Friday, Aug 1, 9-10am Sustainable World Radio on KCSB
91.9 FM and streaming live on
www.kcsb.org. Also
found on
www.sustainableworldradio.com, or
www.radio4all.net
later in the month
Join Jill Cloutier of Sustainable World Radio for an interview with
English Urban Permaculturist/Author Graham Burnett
www.grahamburnett.net He is an experienced permaculture practitioner,
designer and teacher. Burnett is a member of the Council of Management of
the Permaculture Association (Britain), and holds the Diploma in
Permaculture Design (Dip Perm Des). Graham is self published author of
Permaculture, a Beginners Guide and other books listed below.
Also joining the interview will be Wesley Roe of Santa Barbara
Permaculture Network
FURTHER NOTES ON GRAHAM BURNETT
Graham Burnett has over 20 years experience in working with adults
with learning disabilities, including in horticultural settings,
and has designed a number of therapuetic and productive landscapes using
permaculture and forest gardening principles. He has tended allotments
since 1984, and is a qualified organic gardener and an active member of
his allotment association
and the South East Organic Gardeners
Group
TRANSITION TOWN WESTCLIFF
http://www.transitionwestcliff.org.uk/
Graham Burnett is involved with the Transition Town Westcliff,
an exploration of how the people of Westcliff on Sea and the surrounding
area can prepare for a carbon constrained, energy lean world. TTW is a
community-led initiative which is working towards the creation of an
Energy Descent Action Plan for the town. The thinking behind TTW is
simply that a town using much less energy and resources than we presently
consume could, if properly planned for and designed, be more resilient,
more abundant and more pleasurable than the present.
TOWARDS AN ECOLOGY OF THE SELF'
-Zone Zero Zero permaculture design notes by GRAHAM
BURNETT
http://www.grahamburnett.net/
"You start with your nose, then your hands, your
back door, your doorstep. You get all that right, then everything is
right. If all that's wrong, nothing can ever be right"
-Bill Mollison
A small booklet exploring the role of the 'personal' in permaculture
design systems. The interconnected permaculture ethics of earthcare and
peoplecare imply that wholeness and earth repair is not just about the
wider ‘out there’ of our gardens, farms, forests and oceans, but is just
as importantly to do with the ‘ecology of the self’. Paying attention to
our own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs and development
is fundamental to good 'Zone Zero Zero' design. Just as peace is not
simply the absence of war, so too health is not just about being free
from disease. Therefore self-care - setting up holistic mind and body
systems in order to avoid sickness, depression, stress and burn-out - is
a vital part of enhancing well-being and developing personal
effectiveness.
PUBLICATIONS
Graham has written, illustrated and self-published a number of books and
pamphlets through Spiralseed, a small business enterprise dedicated
to promoting permaculture and earthright living using illustration,
literature and other media. Titles include;
Permaculture, a Beginners
Guide
Well Fed, Not An Animal
Dead
Towards An Ecology of the
Self - Zone Zero Zero Permaculture Design Notes
Happy, Healthy, Caring and
Sharing - a Book For Young Green Vegans
and
Earthwritings, a
collection of articles, artwork, conversations and songs prefaced by
Penny Rimbaud of
CRASS.
He is currently writing a book for Permanent Publications as well as
working on a book of 'Thinking Tools' for Spiralseed.
Lifestyle Gardening? No Thanks! by Graham Burnett
The following article was written as the
first of a series of forthcoming 'gardening columns' for 'The Idler'
magazine www.idler.co.uk
Friends and colleagues are often surprised by my attitude towards Reality
TV gardening shows- for aren’t they are encouraging the cathode-ray
addled masses to get outdoors, get their hands dirty and get growing-
surely no bad thing? Well I’m afraid I’m unconvinced. Basically they are
just another variation on the endless slew of ‘makeover’ programs that
tell us what to eat, what to wear and how to live. You know the kind of
thing- invariably they feature an host of celebrities gurning into the
camera whilst they slap down the decking, exotic ornamentals and (ahem)
'water features' as a 'surprise' for some gormless householder while
they'd just popped down the shop for a packet of fags or something. If
these punters couldn't keep their garden in order when it was just a
patch of lawn with a rabbit hutch and a kid’s tricycle on it, how do they
hope to cope once its converted into a high maintenance, Corporate Garden
Centre-dependant mini-version of the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon???
My vision of the urban garden is a place where we can begin to develop
self-reliance, growing useful crops such as fruit, vegetables and herbs
by implementing permaculture techniques and methods. The difference
between the permaculture garden and its more 'conventional' counterpart
is basically to do with design- or at least, an approach towards design.
Of course, 'design' is very much addressed by the ‘lifestyle’ shows.
However this tends to be focused purely in terms of aesthetics and
fashion- what colours and shapes go well together this year, where best
to place that decking or water feature to impress the neighbours, how to
avoid those plants and flowers that are just so passé... It’s also
an exclusive and top-down approach. We the viewers, as well as their
clients in TV land, simply sit back and gawp as open mouthed passive
consumers whilst ‘The Experts’ dazzle us with their skills, knowledge and
witty banter.
Permaculture design on the other hand is more about building up a
thorough and intimate understanding of both your garden (its aspect, soil
type, wind and rainfall patterns, what plants or creatures share it with
you, etc) and what you actually want from it. Therefore my first piece of
practical advice to any gardener that would prefer to work with rather
than against nature is simply to Slow Down- "Don’t just do
something- sit there". Many permaculturists recommend a
non-intervening observation period of at least twelve months. In reality
this isn't always practical as we usually need (or want!) to obtain some
kind of a yield before this, and you might well fancy cultivating at
least part of your plot in order to get in a few crops of spuds, onions,
carrots, etc. However the 'leave it a year' rule is certainly good advice
to follow before making any changes that may be difficult to reverse,
such as any major landscaping, pond creation, tree and hedge planting or
building permanent structures like sheds and greenhouses.
By practising ‘thoughtful inaction’ rather than the frantic activity
promoted by the makeover shows you will gain a good solid grounding
regarding the relationship between you, your garden, it’s limitations and
it’s assets. In the long term such insights will be essential if you are
to develop a truly sustainable and integrated landscape that can produce
food, medicines, seeds (for propagation or sharing out with others- make
your plot a community hub!), craft and building materials, fibres, dyes,
and much more.
This certainly isn't to say that productive landscapes should be about
visually dull utilitarianism. Form follows function, and all the
permaculture gardens I've ever seen are places of great beauty. But this
kind of beauty flows from the relationships to be found in natural
eco-systems, at once elegant in their simplicity, yet at the same time
diverse in their complexity. Furthermore, a well-designed permaculture
garden has many other 'uses' beyond simply 'growing stuff'- play area
(for kids or adults…), spiritual retreat, open-air art gallery, wildlife
sanctuary, tree nursery, nattering with the neighbours, yoga and
mediation space, bio-diversity storehouse or somewhere to dry your
washing.
Above all, the permaculture garden should be somewhere for relaxation and
enjoyment, not yet another place to get hung up about whether or not you
are ‘doing it right’ or meeting others’ expectations. For me, there's
nothing like our small urban garden on a summer's afternoon. The bushes
and trees are literally dripping with grapes, cherries, apples,
loganberries, blackcurrants, strawberries and raspberries, whilst burnet,
sorrel, rocket, mints, Welsh and tree onions, chives, lovage, lettuces,
day lilies, marigolds, poppies and other edible leaves and flowers fill
the salad beds. Buddleia and evening primroses scent the warm air and
frogs and newts plop into the pond. Blue tits search the trees for bugs
whilst starlings polish off the cherries that are out of human reach.
Cuban or dub grooves drift from the open kitchen window and I'm under the
shade of the quince tree in a deck chair with a case of fine local beer
and a good book- truly the embodiment of 'the designer as a recliner’,
and much better than watching the telly any day…