Whether you are sowing and growing for the first time this year, or improving an existing garden, perennials should be an important part of the picture. Where I live, the time for bare root planting is past now, but there are perennials that you might like to consider planting in spring, or sowing seed forContinue reading “Perennial Vegetables To Sow or Plant This Spring”
Author Archives: Elizabeth Waddington
Case Study: California Permaculture Design
The site is in Livermore, California, on the eastern edge of San Francisco Bay Area. It is a two acre plot, which is planned to house and provide for a family of four. The surrounding land is to be leased to a vineyard, so the surrounding area will ultimately be surrounded by vines. The designContinue reading “Case Study: California Permaculture Design”
Maximising Photosynthesis With Living Paths
As you plan your garden, pathways are easily overlooked. It is important to choose the right path options for the right places. In permaculture, the focus is often on maximising the potential of the space, and making the most of your own time by positioning pathways and garden elements efficiently. But it is also importantContinue reading “Maximising Photosynthesis With Living Paths”
The Problems With Carbon Offsetting
Carbon offsetting is often used as a carte-blanche for emissions. But there is an inconvenient truth that carbon offsetting alone will not tackle the climate crisis, nor solve the other urgent environmental issues we face. Offsetting is one tool in our arsenal – but it cannot win the war alone. And not all offsetting wasContinue reading “The Problems With Carbon Offsetting”
Food and Society – How Can We Fix What’s Broken?
Those of you who are familiar with key issues in sustainability will no doubt already be well aware of the problems with our current agriculture and food systems. Millions go hungry while waste is enormous, and many people in developed nations have too much food rather than too little. Around the world, farmers struggle byContinue reading “Food and Society – How Can We Fix What’s Broken?”
Things You Don’t Have to Buy if You Have a Garden
Even those of us who have gardens and tend them do not always use them to their full potential. A garden is an amazing resource. And when you have a garden, it can make it a lot easier to reduce your consumption and live in a more sustainable way. So, today, I thought I wouldContinue reading “Things You Don’t Have to Buy if You Have a Garden”
Privacy in a Garden
Privacy is a topic of interest to many people when it comes to garden design. It is of course particularly important in city or town gardens. In urban gardens, it is common for the space to be overlooked from the windows of surrounding homes, and from the road, or from the gardens of neighbouring properties.Continue reading “Privacy in a Garden”
‘Barbarians’, ‘Savagery’ and ‘Primitive’ Society
I have been watching a few history programmes recently that have made me think about the concepts of ‘barbarian’ and ‘savagery’. And about the meaning of primitive culture. The implications of the words and how they are applied can tell us a lot about the prejudices and misconceptions of history, and people in the modernContinue reading “‘Barbarians’, ‘Savagery’ and ‘Primitive’ Society”
Case Study: Formal French Potager Style Garden
I think there is an impression that in a permaculture garden, nothing can be straight or orderly. But in this design which I created for a client in Idaho who wanted a more formal and neat design, you can see that earth-friendly design and methodologies can be implemented in different styles. In the notes providedContinue reading “Case Study: Formal French Potager Style Garden”
This is Not a Time for Complacency
A number of times in recent days, I have been somewhat alarmed by what seems to be the general consensus that the Covid 19 pandemic has ‘given nature some respite’, and the widespread belief that curtailment of human activity has led to big wins in terms of our climate crisis. Some people seem to beContinue reading “This is Not a Time for Complacency”
EWSP Consultancy 