Mentors
I decided early on in this process that as I don't have much self directed experience in growing it was important to really value and explore the resources I had around me. This means the people I already know, and finding more people. I feel like I am just discovering the value of mentorship, and through my other work on zone 00 have found that there are times in my life it would have been so useful. But it is never too late and I am going to seek it now! At the same time this feeds into my project report 5 in learning how to mentor others. Mentorship also feeds into my design in PR2 in finding value in things other than money.
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Papa! There are multiple functions of asking my granddad to mentor me. This man has over 70 years of experience working with plants and animals and has the calm curious nature of a man made of the land. I will learn, I will give him company and also have an excuse to spend more time around him. He has agreed and so I'll begin to record our time soon- in whatever medium we decide on.
I would love to make a video diary of my mentoring with my granddad, I really like the idea because it seems to heighten the exchange of knowledge to a creative celebration, this is something I want to think on more. However papa is fairly shy, so I'll have to work out how to approach this in a way that doesn't put too much pressure on! Spring update... I've been over to my granddads house to see where he's at with things. I've decided that the best way to learn from him is to just ask questions about each specific stage, and to walk around together and see the progress of everything. Slowly I will introduce some documentation of this. How awesome to see that so many of the permaculture principals and design techniques are clear to see in his garden. I guess this must show his level of observation and interaction. Really interesting to see what he's putting in this spring, what he's getting ready and also the amazing abundant beauty in his garden already, in march. The garden is a heaven for bees pretty much all year round, and it's very useful to learn about flowers from him because although they are taught as a big part of the design in permaculture, you tend to hear less about them. My granddad speaks about them in terms of both beauty and their functions, which is great. He has put in a wildflower area, left the edges to useful ground cover such as feverfew, comfrey and wild strawberry. The pond has fish, frogs and newts. There are woodpeckers and all the birds you could want, butterflies abundant and pests minimal except for rabbits since the cat left. There is so much edge in this garden, and masses of different micro-climates, it reminds me of what I enjoyed about the garden of the farmhouse when I was young...the different feels of many areas, and feeling of exploration in this. The best part of my visit this time is that many of the plants that I thought I would have to establish from seed, he dug up for me! Russian comfrey, cat mint, mint, lemon balm, tansy, lovage, euphorbia, sweet cicely and red valerian. Amazing, I'm so excited. April A large part of the annual side of gardening I'm finding is timing! Visiting my grandfather is helping me keep up with what I should be doing when |
Pippa Johns one of the founding members of Brighton Permaculture Trust put a call out for someone to help through the season in her garden for a few hours a week. Loads of people responded to this! (An interesting point here...there is a huge amount of people wanting permaculture experience and not many places for them to get it! I found this with WWOOF-ing also) Happily I am helping Pippa out in exchange for valuable experience in a mature permaculture designed garden and benefitting greatly from her knowledge. Very pleased to be doing this.
I’ll be trying to do my journal of my work largely on the computer as I think it’ll be easier to evaluate the information and also to go back to the information next year will re-upload every PR deadline. I'll also update the slideshow of her garden on my volunteering page as the months go by. Pippa invited me to come along to a Permaculture Gardening course this weekend. It was really very interesting, good to experience how other people teach and to remember some useful design techniques. She has a really nice teaching style and great use of interactive methods. Also to see how it can be taught to people on a small scale for their own gardens, the important elements and ethics. This stuff is so beneficial, and sortof needs to be taught in person like this...but it costs...how to make this accessible for more people? |
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27 April 2012
Having a sort of quarter way through evaluation thoughts whilst I was working today...I really like permaculture gardening, but am quick to get itchy feet with things, and want more more with less!!! There is really very little work to do in pippas garden in comparrison to more 'conventional' gardening styles, but still a fair amount of potting on and lugging poo and compost. I guess it was after listening to this pod cast with Helen Atthowe about compost, and how it is possible, and many people are, doing without it, I just felt like this still seems like a lot of interaction. Permaculture is constantly moving on. I suppose it all depends on what you want from your garden, I am interested to look at minimal effort systems such as food forests in comparrison to a garden such as this, and mine, and see what the differences are in type and quantity of imput and output. In particular, moving things, be it nutrients, soil or actual plants is something that I cant help wondering if there is a way around it....should learn a bit more in this area and draw my conclusions about how I would like to move forward with my own 'gardening' style (will it be gardening? Or more interacting?!!)
Here is my weekly diary of my work in pippa's permaculture garden |
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