It is hot outside.
25% cuts demanded from public spend.
Is it time to live a little lighter?

Permaculture is a multi layered, multi faceted design tool that takes into account you, your garden, your home and your environment and encourages them to work together. The great thing about a permaculturally designed garden is there are no problems, only solutions…

After many enquiries about environmental courses made by learners we are very pleased to announce a new course titled: Introduction to Permaculture.

The course:

This course gives a balanced overview of Permaculture design. We will use gardening as the main model, basically this means that Permaculture design can be used for all aspects of life but gardening and food production is a great start for people living in urban areas. By making unexpected relationships between plants and elements of a design the output becomes greater than the input.

The good news is that this boils down to many outputs for one input. Writing as a lazy gardener myself this sounds like great news to me!

Here is a practical example of how Permaculture design can be applied beyond the home.

At last year’s Great Spring Sowing festival the organisers placed Johnny the Butcher next to Trinity Farm organics. Both companies specialise in quality meats. From this (non) accidental placing both companies are now trading successfully feeding the increasing interest in low petrol mile organic meat. This (non) surprise outcome is the organiser’s Permaculture in action.

On the domestic front a Permaculture garden is now coming in to its own. Here we are in late June and the weeds are edible! Rocket between the paving slabs and strawberries snaking along the borders for example.   Increased production for less back strain!

Permaculture design is NOT about Mad Max gone green! This course is not about recycling car tyres as planters.

Permanent Agriculture (Perma-Culture) has become to mean Permanent Culture, particularly with the growth of the Transition Town movement, who draw on Permaculture design heavily in their ethos.

More speed less progress – we’ve all heard this in everyday life, however in Permaculture we are exploring less speed, more progress. Think first then act. A great example of this in a domestic garden would be three sisters planting.

For those who are thinking three sister what? This is when you plant sweet corn interplanted with runner beans and squash. The sweet corn shoots up quickly, providing support for the runner beans and the squash suppresses weeds by providing ground cover. One set of planting, less weeding and three times the produce output from one plot.

It’s a way of life. The course begins at BANCA on Thursday 23^rd September 2010 at 10am.  Make sure that you register your interest now by calling Caroline on 0115 985 8203

We will be accepting enrolments from the beginning of August.