Tatnam Organic Patch

Theresa explaining her design to Mark (and others)

Winter workdays are generally very cold, or pretty wet, and if we are really unlucky, both together. Today, our nearest approach to the Winter Solstice was cold and crisp, a great day for clearing some of the sallow, and pruning the brambles, to keep them in check but also ensure a productive blackberry crop for us and for the neighbours.

Barrow after barrow of bramble stems were trundled to the firepit, by intrepid young Dante, and being shorter than the pile, it often seemed that the barrow was self propelled towards its destination. Marcos and Andy pollarded a Sallow by degrees to avoid the fruit trees below, whilst Kat and Adrian busily cut away the old blackberry branches.

At one point most of us huddled in the greenhouse to listen to Theresa’s permaculture design plans for the central beds. Taking ideas from the early permaculture pioneers, but especially from Sepp Holzer, who farms at altitude in Austria, and gets incredible diversity of crops in a space where conventionally only trees would be farmed http://www.krameterhof.at/en/

Theresa is one of several members now undertaking a permaculture design diploma, which Gary after 6 year of effort has almost completed (target of March 10th for his celebration). Her re-design for what is currently beds 7-14 will attempt to use polyculture, companion planting, and ‘no bare soil’ techniques. The shape of the beds, and the edging is still to be defined. Being a permaculture design, it reviews much of the rest of the site, the availability and distribution of water, how we encourage birds and beneficial insects onto site, hedgehogs and other means to control slugs, and the effort that we can put in, and hopefully produce out.

The audience for Theresa's Design (Gary and Andy out of shot !)

We look forwards to the more detailed designs, intended to be complete and implemented this spring !

Meantime, we had a great pumpkin soup, pasta salad, quiche and christmas cake, with chololate covered gingerbread biscuits (sadly the latter was not homemade). Gathering the tools and discarded plates in the darkness, we reflected on another successful workday at the patch.