Graham Bell

Taking new apprentices?
No
Individual or group tutorials
both
Notes about contacting me

By telephone or email
01890 88 2448
[email protected]

My phone number

01890 88 2448
About me

I live and work in the Scottish Borders. My wife Nancy and I have created a Forest Garden which is approaching its thirty-first anniversary and provides a great deal of food, fuel and company (wildlife). Our children Ruby and Sandy (now in their thirties) have also been great contributors to developing our house and garden as an energy efficient home place. Sandy is the immediate past Chair of PAB. I have written two books on permaculture, the Permaculture Way and the Permaculture Garden which thousands of people have enjoyed as easy introductions to what permaculture means in a Northern temperate climate and the society that goes with it. I have taught permaculture on six continents. After many years engaging with business and politicians in my work to get these essential principles understood and used by people who govern and direct the world's economies I have returned (2012) to teaching courses and restarted a North Hardy Plant Nursery, specifically designed to support Forest Gardeners. The nursery has now been sold on to Kate Everett at Inverquiech in Perthshire. We welcome invitations to teach elsewhere, and visitors here by arrangement. We have a well developed and successful strategy for teaching online. Full details can be found on my website: http://grahambell.org or e-mail me at [email protected]

Diploma Tutor Experience

As one of the first three people to gain the Diploma in the UK (1990) and having taught permaculture on five continents I am well versed in most aspects of the discipline. Bill Mollison appointed the first three of us Diploma graduates to be the panel for admitting new Diploma holders in the UK way back then. I am not however a professional forester or very experienced in large scale farming but have been an agricultural instructor focussed on countryside management, and a trainer of trainers. . Business management, forest gardening, renewable energy and energy efficiency are particular strengths. Resource management sits behind all these topics.

Diploma Tutor Skills

I am a qualified electrician, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Royal Society for the Arts Commerce and Manufacturing and the author of two books on permaculture (The Permaculture Way and the Permaculture Garden) I have taught from the Arctic Circle down to Middle Eastern deserts and sub Saharan Africa, and across Australia. I am primarily interested in helping others in confidence and self-reliance with their own work.

Educator experience

Large scale regional designs for energy and transport systems.  Designs for agroforestry down to forest garden scale systems.  Mostly interested in teaching others design skills to enable self-empowerment.  Has co-created a charity (Abundant Borders) to work with people experiencing food poverty and encourage local food production through Community Development.  Currently working with Dr Elaine Ingham's Soil Food Web designing online courses around Permaculture.

Educator skills

Particularly strong on Forest Gardens and Agroforestry, Food Preservation, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, Transport, Building Construction & Maintenance, Money systems and alternatives, building personal assets.  Has mentored over a thousand early stage and start-up businesses.  Garden Cottage gets a thousand visitors a year (by appointment only, please!) wghen times allow...

Educator qualifications

MA (Oxon) FRSA FCIM Dip PermInst

Many short courses including: Risk Assessment, Health & Safety, First Aid, Agroforestry, Pruning, Grafting, City & Guilds in Electrical Engineering, VQs in Training,and  Assessment.