt hotel and gardens. Email: Large timber studio and guest annexe with breeding seabirds (puffins, gannets, etc.), April [email protected] Web: http://tothegarden.org bathroom and south facing veranda. Raised bed to October. Also, house sleeps 4 at Skipton veggie patch, wild garden to Suffolk Wildlife Castle Woods, ideal base to explorexploree the YYorkshireorkshire COUNTRYSIDE JOBS SERSERVICE.VICE. The place to findfind TTrust’srust’s Roydon Fen. About ¼ acre. £247£247,500.,500. Dales. Contact Jill and Nick on 01756 790 934. a job, volunteer position or course in the country- Email: [email protected]@zen.co.ukk Email: woodnicholas@[email protected] side, environment & conservation sectors. TTel:el: 01947 896 007. Web: www.couwww.countryside-jobs.comntryside-jobs.com DORSET COHOUSING – TWO BED FRANCE DORDOGNE. Stone farm house to COTTAGE for sale £130,000. Emphasis on let November – May/June or to suit. Large INQUIRIES ARE INVITINVITEDED by the Peredur Trust green lifestyle including car pool, shared laundry, garden, 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, from market gardeners interested in organic/ veg garden, guest rooms etc. Tel: 01392 211 794 woodstoves. Situated in quiet hamlet near biodynamic production on 2 acres with 3 for cottage details. Visit www.thresholdcentwww.thresholdcentre.re. villages and towns. £450 per month plus bills. greenhouses plus the possibility of additional org.uk for info on the centre. House and caravan also available for summer land. SW Rudel, Peredur Trust, Basill Manor, holidays. Tel: +33 553 603 416. Tel: 01629 824 St Clether, Launceston, Cornwall PL15 8QJ FRANCE. FOR SALE OR TO RENT. TTraditiraditionalonal 960. Web: www.frenchfarmhouse.org.uk Tel: 01566 86075. two bedroom stone cottage in beautiful Normandie countryside, near to unspoilt NORTH CORNWALL, GYPSY CARAVANS. PLANNED COMMUNITY based on permaculture beaches. Great potential for permaculture/

topSt Breock gypsy caravans Downs nearwith aWadebridge. hut containing Two kitchen bow individualsand cohousing and families principles to join seeks with like us. minded Some buildingorganic growing, etc. Offers forest in region gardening, of £240,000. sustainable Rent and shower room with wc, outside open ﬁre. capital will be required. Currently looking for negotiable in exchange for assistance in From £60 per night. For more information call suitable property in the Devon area following group maintaining and developing cottage and land 01208 815 436 or 07966 231 609. Email: preparatory work. Call Lyn on 01837 840 516 using permaculture methods. Phone: 01534 522 [email protected] or see www.prospectcommunity.org.uk 331. Email: [email protected] 7878 PermaculturPermaculturee Magazine No. 66 www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk

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PROPERTY & LAND contd... PUBLICATIONS WANTED contd...

GALICIA, NORTH SPAIN. Beautiful rural W WANANTETED AD ACCCCOUOUNTNTSS MMANANAGAGERER & AdAdmimininiststraratitionon location. Self-sufficient. Large renovated house, THE DENDROLOGIST, the quarterly Assistant forfor Permacult Permacultureure Magazine /Perman /Permanentent 3 bedrooms. Barn conversion needs completing. news and information to bring all tree Publications, based here at the Sustinability Centre, Half acre, organic/permaculture vegetable enthusiasts and interest groups together. Hampshire. See the advert on page 28 of this garden, orchard. Own electricity (solar/wind), Join by sending £10.00 to ‘The issue for details on how to apply. well, 2 full bathrooms + composting toilet in Dendrologist’, PO Box 341, Chesham, house. Greenhouse, henhouse. £138,000/offers. Bucks, HP5 2RD. W WANTEDANTED PM LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTIONS. The Details, photos email: shanti@[email protected] current economic climate threatens one of our most crucial, and ecologically sound, public LANDDEWI BREFI, WEST WALES. One acre, FUNKY RAW exists to help you to eat a healthy services – that of the public library. 3 greenhouses, raised beds, workshop, huge raw vegetarian diet. Our quarterly magazine The first libraries date back to almost 5,000 years garage, log cabin. Stone and slate house, 3 covers cleansing and rebuilding, spiritualityspirituality,, eco ago. The main objective has always been to be receptions, 3 bedrooms, full oil c.h. plus life and has recipes, events, etc. Also online shop, a source of knowledge and a means to share that multifuel stove. Village has 2 pubs, shop, visiting workshops, summer festival and more. Tel: knowledge with others. Libraries fit into the idea PO van, frequent buses, junior school, River Teifi 0845 003 9515. Web: www.funkyraw.com of sustainable culture – offofferingering people a way nearby. £275,000. Tel: 01974 298 586. Email: to share books, CDs, DVDs, computers and of [email protected] ‘SENSITIVE PERMACULTURE’, new book by course to access information on permaculture. Alanna Moore, now available from Amazon. It is ironic that the very economic downturn SMALLHOLDING FOR SALE, NORTHWEST See pythonpress.com that could increase the usage of libraries by FRANCFRANCE.E. Situated in lovely rural village in the encouraging people to borrow rather than buybuy,, pays de l’Loire region, only 1.5hrs from ferry. WANTED could also threaten it through lack of public Spacious 2 bedroom house with wood fuelled funding, at a time when the service is needed the cooking and heating. Separate holiday cottage GARDEN WORKSHOP CO-ORDINATOR most. It is better to help libraries have titles on (sleeps 4-6) with bookings for 2011. Planning W WANTED.ANTED. The CaCamphillmphill Village TTrustrust Delrow their shelves which are actually useful to people. permission granted for loft and outbuilding Community has a vacancy for an experienced One of our regular readers, who works in a conversion if more accommodation required. gardener to work alongside adults with a library herself, suggests that one way to support Set in 2.5 acres of fertile organically farmed land.land. learning disability and/or mental health issues, libraries and help spread knowledge about Mature orchard, huge vegetable and soft fruit in our garden workshop. The hours are 09.00 sustainable living is to buy a subscription of garden, sheep paddock, chicken housing. Dutch to 17.00 with an hour lunch break, Monday to Permacultu Permaculturere Magazine for your local library.

animalbarn and shelter. several Excellent outbuildings opportunity for storage for or pensionFriday. Pay available. is £16.41 Dutiesper hour include: with a stakeholstakeholderder Teaching libraryShe says and don’t see what be shyshy, permaculture, pop along to books your localthey communal living, self sufficiency/permasufficiency/permaculture.culture. horticultural skills to people with learning have and make some suggestions (see our advert Offers in the region of EE205,000. Tel: +33 243 disability and/or mental health issues; growing on the inside front cover of this issue). If they 030 304 or [email protected] organic/bio-dynamic vegetables/fruit/herbs for don’t have the funds to subscribe to PM why not the community. Camphill strongly believes in help and subscribe on the library’s behalf??behalf the earth as a living being and this is reflected in Subscribe via post, telephone or online via our SOUTH WALES – NEAR CARDIFF how the organisation works with the land. secure site: wwwwww.green-shopping.co.uk.green-shopping.co.uk lovely maisonette for sale in sought after Closing date for applications 1st November village. South-facing organic garden with 2010. For more information and to request an herbs, fruit, shrubs, lots of birds! 2 double application form please contact : Human VI SI T THE bedrooms, gch, double glazing, quiet. Resources, c/o Tom Leonard at Delrow House, Good amenities including local shop, Hilfield Lane, Aldenham, Watford WD25 8DJ. permaculture allotments, PO, primary school, library, Tel: 01923 856 006 or email tom.leonard@ surgery. Lovely country walks & pubs. 5 delrow.co.uk BOOKSHOP miles main rail station & on frequent bus route. Good first-time buy or downsize LIFE SHARING EXPERIENCE – West of Ireland. £108,950 ono. Phone Chris on: 07745 Female Carer needed, aged 25-40, to enable a 758 204 or email for further details via: young woman aged 19 who is wheelchair bound [email protected] to live independently alongside the main family dwelling, in her own home. Beautiful land, beautiful lifestyle. Please contact the +353 61 TAKE YOUR PLACE IN NATURE. A beautiful, 924 186 for payment and further instruction. unique property looking for a family. So, if you would like to live sustainably, intimately 2 MOTIVATED SUPPORT WORKERS connected to nature, walk in any direction, listen W WANTED,ANTED, prefpreferablyerably 1 with buildbuildinging skills for and swim in the river, and watch the night sky, minimum 6 months, to help run commercial, come and meet the house and land. House, organic business on inspiring permaculture + extensive barns, 2¾ acres, hydro powered education centre; sustainabilitysustainability,, education + a+ a Come & Browse the 100s of books, development approved, wood fired water and deep respect for the earth. £50/week + food and tools & products in our shop heating, spring water and organically managed accommodation. Contact Paul, Primrose for 30 years. Mid-Wales. For details contact Organic Centre, Felindre, Brecon, Powys LD3 Open 10 - 4 Monday to Friday Susan: 01974 282 323. 0ST. Tel: 01497 847 636. Email: paul.benham@ Permanent Publications ukonline.co.uk The Sustainability Centre, East Meon, 3 BEDROOM HOUSE FOR SALE or rent in Hampshire GU32 1HR town on edge of Brecon Beacons, (SA18 1BG). VOLUNTEERS NEEDED. WWee are a perpermaculturemaculture Tel: 01730 823 311 Solar hot water, wood burner, conservatory, farm in the central mountains of Portugal. Email: [email protected] large south facing garden with polytunnel, fruit W Wouldould you like to be a part of an ecological bushes and trees. £125K Tel: 01269 822 786 or strawbale and roundwood chestnut frame If you are running a permaculture course contact us to find out how we support you email Looby@[email protected] building project, create a natural pool and forest, and your students with discounted books, in exchange for accommodation and fresh home tools & products. We also send you a free back YOUNG FAMFAMILYILY SEEKING LAND to plant produced organic food, all abilities and interests issue of PM to give to each student. trees, grow veg and live simply. Would consider welcome, the projects and landscape can be You can list your courses in the PM and they anything, anywhere. £45,000 budget. Tel: 07849 challenging. For more information email us at: also appear on the PM website. 726 852. Email: mazandtom@[email protected] [email protected] www.www.permaculturepermaculture.co.uk No. 66 PermacultuPermaculturere Magazine 7979

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