Maddy Harland is the co-founder and editor of Permaculture magazine and author of Fertile Edges - Regenerating the land, culture and hope.
My main interests are beekeeping, forest gardening, being on the land, wild places.
Permaculture for me is more than an ecological design system, for me it is a way of seeing and understanding the world as a whole and responding to it. It is a way of life.
 Maddy Harland | Monday, 14th January 2019
I have always been blessed with privilege. I grew up in a family with two parents, with a dad who gave up his nationality of birth to become British and subsequently had a very successful career. I have always had enough to eat, a roof over my head, good health, family, a good education and a white skin. Permaculture teacher and renowned author, Starhawk, taught me to acknowledge and be grateful for that privilege. It is an ongoing and profound lesson as privilege and our awareness of its systemic effects are often unconscious. |
 Maddy Harland | Tuesday, 27th November 2018
The Bees is a strange and disturbing novel which anthropomorphises honeybees. It takes you deep inside an orchard hive, a palatial, hierarchical wax edifice commanded by the Queen and awash with coded scents of the Hive Mind. I couldn’t help drawing parallels with aspects of a Borg ship yet there is far more sensuality, pheremones and beauty here. |
 Maddy Harland | Tuesday, 9th October 2018
This summer, we had no proper rain for weeks and after a cold, snowy late spring we leapt into the height of summer. It iwas hotter than usual and this gaves us, in the cool temperate north, a holiday feeling, especially those in the PM team who have enjoyed the World Cup! |
 Maddy Harland | Friday, 8th June 2018
I am dreaming ... I am dreaming that I am in a rainforest. I can feel the tropical warmth on my skin and hear the rich soundscape of the jungle. My sight is filled with wonderful, vibrant growth where every niche is inhabited, from the highest canopy of flowering trees in which hummingbirds flit and drink to the darker lush recesses of the jungle floor. My senses are enlivened by exotic flowering plants like crab claw and hibiscus, and climbing vines like vanilla and Chilean jasmine. I am alert in a visceral way as I walk a path knowing I am sharing it with snakes, scorpions and fire ants. |
 Maddy Harland | Friday, 25th May 2018
Being Salmon, Being Human starts with a wonderful, evocative foreword by Stephan Harding, describing what it means to consciously realise in every cell of our body that we are living on a sentient, interconnected planet as opposed to in a dead Cartesian machine. This sets the scene for Martin Mueller who takes us on a journey from the vigour and beauty of the salmonid species worldwide to its industrial, genetically modified farming system, as terrible as any terrestrial caged feedlot. |