blog/random musings of an eco-designer.. 2009
Catch-up
15th October 2009
Once again I can't believe its been nearly four months since I updated my blog! Things have been busy, to put it mildly, and are set to get busier. I'm off to Chicago in a couple of weeks for a big project out there - but more of that another time. Our garden is still yielding respectable amounts of food, although I still haven't made all the raised beds we want, but that is now relegated to a winter project. We've done a small amount of plant growing again for a couple of gardens that are being built now, mostly unusual things that are less easy to find, such as crambe maritima, Sea Kale. A wonderful ornament (especially for beach gardens, which one of them is) but also great as a perennial vegetable. I shall be planting some of these, along with cardoons, in our own garden. I have grown these before, but never tried eating them - this time I will! We'll blanch the stems of both by piling up soil or compost around them as they grow.
In the polytunnel, our tomatoes have now sadly gone (just) and our last crop is peppers, which are wonderful and prolific. We'll be planting up some winter veg in the raised beds, which we would have done sooner had not the place been stuffed full of the aforementioned potted plants!
I have a plan for next spring, and that is to get some bees! I really fancy my own honey and bees are so important for so many different reasons. But it's another skill and ability which helps us towards self-reliance. Not self sufficiency, mind; I don't think that is achievable or particularly desirable. What is important, is to build needed skills for an imminent future of declining energy supplies. In the years to come, the cost of energy will seesaw up and down, responding to over demand and when this is not met, plunging the world into recession after recession. Don't think that when we get out of this recession it will be back to business as usual! Energy will become more and more expensive and scarce, so we will have to learn how to live with less and less. I see this as a downward cycle which may last 100 years or more until things finally level out in a world where a much smaller population lives within the net solar gain of the planet - that is, without fossil fuels.
In such a world, many things will be lost, but new things may be gained, or perhaps, re-gained. A strong sense of local community might be the most obvious. Local skills and trades will be required in a society where barter may once again be of more value than money. This is why I'm so keen to re-skill myself in as many ways as possible. One other thing I will be doing is building up a set of craftsman's hand tools. I love my cordless drills and saws etc, but they only last a few years at a time and what will we all do when you need a sharp saw, and your cheapo jet-toothed throwaway has long gone blunt. Hand tools that are well made and can be sharpened and will last a lifetime may become of more value than gold...
Love your garden. What you do in it and your shed may mean the difference between a livable life and a miserable one, in less time than you might imagine.
More fat of the land - and bamboo shoots!
June 28th 2009
Okay, it's silly season when it comes to picking veg at the moment, but everything is so abundant, I just can't get over it! We have veg coming out of our ears and are about to try our hand at making chutney, from the huge tomatoes (Gigante Liscio) and courgettes we have in excess. Part of the art of food growing is storing and preserving, and we are looking forward to trying out all sorts of different ways of doing this. In fact, I will be building a shed against a cool North wall, but this won't be ready until next year. As our veg beds are not completed yet, we are not up to full production so we don't need it yet - but we will!
And check out this meal by George! She's the main veg grower and now we eat like this every day - other food just seems less and less palatable! We produced everything here except the spelt flour (early form of wheat - easier to digest, so better for you) olive oil, mushrooms (next year!) and feta cheese (maybe one day!). The red flowers are Hemerocallis (day lily) and add a visual highlight
The yellow beans are from dwarf french bean plants (minidor), only about 500mm high, which are absolutely bursting with beans. In terms of produce from ground area, these are far more productive than our purple beans - so far.
On Saturday, I found myself in Dartington, near Totnes, Devon, being shown around the grounds of the Agroforestry Research Trust by its founder, Martin Crawford. I was lucky enough that my visit to the area (to give a talk in Exeter) coincided with one of his tours. What an inspiration! I took loads of pics and will write this up either as a separate blog entry or as an article. Martin has years of hands-on experience, establishing and trialing many different plants on his two acre plot (with a further eight acres elsewhere). We were shown many interesting things, and even tried raw bamboo shoots! Some varieties are bitter, but 10 minutes in the steamer soon sorts them out. Can't wait to get growing this most ornamental of plants, with a totally different perspective...
Fat of the Land
July 22nd 2009
Veg growing nicely
salads!
polytunnel culture. Better than a conservatory!
Our diet has definitely been getting more exciting these days, with more an more produce coming on stream.. tomatoes BIG and small, peppers, monstrous basil (120cm leaves!), lots of salad veg, peas, beans, wonderful carrots (no carrot fly!), potatoes... and we're not growing nearly enough! I still have another five or so raised beds to build, so we won't be in full production until next year.
I've also been planting up the first of my perennial vegetables/edible shrubs etc. as well as a new herb border. The great thing about these is that you can grow from them with little or no effort, whilst using them to create beautiful (edible) gardens. I'll save talking about those for another time, when things are more complete!
On another subject, I've decided to work in a more consciously artistic way with some aspects of my work, particularly bio-filtration systems. To this end, I am designing a range of bespoke water sculptures designed to filter and clean domestic greywater (everything but the toilet and kitchen sink) - see eco-art for more info.
My garden transformation
June 14th, 2009
Our garden - about seven years ago!
I generally have little spare time but I'm finding a lot at the moment for our garden. I've let things go rather over the last few years but we are transforming things slowly, clearing out old plants which have become smothered in bindweed and couch. Digging it all out by hand! I just don't want to use chemicals of any kind; although I do have some roundup which I reserve for impossible to dig areas; it hasn't been used for about five years!
The pic bottom right is old, perhaps six or seven years ago. the challenge is now to clean and replant everywhere, using useful plants. down the end, where you see the polytunnel, is all veg raised beds and chickens (see earlier entry), whilst the foreground border you see (the Achilleas are long gone, they don't seem to last more than a few years) is becoming an edible landscape and a new area has been reclaimed from wilderness on the south side of an old flint wall as a herb border. Exciting stuff! Not only is it really therapeutic and relaxing (despite the backaches), but it gives a great sense of security to know we're becoming that little bit more self-reliant... I'm going to post up a lot more about the garden, both past and present; I've got loads of great photos of planting combinations etc, and I want to let you know about the various edible plants we trial.
The Future ain't what it used to be..
March 8th, 2009
Strange times are definitely with us. The landscape world is suffering alongside every other business sector, all the whilst ignoring the big issues that are looming. Everyone thinks this is “just another recession”, albeit worse than previous ones. When we do pull out of this period, we are likely to move straight into mega-high oil prices again, as demand outstrips supply, which will bring on another, deeper recession. For how long we can see-saw in this manner before a complete and permanent collapse of the global economy, is a matter of conjecture. What is important is that we are all preparing for it now.
My ideal would be to have built an off-grid house on land and be as self-sufficient as possible, but that's not my reality right now. So, when things are less than ideal, we have to make do with what we have, and what I do have is a large garden. Therefore, we are busy building veg beds, putting up a new polytunnel and planting fruit bushes. Also thinking hard on making the place less dependant upon oil-fired central heating. For me, that means a big woodburner and large supply of cordwood. Also a butane gas cooker, which is not ideal, but at least disconnects us from the grid...
Things like this are actually a great deal of fun, whilst giving a sense of security and building a self-reliant skill base for an unpredictable future. Positive action is the best antidote to fear or depression at the state of the world, plus we have to remember that we did manage to live before the event of oil...
A New Site!
February 7th, 2009
Well, I've taken the plunge and amalgamated both of my sites into one, so “The Design of Gardens” is no more, or rather, it's here! I've got quite a lot of updating to do, so bear with me if things get messy anywhere...
I've noticed that the Society of Garden Designers has a new Chairperson, who was actually welcoming the economic downturn because lots of ex-city bankers are re-training as garden designers! There are already way too many, even during good times - who's going to employ them all? No, garden design as a profession is facing huge changes: long live whole systems design!
A New Year, New Challenges.
January 2nd, 2009
Our chickens busy cleaning and fertilising our dormant veg beds!
Everyone agrees 2009 is going to be a toughie, no question. Recession and Depression are going to continue to hit us hard. But I take heart from a move away from rampant materialism, towards a (slightly) more simple approach to life, and to providing for ones self. For me, that means increasing food productivity from the garden and we shall be adding to our newly acquired chickens (my son's birthday present) with a polytunnel, more veg beds and hopefully an aquaponics experiment. But I shall also be replanting borders with plants that feed the Soul, for I cannot ignore aesthetics either!
One of the dilemmas I have with this website, is over its name. “The Design of Gardens” goes back to when this was my primary concern, when design and aesthetics were the main focus. Of course, over the last two years, sustainability has crept up the agenda and is now my main focus. It has been said that civilisation is only three meals deep, meaning that we remain civilised for as long as we know where our next three meals are coming from. This site is now primarily concerned with exploring options that help create the sustainable future we need, and somehow the name doesn't quite seem right any more. However, I haven't thought of an alternative I like yet, or which I can get the domain for, so it won't change just yet, but might well some time this year!* see February entry.
I don't mean by this that aesthetics are not important any more; they are, and if I wasn't concerned with them, I'd be a permaculturalist. But the arena is bigger than just garden design, that's for sure. My thoughts move from compost, to planting aesthetics, edible landscapes, energy, community design, social structures, urban design... too much to fit into an easy title, perhaps!
Read the 2008 blog!