so what's environmental growth?

environmental growth = growing our environment!

We rely on systems. Natural systems. Systems that filter our water, generate our oxygen, grow our food, pollinate our fruit. So environmental growth is about not just slowing down the damage we're doing to those *crucial* (CRUCIAL!) systems - it's about reversing that catastrophe and moving it into Getting Better gear.....here are some simple examples we can all get our heads round. And if you want to know more, check out our SOIL and TREES and BEES and PERENNIALS and WWOOFERS and I KILOWATT HOUR/DAY HOUSE pages....:)

Leave wild areas for natural habitat to develop - forage, shelter nesting for birds and mammals and insects and bees. They'll love you for it. Untidy is Good!

Add bat boxes. And bird boxes. Lots of different sorts. And lots of different places. Make your house a flying habitat heaven...

Use dynamic accumulators like comfrey - they bring up nutrients into their leaves from deep in the soil where other plants can't reach. Just then chop and drop the leaves onto the top soil to feed the plants (like apple trees) you're growing there. Bingo. That's your circular system right there.

Apple tree in a no dig bed with lemon balm, phacelia and comfrey helping ward off pests, attract bees and feed the soil. The holy trinity!

Make pollinator positive your Thing! Plant pollinator positive plants....er....*everywhere*!

Don't dig. It knackers the soil structure and encourages weeds to grow by exposing seeds to light. Just add organic matter. Lasagne beds are a permaculture thing - layers of organic matter!

Just add organic matter.....always! Build, create and make your own soil. And say so! Communication rocks....

Every raised bed is filled with layers of cut grass, bracken and woody chippings, cardboard, wood chip, home made compost, chicken straw and horse muck. What happens next is a bit like magic...

Try and get your head round a systems way of thinking, rather than in straight lines. It helps HUGELY when you can suddenly see the connections between everything...all one big system made of lots of little ones...

Grow lavender, rosemary, nasturtiums, croci, daffodils, phacelia, beans, peas, sunflowers - all together in whatever you have to plant them in. They provide critical pollinator habitat. Simple.

Manage your invasives. We're lucky. We have two pigs. Meet Aristotle and Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst. They take on bramble, bracken, himalyan balsam, hogweed and dock. And then poo onto the soil. For free. What's not to like?

Grow LOTS of different varieties of apples...and mix them up with LOTS of different top fruits. Maximum resilience!

Don't add chemicals. Don't add chemicals. Don't add chemicals.

Use a scythe. Helps manage grassy areas, no fossil fuels involved. Helps harvest hay, and helps you manage carefully your wild habitat areas - by hand.

Grow loads and loads of different sorts of fab things. More diversity = more biodiversity. We. Need. Biodiversity.

Build your soil. Add sunshine and rainwater. Make sure pollinators can get in (and out). The ecosystem does the rest,

Make sure the only thing that lands on your fruit is rain and sunshine. :)

Try and bring your energy use down. D-o-w-n. Really really down. :)

Plant Big.

Pick the old way. With people, carefully.

Harvest by hand if you can.

Grow nectarines if you can...

Grow damsons...an old fruit not always sold in shops. Diversity rules. :)

Grow grapes if you can...

LOTS of varieties. Diversity rules!

If you build it...(habitat)...they will come...:) (unexpectedly, into the kitchen, apparently!)

Live as part of the outside. We are part of the systems we rely on. :)

All systems grow....and grow! :)

Grow perennial vegetables...brilliant for you, brilliant for the soil, stable habitat...no dig, just keep adding organic matter!

Grow raspberries...

Grow courgettes...

Build a compost loo...

Grow all sorts of squash...

Grow pumpkins!

Grow spaghetti squash!

Butternut walnuts...nut trees rock!

Hazelnuts....nut trees are fantastic for habitat, animal and human food, wood fuel, leaf drop onto soil, carbon sequestration, water cycling....what's not to like?!

Get to know your soil...have a look at our SOIL page in the link at the top...

Make soil. Grow worms. Plant stuff. Simple as that. :)

(This is what happens to our soil if we don't build it and support its structure. It. Washes. Away. (and pollutes the sea and rivers into the bargain).

Wwoofers plus gathered stones = low stone wall = excellent habitat for LOADS of critturs.

Use surf packaging as cardboard mulch. But first use as teaching board for explaining soil creation and care to eager WWoofer from Italy...

Mix things up. Always. Diversity ROCKS. Italian olive tree farmer WWoofer teaching Brit WWoofer how to prune an ailing English apple tree. You should see it now!! :)

Sow poppies. Everywhere. They look FANTASTIC - but are brilliant pollinator forage. :)

Do it. And then say that you're doing it so everyone can get their heads round it as well as you. :)

Mulch. Mulch. And mulch. Suppresses weeds; slows water loss; improves soil structure by adding organic matter. Bingo.

Grow a little of everything. Diversity of plants = diversity of critturs = biodiversity = resilience and good growth. Simples!

Lasagne bed. Layers of organic matter. A soil factory. Who needs peat? Or bags of bought compost?!

Even if you garden is your porch - you can grow a whole garden there too. Plenty for pollinators, plenty herbs for us...

Work with the University of Exeter on pollinator research! (they rock!)

Last year: bracken. Much clearing with pigs and wwoofers = a mass of wildflowers this year. :)

Make bee hotels. Everywhere. Check out our Blooming Bee Friendly pages: http://www.permanentlybrilliant.com/blooming-bee-friendly-in-hayle.html

Use a scythe to manage grasslands. See the clip below on scything...and it's good for you!

Wild. Is. Good. :)

Build soil. Plant perennials. Mulch. 3 steps to happiness! :)

One raised bed: peas, beans, courgettes, bees, butterflies, worms, beetles, birds, food, habitat, oxygen, soil building, carbon capture...bingo!

Straw as mulch keeps in moisture, suppresses weeds and contributes to organic matter. Yay!

No dig bean, peas, squash and pumpkins...good soil, good food, good habitat for pollinators. :)

Showing Permaculture Design Course students round the vines, nectarines and apricots. Best ideas are always shared!

And here are some short video clips talking about environmental growth in all shapes and sizes. I guarantee you'll see summink here you can run out and do this week....:)