Since the spring of 2010 when both Emma and myself first got involved at Cwm Harry so much has happened. The development of the garden itself, much of which has been captured in this blog/ diary, including some of the many different people who have contributed and become involved to transform a germ of an idea into a stunning reality during the course of the last 18months. This has happened to an increasingly dramatic backdrop of the wider issues globally; financial, energy and political crises as well as catastrophic weather events all typifying the issues that inspired us to develop a community garden in the first place. We are certainly starting to realise how potentially an important role community gardening can play in the transition to localised food production and stronger more resilient communities.

My experience of the last month is of being completely immersed in teaching, talking and thinking about sustainability and development issues. I have been facilitating permaculture design classes, lecturing, public speaking, meeting farmers, school children and the general public in all shapes and sizes along side my work at Cwm Harry. I have also had the opportunity to visit some of the leading local sustainability projects: C.A.T where we took part in a local food conference, Ford Hall Farm where visited one of Britain’s oldest and best know organic farm, where they have developed a unique ‘foggage’ pasture system, Treflach farm local to us, which is taking transition very seriously and we have been developing permaculture courses in partnership there to name a few, and to work with the wonderful Dolen Ffermio, more about which later. I have also had the pleasure of meeting a variety of local farmers in the North Montgomery and am really coming to respect the depth and breadth of knowledge there is in this area.

‘There is an increasingly strong awareness and a growing sense of urgency for the need to develop a strong local food economy, to create new opportunities for the coming generation and to build a more sustainable relationship with community and environment.’

Firstly there is the Wonderful news that the Lottery has agreed to support the development of community gardens in North Powys over the next three years by agreeing to support our Get Growing project.

BBC News webpage - click image to visit

and congratulations to everyone on the Cwm Harry team who have supported the development of the garden project, even when the last lot of funding ran out in April this year.

Towards a Skillshare Co-operative
The experience of the last year leads me to realise that there is a rich seam of experience and knowledge in this area, which can significantly contribute towards sustainability in Wales, and the wider UK.

Around the world more and more people are agreed that the world in general is facing some huge challenges right now, a crisis of capital in our financial systems, a struggle for expression and freedom of speech politically,  a crisis in our energy systems, firstly because the rate of extraction of the finite carbon reserves we are so addicted to is slowing down, which will inevitably push energy prices ever higher, whilst of course we are faced with the very real propect of run away climate change, within 5 years, according to the IEA.

So whilst the UK energy production is collapsing, there are very strong reasons for us to start dis-investing in the whole fossil fuel project and start developing alternatives with a much stronger conviction.

Energy melt down, heading our way

Major changes are inevitable, to the way our economies work, the way our democracy works and to the way we produce and distribute food, as food supply is very closely linked to energy. All of this in turn will transform the world of work and the way that businesses will work. So what is your resilience plan? How well are you going to cope with this transformation?

Uganda - Wales farm link

The question of How is the world going to feed itself? with 7 billion population, Peak Oil, Peak Phosphate, dropping water tables and soil erosion has been raised recently by Dolen Ffermio at the Newtown/ Llanfyllin 6th form conference this week, with speakers from all over the Uk and Uganda.

The world has been transformed by the green revolution, seed technology, agricultural technology and of course fertilizers and pesticides, all of which of course are derived from oil. Critics point out that agriculture has become a system for turning oil into food, which sets it at odds with nature and very vulnerable to oil price hikes and shortages. There is a whole new revolution on the way, which is being driven by escalating energy costs, as well as  a much greater understanding of the natural world and how we might work sustainably and more in partnership with nature.

Ugandan farmers visit

We had some very interesting conversations with the visiting Ugandan farmers in the summer on the subject of sustainability and resilience. They are of course producing a great majority of their own food locally, and with very little inputs. Whereas our food in Europe comes from further and further away with our Peruvian asparagus, Costa Rican green beans and Kenyan sugar snaps, to go with our New Zealand lamb and South African cabanet sauvignon. We have a lot to learn from each other in terms of having vibrant and healthy local food economy, which can guarantee affordable and nutritious food to everyone.

seed saving

Seed saving, working with and enhancing biodiversity is another crucial issue around the world and here at Cwm Harry we are coming to realise one of the key roles of a community garden such as our should be to both preserve certain key species and make their seed available locally.

Talking about compost

Knowledge sharing for local resilience
It really is a thrill to be talking about compost making with African farmers. Soil is such an important subject, and caring for the soil is something that links all people across the globe. learning how to use natural processes to restore damaged soils and rebuild the ecology of life within it is the only way we can replace the petrochemical inputs and boost fertility, water retention and of course nutrient cycling and availability.

The challenge that society faces is maybe not to totally abandon the globalised trade idea, but we have to develop a plan B. A real insurance policy that both address the pressing need to societal change to create jobs, greatly reduce our co2 emissions, actively sequestrate more carbon from the atmosphere and back into plants and soils whilst developing local food and energy security. Luckily all of these objectives can be achieved by gardening. By permaculture, by the concious application of the principles of ecology to design genuinely sustainable human settlement. Easy to say and hard to do.

Luckily a great many people have been thinking about these challenges for the last the decades, many centred in the mid Wales and Marches and West Mids area. We have wealth of both long established farming practices with very low input systems and organic pioneers who who have created a patchwork of small holdings, projects and community gardens, sometimes in the most unlikeliest of places across the area.

The building of strong local economy for food, energy, materials and nutrients involves development in many different areas; Composting, recycling, renewable energy, community finance. organic growing, community gardening, education and support for all of these processes, as well as the people skills and democratic skills required to help mobilise local populations to be much more directly involved in this processes.

There is much to learned, much to be done and many new jobs, opportunities and roles to be created for people from all sections of the local community. it si with all of these ideas in mind that we are currently in discussions to try and evolve a knowledge sharing for resilience training cooperative, centred on Cwm Harry. We can work with the accumulated experience and networks around Cwm Harry, Presteigne Zero Waste, Robert Owen Credit Union, Cae Post, Cwm Harry Food company, Sector39 permaculture, Ash and Elm Horticulture to name but a few potential partners.