Hedvig’s permaculture diploma

The first project that I have started for my diploma is all about plants.  I wanted to explore new ways of seeing plants.  In particular, using plants for cosmetics, cleaning products and herbal medicine.

I took a course in herbal medicine a few years ago, and really appreciated the understanding that I got from that.  Since the new year my flat mates, Irene and Sarah, have been to a few courses about herbal stuff.  I thought that I could use this project to pull together our knowledge and share it in a more structured way.   Especially as Irene is leaving for Ecuador soon, and Sarah is going back to Oz at the end of the year. Sarah is really into the herbal medicine side, Irene has been learning about natural beauty and I know more about the growing side of things.  The two of them are pretty obsessed with cleaning, so something to learn for all.  The perfect combination to develop from last years attempt at food growing.

Today, I started the surveying the plants that we use for teas (partly medicinal), cooking (mainly herbs and spices), essential oils plus the herbs that we are already growing.  While doing it I was assessing the ease to grow those plants in the UK.

After this I replenished our stocks, our marigold pot was looking particularly low, and had to pour out the dregs of the big paper bag to fill it.  A few bits fell out, as I was putting them back in the jar, I noticed a few seeds in the mix, and also in some of the heads. 

So now have a collection of seeds to be planted tomorrow and Thursday during the flower phase of the biodynamic calendar.

I continued the surveying looking at the different cosmetic products I have, noting different brands, prices, main ingredients, base oils used etc.  The final thing was to look into cleaning products, observing the brands and prices.

I picked some herbs from the garden to dry: lemon balm, mint, sage, oregano and they are now drying in my cupboard above the boiler.  I collated some recipes for room sprays, inhalations, cleansing, gargles, mouthwash, perfume, cologne and toothpaste.

As Irene was home today, I started the assessment with her about the different beauty products: how easy they were to make, how (cost) effective, and other observations, and in her opinion whether it would be worth doing regularly.  We also went out into the garden and measured up.  So in the next few days I will draw up an outline for the garden and begin marking the sun at different points in time.

One of the permaculture principles that I wanted to explore through this project was ‘obtain a yield’ and I definitely feel like we will be able to obtain a different yield from the plants we do grow.  The other principle was ‘integrate rather than segregate’ I feel from working with my flatmates rather than doing the research by myself I do benefit from that integration.  I hear about their tips from experience and people on their courses rather than just a book, there is support and enthusiam to make products together, and a real different eagerness to grow plants.

The project is underpinned by the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair shares.  Learning about the components and decreasing my demand of chemicals and thus pollution.  Also it encourages others to grow plants and doing so using organic methods.  It is all about people care: physical, mental and spiritual well-being through re-connection with nature, producing home grown plants for medicinal use and beauty.  We are planning to make extra and give them as presents to friends, and through sharing the experience here maybe others will be encouraged to try it out.

It is early days for the project and for the diploma but even at this stage I feel more empowered.  There are so many plants that we use in the house that can be grown, and so many natural beauty products that can be made.  From the surveying I felt like we didn’t use what we grow enough, and working with Irene today feels like it is making a difference.  When I suggested to Irene that we make sage croutons for our soup this evening, she went straight out to the garden to pick it from Sarah’s window sill.

To answer the action learning questions:

What’s going well? Learning lots, feel inspired, using more fresh stuff, clear idea how to switch from bought stuff to making my own and much more.

What isn’t going so well?  Not enough time to research

Vision? Mini apothecary in my bathroom

Next steps? Continue assessment with Sarah, draw outline of garden, transplant lemon balm seedlings, read up.

Permaculture has many definitions, the most succinct one that I have come across recently was from the Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast, where it is defined as a ‘design system for sustainable living’ it ‘looks at the way nature does things’.  For example, in nature there is no output that isn’t used as an input for something else.  It is a system that is based heavily on ethics and principles which informs that meaning of ’sustainable living.’

The diploma is self-taught and draws on action learning theories and methods.  To complete you need to do ten designs that don’t all have to be land-based or implemented.  You have support from your Action Learning Tutor and Action Learning Guild, plus various Design Tutors.  You need to complete the Full Design Course (FDC) before starting on the diploma, which I did in December 2007.  It takes a minimum of 2 years to complete.

I enrolled for the permaculture diploma in October 2008, just before going WWOOFing in Italy.  I wanted to use the time away to research and design some pieces for my portfolio.  I struggled for a bit to get started with my diploma, co-ordinating a time with my tutor to chat when I was WWOOFing in Italy turned out to be tricky. I did a lot of observing (one of the principle tools) and learnt a lot, and thought a lot about different projects I could do.  I also went to the Slow Food Salone del Gusto in Turin, which was very inspiring, and guided my thinking.

While away I realised that I really don’t want to stay in London, and for a number of different reasons I think that Brighton is the place to be.  When I came back in January I looked into changing my tutor to someone down in Brighton, which happened in February.  The Brighton Permaculture Trust organised an induction for the people doing the diploma in March, which was great.  It was informative, really useful and I felt inspired having a much clearer idea of what the diploma involved.

For the past month I have been developing my Action Learning Pathway.  I read up about action learning theories, assessed the ideas I had had for designs while I was in Italy, and formulated a pathway.  I found David Holmgren’s Permaculture Flower a useful tool.  I have now written up a quite detailed Learning Pathway, and have arranged to meet up with my Action Learning Tutor at the beginning of May (if you would like to see it, do get in touch).  So looking forward to that meeting and what comes out of it.

and Renny Gleeson.  This one is really short.

Emily Levine at TED

It’s almost a year since I left FRP, since I received this unusual leaving card.  I think both FRP and I are in quite different situations.  

I have really struggled to be able to write my blog, not because it required the discipline to regularly write, not because I wasn’t doing anything but because I wasn’t sure how to use it.  Much of that has to do with not knowing who the audience was.  Now, I find it quite reassuring to think there isn’t much of an audience. 

As I mentioned in my last post, in January I spent a few days in Paris.  I had read about this exhibition at the Centre Pompidou about futurism and the avant-garde and decided this was the one thing that I wanted to do.  It turns out to have guided the months that followed more than I could have expected.  This includes getting me to a second interview to a job and, more importantly for this blog, providing me with a way out of the struggle of writing.

After the exhibition (which was well worth the visit) I explored the Centre a bit more.  I came across a collection that was put together by Daniel Cordier.  He had written this to explain it:

‘The collection assembled here is the fruit of happenstance, what connects the objects being only the enjoyment they brought to one single art-lover.

It reflects the ungovernable disorder of pleasure.’

This is what I want this blog to be.  An ungovernable disorder of pleasure. 

With that in mind, I want to use this space share my own version of an ‘ungovernable disorder of pleasure’, a virtual collection of my own.  If anyone reads and gains any pleasure that would re-affirm the benefit of sharing using this ungovernable disorder of the internet.