The wonders of Permaculture
Last week we were learning all about Permaculture as part of our Seed2seed course. Hedvig Murray delivered a wonderful introduction to the topic and our group embraced the important learnings about how to apply Permaculture principles to your gardening design and your life in general!
We learned that Permaculture is a design process underpinned by an environmental, social and ethical basis. It is informed by observations of sustainable systems and aims to create efficient, enduring abundance.
Accordingly the ethics are earth care, people care, and fair shares. In fact these are the same ethics which we at FOOD from the SKY hold closely in all that we do as well.
It’s lovely seeing more of the garden in bloom, despite the lack of sunshine flowers are popping up left right and centre, for a city rooftop we’re very much alive with life! Each step across the rooftop reveals such an abundance of diversity: bumble bees, hoverflies, honey bees, beetles, worms, and much more – all enjoying the unexpected habitat we’ve created on the roof of Thornton’s Budgens.
Our favourite flower at the moment is Nasturtium! These are wonderful plants which produce delicious peppery flavoured edible flowers. Naturtium flowers are high in vitamin C, and are often used in cooking as a colorful and spicy flavoring. Another common use is to make a vinegar sauce out of it for salads or use it as a key ingredient in a lemon-flavored butter.
Nasturtiums are an excellent companion for many plants, helping to deter and trap aphids, and many other types of pests. Plant as a barrier around tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers and under fruit trees.
Happening this week at FOOD from the SKY:
Wednesday – volunteers work day with Sarah…10am-1pm. Please bring comfortable clothes, strong shoes, and weather appropriate clothing.
Friday – harvest and work day…9am-4pm. Please bring the same as above! More hands are needed for harvest, so if you can get there early that would be great. For the next 2 weeks, we’re offering a FREE bag of salad for harvest volunteers (required to come from 9am-1pm) Otherwise, we welcome volunteers anytime during the day – no obligation to stay for the whole day.
