Category: Permaculture

My mind is often bubbling with enterprising project ideas and I’m grateful to feel so stimulated in life. Ideas spark the most when reading a visionary non-fiction book. I recently read Sowing Seeds in the Desert by Masanobu Fukuoka. It’s one of those books where you feel compelled to write notes as you go along,… Continue reading Sowing Seeds in the Desert, reflections on Fukuoka

4.30am. It’s too cold to sleep. I’m scrunched up in my sleeping bag, hood over my head, wrapped in a blanket, in my long johns. But it’s not enough and although I’m not shivering, I feel the cold sinking into my bones. I made an excellent decision to get up, have a hot shower and… Continue reading Notes from Forest Gardening Course: Part II

It was a cold night camping and my alarm didn’t sound, so I had to get up and leave straight away. No tea or shower but a beautiful walk to Dartington Church Hall, walking briskly. We spent the first session discussing design techniques. The real value for the group is having the opportunity to learn… Continue reading Notes from Forest Gardening Course: Part I

I wanted to start my revived blog by writing about 5 passions in my life. This one is about permaculture: Permaculture has given me a new lens to look at land and design – a lens that has renewed my hope for our future. I was introduced to permaculture in December 2011 while I was living… Continue reading Passion #2: Permaculture

Wells Fargo is a big security company in Kenya and their headquarters sits in an industrial part of Nairobi, where business parks are dotted between wide, busy roads. Beside the pavements are stagnant, effluent filled streams. It is an unlikely place for a tourist to go. With my buddy Petra, we were visiting Catherine Kinoti,… Continue reading An unlikely permaculture garden

Last night I watched a documentary from the incredible series Human Planet. It focused on the ingenious and astonishing lengths people go to in order to have access to water. From community traditions found in the Sahara including Algerian tunnellers that tap into ancient water networks, to fog harvesting in the Atacama desert in Chile,… Continue reading Finding water

We’ve been planting trees in the field around the access:energy workshop. Four moringa (moringa arborea) and a mango tree. To save us having to water the plants each day, my colleague Caleb suggested we use glass bottles to do it for us. After digging a small hole next to the plant, you fill it with water.… Continue reading Low-tech drip irrigation