Four years ago, my husband bought me a garden with a house attached!
The garden is a little over a 10th of an acre, around 620 sq. meters. The plot is situated due south, behind a 14th-century Grade 1 listed Church in a busy market town in Northumberland.
When we became custodians of the plot, it was divided into four sections, three were lawn and one was shingled on top of plastic weed suppressant.
The division instantly spoke to me, and I saw an opportunity to have some distinct areas for vegetable and fruit growing, as well as relaxation and ornamental spaces. Within the first six months, my husband and I put up a 20-foot polytunnel. This was essential as I’m from the south originally, and the growing conditions in Northumberland are very different indeed!
We built some raised beds for veggies and set about researching ways to fill them cost-effectively. I stumbled across Hugelkultur as a technique to fill my beds with logs, lawn and various other biomass, thus cutting down the need for shop-bought peat-free compost.
This was my first venture into permaculture, and I was hooked. I subscribed to Permaculture magazine and have never looked back!
Four years on, we have reached a lovely, balanced ‘sweet spot’ in our garden. Pest pressure is very minimal as the beneficial buddies have taken up residence.
My love affair with composting shows no signs of dimming. To date, we have tried 18-day hot composting, slow, in-ground, fungal, bokashi and vermiculture. All of which have added to the microbial activity in our soil, and as such have helped transform the plot into a lush haven for wildlife, our pets, rescue chickens and us.
I have turned my hand to companion planting and taken it a step further, creating guilds around my new fruit trees. Utilising nitrogen-fixing trees as nursery plants for my most valuable fruit trees has been very inspiring. Alder whips and honey locust saplings support my persimmon, green gage and nashi pear.
My latest obsession is my thin strip, 20 sq. meters, food forest, which I love to experiment with. I have introduced plants that grow in similar climates in terms of winter conditions to Northumberland: saskatoon berries, aronia berries and silver berries from North America live alongside a manuka bush from New Zealand.
With encouragement from my husband and a little peer pressure from friends, we decided to open our garden up twice this year. Once to the local horticultural society, and following this success, a pop-up for the National Gardening Scheme. We have raised nearly £500 for charity, and we could not be more pleased.
Most importantly for me, these open days have allowed me to talk endlessly about permaculture to anyone and everyone who came to visit. Most people left with a bottle of my JMS (JADAM Microbial Solution), containing rainwater, comfrey, nettles, seaweed, organic chicken manure from our four rescue chickens, worm juice and much more!
Next month I start my first permaculture course, with a view to learning as much as possible about this amazing lifestyle and hopefully creating a permaculture movement in the northeast.
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