Friday 8 July 2011

Our mini-holding: intro

I thought I'd give a wee introduction to my garden... or what we call our 'mini-holding' it is around 1/3 of an acre, we split it into 3 (orchard, allotment and family garden) and are in the slow process of establishing it as a permaculture holding.

Permaculture is basically way of working alongside nature to create a sustainable landscape... it is kind of organic+ 


The 'family garden' bit is currently full of rubble and building materials... but we are getting there

These are photos of the nicer bits :)

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Our chickens are essential as they provide us with eggs, manure, they also keep the grass down and decimate the slug and caterpillar population



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 This is our 'chook tractor' which is a small, movable chicken run that fits perfectly over our veg beds.... they eat up the grass, weeds and slugs and they kindly fertilise the plot with chicken manure... it seriously needs replaced, but has an element of rustic charm about it, and it still works... we dry grass on top of it for bedding material for the chickens



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No slugs here!!!

We use slug pubs and the chickens as our slug control, but we also favour resilient plants , they don't seem to like red lettuces for some reason and they are much tastier than boring old iceberg anyway ;o)



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 Some second hand 'cloches' act as portable green houses for the plants that need that extra bit of heat to get them going (which, in Scotland, is just about anything) Here, I have courgettes under them




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Our comfrey plant (along with nettles) is an essential manure back-up to the chicken poop - it can be composted or turned into a liquid feed by diluting it in water



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 Any veg that hasn't been used from previous harvests get left to go to seed, the beasties seem to enjoy anything like this, plus the veg should self seed (this is parsnip) I just leave nature to do it's thang.



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Also the veg flowers can be really interesting and eye catching (this is carrot)



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In the 'orchard' (which has a few very young fruit trees in it) we have an essential 'den' for Small, the hedge is overgrown and makes a perfect hideaway, it also flowers every year and the butterflies love it!



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And a small escape at the top for me to sit and enjoy a cuppa





I have been studying permaculture for a few years now, but I haven't been able to find the time to take a qualification course (which I do intend on doing at some point)

 I want to eventually run courses to introduce others to sustainable, chemical and machinery free, productive gardening.



It's nice to have long term plans again
:)

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