This garden was started in the Spring of 2001 & uses a lot of recycled materials. It may not be to everyone's tastes, but it does attract a lot of wildlife, provides some food & I also think that it is very beautiful. The picture on the left was taken in June 2003 & already the planting is really starting to make a difference. Compare it to the picture below, when it all started two years previously & you'll see what I mean! One of the design principles of Permaculture involves examining your resources: what is easily to hand or freely available & this garden demonstrates this very well. The garden has utilised recycled items from the very start, in fact hardly any money was spent during the initial stages.

 The new beds were made on meadow grass which contained a lot of dock, nettle & buttercup in particular. In order to give the new plants a chance, the ground was first mulched with cardboard waste from local shops (which will in time decompose), then on top of that was placed a mixture of homemade compost, soil (mainly clay), plus sand, gravel & manure to give it some structure. The manure was a very local resource being heaped only a few yards away & most of the first plantings were surplus from friend's gardens. The bed edging was made from fencing post offcuts, which along with the bark chippings from the same source were free of charge, although I did have to collect them.

 The main project of the first year was to erect the decking, in order to provide a better growing environment for younger & more delicate plants, enable the better use of vertical space & of course provide a bit of Peoplecare too! It was constructed using new timber for the framework, but recycling pallets for the decking surface. It has transformed the space, just about doubling the living space in the summer months & being pretty much slug & frost proof too! An added bonus has been that it has also made the mobile home more stable in high winds. As you can also see, the simple act of painting the mobile home green has also helped it blend into its environment much better.

 In the first year some work was done on developing behind the mobile home too, but limited to the beds in the picture on the right. Comfrey was planted as a useful green manure crop in the shadiest spot against the mobile home, where as you can see, it has thrived. Other vigorous plants were planted in front of the hedge, where they would have to do well to hold their own! Some have done better than others. This area can also be an evening suntrap & at other times a wind funnel, a fact noticed through long-term observation; another important permaculture design process. Straw spillings (shown here) were tried as a path base, but rotted too quickly. The latest experiment with wood chippings from treework done on the farm is turning out much better.

 The latest project has been to extend the garden further out behind the mobile home, creating more beds & a pond, also utilising the south facing side of a metal shed for more excellent growing opportunities. Again there was plenty of cardboard & manure available & this time the bed edges were made using used bottles (& no I didn't drink my way through them first!). The bottles are remarkably strong & have been tested in this way for safety before being used at busy tourist attractions like the Centre for Alternative Technology & the HDRA Organic Gardens. The mound of earth (mostly clay actually) from digging out the pond was heaped up & spare large stones from a dismantled wall used to create a rockery.

 The same stone was also used to edge the pond, hiding the edge of the liner. One end of the pond has a gravel beach to allow birds to come & drink or bathe & small animals to get out again if they fall in. It has also proved to be a favourite sunbathing place for all the tadpoles hatched from some frogspawn rescued from a ditch early in the Spring. Already it is a popular place for birds bathing & much wildlife has set up home, including a large blue dragonfly. Wire trellises have been attached to both the shed (which has also now been painted green) & the mobile home for climbers & a whole lot more inherited pots have filled the decking area to capacity. A lot has happened already in the first two years!

 For a more detailed look at this design, see my Diploma Portfolio Mobile Home Garden Design.