Author Archives: routesofwholeness
New Workshop: Journey into the Realm of Plants (Brighton Sept 2016)
When: Saturday, September 24th 2016 10:30am – 4:30pm
Where: Leahurst Court, Leahurst Court Road, Brighton BN1 6UN
Exact location provided after registration (note – unfortunately, venue is on the 2nd floor and not wheelchair accessible)
What: This is a day to connect with plants more deeply, and is a mix of intuitive herbalism (getting to know a plant’s uses through direct experience), and connecting with the metaphysical, or spiritual, aspect of plants. (You don’t need to have experience in herbalism, horticulture, botany etc – any such expertise that people bring will be put aside for the day anyway! )
Some skills we work on are:
-Slowing down to plant speed
-Heart-centered communication with plants
-Listening to the body via various senses
The session is experiential. There will be a mixture of indoor and outdoor activities, and some individual activities as well as paired or group activities.
This is for anyone who:
– loves plants
– wants to deepen their connection with the non-human world
– wants to recover some of the enchantment with nature that they felt as a child
The specific outcomes of this kind of session are different for each person (and sometimes ripples occur in the days and weeks that follow), but all will hopefully leave having had a deeper experience with plants than they routinely have. My sense is that individuals get what is needed for them at the time, and my hope is that people leave with the confidence to continue exploring on their own.
At the end of this kind of session, past participants have reported:
- finding some relief from anxiety
- feeling energized
- finding respite from day-to-day life
- opening up a rich world of relationship and being
Cost: £15/£10 concessions (includes an organic, vegan, gluten-free lunch)
Facilitator: Shumaisa Khan
Booking: There are only 10 spots, so if you would like to book*, please do so here as soon as possible!
*If you cancel your place more than 14 days before the event, you will get a full refund. If you cancel within 14 days of the event, you generally would not get a refund. In the unlikely event that the session is cancelled, you will receive a full refund.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Shumaisa at 01273 660 765
Report (+ Photos!) from 2-day Permaculture Course with Social Design in Ealing, London.
Photo Credit: Routes of Wholeness
We recently received a delightful invitation to deliver a two-day Permaculture workshop at Westcott Park Community Garden, in Acton, Ealing (West London).
We were really excited about this, as it meant three things:
- Working with particiapants from a range of economic and cultural backgrounds.
- Within the course we had been asked to facilitate participants through a social design for the Westcott Park Community Garden Group (and we love facilitating and working with groups for real life challenges!).
- We get to see the community garden and meet some of the team (Nuria, who we had actually already met, as well as Mani and Asha).
The two-day course took place at the end of April/beginning of May (2015).
Day 1 involved an Intro to Permaculture workshop, touching on the ethics of permaculture and key principles through a variety of exercises, as well as an outdoor observation (or what we sometimes like to call ‘nature witnessing’) exercise, and a site tour.
Participants also went through a simulated land-based permaculture design to support them in integrating what they had learnt.
Introducing Permculture Ethics – Photo Credit: Zaibu Nisa (Lali)
Nature Observation – Photo Credit: Routes of Wholeness
Photo Credit: Zaibun Nisa (Lali)
Day 2 involved practical gardening (led by the community garden team), and participants also kicked off a social permaculture design. This design was to serve a real-life need: to help support the Westcott Park Community Gardening Group develop a resilient volunteer system for their garden.
There was alot of work needed in the garden, with just a handful of volunteers. A fresh strategy was being asked for to address this imbalance.
Much of this session involved enquiry, which under the Permaculture ‘S-A-D-I-M‘ design-process acronym would come under ‘S’ or Survey… asking questions of the garden team to get a sense of how things have been and are right now.
It is really important (if we want to work with nature rather than against it) that we spend time consciously ‘observing’ the social or physical landscape, before launching into any significant change or intervention. This is especially important when we are new to a site, or to a group – and can also help a group see its own strengths, limitations and patterns more clearly.
Photo Credit: Zaibun Nisa (Lali)
Photo Credit: Routes of Wholeness
Thus, only after we had all spent time taking in the current situation and specific needs (and then eating some good food and spending time in the garden!) did we – facilitators and participants – move into brainstorming possible strategies or solutions.
We did not plan (due to time constraints) to group the solutions together, narrow them down, or begin to consciously consider them in terms of permaculture ethics and principles, for example. The aim, in the time we had, was to get the ball rolling, and for the gardening group (having also been introduced to permaculture thinking) to take these ideas, and consider them in their own time, space and way, with us available for questions if needed.
Below are a few more photos. Please also visit the Westcott Park Community Garden Facebook Page.
And, if you (or anyone you know in the Acton area of London) would like to volunteer at the garden, please get in touch with the group.
Photo Credit: Zaibun Nisa (Lali)
Photo Credit: Zaibun Nisa (Lali)
Photo Credit: Zaibun Nisa (Lali)
Photo Credit: Zaibun Nisa (Lali)
Two-Day Permaculture Course (West London: April/May 2015)
Principles to Regenerate the Earth and Strengthen our Communities
Course dates: Sat 25 April (10am-6pm) & Sat 2 May (10am-4pm)
Venue: Westcott Park Community Centre & Garden, 13 Ferguson Drive, Acton, London. W3 6YP.
Advance Booking ONLY; See below.
Permaculture is a practical system for sustainable living, based on observing principles and patterns in nature. By maximising relationships in living systems, permaculture has empowered people worldwide to develop dynamic, resilient projects that work with nature, rather than against it. Whatever scale or aspect of human living, whether the home and garden, community or congregation space, or one’s own life and career, permaculture can be applied to each situation.
Day 1: Introduction to permaculture; Visit to the community garden.
Day 2: Permaculture applied-design: A volunteers plan; Practical gardening.
The course content will include:
- What is permaculture?
- Introduction to permaculture ethics and principles
- Nature observation
- Social permaculture
- Permaculture as a design system
- Applying permaculture
- Next steps
Course fees
£60 if you live outside a one mile radius of the garden.
(Free if you live within the one mile radius)
This course is partially funded by Catalyst Gateway and supported by Routes of Wholeness.
Workshop Facilitators
Shumaisa Khan (Permaculture Designer & Sustainability Tutor)
Muzammal Hussain (Permaculture Designer & Group Facilitator)
Bookings
Booking in advance is essential. For more info and bookings:
Tel: 07424 876 797
OR
Email: westcottparkcommunitygarden@outlook.com
Note: Bookings for this course are being taken by Westcott Park Community Garden, not by Routes of Wholeness.
Food
Bring lunch to share. Refreshments are provided
Permaculture and Diverse Communities Taster Day (Feb 2015)
Course CANCELLED
Unfortunately this course has been cancelled due to a low booking rate. We hope to be able to offer this or a similar course on another date. If you are interested, you may like to sign up to our low traffic elist to be kept updated.
Tools & Principles to Enrich Our Communities
Organised in collaboration with The Mill & Hedge Herbs.
Date: Sat Feb 21st 2015
Venue: The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow, London, E17 7HA.
Time: 10am-5pm
Limited Places. Advance Booking ONLY.
This 1-day workshop is about ecological and social healing. It will give a taste of both permaculture and working with social diversity. Together we will explore and open up ways to work together effectively, to recognise our differences and our common ground, and to discover how permaculture and contemporary group approaches can support our vision to co-create more conscious, real and productive relationships within our groups and communities.
Who is the workshop for?
The taster day would suit anyone interested in sustainability or ecology and involved with people – such as members of a Transtion Town; Climate action group; Community gardening; Co-operative; or if you’re just curious about permaculture and working in groups…
The workshop will comprise of two parts and will lean towards both social permaculture and group work:
– A short permaculture workshop
– A taster workshop exploring diversity in groups. This part will require participants to engage with their own experiences – the joyful and the challenging – and willingness to receive and give constructive feedback.
Specific potential areas include:
- Intro to permaculture tools & principles
- Patterns in nature
- Social permaculture: Nature in us
- Diversity: Feeling in our own shoes, and stepping into the shoes of the other
- Conflict: an opportunity for growth
- Role playing exercise with feedback
Fee: £35 (£25 for Waltham Forest residents)
The fee has been subsidised, thanks to The Mill.
There are a limited number of places at concessionary rates for Waltham Forest residents only who are unable to afford the full fee ( e.g. Full time students; On benefits, State pension etc.) – Please contact us to discuss, or fill in the booking form outlining your financial situation in the approproiate part to apply.
Workshop Facilitators:
Shumaisa Khan (Permaculture Designer & Sustainability Tutor)
Muzammal Hussain (Permaculture Designer & Group Facilitator)
Food: Snacks will be provided. Teas available for donation; Bring a packed lunch.
Bookings:
Participant numbers are limited. If you know you want to participate on the course, we recommend you book as soon as possible in order to secure your place.
Completed booking forms are welcome from anyone irrespective of location.
Click here for booking form
Permaculture Within Diverse Communities Taster Day (Oct 2014)
LATEST NOTICES
This course is now FULLY BOOKED! If you complete the booking form you will be placed on the reserve list – if a space then becomes available we will let you know. (23/10/2014)
—
The workshop is almost fully booked. We will try to update this page when there are no more places, but there may be a slight delay. If you wish to book, please complete the booking form as normal, and you will be offered a place if still available. If there are no more places, we will let you know and we can put you on the reserve list. Alternatively, contact us to check latest availability; &/or sign up to receive updates of future courses/activities. (23/10/2014)
Principles to Regenerate the Land and Enrich Our Groups
Date: Sat Oct 25th 2014
Venue: The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow, London, E17 7HA.
Time: 10.45am-5pm
Limited Places. Advance Booking ONLY.
For anyone involved with sustainability or ecology and involved with people – such as members of a Transtion Town; Climate action group; Community gardening; Co-operative; or you’re just curious about permaculture and working in groups…
Permaculture is a practical system for regenerating the earth and communities. By drawing on principles and patterns in nature, permaculture has empowered people worldwide to develop dynamic, resilient projects that work with nature, rather than against it. Whether the home and garden, community space or one’s own life and career, permaculture can be applied to each situation.
This 1-day workshop is about ecological and social healing. It will give a taste of both permaculture and working with social diversity. Together we will explore and open up ways to work together effectively, to recognise our differences and our common ground, and to discover how permaculture and contemporary group approaches can support our vision to co-create more conscious, real and productive relationships between one another and the land.
The exact content of the workshop is to be finalised and potential areas include:
- What is permaculture?
- Intro to permaculture ethics & principles
- Social permaculture: Nature in us
- Diversity: Feeling in our own shoes, and stepping into the shoes of the other
- Conflict: an opportunity for growth
- Strategies for collaborative decision making
Fee: £20 /£12 concessionary rate – limited number ( e.g. Full time students; On benefits, State pension etc. Waltham Forest residents only). Also two £5 places on application (see below)
Workshop Facilitators:
Shumaisa Khan (Permaculture Designer & Sustainability Tutor, Routes of Wholeness)
Muzammal Hussain (Permaculture Designer & Group Facilitator, Routes of Wholeness)
Organised in collaboration with The Mill & Hedge Herbs.
Food: Snacks will be provided. Teas available for donation; Bring a packed lunch.
We actively invite members of Waltham Forest community groups to join the workshop – all spaces are to be held solely for local residents until 1 month beforehand.
Bookings:
Participant numbers are limited. If you know you want to participate on the course, we recommend you book as soon as possible in order to secure your place.
Completed booking forms are welcome from anyone irrespective of location. However…
… Waltham Forest residents will have priority until one month before the workshop. A limited number of concessionary places of £12 are also available for Waltham Forest residents unable to afford the full fee. We also have two places of £5 (applications welcome from Waltham Forest residents – priority given to those with particulary limited finances – please let us know if you would like to apply.)
…If you live outside of Waltham Forest, your booking form will be acknowledged when received, and processed from 25th Sept with places being offered according to availability at that time (full fee only for those outside Waltham Forest).
Click here for booking form
1-Day Course: Introduction to Permaculture (Oxfordshire: Aug 2014)
COURSE CANCELLED: We are sorry to announce that we have had to cancel this course. Bookings on this particular occasion have been low, likely due to it being August and many people who would want to do the course being away. If you have any questions please get in touch. You can also stay updated with future courses here, and there is also the PAB website. Sorry once again for having to cancel.
Date: Sat 16th Aug 2014
Venue: Willowbrook Organic Farm, Hampton Gay, Oxfordshire, OX5 2QQ. UK.
Map: Click here
Times: 10am-6pm
Permaculture is a practical system for sustainable living, based on observing principles and patterns in nature. By maximising relationships in living systems, permaculture has empowered people worldwide to develop dynamic, resilient projects that work with nature, rather than against it. Whatever scale or aspect of human living, whether the home and garden, community or congregation space, or one’s own life and career, permaculture can be applied to each situation.
This is an interactive taster day outlining permaculture and introducing you to some of the fundamental tools and principles that can be used to design sustainable, resilient projects.
The course content will include:
- What is permaculture?
- Introduction to permaculture ethics and principles
- Nature observation
- Social permaculture
- Permaculture as a design system
- Applying permaculture
- Next steps
Course Tutors:
Dr Muzammal Hussain (Permaculture Designer & Group Facilitator)
Dr Shumaisa Khan (Permaculture & Sustainability Tutor)
Course fees £55 standard rate / £45 concessionary rate: e.g. Full time students; On benefits, State pension etc.
Food: Teas will be provided; Bring snacks to share (if wished) as well as a packed lunch.
This is an introductory day that promises to be fun, educational and transformative. There will be opportunities for networking with other course participants.
Bookings:
To support a rich learning space, we are limiting participant numbers to a small group size. If you know you want to participate on the course, we recommend you book as soon as possible in order to secure your place.
Transport: While we may be able to connect up participants in advance, please be responsible for your own travelling to the farm. If coming by train, bus 25A has worked well before – 10-15 mins walk from Oxford train station. (A bus journey planner is here). Alternatively, you might want to take a taxi from the train station. Closer to time, we will communicate with all registered participants, so you can choose to meet one another at the station for a joint ride to the farm (about 8 miles or 25 minutes), thus sharing travel costs!
Workshop>> Listening to the Other: The Fertile Ground of Social Diversity: London (Sun 6th July 2014)
We are delighted to be offering this workshop at the London Permaculture Festival. Please join us to explore social diversity and difference – there is that and more at this year’s festival!…
Venue: Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Rd, Camden , London, NW1 7AY.
Date: Sun 6th July 2014
Workshop time: 1pm-2.10pm / London Permaculture Festival: 11am-6pm
Tickets £6 waged / £4 unwaged. On the door only: for entrance to the Permaculture Festival: No additional cost for the Workshop!
In developing strength through our diversity, whatever our colour, gender, histories, and religions, it can be helpful to appreciate the ways in which we are all the same.
Yet, by staying only within the comfort zone of our similarities, might we be missing out on the richness that arises from appreciating the reality of our differences?
This workshop is based on the belief that we can each tap into more courage, compassion and skill, enabling us to step beyond our comfort zone to reach out to ‘the other’, helping our relationships and communities to become more conscious, more authentic and consequently more resilient.
Workshop Facilitators: Muzammal Hussain & Shumaisa Khan from Routes of Wholeness
About the LONDON PERMACULTURE FESTIVAL:
The London Permaculture Festival is a non-profit grassroots event and is one of the largest permaculture events in the country.
With Workshops, Storytelling, Music, Kids Dome & more.
Topics include: Introduction to Permaculture; Big Picture Permaculture – Inspirational projects near and far!; Music and Culture of the Baka, rainforest people of Central Africa – a singing workshop; Permaculture in Pots; Lacto-fermenting with a permaculture twist; Strawbale building; Creating self-watering containers; Natural Beekeeping Trust; Listening to the Other: the fertile ground of social diversity; Hosting international Convergence 2015; Permaculture Barge Trips along the canal; Aquaponics and Tilapia in my garage; How your Permaculture project could become a LAND centre; Forest Gardens; Seeds of Fashion – growing a London garment; Lets design a Garden City; Moving beyond burning! A close look at Biomass; The Railway Garden – designing a city allotment project; Permablitzing in London; Could your project offer accredited training?; Positive solutions in the Ecuadorean Amazon; Sharing stories: using permaculture; HH-2 compost system; Reportback from Cuba International Convergence
The London Permaculture Festival is a non-profit grassroots event organised by volunteers.
Festival Website/More info: www.londonpermaculturefestival.com
One Day Course: Introduction to Permaculture (Oxfordshire: May 2014)
LATEST NOTICES
This course is now FULLY BOOKED! If you complete the booking form you will be placed on the reserve list – if a space then becomes available we will let you know. (26/4/2014)
—-
There are still a couple of places left! We will try to update this page when there are no more places, but there may be a slight delay. If you wish to book, please complete the booking form as normal, and you will be offered a place if still available. If there are no more places, we will let you know and we can put you on the reserve list. Alternatively, contact us to check latest availability; &/or sign up to receive updates of future courses/activities. (18/4/2014)
Click here for booking form (Note: There is a reseve list as the course is FULLY BOOKED).
We are offering a 1-day introduction to Permaculture in Oxfordshire.
Date: Sat 10th May 2014
Venue: Willowbrook Organic Farm, Hampton Gay, Oxfordshire, OX5 2QQ. UK.
Map: Click here
Times: 10am-6pm
Permaculture is a practical system for sustainable living, based on observing principles and patterns in nature. By maximising relationships in living systems, permaculture has empowered people worldwide to develop dynamic, resilient projects that work with nature, rather than against it. Whatever scale or aspect of human living, whether the home and garden, community or congregation space, or one’s own life and career, permaculture can be applied to each situation.
This is an interactive taster day outlining permaculture and introducing you to some of the fundamental tools and principles that can be used to design sustainable, resilient projects.
The course content will include:
- What is permaculture?
- Introduction to permaculture ethics and principles
- Nature observation
- Social permaculture
- Permaculture as a design system
- Applying permaculture
- Next steps
Course Tutors:
Dr Muzammal Hussain (Permaculture Designer & Group Facilitator)
Dr Shumaisa Khan (Permaculture & Sustainability Tutor)
Course fees £55 standard rate / £45 concessionary rate: e.g. Full time students; On benefits, State pension etc.
Food: Teas will be provided; Participants will need to bring a packed lunch/any snacks.
This is an introductory day that promises to be fun, educational and transformative. There will be opportunities for networking with other course participants.
Bookings: Click here to book.
To support a rich learning space, we are limiting participant numbers to a small group size. If you know you want to participate on the course, we recommend you book as soon as possible in order to secure your place.
Transport: While we may be able to connect up participants in advance, please be responsible for your own travelling to the farm. If coming by train, bus 25A has worked well before – 10-15 mins walk from Oxford train station. (A bus journey planner is here). Alternatively, you might want to take a taxi from the train station. Closer to time, we will communicate with all registered participants, so you can choose to meet one another at the station for a joint ride to the farm (about 8 miles or 25 minutes), thus sharing travel costs!
Why No Digging?: Nature as a Teacher
“Why no digging?“… This important question was recently asked following a post I wrote titled, ‘9 Months No-Dig Permaculture in Smal
l Growing Space‘.
I felt the answer to this question deserved a blog post of its own, and which can then be referred to in future posts around no-dig approaches to food growing.
How nature replenishes itself
How I understanding permaculture is that it draws on nature as a teacher. Nature can be an example of how to nourish and regenerate the earth.
Nature demonstrates deep and coherent principles of sustainability, and if through witnessing and reflecting on nature, we can be humble enough to allow nature to be our teacher, there are principles we might discover that nature embodies and that we can apply in creating our own systems, whether this be around food growing, economic systems, or social ones. Of course these can all interact, and that is one of the beauties of this interconnected dynamic world we are part of!
So, back to digging. If we look at nature, we can see that it rarely digs in the sense that it rarely dramatically inverts the soil. Instead, nature tends to work gently. In a forest, for instance, leaves fall, they slowly breakdown on the surface, and are gradually taken to deeper layers, in particular through earthworm activity. This process of organic matter being left on the soil surface and taken down (without digging) is a part of the process that naturally builds the fertility of the soil and feeds life, a foundation for the creative effortless development and sustenance of a forest and the abundance that comes from it for an incredibly diverse range of life forms.
Drawing on Nature’s principles
Permaculture would be not about copying this exactly, but about drawing on these principles to design systems (permaculture is a design approach) that provide for our needs in a sustainable way – which means also caring for our wider family: the earth and our fellow human beings.
Choosing to minimise digging
Breaking it down a bit more, here are some specific tangible reasons for not digging (or at least minimising it):
- By inverting the soil, many microorganisms accustomed to living and functioning at a particular soil depth will die, and this impacts negatively on soil fertility (and increases the need for adding fertilisers/external inputs).
- Digging can bring weed seeds to the surface, increasing the need for further digging and leading to an upward spiral of digging! Instead what we have been doing on our plot is, in part, seeing weeds as a form of life that store valuable nutrients. By just hoeing weeds along the surface of the soil, we leave them on the surface (as mulch) where they suppress further weed growth and break down naturally, gradually releasing nourishment for other life, like leaves do when falling on the soil surface in a forest.
- Soil is a carbon sink. Digging releases the carbon stored in the ground into the atmosphere, so is counter to what we ideally want to be doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
A bit of an experiment!
When we began our plot with a no-dig approach, it was a bit of an experiment! We were not sure how things would turn out. Although it’s been only nine months and it’s raised eyebrows, we’ve certainly found that weed growth on our plot seems to be much less now than on many others in the area, meaning less work in the long run, and the soil looks much richer as well.
‘It depends!’
While digging is something I would try to avoid where possible, there is an unofficial permaculture principle that underlies all of them, and prevents permaculture from becoming dogmatic. This principle is ‘It depends‘! After all, there are instances where some kind of digging would be appropriate and helpful (e.g. in heavily compacted soil). The aim, instead of no digging [full stop], is rather to create the conditions that minimise the need to dig, particularly over the longer term, and that means digging as little as possible in the first place. In our case, we have been fortunate whereby we have got away essentially without digging the soil at all.
All the best to everyone who is working (or working less!) to do this, and thank you to all my teachers who have helped me to explore the wonderful approach of permaculture which continues to support me in drawing on principles in nature to inspire my work in all its forms.
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I have found these two books to be really helpful (and both of which have pages about tilling/not tilling the soil):
The Permaculture Garden: by Graham Bell (simpler)
The Earth Care Manual: By Patrick Whitefield (more comprehensive)
Muzammal Hussain
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
9 Months No-Dig Permaculture in Small Growing Space
It’s been just over 9 months since we got our very own plot on an allotment site in Reigate, and we’ve used that time to apply permaculture to food growing.
On this post, I’d like to share a couple of photos to help convey some kind of pictorial overview as to changes that took place on our permaculture plot during that time.
Below is the plot as we got it about 9 months ago, in December 2012. The photo is taken from the south-east corner of the plot>>
DECEMBER 2012 – SE CORNER OF PLOT
You can see lots of grass and weeds. The plot had not been worked on for many months as the previous plot-holder was suffering from poor health.
After taking stock of the plot and reflecting on how to move forward, we thought that realistically it made sense that we work primarily on about half of it for the first year, and also use that time to gain more familiarity with the site.
We were committed to using permaculture principles, no insecticides/herbicides (i.e. organic) and to working with the plot without digging.
So, How did we do?! Let’s move to the ‘nine months later’ mark. Just below is a photo taken from about the same position in September 2013…
9 MONTHS LATER>> SEPTEMBER 2013
Early on, we built a compost structure from reclaimed wooden pallets (top part of photo). The area we’ve been growing on is about 16 square meters. We divided it into four beds, two are horse shoe shaped and two are rectangular.
Crops that we’ve been growing on these four beds include:
potatoes,
perpetual spinach,
swiss beet,
french beans (Blauhilde and Golden Gate varieties),
courgettes,
kale,
radish,
carrots,
and squash…
and yes, we did manage to work on the weedy site to grow all this food without digging! (A couple of open workdays helped, so thank you to everyone who came down for them).
Hopefully I’ll get a chance to share more about how we did this on a future post.
Muzammal Hussain
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Routes of Wholeness 