Mud

So there’s a lot of mud, yards of rolled up turf and we’ve not even finished removing the grass yet. It’s safe to safe I am having a panic. Not a full scale panic, just the creeping kind where you stand back look at what there is still to do and wonder if you should have started this.

There are lots of moments when creating a garden when you wonder if you are doing it right or if it’s worth the struggle. Today though I have been having some major doubts. Primarily I am worried that D is right when he queried if I was sure I knew what I was doing. He’s helping me despite his doubts as he is good like that.

I am a bookworms so I read a lot about permaculture, forest gardens, rewilding and meadows before embarking on this but to be honest I am winging this a bit.

Today’s project is the start of designing a permaculture garden. We have taken all of the grass off the front lawn. I have flower seed and wildflowers to plant but I am getting really concerned now about the potential for a mud bath should it rain heavily. This is ireland after all the chances of rain are high. I think perhaps I should have started with a smaller bit of ground. Too late now though.

Grass seed is cheap right?

This year I have a number of aims mostly involving the beginning of the creation of zone one and zone two of my garden (permaculture speak for the closest bits of your garden to the house), to learn to generate our own energy and to help to build a community of likeminded individuals by sharing information and skills. So not much then.

It’s funny how things change. I feel really inspired and hopeful right now although only a few months ago I was feeling powerless against the might of the problems of climate change, plastic pollution and insect Armageddon. I talked about it with friends, watched programmes, read the many many articles about it on Facebook and despaired. I felt no closer to knowing how I might make a difference. I think the urge to ignore it and hope the government will lead the way (do its job) is strong; wait for guidance. Then I realised that actually the only thing I can change is myself and that maybe if I make a change others will join me.

It was conversations of this sort that led to the start of the Pod Project and to me digging up my front lawn and beginning a food forest. There’s three of us in the Pod project and we are currently obsessing about getting it going.

The idea is simple let’s empower ourselves (and anyone else who is interested) to thrive, for example, the saying goes “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” and we want to add to that “teach a person to make the rod and they can take ownership of the whole process.” So we are going to learn the skills we need to start living sustainably. Not by waiting for green energy to be affordable but finding a way to do it for ourselves. We want to learn as much as possible and share the opportunities to learn with as many people who care to join us on this journey.

So watch this space. As soon as we have worked out a process or got a talk or workshop lined up to be delivered by an expert we will let everyone know.

In the meantime I am going to continue rolling up grass and pondering the merit of comfrey and artichokes under apple trees.

Maz