The 10-Day Permaculture design Course at The Village, Cloughjordan, Tipperary is well underway and as I write this the 18 participants are out on the land working on their design projects, which will be presented to the group on Sunday morning.
The course has been a great experience so far, taking place in and around the site of the new Eco-Village, which currently has several houses under construction- an exciting stage for the project after 10 years of planning and development.
Houses under construction at The Village, Cloughjordan
L-R: Albert bates, Davie Philip, Martin Giannini
Course tutors are myself, Davie Philip of The Village, Klaudia van Gool from the UK; and Albert Bates from the farm, Tennnessee.
The course has covered a range of the usual permaculture topics, with evening sessions from Davie Philip from the Powerdown Course, and special input from Albert on eco-village design, biochar and keyline design.
Tree ID exercise with Klaudia in the yurt
Planting a Forest Garden
This will hopefully be the first of many Permaculture Design courses held at The Village, which is destined to become a major learning center and focus for long and short courses on sustainable living and design, as well as being a place to come and see cutting edge examples in practice.
Mixing Cob with Saul Mossbacher
Design work begins in earnest
Hi, guys, im currently studying horticulture at Pearse college in crumlin, oneof the modules is permaculture, i like the idea, and would like to convert my garden to this concept, however, being in middle class suburbia does pose some problems, e.g. snooty neighbours, happily tending their formal gardens, my question is this, how could i keep chickens without upsetting the locals? and i am also tormented by magpies, which tend to attack all the smaller birds, any guide would be most welcome
Hi Howard Not sure I can really advise you other than to say, as the recession deepens, you may find many of your neighbors following your lead! If you have the courage to make the leap as it were against the social disapproval in the near future your neighbours may be thanking you and coming to you for advice. As for the magpies I have plenty of them as well, again you may have to learn to live with them or get a shot gun! As in more traditional times, we may have to see pests such as these as useful yields from nature’s bounty.
Thanks for the advice Graham, i will take it on board, unfortunately the shot gun option is out, (something of a hanging offence around here)