Permaculture Design Course West Norfolk: April – September

The fourth West Norfolk Permaculture Design Course is starting in April 2013 and will run for six weekend over six months at six inspiring West Norfolk venues. This course has been very popular for the last three years and is helping to build a strong permaculture community across Norfolk. 

This course provides an introduction to the design methods, tools, principles and ethics that underpin this sustainable design system. It is a unique opportunity to meet other people in the area who are exploring more sustainable ways of living and to visit some exciting projects already employing the principles of permaculture.

The first weekend (April 13/14) is an introduction and participants can come to this as a stand-alone weekend. For those who wish to explore further, there will be five additional weekends on 11/12 May, 8/9 June, 13/14 July, 10/11 August and 14/15 September. All those who complete the full course will receive a certificate and be able to continue on to do the permaculture  diploma if they wish. 

Details and information can be found on the Norfolk Permaculture web site at http://norfolkpermaculture.wordpress.com/. For more information e-mail westnorfolkpdc@gmail.com or call Ben on 01760 756029.

Norwich Farmshare: Introduction to Permaculture Course -22 September

led by growers Brenna Powys and Tierney Woods
The course is open to anyone, members and non-members alike, so do tell any of your friends who might be interested. It’s a great chance to come and learn about the principles of permaculture – and how they can be applied in a whole host of situations; from the expected (your garden, farm or local park) to the unexpected (your work, community group or family).
Permaculture is at the heart of the Transition movement and, as FarmShare emerged from Transition Norwich where many involved were inspired by permaculture principles, we thought this would be a great course to run on the land at Postwick. In essence permaculture (from ‘permanent agriculture‘ and ‘permanent culture‘) is about “designing sustainable human communities by following nature’s patterns” and the weekend course will introduce the key guiding principles; from observation and reflection through the underpinning ethical framework to the practical design approach.
You’ll also get to meet other local permaculturalists and see examples of projects in the growing Norfolk Network!
The weekend can be regarded as a taster before embarking on the full design course but is also useful as a standalone introduction.
Dates: Saturday 15th in Norwich city centre venue Bicycle Links and Saturday 22nd at FarmShare site at Postwick
Cost: £50-£60 per person (depending on number of participants.). Concessions available.
For more information speak to or email Tierney
To find out more about permaculture visit the Permaculture Association’s website HERE

Permaculture Norfolk - July /August

Wakelyns Agroforestry visitIn July, 15 of us visited one of the Organic Research Centre sites, the fantastic Wakelyns Agroforestry in Suffolk. We were lucky enough to have an extensive tour of the farm by the owner/researcher Martin Wolfe.

Wakelyns are trialling growing crops cereals, potatoes and fertility building cover crops in rotation in alleys with a row of coppice or hardwood trees each side. They are then observing the yields and benefits of doing so compared to monocultures.

Diversity and increasing the opportunity for interactions between organisms are key.

By growing mixed varieties of wheat in trial areas they are able to compare the yield to an area of ‘standards’-low genetic diversity. They are also observing how they fair over generations and which varieties are naturally selected over others to the local conditions.

The farm is a closed loop system apart from the diesel for the machinery and some seeds! A very interesting afternoon. Thanks to Martin and Wakelyns for their hospitality and time. Keep up the good work. Tierney Woods

Wakelyn's Agroforestry www.wakelyns.co.uk. See googlegroup and TN calendar for workday/trip details as they arise. New faces welcome! To join the googlegroup discussion group or for more info: Tierney (tierneywoods@yahoo.co.uk)

Permaculture Norfolk - June/July 2011

Welcoming those from 2010 and 2011 West Norfolk Permaculture Courses!

Brenna and Matt have connected up with the mailing lists of those who have recently completed their permaculture design certificates or attended intro courses with Hannah Thorogood of Designed Visions. Hooray for strengthening the Norfolk network! http://www.designedvisions.com/

Trip to Wakelyns Agroforestry

Thanks to Louisa who works at Wakelyns we have organised a tour and discussion with Martin Wolfe of the Organic Research Centre at his Suffolk Base. We very much look forward to meeting Martin and learning about the various research projects they are carrying out. http://www.wakelyns.co.uk

Workdays On the19th June Brenna, Callum and Brenna’s friend Luke assisted Erik to plant winter wheat as part of his ongoing cereals experimentation and winter vegetables. Next workday tbc. See googlegroup and TN calendar for details as they arise. New faces welcome! Tierney Woods tierneywoods@yahoo.co.uk)

Inter-cropping at Wakelyns Agroforestry. Top image, organic wheat understory. Pictures by Wakelyns.

Permaculture Norfolk - April and May

What's in a name? As there are so many people that we have met along the way who live further out into the county, we have decided to cast our net out further and rename ourselves to include our county cousins. Therefore we have decided on a little rename from Permaculture Norwich to Permaculture Norfolk!

Google group As we continue to grow in size as a group we acknowledge that some people might want to dip in and out of the groups’ activities as and when they have the time or interest. We also want to decrease the time spent administrating and for discussions to occur online. We therefore have decided to start a Permaculture Norfolk googlegroup.

UEA permaculture society allotment workday 10th April-fun in the sun! Polytunnel beds prepped for seedlings, asparagus planted.

Next workday is at Erik's in Hethersett, date and time TBC. See calendar for details. New faces welcome! Tierney (tierneywoods@yahoo.co.uk)

Permaculture Norwich - 10 April

On Saturday 19 March we had our first excursion! The warm sun shone on our faces as we had a social and educational day of tours of permaculture demonstration sites: The Apricot Centre, Manningtree and The Peoples Community Garden in Ipswich. Thank you Marina and Susannah for hosting our group of twelve. See Kerry’s post on the Transition Norwich This Low Carbon Life blog for pics!

Sunday 10th April-10.30 UEA permaculture allotment and forest garden workday Activities could include: - maintaining beds at allotment -sewing seeds in polytunnel - maintaining forest garden site -bonfire Bring work gloves and food to share for lunch. See calendar for times/directions/details. New faces welcome! Contact Tierney for more info on the Norwich Permaculture group (Tierneywoods@yahoo.co.uk).

Apricot Centre Tour, Time to share in the sun at PCG, Leaving the place better than we had found it-helping plant up salad seedlings for PCG

Norwich Permaculture Workday and Excursion - 5 March

Not one but TWO permaculture group workdays took place in January....oooh we’re keen!

On a sun sun sunny day in Hethersett we had an afternoon in Erik’s garden. A good old wood-chopping, bed-mulching, perpetual-onion- transplanting, vegetable-lactofermenting (a way of preserving for those that weren't there!) session.

Ruth (like a lightning bolt) then organised a second workday at her house to maintain her shed sauna. A superinsulated double roof layer stuffed with straw was crafted then re-felted decreasing the amount of wood needing to be chopped to keep it toasty (and dry!). Activity rolled into the evening with various food experiments to create a meal with the ingredients contributed.

Thanks and welcome to new faces Lesley, Louisa, Matt, Luci, Ruth and Clare for their time and energy.

Sat 5March. Workday at Brenna’s, Kirkstead .Activities could include: preparing a no-dig veg area (which does initially involve some digging!),coppicing willows building a haybox cooker (and possibly modifications on our outside fridge) planting comfrey, planting out seedlings..lots of general garden stuff! Contact Brenna for more info/directions. brennasbox@yahoo.com

Sat 19th March 2011 Our first excursion! To two sites registered with the Permaculture Association as good demonstration sites of permaculture design in action. We will be visiting: The Apricot Centre, Manningtree and The Peoples Community Garden in Ipswich. Having tours and doing a little work as a thank you for hosting us. We will leave Norwich at 09.00 and return at 18.50. Contact Tierney if you are interested in coming along (Tierneywoods@yahoo.co.uk).

Bed mulching/perpetual onion transplanting, Erik’s wood pile (no we didn’t chop all that wood that day!),shed sauna pre-renovations

Transition Norwich Community Woodland

Following a blog entry about the government selling off our national forests, we came up with the idea of buying a woodland together. Subscription is now open for shares in a community woodland. We'd like to buy a woodland within 6 miles of the city limits of Norwich. When one comes up for sale, we'd need to have potential shareholders in place, therefore you need to subscribe now. Subscription does not commit you to buying shares. A typical small woodland costs £5,000 - 50,000 (see e.g. http://www.woodlands.co.uk/). Indicate your interest here.

Andy Wightman: Put forests in the hands of the people.

Permaculture workday - 23 January

To meet, to share, perchance to do some work if it stops raining/snowing!

This Norwich permaculture workday caught the turning of the weather last weekend but held off enough for us to prepare 3 raised beds, plant beans, peas and garlic and weed the herb spiral in Ruth’s garden in Costessey between warming cups of tea.

Before our shared meal and shed-sauna we chatted about what we wanted from being in the group. We like the hands-on ‘doing’ side of meeting up. Being outside and helping each other out whilst sharing knowledge from our own experiences. A visual ‘ah! Look what got done!’ balanced with the social and relaxed chats and fooooood. We decided we were happy for it to grow, and go, however and wherever it wanted rather than to force it to take a direction. Less pressure, less stress! As long as everyone is happy with that! :)

Next stop Eriks garden Jan 9th and CSA tree planting Jan 30th. See Calendar for details (Tierney Woods)

Weeding the herb spiral, preparing raised beds for planting, steamed vegetables, tomato borlotti bean stew, carrot and beetroot salad, shed-sauna.

Permaculture group

Permaculture can be used design anything (your life, garden, business, community project, kitchen etc...really...anything!) to be a sustainable (low input) system. Low energy, low time, low cost, low planetary impact. We can learn from observing natural systems that there are principles of how they function efficiently. These insights can then creatively shape the design.

The foundation of permaculture systems are the ethics of earth care, people care and fair sharing of resources.

It's about making connections.

The Norfolk Permaculture group has come together through a shared understanding through our experiences and learning of permaculture.

We wish to support each other through sharing skills, knowledge, contacts and be extra sets of hands on projects. We want to be a hub for those new to permaculture in Norwich and Norfolk (and some of Suffolk ) or those who have just finished their design courses.

There is now a Norfolk Permaculture website (hooray!) which can be found here.

We've set up a google discussion group so we can easily share information with each other. This could be offers, requests, sharing info, details about courses or workdays. If you would like to be added to this google discussion group please email Tierney: tierneywoods@yahoo.co.uk.

For background info and reading there are books available in the Norfolk County Council Libraries.

Permaculture Gardening Workshop - 10 July

Come and find out what Permaculture Gardening is all about. These informal workshops will cover the 12 Permaculture Design Principles, how to apply these in your own gardens to create edible, biodiverse and beautiful spaces, including using ponds, discovering Mulch (and why mulching matters!), companion planting, herb spirals, keyhole beds and composting. Also a session on Forest Gardening, layering and Perennial crops. and Permaculture gardeners question time!

The introductory workshop will be held at the Grow Your Own shed at Bluebell Allotments (South), from 10-4 on Saturday 10th July. Please bring something to share for lunch, hot drinks provided. £10 donation to cover costs. 10-12 participants. (Brenna Powys/Food & Farming)

To book a place please contact Mahesh Pant at sustainable@talktalk.net

tel:01603 455868 www.grow-our-own.co.uk