Plants & Trees
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A Hopi Elder Speaks
A Hopi Elder Speaks “You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered . . . Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships? Are you in right relation? Where is your water? Know your garden. It is time to speak your Truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader.” Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time!” “There is a river flowing now very…
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A day in our life
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Permaculture Pigs
Firstly I should state there is no such thing as a permaculture pig, but rather pigs woven in to a permaculture design. Firstly we have to look carefully at every element we are planning on putting in to our design. Then comes the usual question what is an element? each thing be it animate or inanimate we intend to add to our overall system is an element these could be a tree, an animal or a shed. Each element has it’s needs (inputs) it’s benefits (outputs) and it’s intrinsic behaviors, if we look carefully at each element including some serious research, we will gain some idea of how to integrate…
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The Changing Face of Eden
Below is the aerial picture from Google Earth in 2004 the year we purchased “Le Bois de Grammont” we set out to create our own Eden (Garden of Delight) using Permaculture ethics, principles and design science to inform us of the right direction. We have made mistakes and we have developed our site through hard work and intelligent design. Below you can see some of the changes we had already made by 2008 most of the changes are too small to see and include renovating the house and barn but you can make out some of the changes we made to the land. The next picture is from Flash Earth…
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4000 Trees for 2016
This year is the third year of our five year tree planting plan here at Permaculture Eden, with this years planting done we have now added 11000 trees to our 5 hectare landscape. There are many reasons for the tree planting not least is the division of our land in to smaller parcels, when we arrived the land was split in to just three large parcels with two very overgrown hedges separating them. We are moving towards 32 much smaller parcels all separated with hedgerows with large trees at appropriate distances to allow enough light penetration for the hedge to grow well. The list below is this years purchase list…
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Joy of Simple Things
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.” John Keats Today was not extraordinary in any way, I woke to the movement of Fiona wriggling herself in to my lap for our ritual daily spoon. I know it’s just a simple thing but one I cherish even look forward to, it’s one of the greatest joys of my life, a simple embrace filled with love for each other. Then we rose to feed the animals, Fiona put hay and straw down for the cows and I fed the chickens and collected their eggs. I noticed the wonderful scene left by last…
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A day in our life
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Carbon Farming
While I love the message of the video below, it points out poignantly that we have an issue with too much carbon in our atmosphere, and then moves on to solutions. The video even suggests clearly we have to reduce the amount of carbon we are putting into the atmosphere, but it does this with flippant disregard. Carbon along with other greenhouse gasses have already started to kick off positive feedback loops, this feedback means we have to do something urgently. Failure to initiate the solutions will cost lives but the most powerful thing we can do is less. Fiona and I have been working towards a productive food, fuel…
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A day in our life
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Tomatoes
The tomato is the edible, often red berry-type fruit of the nightshade family (Solanum lycopersicum). The tomato is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. There is no such thing as too many tomatoes it is just not possible to grow too many,we tend to grow 60 or more plants and start with more than a hundred seedlings. We usually save some of our own seed but also buy in some new varieties from year to year or accept gifts from our neighbours and visitors. While its possible to buy them year round in supermarkets when you decide to eat seasonally…
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Our Humble Bees
Normally at this time of year we don’t see much of our bees, the mornings are usually frosty and cold so they are not around during our morning rounds. But we are having an amazing autumn full of the usual colours but with much more sunshine and warmth. The bees are making the most of the food that is still around and our beautiful Borage is still flowering and providing them with that much-needed late food supply. During our morning rounds visiting all our other animals we are enjoying the bees display of industrious foraging some standing guard to keep out unwanted guests. Some flying back and forth busily returning…
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Potimarron
Squash ‘Potimarron’ (Cucurbita maxima, Hubbard Squash) (Winter) A famous French heirloom, the name Potimarron derives from potiron (pumpkin) and marron (chestnut). Potimarron is one of the very best for baking and roasting, fruits reach 1.25-1.75 kilos (3-4lbs) in weight with an aromatic chestnut like taste. Great for storage we harvest from late august to consume immediately. The main harvest for us is in October making sure its before the first frost, we then store them in our cellar on shelves or old pallets. We can still consuming them in good condition in February of the following year. Culinary note: The flowers are edible. Flowering Period: June, July, August Sowing Months:…
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Spinach
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is an edible flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae native to central and western Asia. It is an annual plant (rarely biennial), which grows up to 30 cm tall. Spinach may survive over winter in temperate regions. Ours does survive but only if we transplant it in to the poly-tunnel or the greenhouse. Sowing Months: March, April, May, June, July Position: sun or semi shade, dappled shade We also have to be very careful in the summer to keep it well watered or it will go to seed because of this we also grow another variety. Perpetual Spinach (Beta vulgaris) Hardy Biennial so not truly perpetual but it does…
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