Hot again, carry on cucumbers, bugs and good bugs, ducks

We've had record breaking heat this past week, almost unbearable at my work (a school kitchen);  because it's been so hot I've not done as much at the allotment as I'd planned--it's been too hot to get things done after my shift.  Normally this time of year I'm there both morning and afternoon;  instead I've been going straight home after work to try and cool down in the ten minutes before I have to walk up to collect the daughter from school.

So in the 15 or 20 minutes I have in the morning before school and before it's got too hot, I've finished planting out all my leeks at last, continued picking mange tout peas (sold to me as snap peas, but these are definitely flat podded peas, not the round swollen pods I expected), picked the last of the gooseberries, carried on loosening and pulling bindweed from my wood chip mulch, and of course watering all my containers.  Not all of these jobs in one day, unfortunately!  Though the daughter has helped water in the morning and the son and husband have done so in the evening.

The cucumber saga continues:  the plants growing in my kitchen garden are indeed growing, while I've lost a few more to slugs at the allotment.  Regardless, I feel a little more confident about the possibility of harvesting some, at least at home.  However, I may not be able to save seed as I have two varieties growing practically in the same bed:  a pickling variety and a salad variety.  I don't want cross pollinated seed as I really do want both types;  I might have to buy seed for next year.  Though if the salad variety at the allotment manages to produce I may be able to save some uncrossed seed from them.

It's only in the last week or so I've seen the cabbage white butterflies out and about, fluttering around my brassicas.  I've even found a few inside the insect mesh at the allotment;  the cabbages have grown so tall they've pulled the netting up enough for butterflies to sneak in.  While I have a few unprotected plants at home--the mature spring cabbages I've been gradually harvesting and a few late-sown kohlrabi--I put my last small piece of mesh over my newly planted pak choi bed.  

On the positive side, there are also a lot of hoverflies in my kitchen garden this summer.  And I mean a lot!  I've read they eat aphids in their larval stage, so I can only assume they've been busy earlier in the year.  I think they're really cute, hovering around my flowers and plants.  While not as populous as the hoverflies, I've also seen a lot of ladybugs and larva going about their business.  I let all the bugs get on with it for the most part in both my garden and allotment, and let the resident predators take care of any problems for me, a la permaculture.  My policy is live and let live and the only active role I take is against cabbage caterpillars, but not with insecticide or anything like that;  I pick them off and give them to my ducks.

Speaking of ducks, it's been about three months since we adopted those three nervous Snowflake ducks--how are they getting on?  We officially combined the whole flock in April, about a month after we brought the Snowflakes home.  They are much less quacky now, less scared of everything and used to free ranging in the garden;  we still lock them up overnight and let them out again in the morning.  Boy Duck still chases them once in a while, but they don't freak out about it and he's much less aggressive about it too.  Girl Duck has gotten really slow and trips over her own feet when she tries to run;  I worked out that she's actually about 10 years old now, and Boy Duck is 8.  The Snowflakes, not yet 1 year old, are all laying an egg a day:  big tasty ones with lovely white shells.

Cherries and also not cherries

(The Vegetable Challenge has restarted!  More details next week!) 

It turns out I've not been getting many Kordia cherries or Czar plums off my trees for the past several years because of a pair of pigeons.  They were witnessed in the spring, methodically stripping both buds and young leaves from my trees, meaning hardly any fruits formed at all.  These are wood pigeons (we don't currently have any feral pigeons around);  one of the neighbors has been known to shoot them with an air rifle in his own garden--but in this case I would have been quite happy to shoot them myself!  They're too big for netting:  I don't know if I can protect my trees in the future.

Hiding the few cherries that survived the pigeons, June 2025

Only a few Kordia cherries, but at least they're perfect underneath their cloth napkin, June 2025

On the other hand, my little Morello cherry tree produced a good amount of cherries this year, maybe because the branches are much smaller/thinner (wood pigeons are pretty big birds) and the tree itself is very close to the house.  I fully netted it a little while ago and have been picking red cherries and freezing them this past week.

Already picked a freezer bag of Morello cherries, June 2025

I can only assume the pigeons treated my small Stella cherry tree the same way they did the Kordia as it also has very little fruit.  Its top has died back and it's suffering from aphids in a bad way;  I don't know if it'll survive.  My plum tree, just around the corner (seen a little bit in the top right corner), had a couple years of bad aphids which I think the local sparrows eventually sorted it out;  this tree isn't visible from the house (unlike almost all of my other fruit trees) so I don't know if the birds are helping it this year or not.  While every ladybug and/or larva I find goes onto this tree, other than that, my policy is to not intervene.  I focus on setting up healthy conditions for my little garden ecosystem, a la permaculture;  it's up to the ecosystem to sort out its own details.  If I lose this tree, I can console myself with the thought that it only cost me £4 or £5, and I do have another healthy tree.

Sad Stella cherry tree, June 2025

As an aside:  there are a lot of wild cherry trees at our local country park just a few streets away;  some are pretty sour but others are quite nice.  Just much too small to preserve in any way:  good for eating and spitting out the pits.  At least we've been able to eat cherries this year, one way or another.

Providing wildlife habitat

 

Returning to the scene, May 2023

I've seen the hedgehog a couple of times recently in this bed, and it has retreated to the far leafy corner both times, leading me to suspect it has a nest.  Perhaps it has a nest of hoglets?  Recall we lost a week old duckling to a marauding hedgehog--maybe even the same hedgehog.  I can't blame it however, and am still glad to see it.

Unlike most of our neighbours, our garden has a mixture of all kinds of plants;  and instead of an open lawn with just one or two levels of plantings in perimeter flower beds, it almost resembles a slice of forest with a mature horse chestnut tree to a variety of smaller trees (hawthorns, laurels, fruit trees), shrubs from very tall to very small, a small bit of meadow (aka lawn) and lots of layers in between.  

All this provides good habitat for birds especially, who love our garden.  Mostly I love them back, although I'm not 100% about the pair of wood pigeons who keep trying to eat my lettuces--luckily they are foiled fairly easily with some loosely draped netting.  All the different leafy layers means there are a lot of places for birds to quickly fly to in case of danger (which is usually us, or one of the neighbourhood cats), and the different plantings provide lots of food, particularly bugs.

It's an excellent space for creepy crawlies with lots of habitat everywhere, for worms and woodlice to bees and beyond.  The birds are constantly feeding; I see the same male sparrow every day picking aphids off my plum tree (I think he has a bunch of hungry kids in the eaves).  In fact, it's the prime time of year to see parents teaching their chicks to find food, and what better place than our garden?  Soon we will have ripe berberis berries, and after that a steady stream of berries and seeds all over.

The wildlife that live and visit here rarely make trouble, and are either harmless or positively beneficial (like Mr Sparrow);  any drawbacks are small compared to the advantages.  They help me grow better food by eating pests and I love their feathery antics and songs.  I encourage them, the bugs, and even that bloodthirsty hedgehog with my garden design.

Suburban Permaculture Project: The Patio

Containers on the near patio, Jan 2017

I have two patios in the garden;  one next to the house and one further away next to the pond.  The near patio (large) we inherited with the house (our elderly neighbor tells us her husband laid it many years ago), and the far one (small) we built ourselves.

The near patio is made from light colored large paving stones, and it faces south;  it is bordered on one side by our garage and the other a tall fence.  Combining all these factors, along with the presence of the house itself, makes for a sheltered warm micro-climate.  It's possible to take advantage of the warmth and shelter by growing plants too tender to stand in the garden itself.  For example, it's here I have my young fig tree planted, and where I keep my containers of tomatoes and squashes--all of which need a bit more heat and light than my climate naturally provides.

The near patio is quite large:  about the same size as my vegetable patch.  If we were to use it just for sitting outside, as it was no doubt originally intended, it would be sadly underused!  From autumn through to spring, it's not warm enough (or dry enough most of the time!) to sit outside.  And when warm in summer, it can get unpleasantly hot, especially with the reflected heat from the house;  we prefer to sit on the small patio next to the pond, which is cooler--and where we can enjoy watching the goldfish.

Instead of a sitting area, the near patio is an extension of my vegetable garden, serving as a container garden for tender plants, a cold frame for starting off seedlings earlier, and a seed bed (seeds started in trays on a table tend to attract fewer slugs and are more likely to survive here).  I keep a garden chair or two on this patio, and I have a brick barbecue, too.  Although it's a bit cluttered, it serves several functions.

The far patio is built from unmortared paving bricks and is just big enough to hold three garden chairs.  Like the near patio, it acts as a heat sink for nearby plants, augmented by the pond itself.  Being unmortared, plants can--and do--grow between the bricks;  some of these are there deliberately like the campanula, some are just nice to have like dandelion. 

Wait, dandelion:  nice to have?  Actually, yes!  Dandelion is a choice food for chickens, so much so that we have almost none left on our property--even in the lawn.  The few we have grow between the bricks of the far patio, and since the chickens can't scratch up their roots like they can in soil, these dandelions act as cut-and-come-again salad for them.  Our chickens generally get access to this section of the garden one week out of every month, giving the dandelions plenty of time to regrow each visit.

Suburban Permaculture Project: The Pond

Tiny frog pond in 2014

Worried about safety, we had filled in a deep garden pond in a shady part of the garden when our son was born in 2010.  For the next two years in spring I found many frogs and toads confusedly searching for their former home. After that, they left us entirely, and I realized the mistake we'd made in destroying their habitat: a huge increase in slugs. And truthfully, I missed seeing them hopping around in the rain, and hearing their chirping in the evenings; I felt very guilty for displacing such gentle, helpful little creatures. 

In 2014 we built a new pond, and I decided to make use of its heat storage and reflection of light to my advantage by situating it in a sheltered sunny spot near to the thermal mass of our garage wall.  It began as a simple sunken half barrel with two goldfish for mosquito control.

Later in the year we expanded it with a pond liner.  One edge has a gravel beach, to enable small creatures to access the water without danger of drowning.  I added a small brick patio to another side, giving us a nice place to sit and watch the goldfish, and also adding to the thermal mass and light reflection. It's a great microclimate for heat loving plants. And frogs and toads have been spotted once more.  This spring we've even seen a tadpole!

2014 pond newly expanded complete with goldfish.  Blue barrel is incomplete gravel filter

Finally, to improve water quality, we installed a pump and a gravel filter planted with bog plants and (a few) vegetables.  The pond itself has several different kinds of plants including some natives such as cattails and kingcup, a handful of goldfish, and possibly a swan mussel (we introduced two, and one is still unaccounted for).  We've even seen a water skipper--how on earth did it get there?

Newly planter gravel filter, 2015

My original intent for the pond was frog habitat, to help with slug control.  Secondary uses include heat retention and light reflection to create a warm microclimate for my almond tree;  the possible extension to aquaponics with added gravel filter beds (hopefully this year);  the attraction for birds and insects.  It's a joy to sit by the edge of the pond in the sunshine, listening to the trickle of the fountain, watching sparrows and bees having a drink, seeing the fish sparkle and dart beneath the water.

Pond 2016

Slugs and resilient gardening

Someone ate my pumpkin...

The bane of my garden is not the incessant rain or lack of meaningful sun.  It's slugs.  Add in snails, woodlice, aphids, and the occasional earwig, and things start to get ugly.

But really, slugs are the one pest that I have an overwhelming amount of, and only a few less than perfect strategies to cope with. 

In 2014 there was an apocalypse of slugs.  It was epic.  They ate Everything I planted or sowed in the ground.  They ate most of the things I planted or sowed in my planters and raised beds.  It was annihilation.  I tried eggshells, coffee grounds, beer traps, wheat bran.  I even went out at night with a flashlight and pair of scissors.  Nothing stopped them or even slowed them.  It was then I realized how I had put all my eggs in one basket, figuratively speaking.  Most of my food production was annual vegetables, and most of it can and will be munched by slugs.

It was then I began rethinking food gardening--how to be resilient in the face of this kind of widespread destruction.  I made a list of the things slugs left alone: fruits like apples and cherries;  rhubarb;  tulips;  grass;  you get the picture.  Slugs also didn't affect chickens or egg production, except positively (unfortunately chickens did not make a noticeable dent in slug populations).

So I planted more perennial foods, including fruit trees, and added more egg layers to the flock.  I'm encouraging slug predators like frogs and toads.  I'm beefing up numbers of vegetables which are less attractive to slugs, like runner beans and chard, and concentrating what protection I can to the slug-candy vegetables like cucumbers and cabbage.  And overplanting, to counter inevitable losses.

That year, in the end--after replacing plant after plant--I had to accept I wasn't going to get vegetables.  Believe me, it was a bitter pill to swallow.  But I did.  And in doing so, I learned a valuable lesson:  what it means to be resilient, and how much I was lacking.  I've been working towards it every since.

I have to accept there will be slugs, and other major setbacks.  But with good design, there will still be food in spite of it. 

Suburban Permaculture Project: Fostering Wildlife

Dragonfly, a helpful insect predator

One of the three ethics of permaculture is Care for the Earth.  To me, this means living in harmony with all other creatures, as much as possible.  To this end, I have designed my garden to be a haven for local wildlife, as well as a food-producing engine.

Birds

Birds are one of the most helpful animals in my garden.  They eat all sorts of pests: from slugs and snails, to aphids and woodlice.  I have two mature trees at the edge of my garden, plus many different small trees, shrubs, and plants of various heights, to provide both cover and nesting sites for all kinds of local birds.  They drink and bathe in the shallow end of our pond.  I even have some plants and shrubs which I keep specifically with birds in mind, like guelder rose and berberis, both of which have lots of berries and provide good hiding places and shelter.

Of course, there is a small downside to having birds:  they can eat my food before I get a chance to!  However, for the most part, I have found having such a diverse amount of living bird food (both plant/seed/berry and insect), means the birds aren't much interested in my fruit and vegetables.  I keep my soft fruit bushes surrounded by other plants in a polyculture, and the birds don't seem to notice the berries.  However, I net my small morello cherry tree against birds, as those bright red cherries are simply irresistible;  I don't blame them for wanting to eat them all!  And after I have picked around 75% of them, I remove the net and let the birds have the rest.

This year we've had regular visits from many different birds:  goldfinches, robins, wrens, sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes, and doves.  The blackbirds and thrushes are particularly good for controlling pests, and I love to see them out and about teaching their children how to hunt bugs and slugs.

Frogs and toads

We dug our pond in 2014 to attract frogs and toads, first and foremost;  since then, we have seen one or two, hopping about the garden.  These gentle amphibians are great slug eaters, and I hope they build up a good population in our pond, which has a shallow end for getting in and out, and is deep enough for frogs and toads to hide at the bottom without being seen.

Hedgehogs

One of the cutest local predators are the spiky hedgehogs.  I have not seen any yet this year, but in past years have spotted them both in my garden and in the neighborhood.  I have plenty of low growing ground cover plants around the edges of my garden, as well as brush piles and loose leaf litter--all great places for them to sleep or hide.  I also have two or three small gaps in my fences to allow them to get into and out of the garden, as they like to range far and wide in their hunt for slugs and snails.

Helpful bugs

Lots of bugs are an asset in the garden.  Many, like ladybugs and hoverflies, are well known aphid-eaters.  To attract and foster them I actually leave the aphids alone, and simply let these predators handle it.  Since my garden is so diverse in plants and weeds, I have built up a regular population of these helpful predators over the years;  I really don't have much of a problem with aphids any more.  I've often seen sparrows delicately eating aphids, too.

Other bugs, like bees and butterflies, are needed to pollinate flowers for producing fruit.  I have many flowers in my garden, and try to have something flowering at all times during the year--even in the middle of winter.  I want bees in my garden at all times, to help pollinate my fruit trees, and vegetables like zuccini and tomatoes, and to help me in my seed saving adventures. 

There are more helpful creepy crawlies:  beetles to eat slug eggs, wasps to eat cabbage white moths and caterpillars, spiders to eat flies, dragonflies to eat mosquitoes, and so on.  All of these little creatures are welcome in my garden, and the abundance of plants and weeds means they have plenty of habitat.

Conclusion

All these creatures act together, along with their plant and micro-organism counterparts, to add to the health and vitality to the ecosystem.  Each creature provides a function, and some--like the pollinators--are absolutely necessary for my garden to grow and thrive.  Because of this, I operate on a live and let live policy, even for pests* and weeds:  they all have a role to play;  and my garden, and little part of the world, is more vibrant and productive for it.

*Disclaimer:  I will kill slugs, snails, and cabbage white caterpillars on sight, but I only step on the ones I see;  I don't put down slug killer/insecticide.  Every other pest gets a free pass--and they generally don't last long enough to become a problem.

Suburban Permaculture Project: Building Soil

Chickens helping the hydrangea grow, 2015

I'm a firm believer that good soil turns out good food.  Lots of organic matter, lots of worms and other soil organisms means good nutrition for plants, and good nutrition for my family.  Since first reading about gardening, and especially after learning about permaculture, I have been working to build my soil.

Almost all organic matter on site is kept and recycled back into my soil.  I compost it, feed it to chickens (who compost it for me), mulch with it, or even just bury it (we have a veritable chicken graveyard out back).  This could be food waste or garden waste;  I even compost small pieces of (nonsynthetic) fabric and yarn.  To me, it's actually not waste at all, but valuable nutrition for my soil.  

We buy in a few straw bales a year for chicken bedding, which is a wonderful addition to the soil over winter. I noticed a big difference in plant health and growth once we began incorporating it.  A few months after a top dressing of used bedding the soil is black, soft, and full of worms.  It's an abundant resource, too--chickens poo constantly!

What's more, we have been saving our own urine for the compost pile, and occasionally (when diluted) to fertilize plants.  After all, it's mostly just nitrogen and water:  two things plants love!  Perhaps one day we may even switch entirely to a composting toilet, but for now, we collect our urine and use it in the garden, another way of adding nutrition in the soil.

I don't dig my soil, except to plant or harvest.  I don't want to disturb all those creatures at work down there, and as I don't step on it, it doesn't get compacted:  there's really no need for digging.  When I incorporate compost or chicken bedding, I simply spread it on top and let the worms dig it in for me.  If I want to replant a weedy bed, I'll sheet mulch on top of it:  chop and drop the weeds (or just flatten them), cover them with cardboard or newspaper, then a layer of compost and/or topsoil on top to plant into.   Much less work than pulling out dozens of weeds--which will only grow back bigger and better, let's be honest!

Suburban Permaculture Project: The Vegetable Garden, Philsophy and Application

2015 polyculture: kale and flowers jumbled together

The Philosophy

Permaculture is all about designing human systems based on natural systems.  When I initially began studying permaculture, I took this to mean that my food growing spaces should look like wild spaces:  like nature.  Permaculture also follows three ethics:  care for people, care for the earth, and care for the future.  I took this to mean building a sustainable lifestyle.  Having gone down the natural systems route:  mixing trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals;  throwing together as many different plants as possible, I've learned and observed many things, particularly about sustainability.

In a very small space such as mine, my positive impact on the globe is negligible.  I'm storing carbon in my plants and soil, but on a miniscule level.  I'm providing habitat for native animals and insects, but not on my own--they need a much wider area than I can provide.  The greatest impact I can make with the tiny space I have is to provide as much food for my household as possible.  Think how much more energy and fuel is saved if our family's food isn't grown halfway across the world, the packaging manufactured, and all of it shipped to various warehouses before finally making it to our local supermarket.  How much less pollution that food will create if I produce it myself.  How much native habitat can be retained if it's not needed to grow our food.

The best permaculture use of my own space is to grow my own food--as much as I possibly can.  My food growing design is modeled after natural systems, caring for the earth, for people, and the future--and the bottom line for me is to produce an abundance of food.

---

The Application

A design choice was to relocate the vegetable garden from the far corner of the property to the area closest to the back door. Though the previous location was not really very far--maybe 8m away--it was still far enough that I couldn't see it from the house, and did not visit it every day.  As a result, I would miss signs of infestions and damage, or simply fail to harvest things altogether. 

Having the vegetables right outside the back door means less work for me, and more vegetables eaten. Instead of having to put on shoes and a jacket to pick kale in the mud (in which case I just wouldn't bother), I can dash out onto the patio in my slippers, grab some leaves, and be inside before getting more than five raindrops on me. 

I also garden on deep beds;  they are never stepped on--and compacted--so thus never need digging/tilling.  I cover them thickly with chicken bedding (straw and manure) over winter both to enrich them and suppress weeds.  This has resulted in fantastic growth compared to enriching with compost, pre-chickens.  I never had enough compost to go around, but I definitely have plenty of manure!  The worms do all the work of digging it in for me.

For now, my main vegetable patch is composed of three adjoining beds approximately 1m x 2.5m each.  Every year I add a little more space, according to my burgeoning gardening abilities.  A little less lawn, a little more vegetables.  Perhaps by the end of five years, the entire space--maybe even the shady bits--will be a productive food growing haven.

Suburban Permaculture Project: Chickens

Big chick, little chick;  both boys

Having chickens has added another level of security to our personal food system. They provide so many benefits besides eggs!  

Soil Enrichment

Chicken manure has been been the number one soil amendment in my garden, and has transformed my compacted clay into beautiful rich soil. When I first began composting my garden and kitchen waste, I was frustrated at the time it took to make, and the small amount of compost produced at the end of the process. I wanted to enrich my beds, but there just wasn't enough compost to go around. Now my chickens compost all those things for me daily, and I have an excess of it!  I can spread it thickly and generously.

Garden Waste Recycling

Chickens eat many things I can't or don't want to eat, like weeds, grass, and bugs.  They turn these into eggs for us, and into the abovementioned lovely manure.  Quite a large portion of my garden is in full shade for most of the day, due to two mature trees.  I can't grow vegetables here.  I've grown a few mushrooms, which is an option I'd like to explore again, but the best food I grow in this location is chicken and eggs.

Along with their favorite weeds and bugs, we do supplement with high quality layers pellets, to ensure they get full nutrition.  Let it be stated that they love their pellets;  but truthfully, they love eating.  Who cares what it is?  They just want tasty things to shovel down their beaks.

Weed and Pest Management

If left permanently on one spot, chickens will destroy all greenery down to bare earth with their scratching, pecking, and constant supply of manure.  We therefore rotate our flock around the lawn and garden, using chicken wire fencing.  They get a fresh patch every week or ten days, and unless it's the dead of winter, there is always plenty of greenery for them to eat.  Right now they can't keep up with the growth!  They aren't allowed onto the vegetable patch until winter, but they get all the weeds I pull from it, plus any extra bits like flowering sorrel stems--which they love.  When they're allowed on during winter, the scratch it over and eat any slugs and bugs still lingering.

They have a stationary coop and a small permanent yard adjoining it, which borders all their paddocks.  And since they have access to it permanently, the yard is devoid of plants except a stinging nettle or two.  I try to keep the bare earth covered with mulch;  they like to scratch it up searching for bugs, and it's less slippery/muddy for us to walk on.  The only problem is the mulch breaks down so quickly!  I use garden trimmings, weeds (including the stinging nettles), grass clippings, or sometimes lightly soiled chicken bedding as mulch, and top it up as often as possible.  

Entertainment Value

Our chickens do so much work for us, yet this kind of work is natural to them and they enjoy it.  They are always happy to be scratching away, pecking at tasty weeds or searching for bugs.  When it's sunny they all like to stretch out on the grass and catch some rays--we say a chicken bomb must have gone off!  Chickens are so much fun to watch and interact with;  sometimes we take our garden chairs and just hang out with them.

 

Food Production

Our ten hens lay between five and nine eggs a day.  Four hens are a year old and still laying daily.  The other six are between three and four years old, and aren't as prolific;  they are adopted from the British Hen Welfare Trust and are allowed to live out their natural lifespan with us (our oldest was about six when she died;  most have been around four) and many of their forerunners are buried in our garden.  The year old hens were given to us as ten day old chicks, and we may eat them when their egg laying days are over.  

We currently have five spring chicks in the garden, two of which are hens, to add to our laying flock.  The cockerels, which we can't keep once they are crowing, will be destined for the pot if we can't find other homes for them.  It's difficult to raise a bird from tiny chick and then kill it, but we know that everything that lives must die;  and in order for us to live, other things must die, be it plants or animals.  We give our chicks a good life and a quick humane death, and we go on living because of them.

Suburban Permaculture Project: Origins

Polyculture in 2013: nasturtiums, runner beans, cherry tree, rose bush, dahlias, tomatoes

2004-2007

When I moved to England as a newlywed, I had little experience with gardening, other than (unwillingly) assisting my dad in his vegetable garden as a teenager--mainly weeding and harvesting.  I knew how to deadhead flowers, and how to mow a lawn.  My dad was an organic gardener, either by design or (more likely) lack of finances, so I grew up unaccustomed to pesticides and fertilizers, something that would influence my own gardening style as an adult.

My husband was not an avid or experienced gardener, though he also grew up with  organic (mainly) gardeners, in his case, his mother and grandmother.  He had been living in his house in a small village in the countryside for a few years before we married, and his mother had irregularly helped him maintain the ornamental garden, and had planted some bulbs and a few other things for him.  When I moved in, he gave me free rein to redesign the existing beds and borders, and to allocate a veg patch.  I took over the bulk of the gardening, though I really had no idea what I was doing. 

In my first few years, I tried to grow the plants my dad grew in his high desert vegetable garden, such as tomatoes and peppers.  I soon discovered that the climate I had moved to was far different from the one I had left, and those heat loving crops did not thrive.  Although it's possible to grow food year round in England, I was not used to growing--or eating for that matter--the kind of foods that flourish, like cabbage, kale, leeks, and chard.  But trained as a chef, I was willing to learn to grow and eat these vegetables in order to produce something, anything.

My husband bought a gardening year book for Britain, so we could find out what, how, where, and when to sow, plant, prune, divide, harvest, and everything.  I began following its advice;  I built a compost pile and tried to improve my soil with it.  I planted the vegetables it mentioned:  lots of brassicas, lots of leafy greens, lots of roots and tubers.  My yields increased a bit.  I spent a lot of time weeding, but overall I enjoyed my garden.

2008-2011

In 2008 I was casually flicking through our meager five channels and settled on a BBC2 documentary called A Farm for the Future.  I had seen a few interesting documentaries on the BBC since my move here, so I thought I'd give it a shot, as nothing better was on.  I can say with certainty, that documentary changed my life.  I was astounded.  I was especially intrigued about the section about the loss of soil life and fertility, and in discussing it, the journalist said to the young farmer (and I paraphrase): "We've been plowing for thousands of years, and you're saying we should just stop?" and the farmer simply said "Yes."

A Farm for the Future mentioned permaculture, a word and concept I had never heard of before, but it was something that just resonated with me.  I knew it was important:  phenomenally important, and I knew I had to learn about it.  I wanted to learn permaculture, and start practising it.  The very next day I searched for "permaculture" on the internet.  I came across permies.com, which was one of the only worthwhile results, but at that time I felt it was frustratingly low on information on how to do permaculture.  I didn't really know where to turn.  The documentary didn't mention any books or publications on permaculture, or its history.  It had mentioned the names of the people interviewed, but I hadn't taken notes and didn't remember them.  I felt defeated.  I wanted to learn but didn't know how.  For the next few years I would occasionally find something interesting about permaculture, but on the whole, did not really gain any knowledge on the subject.

2012-2015

In 2012 I was concerned about food security.  We'd had two very harsh winters in a row, where we had little or no access to the shops for up to two weeks at a time because of heavy snow, and our proximity to said shops.  Our very small local shop was unable to get deliveries, and we were unable to drive or walk to the larger shops located several miles away.  We also had a terrible summer that year for growing:  crops failed all over the country because of the excessive rain and lack of sun;  my own vegetable patch was a washout.  I wanted to ensure we could eat if disaster struck.  I resolved to start storing food for an emergency, and I also began researching permaculture again in earnest.  Once more I searched it online, and to my surprise, there was now so much information!  I discovered Geoff Lawton's work, and Sepp Holzer's.  I joined permies.com, as it had substantially grown in those four years into a valuable resource.  I began listening to permaculture podcasts.  I bought books.  I watched videos.  I found A Farm for the Future on youtube and rewatched it, making notes this time.  Things were falling into place.  I knew what permaculture was!  I could start practising it!

I reread the books, particularly Toby Hemenway's Gaia's Garden.  I rewatched the videos.  The first thing I implemented was chop and drop;  I was sick of weeding anyway.  I adopted my first four hens from the British Hen Welfare trust, and planted my vegetables in a polyculture.  I planted my first fruit tree:  a mini dwarf morello cherry.  I began planting for biodiversity and habitat, rather than just for food and beauty.  I focused on improving my soil.  Through trial and error (mostly error), I observed and learned.  I was doing permaculture!