Permaculture Day 2015: In Support of Soil Report - call for more contributions!

By Nicola Bell, Membership Coordinator

A huge thank you to those of you who helped more people to hear about the benefits of permaculture on International Permaculture Day! 

You were part of 200 events and actions in 43 countries - thank you for making them happen!

Please help the International Permaculture Day 2015 team to compile photos, videos and stories for the International Permaculture Day 2015: In Soil Supporters Report - click here to contribute.

Some Permaculture Association members have already shared their successes with the network:

 
Abundant Earth, Co Durham:

It may have been freezing cold but around 70 of you came to the Abundant Earth open day today....Thanks for your effort and your company! 

The day coincided with International Permaculture Day. This year the focus was on soil and Wilf gave tours and talks throughout the day relating to this topic. 

Children ate fairy cakes and bounced on the trampoline, some of them bottle fed the lambs and planted flowers. 

Mark and Vicky brought their biochar demonstration which was incredibly informative and lots of people now have a biochar sample. 

Matt giving a wood turning demo at Abundant Earth

Matt made a beautiful bowl on his pole lathe for all see. Beth tried to weave on the peg loom but it was a bit chilly! 
Lashings of hot tea was freely available and tasty cakes were for sale; a percentage of which we will send to the Kathmandu Earthquake fund.

Mike and Vicky demonstrating bio char at Abundant Earth

We also sold our eggs, salad and some of west ridings organic compost.

There were a great deal of leaflets and books to browse and there was a dvd playing about permaculture and soil.
Our next open day is on Sunday September 6th! Save the date!!!

Pennerley Permaculture Project, Shropshire:

We had 14 people come for a two hour tour of the plots and forest garden followed by tea, cake and discussion. A good time was had by all. One person e-mailed after to say, "We just wanted to drop you a brief note to say a real big thanks for your time and insights on Sunday – packed full of gems and golden nuggets and very much appreciated."

Glengall Wharf Garden & Burgess Park Food Project, Peckham:

Worries about the weather disappeared almost as soon as we came on site – the afternoon was fresh and glorious. A great turn out of people, lured by the promise of learning more about soil and how to manage it meant we got lots done and ate well. Read more on the blog...

Searching for frogs at Glengall Wharf, Peckham

The Grange, Norfolk

Over three days we stock fenced over 200 metres of meadow, built a new plinth base for the yurt, potted on at least 100 courgette and squash plants, built a rocket stove, weeded the herb garden and cut and split over a tonne of wood. But it wasn’t all work…on Sunday night we fired up the cob oven and cooked some delicious pizzas before watching a film on the projector and each day was punctuated by wonderful food and conversations.

After three tiring but exhilarating days our project here seems possible again, at least for a little while. But it won’t be long before another blitz is needed – and we will put out the call for help once more!

Tom and Ben putting the finishing touches to some stock fencing at The Grange

www.soilandsoul.org.uk

Ian making pizza for dinner at The Grange

Tomas Remiarz, Wales

I did a workshop on Edible Landscapes at the local "Spring Greens" Festival, with about 20 people. The festival's theme was "the land" and it  also had presentations by Chris and Looby on their new Applewood project, by Simon Fairlie on land rights, a permaculture stall by Roz Brown as well as many other stalls and events. 700 people attended - great success!

The Beautiful Spring Greens Fair 2015

 

Mike Pope, Lancashire

The course went really well, lots of positive feed-back, (thank you for the material you sent). Two of the participants came as a result of seeing it on the Permaculture Association website. 

We covered the meaning and ethics of Permaculture in the morning, ending with a presentation of an eco-renovation of a terraced house from our friend Andy Hunt.

The afternoon was a discussion and videos of the principle of forest gardening, followed by a trip to our forest garden (hopefully soon to be a Land Centre). On the Sunday we had a volunteer session at the garden which was well attended. We hope to run another similar event in the autumn. 

Offshoots Permaculture Project, Lancashire

Victoria Woods and Phill Dewhurst spoke at the Alternatiba event in Todmorden on Sunday 3rd May.

The talk was well attended with over 40 people and standing room only at the venue, Todmorden Town Hall

The presentation was an introduction to Permaculture with a focus on soils and positive solutions and Offshoots Permaculture Project

For about 45 minutes we gave out information and answered questions, showed a short 6 minute film of Offshoots as well as publicised the next local Permaculture Design course starting Saturday 6th June 2015

If you'd like to learn more about permaculture demonstration sites like these, or to find one near you, check out the LAND network.

Please help the International Permaculture Day organisers by sharing your stories and photos, so that we can celebrate everyone's involvement! 

We also have also set up a Flickr album to share activities that happened across the network, so feel free to send more to us at the Permaculture Association.

If you would like to host a talk, course, festival, tea party, seed swap or anything else for International Permaculture Day 2016, please let us know!

 

Reflections on a very successful second Eastern Permaculture Gathering

by Lee Jenkins

Lee Jenkins,  reflects on a very successful second Eastern Permaculture Gathering, held over the weekend of 10th-12th April at his home in Norfolk.

The weekend was initially planned as an opportunity for a small celebration on the completion of mine and Ben Margolis' Permaculture Diplomas, our accreditation presentations for these, and the launch of Soil and Soul, our permaculture teaching collective.

However, over the months that followed interest from local permaculturists, as well as people at both ends of the country grew, organically turning the event into something much more. This led to a coming together of an incredibly diverse group of people of all ages and backgrounds. Ben and I were truly thrilled to welcome everyone to our homes at Walnut Farm in Southburgh and to The Grange at Great Cressingham for the weekend.

A grounding opening circle beside the tranquil banks of the water’s edge and underneath the pollarded Oak tree was the perfect beginning to an amazing weekend, but the kids were having none of it! The energy was electrifying from the start and this set the tone for the couple of days to come.

More than 80 people came together to witness Ben and I present the culmination of our Diploma pathways and to join in with the variety of fun and interesting workshops and activities. These included an interactive arts project to re-purpose old umbrellas, willow weaving, bird box making and a wonderful dance workshop; as well as thought provoking discussions on everything from food, survive and thrive, localising permaculture and many more.

A truly fitting transition from day to night in the form of a moving fire ceremony was held in the forest garden early Saturday evening by Bee, singer of the Blue Dawn. Here a space was created for us to give thanks and peace to our ancestors and to our land. A good moment for reflection and appreciation before being lured by the inviting sounds and warmth of the barn for a spirited celebratory cèilidh.

With nearly a third of the crowd being kids, the weekend was rich with the buzz and excitement made by many generations all in one place. The incredible and inspiring contributions made by so many people - from the food to signage around the site - is a real example of what we can all do as a connected community.

The venue for the event, my home at Walnut Farm, is a 16 acre certified organic smallholding including a two acre forest garden, (which has now kindly been adorned with a magnificent archway, created in a group workshop). 

During the weekend the event spread beyond Walnut Farm, with the opportunity for people to have a tour of The Grange, Ben and Sophie's home, their site at Great Cressingham. This ten acre smallholding offers a range of therapeutic retreats and courses leading to qualifications for marginalised groups. 

Both sites reflect a wide diversity of permaculture in action and in true permaculture style we managed to stack the extra function of officially becoming the first two registered LAND Centres (demonstration sites) in Norfolk!

The origins of how this event came to be makes me reflect on the invaluable role of Hannah Thorogood, as she sowed the seeds with the courses she has led over the last 5 years. The accreditations over the weekend were a culmination of her work too and a clear reflection of the magic she has inspired within us as we both move forward delivering permaculture education and our first full PDC course together as lead tutors.

Further details of Lee and Ben’s work and courses can be found at http://www.soilandsoul.org.uk/