The aim of the project is to grow low maintenance food and to increase biodiversity in a small urban back garden.
The house is occupied by Rakesh's parents, who love gardening and growing their own food, but are getting too old to handle any intense physical work. They are therefore creating a low maintenance forest garden around the edges of the garden and have a synergistic growing space in the middle for a variety of conventional vegetables. The site will maintain space for people to enjoy the garden, as well as composting, drying cloths and other garden activities.
They are in the process of implementing a greywater treatment system, which will run into a newly created pond, with an overflow into one of the growing spaces. They will look to design a new shed-cum-greenhouse, with a green roof, which will also be used as a way to get access to the huge cherry tree which they have inherited.

Visits are by appointment only

The Sustainability Centre aims to educate, enable and inspire people from all walks of life to make positive changes to the way they live and work. As part of this vision we aim to manage our land, our charity and our businesses as working examples of sustainability. We practise and promote sustainability as a process of making decisions which balance economic, social and environmental factors for positive benefit. To give you a brief idea of some of the things we do, take a look below:
Regular volunteering opportunities (anything from food growing to willow coppicing to habitat management)
Courses and workshops;
School visits;
Eco Lodge and campsite- hire a yurt or just bring a tent
Vegetarian cafe
Natural burial site.
Please see the website for more details!

Because of the thinness of the soil we have made up our vegetable beds using the no dig method. We now have several demonstration growing areas and have plans for more.
We aim to be organic and low maintenance.
Self seeded trees and hedgerow prunings provide our wood fuel and a further native woodland has been planted for future fuel.
We like to show that everyone can grow some of their own food, from a window sill and concrete yard to an allotment holder.
We offer, what we call Alternative weekend breaks - bed and board in exchange for half time work on our holding.
We also have a holiday cottage which provides a good part of our income, along with photo voltaic panels proving electricity.
We welcome individual and group visitors; especially those that are willing to give help in exchange.
Our aim is to encourage our plot to produce as much of our needs as possible whilst not only maintaining the wildlife present but encouraging more diversity.

Berry Wood Farm (formerly “The Hillside”) is a developing 16 acre permaculture smallholding enterprise in the hills of the Derbyshire Dales. The land is in the early stages of transition from upland sheep pasture to a diverse, multi-functional, productive site from which we aim to create 2 livelihoods and inspire and inform others who dream of developing sustainable land-based lives.
We have backgrounds in organic market gardening and sell high quality salad leaf mixes to local pubs and restaurants, and veg boxes to a dozen or so local households.
In 2013 we are opening our gates as a low impact, back-to-basics campsite with compost toilet, solar shower, and campfires, with great views over Carsington Water and the surrounding hills and good access to the rest of the Peak District National Park.
We have been busy planting several acres of new woodland and shelter-belts for shelter, biodiversity, beauty, bee fodder and future coppicing for firewood, craft and construction use. The additional shelter will be vital for developing more favourable microclimates as the site is on a hillside ranging between 750 and 900ft and so can be quite exposed at present.
We have also planted quarter of an acre of forest garden to test what will cope with our climate and heavy clay soils, and have earmarked a further acre that will gradually evolve into forest garden over the coming years.
We currently have a couple of beehives, and hope to expand this considerably using natural beekeeping methods learned from “The Barefoot Beekeeper”.
Other strands of our ongoing work on site include improving our soils and drainage, the creation of several multifunctional ponds, and keeping ducks for slug control and eggs. Future plans include rare breed sheep (including experimenting with tree fodder as a regular part of their diet), wild mushroom cultivation, and small-scale aquaculture using carp.
Permaculture excites and inspires us, and in the future we hope to pass this on through workshops and courses once our site is a little more developed. In the meantime we accept volunteers and ‘WWOOFers’, and offer volunteer apprentice positions so people can come and learn alongside us whilst simultaneously helping the project to develop and flourish.
Heather Ruckledge and Antony Dumskyj

Haye Farm is a second generation family farm, with 50 acres of traditional pasture land, orchard and hay meadow grazed by rare breed sheep (wiltshire horn) and cattle (dexter). The land is in a Counrtyside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) agreement so is extensively grazed with a forage winter grazing system more recently introduced. CSS also funds educational access visits to the farm and have helped finance a classroom. Diversified activities include two coarse fishing pools, small caravan site and most recently a barn conversion (haye farm sleeping barn) providing self-catering accommodation for up to 15 people. The barn is also to be used for residential courses and similar events.

The May Project Gardens is a 0.028 hectare plot situated in Morden, south London, and was founded with the aim to bring communities closer together through sustainable activities. The site houses several fruit and vegetable growing beds, a medium size polytunnel, and is open to all those interested in learning and/or sharing skills and knowledge in permaculture, horticulture and community development. The main aim of May Project Gardens is to bring communities closer together to act collectively. The project provides access to the tools necessary to educate communities about the issues that affect the environment and as a result the effects they have on those inhabiting the planet. May Project helps to demonstrate some of the solutions to these issues and encourages all to get involve and make a difference

Harehope Quarry is a former limestone quarry in Weardale, Co. Durham. The quarry is a Local Wildlife Site with areas of wet woodland, species-rich limestone grassland and ponds and rivers. The site is renowned for its exposures of Frosterley Marble as well as characteristic features of limestone geology, including Jacob’s Pot.

The quarry is managed to promote biodiversity, provide some permissive access and encourage outdoor learning through educational visits, courses and events. Facilities at Harehope Quarry include:
• Purpose-built outdoor classroom
• Dedicated bushcraft/Forest School site
• Outdoor cooking facilities
• Outdoor play and delivery area
• Workshop (summer 2019)

I grow around 50 types of fruit and veg,for our consumption, as well as all the wood needed for our fire. Altogether I have around an acre of trees and about a quarter acre of food growing on the site. When we moved in 14 years ago it was a traditional country garden with lawns and flower
beds as well as many non native trees. One of the first things I did was to plant trees on some of the lawns and so cut down the amount of mowing required, growing something useful instead! My
aim is to replace unnecessary non native trees with our native deciduous species, all of which can be coppiced or pollarded for a continuous crop of wood. Last month, I converted a flower bed to
an ash seedling bed. When the saplings are big enough, they’ll be used in the next stage of cypress replacement.
Where possible, I use my own wood to build necessary structures for growing the fruit and veg. eg the fruit cage is made from my own posts and likewise, I built a waist height raised bed (built log cabin style) to grow veg in. I’m particularly proud of this as I cut the notches using hand tools ie a bow saw and axe. Everything gets recycled here including old tyres to grow potatoes in, wire freezer baskets to protect crops, plastic milk bottles as hanging baskets for strawberries, pop bottles for storing rain water for the fruit and veg, old doors and building rubble to make compost heaps.

We are a family of three and a dog living by the sea in the east of England, trying to be as self sufficient as possible without being fanatical about it. We structure our garden on organic, Permaculture principles, storing rainwater and recycling our grey water through a reed bed. Our home uses solar energy and waste wood for space and water heating and cooking and we have a solar electricity generation system. We grow and eat our own vegetables, fruit, eggs and honey. We are creating all of this ourselves (DIY) where possible from recycled materials. We have help from volunteers from the WWOOF and HelpX organisations who stay with us and work on our project. We hope to have volunteers from the Permaculture Association in the future. We are developing trading networks in the local community, as well as salvaging materials and passing them on to others. We have set up Tendring ECO Group, which meets monthly and we continue to forge links with Transition groups and others in the wider area.
We have also acquired a piece of ancient woodland so some of our time is spent managing the wood including coppicing, planting, clearing bracken and creating a small woodland garden.
As we generate more electricity than we use, we have just purchased a second hand electric car.

The Abbey Physic Community Garden is a members based community project within a half acre walled garden in the centre of Faversham. The three principal aims of the project are: firstly to help relieve the needs of people with mental health problems and provide relief to those who are socially and economically disadvantaged; secondly to be inclusive of everybody and promote non-segregation, so that people from all different backgrounds can benefit from working at the garden; thirdly to help people to develop life skills and coping strategies, undertake training, achieve qualifications, pursue employment opportunities, gain independence and take responsibility for themselves. The space is divided up into the following zones: a forest garden, cottage garden, wildlife garden, shaded borders, no-dig raised beds, as well as fruiting trees and bushes scattered around the site. In these zones we grow a wide range of organic fruit and vegetables using permaculture principles which we then sell to the general public. We also produce various crafts for sale; cards, soaps, willow baskets, wildlife homes, as well as jams and preserves, all made at the garden using garden produce. We are open to the public and the garden is a community space which can be accessed and enjoyed by everyone.