INTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE

19-20 March 2011

This course introduces the basics of permaculture design and shows how this approach can be applied. 9.30am-5pm.  Stanmer Park and/or other Sussex locations.  Tutors: Jen Beaufoy, Kate Hamilton and Hedvig Murray.  See website for full details: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

GREEN ARCHITECTURE DAY

26 March 2011

Sallis Benney Theatre, University of Brighton, Grand Parade, Brighton BN2 0JY.

Stalls, exhibitions and illustrated talks.  See website for full details: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

PRACTICAL PERMACULTURE GARDENING

2-3 April 2011

This course explores how permaculture design can be used to create beautiful, productive and wildlife-friendly gardens. 10.00am – 5pm. The first day is based at the Earthship in Stanmer Park, Brighton and on the Brighton Permaculture Trust plot.

The second day begins at Pippa Johns’ garden close to Southease station between Newhaven and Lewes.  The afternoon will be held in a nearby hall.  Tutor: Pippa Johns. See website for full details: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOVOLTAICS

19 April 2011

The course will cover the basics of photovoltaics, from system design and load calculation through to the various types of solar panels, batteries and inverters and their suitability in different situations. The afternoon will be spent setting up a small photovoltaic system and will include a tour of the award winning Earthship Brighton.  9am – 5.30pm.  Tutors: Alex Saunders, Mischa Hewitt.  CPD CERTIFIED.  See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

BUILDING WITH STRAW BALES

22-24 APRIL 2011

This course is for anyone interested in building with straw bales – a cheap, natural, healthy and low impact way of making your own house. This is a practical building course and involves lots of hands-on workshops.  9am – 5.30pm.  Tutor: Ian Brown.  CPD CERTIFIED.  See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

INTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE

4-5 May 2011

This course introduces the basics of permaculture design and shows how this approach can be applied. 9.30am-5pm.  Stanmer Park and/or other Sussex locations.  Tutors: Jen Beaufoy, Kate Hamilton and Hedvig Murray.  See website for full details: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

MUSHROOM CULTIVATION

7- 8 May 2011

This course looks at the significant role fungi play in the cycles of life and how they enhance the environment. Hands-on practical activities will give participants skills in cultivating mushrooms suitable for small spaces.  You will be able to take home a shiitake-inoculated log and oyster mushroom-inoculated straw.  9.30am–5.30pm   Tutor: Bill Knight.  See website forfull details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

COMMUNITY ORCHARD TRAINING

24 May 2011

This course looks at the basics of how to nurture newly planted fruit trees – watering, feeding, disease prevention and pest control.  The course includes apple cookery, juice-making on a traditional apple press (which is available for hire to community groups) and ideas for celebrating your apple harvest.  9.30am-5pm.   Stanmer Park, Brighton BN1 9PZ.  Tutors: Anne-Marie Bur, Bryn Thomas, Fran Pickering, Peter May, Robin van Creveld, Stephan Gehrels. See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

COMMUNITY ORCHARD TRAINING

28 May 2011

This course looks at the basics of how to nurture newly planted fruit trees – watering, feeding, disease prevention and pest control.  The course includes apple cookery, juice-making on a traditional apple press (which is available for hire to community groups) and ideas for celebrating your apple harvest.  9.30am-5pm.   Stanmer Park, Brighton BN1 9PZ.  Tutors: Anne-Marie Bur, Bryn Thomas, Fran Pickering, Peter May, Robin van Creveld, Stephan Gehrels. See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

SELF-BUILDING AN EARTHSHIP

10-12 June 2011

This course is for anyone thinking about building their own home or interested in learning about Earthships.  It includes practical workshops.  9am – 5.30pm.

Tutors: Rebecca Sarll, Jon Kalviac, Paulina Wojciechowska, Mischa Hewitt.  CPD

CERTIFIED.  See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

FOREST GARDENING

25-26 June 2011

Learn how to grow fruit, nuts, salads and perennial vegetables as a low maintenance, highly productive garden ecosystem. Includes four site visits. 10am-5pm. Stanmer Park, Brighton, Hertford Junior School, Brighton and Seaford, East Sussex.  Tutors: Bryn Thomas, Pippa Johns and Stephan Gehrels.  See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

FOREST GARDENING

2 – 3 July 2011

Learn how to grow fruit, nuts, salads and perennial vegetables as a low maintenance, highly productive garden ecosystem. Includes four site visits. 10am-5pm. Stanmer Park, Brighton, Hertford Junior School, Brighton and Seaford, East Sussex.  Tutors: Bryn Thomas, Pippa Johns and Stephan Gehrels.  See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

SELF-BUILDING AN EARTHSHIP

15-17 July 2011

This course is for anyone thinking about building their own home or interested in learning about Earthships.  It includes practical workshops.  9am – 5.30pm.  Tutors:

Rebecca Sarll, Jon Kalviac, Paulina Wojciechowska, Mischa Hewitt.  CPD CERTIFIED.

See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

SCYTHING

30-31 July 2011

The course will cover everything you need to know on how to use and maintain a scythe, leaving you with the skills and knowledge needed to mow anything from a small lawn to a meadow and even brambles, and also traditional hay making. Plenty of hands-on guidance from the tutor will enable you to leave as a competent scytheperson. Saturday 10am-5pm Sunday 9.30am-3.30pm (optional 7am start).  Tutors: Simon Fairlie, Bryn Thomas, Stephan Gehrels.

See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

FRUIT TREE GRAFTING

13 August 2011

10am-5pm.  Stanmer Park.  The course will encourage participants to develop practical skills in the propagation of fruit trees.  Experience will be gained in the use of a grafting knife, concentrating on the technique of “Chip Budding” to graft an apple variety onto a rootstock.  Tutors: Peter May, Stephan Gehrels.

See website for full details:  www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

APPLE DAY AT STANMER PARK, BRIGHTON

25 September 2011

11am-5pm

Apple day is an annual celebration in and around the orchards at Stanmer Park which is a free event for all the family.   Delicious food and drink, including apple crumble, pie and juice will be available.   The day features juice-making demonstrations, children’s activities, apple identification, guided tours, produce for sale, stalls and much more.  See website for full details: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

BUILDING WITH RAMMED EARTH AND CHALK

15-16 October 2011

This course will cover the basics of rammed earth and chalk, from the benefits of building

with rammed earth, finding the right earth, choosing a formwork system, different construction methods, design detailing, different approaches and the various tools used. There will be a large practical component to the course, with the construction of a section of rammed earth wall.  9.00am-5.30pm.  Tutors: Rowland Keable, Mischa Hewitt.  CPD CERTIFIED.

See website for full details: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

PRUNING OLD FRUIT TREES

14-15 Jan 17-18 Jan 2012

The course is held in the old apple orchards at Stanmer Park.  Learn how to improve health and productivity by appropriate pruning.  10am – 5pm.  Tutor: Bryn Thomas.

See website for full details: www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

Brighton Permaculture Trust is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

If you sowed some Cornfield Annuals seed at the same time as a perennial Meadow mix last autumn or earlier this year, then you should have taken a cut by now and removed the cuttings. This will leave the perennial species with the space and light that they require to really get growing.

If you sowed a meadow mix, but without any cornfield annuals, then you should have taken several cuts throughout the Spring and early Summer to prevent annual weeds from setting seed!  In any case, you should probably take a cut now and then leave it until the autumn before cutting again.  Leaving a small patch of meadow uncut at this time and a different patch uncut next time, would be good for insects and butterflies/moths that have laid eggs amongst the grass.

One of the best tools for cutting a meadow is the traditional scythe – not as silly an idea as you might think. In fact, not silly at all.  It is quick and much quieter than using a strimmer.  Scythes can  be bought from Simon Fairlie (www.thescytheshop.co.uk).  He runs courses on scything – only £50 for a one day beginners’ course including lunch! – at his base in Dorset and at various locations throughout the UK.  So take a day off and learn a new skill.

More info available from: www.reallywildflowers.co.uk/department/advice

Really Wild Flowers is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

I was complaining about the cold (!) in May’s newsletter – I remember getting the coldest I have ever been on a cricket pitch that week – but it has carried on just as dry. I’ve been worried about the customers who bought plants or seeds from us over the last 9 months, so wrote to them asking how things were going. It seems the only worries generally have been with later spring sowings. In all likelihood these will be fine. We’re suggesting folk have a look at how things are doing in September, after a bit of rain.

That’s certainly been true at our demo meadow at Sparkford. We sowed two mixes there last autumn. A really nice mix sourced locally, just perennials and grasses, looks to be struggling at first glance but I think will be fine. The other side of the meadow, where we used a nurse of cornfield annuals (I know, it’s cheating), has looked amazing:

We’ve been busy on the meadow front, also hosting a couple of courses for gardeners and landscape professionals, tutored by Sue Everett and Andrew George. Attendance was good, and I’m looking forward to next year’s already. I’ve been blogging furiously about meadows as well, which has kept me on my toes and, I think, shunted some traffic onto the website as well as perhaps offering folk an interesting resource.
My efforts on marketing elsewhere have been mixed. I still can’t make head nor tail of Twitter and I don’t think I’m using Facebook very effectively – I am currently running a “targeted” advert, which has had 2,702 impressions as I write but no clicks! At least that means it’s free… I’m pleased with our recent corporate videos though (including more meadow stuff!), which are on YouTube, and press coverage continues to be helpful.

In terms of product development, we have now listed the Mazzards we will be selling from this autumn, and I am pleased to have extended our range of native bulbs, courtesy of the excellent Shipton Bulbs in Wales. Right now I’m working on improving our lavenders and trying to SEO the herbaceous side of the site a bit better. We are involved in another nice seed project, this time with the British Beekeeper’s Association’s “Adopt a Hive” scheme. The seed we supplied for Flowerworld’s bouquets for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust is now in Morrisons, which is good to see.

That apart it seems to be a pretty quiet time of year. I’m off to Hampton Court for a bit of inspiration.

Habitat Aid Ltd. is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Return of the Native Hedge

Our farming community destroyed in a few years what our forefathers had established over several hundred years and that was a living, vibrant corridor for wildlife that would sustain them through the good times and the bad.  Those hedges provided protection from the elements and safety from predators, as well as a reliable food supply in the form of flowers and seed heads and an abundance of insects.

Also, a hiding place for the thrush’s nest:

“ And now we have found a second one, hidden from sight in a cleft of boughs of one of the beech hedges.  Neatly lined with cow dung, it contains four eggs”  [Ref. 1] 

01 The value of hedges

An ancient part of the landscape Hedges have been a part of the English landscape since the Bronze Age. There are hedges in England today that are 500 years old and more; ‘Judith’s hedge’ in Cambridgeshire is over 900 years old. 

How can you tell how old a hedge is?  One determining factor is the number of different species within the hedge.  Also, since 1700, most new hedges have run in straight lines.  So, a sinuous length in an otherwise straight hedge may indicate that part of a pre-existing hedge has been retained in a reorganisation of fields.  A post-1800 hedge usually has its original row of hawthorns still discernible, while an ancient hedge often has giant coppice stools or pollarded trees.

Did you know?

• The majority of hedges around today were planted during the enclosures of the 18th and 19th centuries.  Some 200,000 miles of hedges were planted between 1750 and 1850.
• Hedges contain:
  • 15% of our native stock of broad-leaved trees
  • 600 species of flowering plants
  • 1,500 species of insect
  • 65 species of birds
  • 20 species of mammal

[Ref. 2]

‘Our beech hedges surpass in beauty even the cherry tree or the pear.  They thrive in the chalk earth of our garden and are lovely the whole year round, whether it be in the late spring, as buds open to pleated leaf, or in the depth of winter when the leaves are crinkled and brown and crackle in the breeze with the sound as of thin metal shavings.  For the beech hedges are never bare of leaf.  Now in November they burn bronze and yellow and orange.’  [Ref.3]

Nowadays few of us have expansive gardens with room to plant a hedgerow that has a vanishing point, but there is still the possibility of a few metres here and there in order to provide interest, a focus and act as a foil to a mundane wood paneled fence.

The contribution that a hedgerow makes is difficult to quantify and far easier to qualify.  Besides the obvious fillip it provides to all creatures great and small it provides shape and context to a garden.  Depending on the species planted a hedge can provide contrast to a diverse range of plants within a herbaceous border or even vegetables.  A hedge is also an attractive way of dividing a garden up into zones. 

02  The Environmental Issues

There has been a considerable drop in the number of our native song birds and in particular the once ubiquitous song thrush.  But it is not just birds that are in rapid decline, all sorts of butterflies, iconic mammals such as the hedgehog and the timorous wood mouse have all suffered a similar fate in recent years. 

 03  Care & Maintenance

On a more basic level a deciduous hedge once established needs little work.  In terms of maintenance an occasional haircut to maintain some decorum, an application once a year of a slow-release fertiliser, and water whenever drought conditions prevail.  All in all there is far less maintenance and cost involved with a hedgerow than there is for fast growing leyandii or fencing panels that in due course will need a coat of wood preservative and a protective finish.

04  What is Available?

Really Wild Flowers can provide a large variety of hedging plants by mail order.  15 different native hedgerow species are sold at the 40-60cm size and there are also 3 Collections of plants at 60-90cm height.  They are all despatched as bare-root plants during the winter months November to March.  These collections are accompanied by planting instructions, which can also be seen in the Hedgerow Planting Advice on the website: www.reallywildflowers.co.uk.  Let us help you restore some precious habitat for wildlife.

 Refs. 1 & 3:  “Four hedges: a Gardener’s Chronicle” by Claire Leighton. First pub. in 1935 now available from The Sumach Press isbn 0-7126-4711-2

Ref. 2:  www.cpre.org.uk (Campaign to Protect Rural England) 

External Links:

www.bto.org

www.rspb.org.uk

www.cpre.org.uk.

Really Wild Flowers is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

This course explores how Permaculture Design can be used to create beautiful, productive and wildlife-friendly gardens.

2-3 October 2010

For full details & online reservation please visit: http://www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

Brighton Permaculture Trust is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

This course explores how Permaculture Design can be used to create beautiful, productive and wildlife-friendly gardens.

27-28 March 2010

For full details & online reservation please visit: http://www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

Brighton Permaculture Trust is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

How to propagate and grow fruit trees without grafting. Fruit trees grown on their own roots are healthier and produce fruit of better quality, flavour & storage life.

13-14 March 2010

For full details & online reservation please visit: http://www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

Brighton Permaculture Trust is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Hands-on course that teaches how to improve the health and productivity of old fruit trees by appropriate pruning.

9-10 January 2010

For full details & online reservation please visit: http://www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

Brighton Permaculture Trust is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Start living the good life with My Greener Home (http://www.mygreenerhome.co.uk/ ). My Greener Home is an online shop dedicated to making living the good life very simple with hundreds of the most inventive green gadgets plus all your staples for the garden and home.

Organic Window Box Garden   £24.95

Do you love the idea of cooking with home grown food, but have limited outdoor space? The window box garden is for you. Vegetables included have been specially selected to be happy growing on a window sill. You’ll be amazed at how much food you’ll harvest from such a small garden.

The window box garden includes the following organic baby plants: Dwarf French beans, Mixed lettuces, Rocket, Spinach, Spring Onions, Beetroot, Basil, Parsley, Chives

£24.95 at http://www.mygreenerhome.co.uk/ or on 0208 133 9002

Organic Children’s Garden  £34.95

Everyone knows that children are more likely to eat vegetables that they’ve helped to grow. It’s a great way to teach kids about food, the environment, and gardening. Vegetables included in this garden are simple to grow, they can be grown on a vegetable patch, in pots, or growbags.

Includes: Pumpkins, Courgettes, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Runner beans, Beetroot, Borlotti, Peas, Carrots, Mixed lettuce, Spinach, Potatoes

£34.95 at http://www.mygreenerhome.co.uk/ or on 0208 133 9002

The gardens are ordered by visiting http://www.mygreenerhome.co.uk/ or by calling My Greener Home on 0208 133 9002. The gift is presented in the form of a voucher -with the box being delivered in early spring 2010. The gardens arrive ready to plant with seedlings of 10cm tall.

For more information or hi res images please contact Helen Trevorrow at Green Row on 020 8960 8950

Howard from Incognito wrote to Ethical Junction last week to alert us to their Dragons Den episode which will be broadcast this Wednesday. Here is what he said…

“I am writing to let you know the date Patricia and I are being broadcast. Please understand that we were cross-examined by the Dragons for over an hour and a half. We both felt that we left the Den with our honesty, dignity and integrity intact. However, under the
professional editing ability of the editors virtually anything is
possible -they even edit mid-sentence! We don’t know how it’s going to
come across, but we do know that in all probability it will be a far
cry from reality, for the most part that is the nature of television.
We are entertainment
fodder and in return we get our message across to millions.

Speaking of which, with all the publicity (in the press as well as
on TV) coupled with this time of the year when there are many insects
around, we will inevitably sell out of most of our products. We are
also moving manufacturing of the spray to the UK where the moisturiser
is already made. We have had too many problems with our existing set
up. So, if you rely on any of our products or are going to need them in
the next couple of months, then do purchase them now before the program
is aired on the this Wednesday at 9 pm on BBC 2 or you can catch it
afterwards on BBC iPlayer. Enjoy!

We have made sizable donations throughout the year to all sorts of
non-profit organisations and for each mosquito net that we sell we
donate one to Africa”