congratulations fellow students you should have your certificate by now

and it all comes back to mulch ! the question is ....

 Do you know how i would stop cats from pooping in the containers outside? I've just planted bulbs for january to march and some flippin moggy keeps on doing its business on the soil, and then digging up the bulbs.



yeah i reckon cat poo is ok for plants but i'd just put some kind of good meshing on the top of the containers or just mulch over the top of them with something like straw and that should protect them from the beasties and the mice ...

it You find some leaves or something that would be a good mulch ... something that will add cosmic energy to the soil to help your flowers grow into beauties when spring come... i'm going on a bit about this now .

basically by building a natural barrier you mimic the forests natural process by protecting the delicate bulbs while still letting through important moisture. its important not to use an impermeable membrane for mulching and if you want your bulbs to come through in the spring then you really want to use something that they can easily get through. if you use something like cardboard then it will eventually break down but it might stop your bulbs as well as the weeds you want to reduce. i think since there are lots of leaves around at the moment that leaves are a perfect solution... they should break down quite well and if they don't you can just chuck em on the compotst heap come spring. just remember where you planted them !

and some music for you all

Two Young girls from Burundi : Akazehe
Barbra Streisand : By Myself
Plux Quba : Bruma Ultramarina 2
Grouper : A light Change
Kuupuu : Kyla
White Magic : Hold your hand in the dark
Milton Nascimento : Saidas E Banderias
The United States Of America : The American Metaphysical Circus
Paavoharju : Italialaisella Laivalla
James Blackshaw : Cross
Penguin Cafe Orchestra : Pigtail
Tim Hardin : Last Sweet Moments

SOUNDS SO MUCH BETTER STRAIGHT OFF VINYL .

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3242848/Clog%20mix%20for%20Rick%20Woodall%20edit.mp3

Permaculture Leeds Information

The Green Room: Leeds Permaculture Network Monthly Socials update See you there!

Meeting on the second Wednesday of the month, 6pm - 9pm. Every session will include talks, food to share, workshops, films, networking, project updates and announcements. The dates are: 9 November - Forest Gardens 7 December - Santa v the Green Man: Getting ready for a Green Christmas 11 January - Back yard permaculture 8 February - Seed stall and swap. Guerilla Gardening 14 March - Eco-building and retrofit New venue: Wyther Park meeting room, Floor 17, West Ridings House, 67 Albion Street, LS1 5AA. This is a great venue with an amazing view across Leeds. Bring food to share. See you there!

Surfing the waves of change

if anyone would like to post directly onto the blog its really easy 

 just send an email with everything you would like to post onto the blog to ... 

keswicklemon.offshoots@blogger.com

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Thought you might be interested to see this video on community resilience in times of rapid change. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdv_iAa5rnk



 

Jonathan . 

Tree Planting in the schools

Just approached the local council environmental department asking if I could do a tree planting session with Local school  students and they said yes ! I'm Also planning a bird bomb seed making day with the kiddies all for free ! Liam is still busy constructing his benches and working with the youngsters in most need of help into employment or training being the slave driver that he is. We are now focusing on how too offer more for less by identifying the higher social returns on capital investment and we are toying with the ideas of asset based community development times are tough and it makes me appreciate what I have rather than what I want.
Scott Lancaster

No Good Will Come Of It.

During our course last week we looked at nature and natural structures to gain inspiration for our designs.

A couple of summers ago, I built this sandcastle. 

The design was based on a spiral galaxy.

Once all the sandcastles were in place I decided that each sandcastle should have a white stone on top.

It was a race against time to get it finished before the tide came and washed it all away.

As with a permaculture project, the sandcastle went through the stages of design, implementation and modification (the white stones).

The sandcastle took about two and a half hours to complete and when it was finished I had a blister on my spade hand and the tide destroyed it almost as soon as it was finished,

but the joy of creative work in the open air made it all worthwhile. 

Story, Linocut and Photograph by Jonathan Penney 

A few Photos From The Latest Permaculture Course

Please Email On Keswicklemon@gmail.com if you have any more photos to add to these

The Three Sisters Guild

An idea when you are planning your garden for next year is looking at companion planting and in particular Guilds. The most famous Guild that i learned about when i was doing my permaculture course is the Three Sisters Guild of Corn, Squash and Beans. I have been doing some reading about this guild and i'll copy and paste a little as some people have already written so much about this already and i can't really put it across any better than they already have !

Plant first the corn in the centre and then the Beans ring the corn, and squash is planted at the edges. The corn stalks create a natural trellis for the beans to climb, while the beans fix nitrogen in the soil, which nourishes the corn. The leaves of the squash vines ramble around the mound, preventing the spread of weeds and providing shade for the shallow roots of the corn. The symbiotic interaction of the three plants allow them to produce more food using less water and fertilizer.

With my friend Rachael's garden in mind i thought this might be a good way to go to create a more sustainable permaculture ecosystem. With the increased groundcover of the squash it will reduce weeding and make the garden a little more self sufficient.

have a look at this blog senda verde its got an amazing description of how its done properly !

the Permaculture Happens blog is also really interesting as its another alternative look at the idea permaculture happens blog

i found this diagram to show how to lay out the plants when you are planting in spring.

plant the corn first and let it grow waist high before planting the beans then plant the squash too. magic ! would advise looking into it a little and not just going by my description but its a good start for you and anyone who knows of any other guilds then i'd be very interested to hear of any that work well in Rossendales heavy soil !

happy autumn gardening.