Obtain a yield

This month is going to be exciting! After attending community Book Share & Seed Swap, I have come away with some goodies to plant and a helpful allotment planner. The planner is already scribbled on with things to do, places to visit for inspiration, planting plands and open source advice. I have been sketching the community allotment and collecting heritage seeds, local seeds and been given a lovely Buddleia cutting to attract the butterflies. Looking forward to obtaining this year's yield...

Catch & Store Energy

This months challenge has been to look at our rain water harvesting system. So far we have a water butt and several containers that regularly collect rainwater. However, we will be adding drains to the 2 greenhouses in order to catch rainshowers and make the most of natural resources. A couple of rolling caravan water containers were sufficient to keep the tomatoe plants happy and nourished over the last summer. This year I intend to grow some heritage varieties such as 'Brandywine Tomatoes' from the Organic Seed company. Some great reading in a permaculture magazine has inspired me to create a 'Forest Garden' inside the large greenhouse. This involves three layers of planting. I intend to plant in layers of tomatoe plants, cucumber plants, fruit bushes, chillies and peppers and a herbal area. It should create it's own mini ecosystem, a fascinating space...

Observe & Interact

Overview It's always easy to look at things with hindsight, and I've been delving into my photo's taken from the very beginning of this plot. Over a few years, the space has grown from a muddy plot of weeds and chaos. I still love a degree of the latter and have made sure to create a herb garden and raised bed full of medecinal herbs, wildflower areas for the bees and butterflies. However, as things are taking shape, I really want to document the community space. It is designed to be accessible for little hands and delighfully edible... Over the next twelves months I am following a pattern. Having contacted the Permaculture Association to become a member and arranged a meet up with course leader Hannah Thorogood, we are becoming a LAND Learner site and registered as a community project, The 3 Ethics and 12 Design principles will be guiding this years planting, growing and harvesting. Monthly Community Skill Shares This community allotment is connected to the monthly skill shares we organise at No 10 Art Gallery and at Brattleby Farm in the woodland yurt. Over the last few months since January 2015, we have been listening to the advice of Permaculture Activist Suzanne Lewis and learning about Permaculture through a teachers guide written by originator David Holmgreen.