Adventures in a small garden - October 2021

Ive been observing the garden now for a few months, Observe and interact is one of the 12 permaculture principles- it is such an important part of permaculture to gain insight into the growing space. Ive been out there by night watching the stars and out there first thing in the morning watching the large numbers of crows fly over chattering among themselves.

The space is boardered on 3 sides by a 6ft fence and by the house on the 4th side which gives it quite a bit of shelter, In my next door neighbours garden to the right there is a large willow situated North which makes a beautiful rustling sound in the wind . Currently there is still quite alot of paving/cobbles and stone there, which I am gradually removing but it does actually have the benefit of holding and releasing residual heat so the combination of the 2 things mean the garden has its own pleasant micro climate. There is however, a passage to the one side of the house which does bring the wind. There are some conifers in a neighbouring garden to the North, they are far enough away not to be an issue for me and actually give the garden extra protection.

SUN

The garden faces NW and recently I spent a day photographing it at aproximately hourly intervals from 8am untill sun down so I could track the sun and where its falls in the garden, I will continue to do this through the seasons but it seems the right side of the garden gets the most sun and so this will be the best side to plant vegetables next year.

WATER

There apears to be some drainage issues here, the area at large has a lot of small streams which seem to pop up and then go underground in random places, I am still investigating where they run and I am planning to map them out when I get chance. We are in the foot of the hills so dampness also seems to be a problem in the general area, however it doesnt seem to be too much of a problem in the garden although the small brick terace in the back garden does retain moisture and is somewhat mossy.

The drainage in the garden is better than when we first moved in because I have removed a lot of slabs and bricks. I also revoved big pieces of black sheeting and turned over soil where the water was previously sitting on top due to major compaction. There have been various plasic drainage channels put in previously and i cant really see why, so im thinking this might be due to other structures that we previously here such as a lean to shelter against the house. In the front garden there is a large concrete area that must have been used as a drive, but has since been fenced off by the housing association. It has a big dip in the middle and collects alot of rain water and as im not planning to revove the concrete any time soon, im trying to think of a creative soulution to effectivly use this area. We also definitely need some water butts on site, the first obvious place to put one is on the downpipe, strangly the downpipe currently leads into a drainage channel which just seems to lead to some broken bricks and then just seems to seep away.

WIND

I have been making note of the wind direction over a 4 week period utilizing the high tech method of a plastic bag tied to the washing line! Which while rudementary it has worked well and I have been able to build up a picture of the dominant winds which come from mostly the North and the East. On the whole the garden is pretty protected but the open passageway means sometimes we do get gusts of wind come through round the side of the house, I am planning to put up a fence at the side which will act as a wind break.

Our winter greens are still going strong, we are still getting beautiful wildflowers which show no signs of stopping just yet and courgettes! the courgettes just keep coming!

Not only did we have plenty of pumpkins to carve from our wonderful harvest of pumpkins we have had soup, pie, cake and toasted seeds, all of which we delicious and we still have more that we are storing to use through winter.

Next month I will be focusing on taking some soil from the garden to test and also I will be mapping out the area, im also planning to to some mapping activities with the Home Ed groups I run and my own children.