Although I have only recently taken my PDC course at Carraig Dulra in Co.Wicklow, my involvement with permaculture goes back many years. In 2010 I began volunteering at the Quarries Farm in Bangor, Co.Down, on their Growing Connections project, which was an experiment in social farming. It was here that I first encountered the concept of permaculture and attended my first introduction to permaculture course with Phillip Allen, a veteran of permaculture design. I then had the opportunity to put theory into practice on the farm as we designed growing spaces, and together with volunteers and clients referred by the health services, we built compost loos, polytunnels, a roundhouse, planted woodlands, and many more amazing projects.
It was during this time that I met a fellow volunteer, Claire, and we were married on the farm, where we lived in a converted horsebox, as we experimented with off grid life, living in our tiny home, making solar and wind power, harvesting rainwater, and growing our own food. Our time on the farm was an opportunity to envision what kind of life we wanted to live, and how we might live it. At that stage we didn’t know where, and looked as far afield as Wales, where I volunteered at Lammas Ecovillage on their community hub building, and Tipperary, here in Ireland. After 18 months of searching we came across the farm here in Co.Down quite by chance, and were fortunate enough to be able to afford to buy it.
In May 2012 we became owners of Lackan Cottage Farm, and moved onto the land in our horsebox as we began the task of restoring the existing cottage in order to be able to move in before the birth of our child. Four frantic months later we moved in and Lyra was born on September 15th.
To some extent our design was driven by the need to establish a home, and to make use of existing structures, but we were able to observe the land through a full cycle before having created an initial plan for the land. Over the next six years we established vegetable gardens, an orchard and forest garden; planted edible hedgerows; planted over 1200 native trees; put up 2 polytunnels; built 2 compost loos; installed 4.5kw of (mostly reclaimed and free) solar pv; put up a (reclaimed) 3.5kw wind turbine; installed systems and battery storage; crowdfunded and built a timber frame, strawbale insulated classroom; rebuilt a guest cottage that is super insulated and heated using only the sun and a small woodstove; planted a basket willow plantation; refurbished the truck for guests; dug ponds; created gardens for the cottages; built a barn and workshop; established a woodland work area; built greywater reedbeds; built a load bearing strawbale roundhouse; added 6000 litres of rainwater harvesting and storage.
Over this period we have also been host to many, many volunteers, some local, some worldwide, mainly from the WWOOF scheme. We have also run over 50 courses on site in subjects such as permaculture, off grid living, woodwork, basket making, wine making and NVC (non violent communication). Additionally Steve has led an external course in building a rocket mass heater, and taught renewable energy on a PDC course. Over the last two years we have also been able to earn an income from letting the second refurbished cottage (Birch Cottage) and the truck to self catering guests.
We also keep horses, and over the last year have learned about and trained our horse Rain to work in draft, pulling implements around the farm. We also keep a small flock of hens for eggs, and each year raise a number of chickens for meat. Our horses and hens are all rescues, though our meat birds are not.
We introduce the public to our work here in a variety of ways. On a local level we have a good relationship with our local newspaper, and we also use social media very widely, having a following of nearly 3500. We can reach some 40,000 people in a week if necessary. In addition we maintain a website and blog which has a regular following, and have appeared in a number of related blogs, and in publications such as Permaculture Magazine. To date we have made four television appearances, on BBC1, Channel 4 and RTE, covering topics such as low impact living, food and lifestyle.
Having established our own smallholding, where I have completed literally everything, up to and including plumbing, heating and electrical systems, as well as traditional building, crafts and horticultural skills, I have a very broad range of skills and knowledge to offer.
Completing a PDC at this point has been a very useful exercise, and provides a point at which to take stock of the work completed so far, to survey and analyse what we have available here at Lackan, and produce an overall design for the Lackan Cottage Farm project, as well as a range of small designs that form part of that whole. There are a number of specific land based designs that I would like to address, as well as several non land based. One of the great discoveries I made during my PDC was that in fact non land based design was something I find incredibly rewarding, and my PDC design is one that I will maybe draw upon and expand in the diploma. So now I wish to move on to talk about my learning pathway….
