Hi people,
Autumn comes too soon. I look at the rampant growth of the vegetable garden and think what a great summer it was for growing in Ireland! The tropical style bright sun interspersed with electrical storms and heavy downpours really got things growing and maturing fast. The cabbages have firm heads, the tomatoes are reddening up. Of course all that growth was helped along by sound permaculture principles – for instance, we cycle our own nutrients, don’t have to buy in fertilizer, our diluted urine is far superior!
cabbage1
One giant cabbage and three normal heads in our permaculture garden
Plants are mixed together, not in regimented rows of single species. The oak leaved lettuces have been giving us a few leaves every few days for many weeks now, with no sign of bolting. They are sheltered by a few zucchini plants. They do like a bit of shade.
The garden is such a source of joy. We love to watch the many insects hovering around the flowering mizunas (that’s a wonderful Japanese salad veg, in case you haven’t come across it). Little birds are diligently at work eating insects and the frogs from the nearby frog pond have done a great job reducing the slug population.
You may not be surprised to hear that the summer weather was sunnier and wetter than usual, with up to 2 or 3 times the normal rainfall. I have hardly had to water the garden at all! This tropical type weather also happened last year and with increased rainfall predicted by Climate Change scenarios, it augurs well for gardeners! However last summer was a bit too wet and many cereal crops just rotted and the grains were even sprouting on the heads, a disaster for the croppers (although oats can handle a lot of damp and are such an excellent food!)
Obviously these conditions are not good for traditional farming here. Nor is the removal of REPS subsidies, which have constituted up to half of the incomes of many County Leitrim farmers, the Leitrim Observer recently noted. Artificial props for unsustainable systems tend to fend off reality. Leitrim land tends to be poor, mismanaged, boggy etc for viable traditional farming. The damp and fertile soils, however, are brilliant for many crops. Ireland desparately needs greater food security, so with farmers leaving the land and farmland prices no doubt tumbling, the opportunity is growing for a new breed of farmers to come on board, people who use thoughtful, creative design to produce food. Permaculture principles can be applied for new and diversified crops. Small plots can be viable again…
I have had a productive summer myself, with time well spent writing a new book – ‘Sensitive Permaculture – cultivating the way of the sacred Earth’, hopefully soon to be available via Amazon. Will keep you posted.
EconoSpaceMaking
Peter is running a LIVE EconoSpaceMaking Course on the weekend of September 19/20th.  Participants can learn all about the design and construction of this planning-free, low-cost building.
This is the perfect way to positively embrace the issue of sustainable living and to explore the possibilities of mortgage-free living.
The current EconoSpace utilises clay-straw – the ultimate low-cost, environmentally-friendly building material.
Booking & Enquiries 076 602 6046

Please let us know of anything nicely permacultural happening so we can publicise it and if you want to get the odd email from us, ask to be put on our emailing list. We do love correspondence!
Happy gardening and eco-living!

Alanna Moore

Editor

27/8/09
LETTERS

Letter a reader, Jane Christie –

Hello,

I found your website and thought you might be able to help!

I am soon to move back to just outside Derry onto my Dad’s dairy farm.

I have done my permaculture design course and am really interested in putting it into action on the farm.

I’d really like to get in touch with other permaculture people in northern Ireland, do you know any?!

Thanks,

Jane

Email – janechristie1@hotmail.co.uk

* Jane was happy for us to publish her letter. We are also keen to know of any other relevant permaculture groups or activities in Ireland, so please tell us too!

We have offered Jane to go to Derry next year and give a talk on permaculture to motivate/focalise a bit of permaculture action there. Would anyone else like to organize a talk for us to give? Or a one day permaculture gardening or natural building course?

* Another reader wrote in to say that she found it confusing to find that there are two Permaculture Ireland websites. Agreed! Let’s just say that the .org site is not an organization at all (neither are we, but we don’t pretend to be!)


NEWS

VEC Permaculture course about to start in Wicklow Town:

PERMACULTURE

DESIGN

Part-time course

County Wicklow Vocational Education Committee

Community Education Programme

About the Course:

Successful participants may achieve

accreditation of a Minor Award at FETAC Level

5 in Permaculture Design.


Course Aims

• Develop an awareness of the importance of practical solutions-based approaches to environmental problems

• Be familiar with the practical application of Permaculture Design to a wide range of situations

• Be capable of assembling the appropriate elements of a Permaculture System in the most effective way possible

• Be able to carry out Permaculture Designs to a high standard

• Be empowered and inspired to apply what you have learned to your own lives


Units

PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES

THE INTENSIVE FOOD GARDEN

THE GREEN HOME

THE SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY

SUSTAINABLE LAND USE

PERMACULTURE DESIGN


Course Details

This is a one year part-time course running

from September 2009 to May 2010.

The course will be held on Tuesdays from

7.30pm to 9.30pm, (within normal term

times) in Co. Wicklow VEC Further Education

Campus, The Murrough, Wicklow Town.

The course will include site visits.

The tutor will use collaborative teamwork

and groupwork rather than lecture style

methodology.

The fee for this course is €125. Students

who are in receipt of Unemployment

Benefit/Assistance or have other social

welfare entitlements will pay a subsidised

fee of €20.


Who can Apply

Anyone who is interested in, or involved in

environmental sustainable community

projects.

Short-listing may apply for this course, and

places will be reserved for those in receipt

of Unemployment Benefit/Assistance, and

those with other social welfare entitlements.


Contact:

Mary Mooty

Community Education Section

Co. Wicklow VEC

The Murrough Education campus

The Murrough

Wicklow Town

tel: 0404 32574 | 086 0460510

Fax: 0404 32476

Email: mmooty@wicklowvec.ie
ARTICLES
Eco-Living Festival Report
by Seamus Mc Goldrick
As published in the Leitrim Observer