Come and join us next Thursday (May 23rd) anytime from 6pm onwards as we begin to plant an Apothecary (food, herbs and medicinal plant garden) at Church View (just behind the Minster opposite Tesco car park) and find out how growing your own can make you healthier while saving you a shed load of money.
Click here to download and share a copy f our Get Growing poster 
Please note the change of date on the following event…
PermaFuture co-founder John Briggs will now be giving a presentation for Growing a Greater Bentley (GGB) on ‘Growing in a Small Space‘ at Bentley Baptist Church at 6:30pm on Tuesday, 14th May (rather than the 7th as previously stated). We’ll be following this up with a practical session in the heart of Doncaster at the end of the month, so watch this space for further details.
Click here to download, print and share a PDF of the altered poster.
PermaFuture co-founder John Briggs will be giving a presentation for Growing a Greater Bentley (GGB) on ‘Growing in a Small Space‘ at Bentley Baptist Church at 6:30pm on Tuesday, 7th May. We’ll be following this up with a practical session in the heart of Doncaster at the end of the month, so watch this space for further details.
Click here to download, print and share a PDF of the poster.
The next DUG meeting starts 7pm on Thursday April 25th at The Salutaion, South Parade, Doncaster. With International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening day just around the corner, beer talk this time will cover the need for Guerrilla Gardening (more importantly the need for Guerrilla Forest Gardens) in Doncaster.
Don't forget that you can get your hands dirty and your thumbs green this Friday (April 19th) in Balby...
A Rod Finley in every country and the world would be a better place :-)
The next Doncaster Urban Growers (DUG) meeting is at The Salutation from 7pm on Thursday 28th March, 2013. As you can see from recent DUG posts members are itching to get active. With Spring in the air and mud on our minds you can expect some interesting debates and ideas! 
Click here to download a PDF of the poster.
It’s been a year since i moved here to the Dragons weyr . A year of observation of the garden. A year of watching the sun and shade patterns. A year of watching the water flows and wind moving.
A year of watching. Well that’s over, now its time to get to work. This year I’ll put the veg garden in on the east side to get the most of the afternoon sun and the east wall will get turned into a living wall of salad greens. To the south go the big green shade loving plants, like the rhubarbs and the water ponds…
But first i have an admission to make. I hate ivy. Yep there is a plant i hate, and hate with a passion. And that’s ivy. I know it provides a rich habitat for many species but it just looks ugly, provides me with nothing. And it gets everywhere. It just has to go.
But i believe in replacing like for like, so now I’m looking for a productive climbing plant. Hhmmm my mind races with the possibility’s, grapes, kiwi even passion fruit all spring to mind.
But wait there’s a grove of hops not far from here. The perfect solution ! A productive climber that has many use’s both as a medicinal plant and for flavouring BEER !
And so off to the sacred grove i go looking for a good selection of roots ( they are known as bine’s in the trade ) and what do i find ?? Our local council has been in and stripped the place out !! Grrrr it’s a scene of absolute devastation, every bush has been cut to the ground every tree viciously pruned….. Oh what to do ???
Then is struck me. They have only cut the plants down, not dug them out and clearing the site gives me better access, so in i go.
Whipping out the sacred trowel of plunder, in less than a minute i have four or five lengths of good thick hop bine ready to transplant.
So they go into a pot ready to spend the year getting established before they go into the ground permanently.
Now just below the surface the bines are putting out new roots, and once they start to draw up their food the shoots will spring out to grasp for space and wine their way towards the light. At nearly an inch a day, some times 2 !!!
Oh yes something wicked this way comes……. My hangover
Next Friday (March 8th) at &:30pm there will be another debating session at Church View discussing the problem of fuel poverty and climate change. PermaFuture wi’ll be there to argue that there are no large-scale, centralised answers to this problem and that the only real solution is to educate individuals and communities alike in those philosophies and practices which will improve local resilience.
Contact Rachel for more info – rachel.hubbard@foe.co.uk / 07917 358796
Oganised by Doncaster Friends of the Earth with thanks to Doncaster CDT
The very wonderful Graham Burnett will be visiting Doncaster this April to host an Introduction to Permaculture workshop at Glass Park in Kirk Sandall. Leave a comment or email us at permafuture.project[at]gmail.com if you’d like to get involved. Details as follows…
Dates; Saturday 6th – Sunday 7th April, 2013 (Meeting-up 5pm on Friday 5th for welcomes and orientation)
Venue; The Glass Park, Kirk Sandall, Doncaster. Nr St Oswald’s Church, Kirk Sandall Old Village, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN3 1RA
Led by; Graham Burnett (Dip Perm Des)
An excellent way to find out more about permaculture is to attend a two-day introductory course. This ‘taster’ will provide an opportunity to actively learn about the ethics, principles and applications of permaculture design.As well as introducing you to the key principles & practices of permaculture this course will mark the first stage in turning an underused recreational park into a self-reliant, permaculture-based, managed woodland.
Glass Park was a former dumping ground for a Pilkington’s Glass factory and was turned into a large recreational area by a local charitable trust over a decade ago. Since then the economic downturn has made it difficult for the trust to continue developing the site in the way that it had originally intended. PermaFuture is a local non-profit company which uses permaculture principles to help set-up low-cost, low-impact resilient community infrastructure. Working closely with the Glass Park Trust we intend to integrate woodland management, local food production/distribution and traditional skills, such as green-woodworking and bee-keeping, to build a financially self-sustaining educational facility for the people of Kirk Sandall and Doncaster.
Under the capable guidance of the very wonderful Graham Burnett (author and illustrator of ‘Permaculture- a Beginners Guide’ and holder of the Diploma in Permaculture Design) you will be introduced to the basics of permaculture design in a unique community space. Not only will you take away a grounding in the practice and philosophy of permaculture, you will be helping to lay the foundations for an important community project.
Full cost £55, concessions £35. £10 deposit secures a place.
Fees include tuition, light refreshments and handouts.
This course is limited to 15 places, so book now in order to ensure your place!
Please note that bookings/enquiries for this course are NOT via Spiralseed, please directly contact John Briggs permafuture.project@gmail.com
Hi all,
Been a busy few days here at the nest so apologies for not getting this up as quick as I’d have liked.
Last Thursday was a good night, met some interesting folks and some interesting projects. Hats of to malc and the balby road flats budding project. There’s a good example of what one determined individual can achieve. From a few container plants on his balcony to a raised bed area dedicated to veggies the sky’s the limit no St Leger homes are on board !! As more area’s are made available lets all get down there lend a hand and show support for a great idea with great benefits.
As promised here’s the presentation i gave on Thursday night about seeds. And I’ve added a few resources as asked. The podcast is about 45 minutes long once you get past the house keeping.And it has some very good information on seeds and seed saving. Oh and he’s American and very pro constitutional liberties but well worth listening to so don’t hold it against him !
