Manchester Drive Forest Garden news- Allotment open day...

[Guest guest]

Hi- today was the Manchester Drive Allotment Society's open day, and Ron

Bates and I were invited to both sit on the 'Gardener's question time'

panel, along with 3 other more 'mainstream' 'gardening experts' (tho I don't

think Ron & I would put ourselves forwards as 'experts' by any means...) to

give the alternative/permacultural angle...

 

We were also invited to give an 'alternative tour' of the site, as a

counterpoint to the 'other' tour which was more about pointing out the prize

winning plots, best kept trimmed edges, etc, so had an opportunity to show

off our respective forest garden plots to, if not a huge crowd, at least an

appreciative handful of folks who seemed to find what we had to say of great

interest and were able to realise that what might appear to be chaotic and

unkept is actually orderly, planned and productive.

 

Highpoint of the day was when Ron found a slow worm in his compost bin,

which delighted the children present. Some other folk seemed impressed by

the relaxed and calm attitude of forest gardening, though we were careful to

stress that there is nothing intrinsicly WRONG with neatness and (aesthetic)

order- allotment sites should be open to a diversity of approaches (but

chemical gardening should still be discouraged...)

 

We were both able to explian that our plots are vegan organic in their

management as well...

 

We also looked at janet hammond's 'conventional' organic plot as well, she

sits on Leigh Town Council, the Manchester Drive Allotments Committee (as

well as Southend's Local Agenda 21 forum) and is very supportive of what Ron

and I are trying to achieve, which is very heartening.

 

As i said not a huge amount of folk turned out for the tour, but those that

did were inspired, and I think encouraged by seeing that there are other

ways of allotemnt management than growing neat rows of leeks and cabbages...

 

Local Leigh On Sea artist and allotmenteer Howard Robinson

http://www.leigharttrail.co.uk/Robinson,%20Howard.htm asked permission to do

some artwork, either drawings or paintings of the forest gardens, we were

only too pleased to say yes- watch this space...

 

And I sold 2 books- all in all a sucessful day :-)

 

Cheers Graham

www.landandliberty.co.uk

[Guest guest]

Hey, congrats Graham! That is very, very cool. Especially the bit about

the worm. I would have been delighted to see it, as well Congrats on

the sales, too!

 

-- jojo

 

-

" Graham Burnett " <grahamburnett

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Finlayson " <ianfinla; " Jane " <jane;

<PaulTerry; <permaculture.forum;

<permaculture; <Permaculture_teachersUK >;

<permadipdev >; ; " Sister

Liamie Cummings " <liamie54; <stephen_jordanuk;

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<pfaf >

Sunday, July 07, 2002 3:55 PM

Manchester Drive Forest Garden news- Allotment open

day...

 

 

> Hi- today was the Manchester Drive Allotment Society's open day, and Ron

> Bates and I were invited to both sit on the 'Gardener's question time'

> panel, along with 3 other more 'mainstream' 'gardening experts' (tho I

don't

> think Ron & I would put ourselves forwards as 'experts' by any means...)

to

> give the alternative/permacultural angle...

>

> We were also invited to give an 'alternative tour' of the site, as a

> counterpoint to the 'other' tour which was more about pointing out the

prize

> winning plots, best kept trimmed edges, etc, so had an opportunity to show

> off our respective forest garden plots to, if not a huge crowd, at least

an

> appreciative handful of folks who seemed to find what we had to say of

great

> interest and were able to realise that what might appear to be chaotic and

> unkept is actually orderly, planned and productive.

>

> Highpoint of the day was when Ron found a slow worm in his compost bin,

> which delighted the children present. Some other folk seemed impressed by

> the relaxed and calm attitude of forest gardening, though we were careful

to

> stress that there is nothing intrinsicly WRONG with neatness and

(aesthetic)

> order- allotment sites should be open to a diversity of approaches (but

> chemical gardening should still be discouraged...)

>

> We were both able to explian that our plots are vegan organic in their

> management as well...

>

> We also looked at janet hammond's 'conventional' organic plot as well, she

> sits on Leigh Town Council, the Manchester Drive Allotments Committee (as

> well as Southend's Local Agenda 21 forum) and is very supportive of what

Ron

> and I are trying to achieve, which is very heartening.

>

> As i said not a huge amount of folk turned out for the tour, but those

that

> did were inspired, and I think encouraged by seeing that there are other

> ways of allotemnt management than growing neat rows of leeks and

cabbages...

>

> Local Leigh On Sea artist and allotmenteer Howard Robinson

> http://www.leigharttrail.co.uk/Robinson,%20Howard.htm asked permission to

do

> some artwork, either drawings or paintings of the forest gardens, we were

> only too pleased to say yes- watch this space...

>

> And I sold 2 books- all in all a sucessful day :-)

>

> Cheers Graham

> www.landandliberty.co.uk

>

>

>

>

>

> To send an email to -

>

>