Tim’s Page

Hi, and welcome to Tim’s page.

I have been involved with Permaculture for over three years now.

My interest in the Permy way of life started as a reaction to the blatant misuse of land and degradation of soil in the name of a quick profit. One prime example is the American dust bowl, caused by deep ploughing of the land and removal of the native grasses that retained moisture and held soil together. After a succession of droughts, strong winds simply blew the topsoil away. Considering an inch of topsoil generally takes a thousand years to evolve, this huge area has been lost for cultivation for Milena through poor farming practice and lack of foresight and common sense.

The meaning of permaculture to me is just that - foresight and common sense. Any land that we use needs to be cultivated in a way that retains, and hopefully improves it’s quality and fertility. Any other outlook is surely a recipe for disaster.

As i have little land of my own to cultivate, i put the word out in Permy circles that i was looking for some land to grow some veg, etc this summer. As luck would have it, a friend who lives not far from me volunteered her plot for use, as she has little spare time to work it herself (thanks Fran).

This page will document the story of how i use the land, and the problems/successes I have.

The plot looking North/South as of 12.04.08

A friend of mine moved house a couple of years ago, and in his new garden was a greenhouse. Not being the gardening type, this greenhouse remained unused, and in fact was overtaken by brambles. Having realised i had use of some land, i asked if i could have it and he was happy to let me, and six sweaty and bloody hours later it was loaded into the back of my van. It now proudly resides on my plot, and is being used for bringing seedlings on, and later for growing Gherkins, Courgettes and Tomatoes.

The plot looking North/south as of 01.05.08

I had it in the back of my mind that i needed some Horse manure to nourish the land, and looking on “Freecycle” one day i saw that someone in Newchurch was happy to give some away as long as it was collected. A couple of E-mails later and i had the permission, the address and the details. I waited until the day of the next Permaculture meeting in Newport to save making two journeys, and duly collected six bags of this precious excrement (with help from Mavis who car shared with me).

Talking of “Freecycle”, for those of you who don’t already know, It is an Internet based site for giving and receiving unwanted (or wanted) items that would otherwise be just left lying around or taken to the tip. A great way of recycling and reducing landfill!

If you would like to join the local (I.O.W.) group go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IWFreecycle/