Creating Sanctuary Closest to Home

We all seek a sanctuary, a place that lifts our spirits where we can relax and appreciate the beauty of the natural world.

Early this year, our cottage was overflowing with people and work was particularly intense. Tim and I were feeling the need for peace and we knew that there would be no escape to Cornwall for our annual holiday this summer. So we decided to create our own little haven in the garden.

Our first job was the zone nearest the house, as you would expect for permaculture practitioners. I am always mindful of the Chinese saying, “The best fertiliser is the gardener’s shadow.” We planted the beds nearest the house with edibles like heritage French beans (a friend saved the seeds for us), Japanese wineberry, tomatoes, spinach and lots of flowers – for the pure pleasure and to attract beneficial insects. Being south-westerly in aspect the patio gets very hot, so in previous years we made sure we had good shade insummer and also invested in FSC garden furniture, literally making it into another room. We often eat and cook outside and the kids like to hang out there with their friends of an evening. Here’s Granny and the dogs chilling out there yesterday.

Just beyond the patio we grow tender salads. This year we have sown oriental saladini plus Italian and French blends, chives, rocket etc. We have to place sticks over the seed beds to stop the blackbirds digging up the bed, but once the seeds get away we get lots of salads from a small space.

Next, our raised beds are mostly annual vegetables. We never have much of a problem with slugs, in part because the woodchip paths deter them. We also have three small ponds nearby plus rotting wood piles that provide habitats for frogs, toads, hedgehogs, slowworms and common lizards. These little creatures seem to control any daring slugs that enter the patch and the thrushes (of which we seem to have had an abundance of this year) finish off the snails.

The lack of rain this year has meant that we have inadequate supplies of rainwater, despite having 240 litres capacity in our harvesting system. This autumn we will be doubling this to try and avoid resorting to mains water which is both energy intensive for water companies to produce, reduces the amount of water in local rivers, reservoirs and streams, affecting wildlife, and is full of chemicals. There is nothing like rainwater to germinate and grow healthy plants.

This year’s hot weather has encouraged bees, butterflies and moths which abound in the wildflower meadow, so much so that I need a lepidopterist to come and identify them all! Beside the usual candidates like cabbage whites, brimstones and commas, we have an abundance of blues who thrive on chalk downland and tiny moths. There are also many solitary bumble bees – we have added little habitats to encourage them – but sadly honey bees are now a rarity. This is an extraordinary change, as they used to be so abundant, and is disastrous in the long term for agriculture.

With a bustling and busy house, Tim and I decided to create another garden sanctuary at  the top of the meadow. After a lot of thought about yurts, tipis, tents and wooden structures, we decided on a bell tent made with heavy duty canvas plus a simple awning for shade and shelter. We have begun kitting out the interior with rugs and sheepskins and a comfortable bed from our camping gear collected over years of happy holidays. We’ll develop our outdoor cooking area and make some very simple rustic furniture to go with it.

Even after just an afternoon setting up, it is already a lovely little sanctuary. Yesterday, we sat and watched the butterflies in the meadow and the birds flying overhead. I doubt this sanctuary will end up being just for us, however. Within hours a little cuckoo (Gail) came home and found us up the garden and promptly climbed into bed for a snooze… and who could blame her?!

But the moral of this story is if circumstances don't allow you to take a holiday this summer, don't give up on the idea of being outdoors, enjoying nature and relaxing in your free time. Find some space and peace, either in your local nature reserve, a local weekend campsite, on the allotment or in your back garden. Make sure you can brew a cup tea, maybe cook a meal. There is nothing so good as to be outside in the elements, on your back doorstep, appreciating what is always under your nose.

Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture Magazine – inspiration for sustainable living. Issue 65 is just out and features lots of articles including Ben Law on Transition Trees, Perennial Vegetables, Small Scale Farming & Permaculture, profile of an ethical business, news, reviews, & solutions plus how to make a terracotta fridge and 10 money offer readers' offer. To support this independent publications please subscribe digitally for just £10 (approx $13.40) or subscribe to the printed edition (which will save you at least 20% of the cover price and allow you to enjoy it in the wilds!). To read a sample copy click here.

Permaculture & The Flowering of Happiness

In these times of disruption, change and transition, all of us can be excused for sometimes feeling perplexed, challenged, even a little lost. We are watching the old world slowly disintegrate. Our financial and political systems in the West are under the greatest of duress. Our natural global resources are seriously diminished as we face not only peak oil but also peak water. Whilst the work of earth restoration has never been more important, it is still largely ignored, subsumed by the broader fears surrounding economic chaos. It is understandable that any one of us can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the scale of what is wrong.

When those dark times envelop me what do I do? I go home and walk in the woodlands or go up on to the Downs and look out over 360 degrees of countryside. I savour the light dancing on the Solent and the silvery glints from the high rises of the City of Portsmouth. I look out over my bioregion and feel gratitude that I live in such a beautiful place. I am glad it is designated as a National Park, open to anyone, celebrated and preserved for future generations.

Having got my dose of landscape expansion, I go home to my garden and enter into a connection with the natural world there too. As Emma Cooper, friend and author of The Alternative Kitchen Garden, an A-Z, said to me recently, “Just putting my hands in the soil makes me feel better.” She has certainly entertatined me with some of her wonderful experiments!

I know every tree and shrub in my garden, its habit and blossom, its coming fruits. I know where the wrens nest and where the robins stake their territories in my hedgerow, and all the species of wildflower that bloom from early January right through the year. I love to listen to the drone of insects and happen upon shy common lizards that hunt in the long meadow grasses.

You may imagine that I have a smallholding, but it is a garden (admittedly a good size), full of as many habitats and species as we can invite in. It is near the greater habitat of the wild South Downs, full of deer, foxes, badgers, owls and birds of prey. I feel a part of this land. It nurtures and feeds me and places in perspective my small concerns within the largeness of Life and its mystery.

You may also imagine that permaculture gardening is a rather functional affair, where the focus is on yields of food, fuel and medicinal plants. This is a part of it, but gardening is also my art. This last year, with climate change pressing painfully into my consciousness and with fellow businesses struggling and failing, I took sanctuary in growing and planting. Tim and I have planted many hundreds of bulbs so that next Spring they will provide the plummeting bee populations with early nectar and ourselves with balm for the soul.

For me flowers are the equivalent to happiness in nature – as well as a practical key to planting robust diverse ecologies. I grow many types of fruit and none of my trees require sprays or codling moth traps because the pests are in balance with the beneficial insects and birds.

This passion for nature and celebration of biodiversity is not just an organic technique. It is both a meditation and a way of connecting with the powerful forces of nature. It makes me feel aligned to the other kingdoms, a co-creator of a beautiful place. Most of all it makes me happy.

Happiness is one of the most powerful forces in a human life. It opens us up and encourages us to love. It brings energy and appreciation, gratitude, reverence, and the capacity to invite adventure into our lives. It is incredibly important that we nurture it – for our health, wellbeing – and also to help make us more effective and loving human beings. Above all, happiness is a skill that can be learnt.

My friend, Chris Johnstone, has taught me much about the value of happiness and the importance of nurturing it. Dr Chris is an addictions specialist who has helped thousands of people overcome their problems, and he is a happiness ‘expert’. He works with Rob Hopkins, co-founder of The Transition Movement, and Joanna Macy, the inspirational teacher and activist who developed The Work That Reconnects.

His book, Find Your Power, is not just another boring pop psychology book. It is the distillation of his rich approach, helping people to become more effective and live the life they dream of. The book is also a call to adventure at this time of deep and challenging transition. In the latest Permaculture mag – out on Wednesday 21st July – Chris shares tried and tested strategies for growing happiness.

I like the way he ends his article, "Mood isn’t just something that happens to us, it is also influenced by choices we make and strategies we can learn. By recasting happiness as something linked to skills we develop, challenges we face and relationships we value, we contribute to a cultural recovery from over-consumption and help grow instead a model of sustainability that is attractive and deeply satisfying."

Because ultimately we have to change the way we live and move beyond our dependence on relentless economic growth to fuel our economies. What and how we consume will be the most vital and empowering factor in that process of change. It really is in our hands.

Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture Magazine – inspiration for sustainable living.

You can also read a sample copy.

See Chris Johnstone’s The Great Turning Times.

Emma presents the Alternative Kitchen Garden show, a free online podcast all about growing edible and useful plants in an environmentally friendly way.

Glastonbury Festival – an imperfect act of human co-operation on a vast scale

Just back from the 40th Glastonbury Festival and having put my clothes in the washing machine and myself in the shower, it is back to work after four days of sun and fun and no mud for a change. Glastonbury comes in for a lot of criticism for all the rubbish and abandoned camping equipment, the tonnes of crates of booze, fast food and drugs consumed. I do have mixed feelings about the event but I can't trash it with journalistic ease. It's a complex animal, like its maker.

Maddy and Michael Eavis

Tim and I represent Permaculture Magazine there as part of the press crew annually. We divide our time between the main stages and the farer flung Green Fields, seeking solace in the Permaculture area and the Healing Field where our friends reside. We also hang out in Hospitality – between the two main stages – meet interesting people (and talk to them about permaculture and the wonderful variety of the 'off-piste' Green Fields) and watch the paparazzi falling over themselves (literally) to photograph Kate Moss and other celebs. This year I interviewed Michael Eavis.

One of the paparazzi agitatedly lurking for a shot in front of a
VIP camping entrance.

Glastonbury is known for its amazing headline acts but Michael says that in spite of it consciously engaging with the mainstream, its roots are still firmly in non-conformism. He, as his beard betrays, is from a Methodist background and south Somerset itself has a long history of non-conformism. Besides Methodists, Clarks Village in Street just a few miles away, is a remnant of a strong Quaker presence in the area. Clarks, the shoe manufacturer, was once a big local employer and like so many Quaker business, affordable housing, Fair Trade, and ethical business were key elements (which is why it was such an abomination that Cadbury's was sold to an American corporate.) I went to Sidcot School, a Quaker school in Somerset, way back in the 1970s when I was Madeleine Wood. Michael says it is this non-conformist element that has kept Glastonbury going. He has had a surprising amount of local support over the years.

There's a lot of criticism of Glastonbury – the air miles of performers and the industry, the mountains of rubbish, the underlying drug culture, the whole bonanza of consumerism it encourages – but I don't see it that way. My friends in the Healing Field and the Permaculture area are in stark contrast with the main areas that we fondly call 'Babylon', and I need to retreat to their gentler spaces every day to recharge. But Babylon itself is a hugely good natured affair. Where else on a Saturday night in a typical city centre could you party and not experience violence? Just moving from one stage to another in a mass of humanity is a huge feat of communal co-operation. I personally saw only two small arguments (between man and wife, and another between father and child) during the whole event, no acts of aggression, and sure people had fun and ingested substances I'd personally avoid for health reasons, but they were good natured and in control. Only a few characters were off their heads. There were also a lot of people who go for the music – both big names and lesser knowns like Martha Tilston and at the lovely little music space in the Healing Field.

The other critical thing for me is that Glastonbury is often first exposure to creative ideas for young and old: sculpture, installations, circus, performance, green campaigns, renewables, eco-building, forest gardening... the Green Fields were heaving with people and the Permaculture area was constantly packed. I ate lovely ethical, organic salads and smoothies in these areas – you don't have to binge on cheese burgers and chips. Even Babylon has the most delicious and healthy spinach crepes cooked by good natured guys who work very long shifts.

The Eavises also have their charities. Last year they donated four million pounds to Greenpeace, Oxfam and Water Aid, built a local post office, supported a local school and have just finished an affordable housing development. Michael told me that the festival itself has saved seven local farms from going bankrupt and there is zero unemployment locally due to the event. I asked him how long the land takes to recover and he said by September all the wildlife has returned to the Farm. He rests the land every few years. I noticed that despite the damage he nonetheless has some good clover leys in his fields. Perhaps all those humans add to the fertility! He also said the birds love the remnant grains of rice and other bits of food that we all leave behind.

There's a lot of activism at Glastonbury. It is stealthy sure, but in those Green Fields you can see why another world is possible and lots of people do visit and have their eyes opened. I loved hanging out in the shady Permaculture gardens and watching people read the explanations of permaculture and absorb the messages.

The other aspect of Glastonbury activism is more subtle. It is impossible not to hear Stevie Wonder's message this year – he made articulate and moving pleas for peace in our lifetime, greater accessibility for the disabled and openly criticism anyone who kills in the name of religion, Christian or Muslim – but he was not the only artist requesting greater tolerance and unity. It came from all directions, including Faithless, Gorillaz and the Scissor Sisters, and was not just a cultural phenomena of Stevie and the Green Fields.

Of course the Eavises do make money and vast amounts of discarded waste does go to landfill, but it's a complex business this Glastonbury extravaganza and it isn't perfect, mainly because we as humans are not perfect. There are plenty of messages everywhere to 'Love The Farm' and take everything home with you when you go. We are the ones who trash the place, not the Eavises! I do agree that we need local green festivals in every region, but on balance we need Glastonbury because it proves that 177,000 people can co-exist in community, albeit only temporarily, in a relatively small space with almost no rules, practising goodwill and co-operation, and very largely have a good time. It works. And who in their right minds would not want the good fortune of seeing such a great man as Stevie Wonder once in a lifetime? He is extraordinary and beautifully vulnerable as well – and that is something I would never have experienced on TV. It was humbling. I'll never forget it. I am extremely grateful Glastonbury exists, for all its imperfections.

Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture Magazine – inspiration for sustainable living. To read a sample copy click here. To support this independent publications please subscribe digitally for just £10 (approx $13.40) or subscribe to the printed edition (which will save you at least 20% of the cover price).