I'm so happy after the first Colchester Urban Permaculture meeting, held yesterday evening at The Waiting Room.
I have been brainstorming ideas for an Urban Permaculture Garden for the past month, reading books; studying the site; mulling over the possibilities and the challenges.
I have been immersing myself in organic farming, gardening and permaculture for the past 18 months ~ sparked off after an Introduction to Permaculture day course at The Big Garden (Highwoods, Colchester) early in 2012, Ben Lambert and Bob Mayhew opened the door to a whole new direction in life. I left Colchester, with my bike and backpack looking for more ~ WWOOFing on smallholdings in the beautiful South-West.
Since then I have been learning about permaculture and the possibilities, earlier this year I found myself on a Permaculture Design Course in Sweden and after that, was lucky enough to gain a funded place on a 4 week Organic Farm Management Placement in the The Czech Republic. Landing back in Colchester, I decided it was time to harness all my new knowledge into planting some seeds and grow some stuff!
An Allotment? A garden? A smallholding? Any piece of land to nurture myself? I realised I had access to none of these! I have a work share on a local C.S.A Farm (Bennison Farm) and volunteer at the Big Garden so get to work outside plenty but have never have the opportunity to grow things myself and it dawned on me that the majority of people face the same situation ~ concrete jungles filled with plastic wrapped vegetables from supermarkets.
There are many positive organic growing projects around, it took me a while to discover them ~ so how would everyone else find out about what can be done to become more sustainable?
This is where I decided I wanted to set up an Urban Permaculture Garden in Colchester Town Centre ~ and was graced with the opportunity after the opening of St. Botolphs Waiting Room ~ they wanted to have a gardening project as part of the new community ~ they needed someone with some knowledge ~ perfect!
I set up a meeting a week ago, sending an invitation out to anyone interested in my idea, to come along, share and see what happened. I spent a week agonising over the meeting ~ wondering who would turn up and how I could persuade them on board.
Ten lovely faces turned up, a few familiar faces amongst strangers ~ I preceded the meeting, explaining my ideas, hopes, plans and asked "What do you think?". Nothing could of prepared me for the enthusiasm and positive reactions, everyone was so fervent!
We left the meeting all with allocated jobs and new friends, while I am writing this blog entry I got invited to a new group on Facebook ~ Colchester Urban Permaculture ~ smiling as I realised I had met a group of like-minded individuals with the a get up and go attitude!
The aim of this project, is to create a productive urban garden ~ demonstrating permaculture principles, providing inspiration and education for all the community, as well as a beautiful space for all to share.
We are going to defeat the concrete and create a resilient container-style garden, using recycled pallets, local resources and the hands of many to share our enthusiasm and demonstrate that you can provide organic food in any environment.
In the forthcoming weeks, keep an ear out for the first workshops and volunteer opportunities ~ an Introduction to Permaculture course and a chance to hack apart pallets and make raised beds and benches for the urban Garden.
Find us on Facebook ~ and feel free to contact us on our brand spanking new email [email protected]
image above by καρλο [ AKA Gilyo
image right by Bob Elderberry