The Toolbox - Values driven coaching

by Chris Hardy

‘Values driven coaching’.. sounds good, but what does it mean? (and what does it have to do with Permaculture!?)

‘values’ - your judgement of what is important in life.

The Toolbox is a coaching and workshop experience being launched this February. It is coaching for people who want to do good in the world, for people who enjoy exploring their values and working with awareness of these

It’s about helping you find your drive and passion, making an impact, unleashing your creativity on the world.

It’s about having get-up-and-go, creating your ideal work, mobilising yourself.

An Ambassador's Experience: Promoting Permaculture at a Seed Swap Event

by Lausanne Tranter

member of the Permaculture Association

On the 1^st of February, I attended a fantastic Seed Swap on here in my hometown of Hull. We were invited to have a stall there to promote Transition Hull and I had my first outing as a Permaculture Ambassador with an adjoining table to the Transition one! I am delighted to say it proved to be popular! Most of the promotion literature was snapped up, there was a lot of interest in the Introduction to Permaculture course which is taking place on 1^st and 2^nd of March at the same venue. We also had eight people sign up to our Transition e-mail list. 

Julie's Garden

by Julie Stobbart

Hi everyone, 

 this is my first post so I hope you will all be kind to me! Just to introduce myself, my name is Julie Stobbart, I live in an ex-mining town in County Durham with my husband and six year old son in an ordinary terraced house. I work as an Interventions Worker in a local Secure Training Centre (a custodial environment for young people aged 12 to 18) and have just completed my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design after two years of independent study. My designs are primarily non land based and my particular interest is the area of permaculture and emotional well-being. I am currently considering whether I want to teach and/or tutor permaculture in the future. I am keen to remain actively involved in the permaculture community and thought that being an ambassador might be one of the ways in which to do this. I thought it would give me a chance to communicate my work more and become more of an active voice within the permaculture community.

My Experience of Volunteering with the Permaculture Association

By Wenderlynn Bagnall

I’ve always been interested in and cared about ‘community’. As a transition member I love the collective inspiration that comes from organising events and seeing them happen and then the elated feeling of collaboration at the success of the event. I’ve always believed that if we all pulled together, we can change things, whoever we are, whatever it is. I’ve seen proof and know it to be true.

Volunteering for the Permaculture Association has expanded my experience of community by being part of something bigger, something world changing. It feels good to know that just doing my little bit is good enough and that it helps others who are doing their bit too who are focused on the same journey.

Aquaponics and Permaculture: Exploring creative ways to feed the world and teach future generation

by Richard Smith

In this article, I want to talk about Aquaponics, its clever way to use natural cycles to produce food, and its inspiring potential for engaging children in learning natural sciences.

So first of all, what is Aquaponics? In Aquaponics, fish waste is used to make fertiliser instead of chemicals to feed the plants. It allows you to grow just about anything, whilst making intelligent use of natural processes. After hearing about the concept, I had been so impressed by the idea of growing food with fish waste that I was determined to try it out, even with limited physical resources.

Having been well trained in the permaculture approach to creating a new project, I was committed to planning my first aquaponic system to the finest detail. It had “been a while” since I actively applied permaculture principles. However, the planning process and thinking through the principles was a key element that made the project a success (see below). Chatting to the right people at the right time provided me with the great opportunity of installing a basic entry level system with minimal outlay. Thanks to my use of permaculture thinking, and a few lucky circumstances, I quickly found just about everything I could need: a suitable site; financial, technical and moral support; access to organic seeds and even a supply of free fish (I was suddenly plunged into the world of fish care by the kind donation of 35 mixed goldfish)!

Permaculture and Politics

 by Chris Marsh

Is permaculture a politics? Is it political? Should it be? Is permaculture becoming more political, perhaps in response to social and environmental concerns not being addressed at all effectively by the established political parties? These questions, and the exploration which followed, were sparked off by a meeting in Exeter on 8^th January of a group of people interested in the new party named ‘Left Unity’ (LU).

LU came about after showings of a film by Ken Loach called ‘The Spirit of ’45’, which showed how people got together to rebuild Britain after the Second World War. A Labour government was elected, and did all the right things to help in the effort: social house-building programmes, the NHS, other social welfare benefits, nationalised industries, cooperating with an active Trades Union movement. The film then shows how all of that is being destroyed, initially by the policies and propaganda of the Thatcher government, and how Labour in power has failed the people.