We’re all a bit bemused by the drought-rain thing that is going on, although a step back to look at the big picture is all it really takes to understand the situation. Still, i was very pleased to receive this photo of a rain garden i designed a few years ago – how much more fun is this than sitting in front of the TV? More to the point, how much better are we all if we have an intimate contact with nature? This applies to adults as well as kids! We all spend 80%+ of our time indoors, with little contact with the natural rhythms of life – do you know when the next full moon is? Most of us don’t.

Kids at Play! Why hide the rain in drains?

In the UK we moan a lot about the weather, mostly because it is so changeable.  But when i see it rain, i count it as a blessing; it’s what keeps this land green and verdant, and fertile.  It sustains us and the UK is such a moderate place, the signs are that global warming may have less impact here than in other parts of the world (unless the Gulf Stream cuts off, but let’s not go there).  If you live in the Mediterranean area, it is likely to burn up as temperatures rise, lack of vegetation (a Roman legacy) means the land will be prone to desertification.  The UK may become like the Med is now, making “staycations” the obvious thing to do.  Of course, we won’t have any choice by then, as there’ll be little oil left… i’m getting off topic.  Rain.  It’s good for us, don’t moan.  Build a rain garden!  Here’s mine:

My rain garden deals with rain from a 50m2 South facing roof

Here’s an article i wrote about it:
http://www.thedesignofgardens.com/articles/rain_gardens.html

I pruned back my willow trees, some of which hadn’t been pollarded for a few years and were getting too tall, about 6-8 metres for the more vigorous hybrids.  It left a gap of some 8 metres long in our stone wall at the back, where the height drops too low.  We know a large fox comes in regularly to try its luck with our chickens (unsuccessful so far!).

So I was left with two problems: a large pile of rubbish to remove from the garden at some expense (we’ve no room to burn and it’s too anti-social, although I doubt the claims of ecological damage, it’s carbon neutral, just as using a woodstove is), plus the need for a fence, also expensive.

A quick bit of lateral thinking and I remembered the old conservation method of building a “fedge”, a cross between a fence and hedge, where poles are banged into the ground (made from the prunings) in two rows about 0.5m apart, and the brushwood laid inbetween horizontally, along the line of the boundary.  This is compacted down and built up in layers, then trimmed and tidied up.  Result: no expense for either problem, and (hopefully) no fox!

the "Fedge"

Just reading my last post, when a thought occured to me.  We have a polytunnel (which I at times wax lyrical about) and yesterday, being the beginning of March, we picked from our garden and tunnel:

• kale (Nero)
• swiss chard
• leeks
• beetroot (small but leaves are great in salads or stir fry)
• sprouts
• purple sprouting broccoli
• swede

This after a winter of neglect, with minimal effort in trying to get winter crops.  Now, we have by no means fed ourselves through the winter, but for most meals the garden has contributed something.  We’ve had steady supplies of rocket and oriental greens for salads, and although winter harvests may be small, they always seem to pack a nutritional punch, especially compared to the rather bland (even organic) veg that you get in the supermarkets at this time of year.

So whilst we are now planning our spring sowings (we always seem to be a little late in this!), I am actually looking forward to seeing what we can grow for next winter, because, that’s the time to crack, along with the “hungry gap”, from now until May or so.

It’s funny that I’ve been a landscaper and designer for most of my life, but not really a gardener.  I tend to be somewhat lazy and have little spare time, so things never reach their full potential.  In times of hardship, however, I know that the skills we have can be extended to provide high levels of effeciency and good returns.  We’re still a far distance away from self-sufficiency and will probably never reach that (my back’s grumbling just at the thought of it) but it’s good to feel that positive steps are being made in that direction… and one positive action is worth more than three negative thoughts…!

I’m reading a couple of books at the moment on transitioning from growth to no-growth economies; something that is being forced upon us because we have reached – and passed – the Earth’s natural carrying capacity; we are now (and have been since the mid-80′s) rapidly consuming the planet’s capital. This should be blindingly obvious to us all, yet we all seem to have a vested interest in denial of the facts.

The other day I watched a brief excerpt on the news of an American politician who was giving a speech in support of one of the Republican candidates hoping to run for the Big Job.  This guy (I can’t remember who it was and it’s not important) was talking about how the US had no limits to what it can do; they just had to work harder to re-create the American Dream.  This from a country with 5% of the world’s population, which consumes 25% of the world’s oil and 30% of the world’s resources.  In other words, unnamed others had to continue to give up their portion of the worlds resources to sate his lifestyle.  Americans may not wish to see it like this and they are not the only ones, we Brits also consume more than our fair share, if not on quite such a breathtaking scale.

That we are now all living in a world of constraint should be obvious by the state of the global economy.  We will never return to a time of unrestrained growth, although there may be periods of it, in certain places, but it is no longer a right that we can expect.  The implications of this are sobering, and I suspect why everyone would rather not face it.  But like the recent Costa Concordia ocean cruise ship disaster, the “captains” of our planet have willfully gone off course in pursuit of needless goals that are not prudent.  The results are as inevitable as they are going to be painful.

Running out of resources is not a hard concept to get your head around (whether you consider your glass half-full or half-empty, it WILL be empty at some point), so where did economists get the STUPID idea that we can fuel growth indefinitely in a finite world?  If you told that to your bank manager with regards your own way of running your life, he would laugh in your face (before raising his charges), yet that is what they themselves, and every government, do.

Technology will not, cannot save us; get that out of your head.  There is nothing that can ever replace or even come close to replicating a billion years of condensed sunlight.  What we should be doing now is using the twilight of our fossil fuel era to build resilience and systems that will keep essentials going while we contract to fit our low-energy future.  If we plan it, we can perhaps control it… a bit.  Perhaps.

What you can do, and I can do, is build up your own personal resilience, skills and resources.  Use less energy, grow food, consume less.  Changing your mindset is though, the most important – and difficult – step.  I’m accused sometimes of being gloomy, but I’m not.  I’m just awake to the reality, and if really doesn’t suit what you and I actually want it to be, whose problem is that?

As that rather horrible phrase goes, wake up and smell the coffee…

Here we are at the turning of another New Year, one that holds promise of big changes on both personal, work and global levels.  The winter has been unseasonably mild so far, which has been nice but I expect that Jan/Feb will make up for that at some point.

I’m expecting a lot this year, in terms of making things happen, furthering the business of Biotecture and changing certain aspects on my personal life for the better – but we all start off with such ideas, don’t we?  And then of course, it’s 2012, which was in part the subject of my last post.  It will likely be a year of challenge across the world for many of us, in varying ways, as the old economies continue to decline and fail, whilst the New Economies struggle to come into existence, all a part of what has been termed “the Great Turning”.

So I have hopes for the emergence of the New, whilst trying not to worry too much about the failing of the Old; you just have to be active in building new ways of living, of creating sustainable societies.  I think a lot will emerge this year that will aid us in this respect, more will become visible to people as these realities start emerging into the public consciousness. Just when that realisation turns into the call that action is needed, will be the critical point, but such things happen quickly once the groundswell starts.  Sort of like a tsunami, it will cause havoc and sweep much away that stands before it, but those who are prepared will learn to ride the wave… or something like that…!

Whatever the year holds in store for us, let’s get on with it!

As we approach 2012, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on an article which I’ve had in draft form for over a year, reflecting on the supposed changes that are happening to us as a society and to many of us as individuals.  It is possibly the most important thing I’ve written for some time, although that is only my feelings about it!  I have put it here as a page (see menu at right) and it will also appear on my writings site “the design of gardens”.

There is lots of (mostly idle) speculation about this coming year, ranging from total apocalypse, to spiritual transformation to, well, nothing.  Yet i think there is something afoot, although it probably has little or nothing to do with Mayan calenders… read the article.

I’ve been dreaming of a summerhouse out next to our herb garden, right where we get the last of the evening summer sun.  So having a break recently, I set to and started building the summer deck from some old oak planks I had left over from my last landscape job, some three years ago.

So here’s the start of it, the area of framing to the back will be the deck and behind that the summerhouse will sit.  I’ve been given some beautiful windows from an old barn conversion that has been updated, so I’ve got those to build the whole summerhouse around.  I’ll post more as things progress!

Well, I’ve finally got around to fitting a wood-stove into our house, just in time for colder weather and Christmas!  We’ve been meaning to do this for years, and like many things, you wonder why on earth you hadn’t done it sooner.  Although there is no back-boiler to heat water or radiators, our living room has never been so warm!  And of course, it has encouraged a spate of redecorating and DIY.  Such things, I find, often act as a catalyst for action…

After the last two very colder winters – bring it on, I say!  Our cottage, which is about as good at retaining heat as a cardboard box, should be warmer than it’s ever been…

I’ve been going nuts – gathering, that is.

Five year old hazel

First harvest

I planted a group of shrubs and small trees about five years ago into what was a rather weedy paddock area, next to the main garden.  Plants were very small and included some common hazel.  Two years ago i added a named cultivar of hazel, called Cosford.  Well, that has produced a few nuts but the real star is one of the unnamed ones; as you can see from the pic, the size of me nuts is huge!! Boasting aside, the crop was small, but the first of many I hope, and of increasing quantity – I know the quality is there.

Hazelnuts used to be an important food crop, with some 7000 acres grown in Kent alone, but no longer.  However, they are one of those trees/shrubs that are ideal for urban forestry, or forest farming; they don’t take up too much space, are attractive, good for wildlife and give a nutritious crop.  Mind you, if there are squirrels about, you’ve got competition! If every tree in every street or park was productive, there’d be quite a communal crop to be had, and that’s the basis of self reliance, and that’s the basis of sustainability.

The air has a certain feel about it – Autumn is nearly with us, the last vestige of summer is slipping by.  In fact, it is a kind of “in-between” season and in the Chinese Five Elements healing, there is in fact a fifth season, from mid-August unit late September, which has the element of Earth.  Abundance is all around us and the year has not yet reached the restless whispering of Autumn, when energies seem to seep back into the Earth for sleep and stillness.

In the garden, late flowering plants are welcome, whilst the summer-flowering plants have gone over and their stems decay or stand like silhouettes, a look that will increase as the Autumn draws near.  Many plants display their bounty of fruit or nut, whilst the leaves of trees begin to turn yellow, red or brown as the chlorophyll withdraws.  In the city, I am reminded that evergreen foliage will soon play an important part of keeping the connection to nature and relieving the monotonous combination of grey concrete and grey skies.  That is perhaps when the greatest impact from a green wall can be seen; turning a corner of a rain-swept street and seeing a huge green wall is a most startling experience, especially if unexpected.  And retreating indoors to a warm, bright office is all the better too, for having some walls of green about you.

I fervently believe that greening the cities should be one of our greatest and most urgent priorities, for if we take care of these most intensively used bits of the planet, the rest will probably take care of itself.  All the extremes show up and focus within and upon the urban environment: heat, rain, pollution, waste, social unrest, depression, loneliness; all find the sharpest focus where the conditions concentrate and overlap.  It must be remembered that the positives can (and do) do the same too, and that is something which needs conscious manifestation.

Meanwhile, as I ponder these things, Autumn approaches. I’ll share as many coffees outside on the garden bench with my loved one, for as long as the days allow, and savour every one of them, knowing winter will be here all too soon…