Category: Permaculture Studies

Earth, Wind and Fire: The Reality of Following Your Most Radical Dreams

From the earth elemental energies to the fundamental permaculture principles, I reflect on what I have learnt so far about the reality of following our most radical dreams.   If you have been following this blog since its inception in 2020, you may be surprised that after so much energy and movement of the first few years of this journey,...

Tragedy Hits the Community Garden:  Epilogue 

  This is the final part of the series of blog posts that I have written about a terrible crime that took place within the collective of the community garden (see parts 1 and 2– trigger warning: violence against children and suicide). In this final post, I share my final reflections on painful episode. Using the words of the victim’s...

Tragedy Hits the Community Garden: Part 2

How does a community garden react when the worse crime of all is committed by one of its own members?   In this post we return to where we left off, with the collective in the community garden still reeling from the tragic events that unfolded on the 27th December 2021.  Trigger Warning: Violence Against Children and Suicide   A small...

Tragedy Hits The Community Garden (Part 1)

  This is a story about the community garden that I never imagined I would be writing. Yet here I am trying a to find a title that accurately reflects what the content of this post without falling into the cheap trap of shocking click bate. Tragedies have a way of remaining unspoken about, lest the pain and ugliness spoil...

It’s Official! I am a Permaculture Designer!

After two years of observations, investigations and hard work,  I am happy to announce that I have finally completed my permaculture design project for the community garden! I can officially say I am a qualified permaculture designer!   It has been a long time coming, and at times I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to the end....

community garden Madrid

Stories of Success in the Community Garden!

  From homemade Italian delights, birthday parties, and new friends to sharing plant knowledge, gratitude notes and personal growth, we managed to end 2021 on a high in the community garden. Read on to find out we managed to turn things around! A lot has changed in the community garden since I first started to document my permaculture explorations there...

community garden

Getting to the Root of the Community Garden Conflict

The community garden saga continues!   What will my permaculture investigations reveal about the ongoing conflicts that have been plaguing La Plaza for so long? Using permaculture techniques such as stakeholder questionnaires, interviews, and a good old fashioned chat over tea and cake, I explore some of the problems that have been hanging around the community like a bad smell...

community garden

Conflict in The Community Garden

  Anyone who read my last post about the community garden ¡Esta es Una Plaza!, a community garden in Madrid, may have come away with an idealistic view of a utopian community in the city full of like-minded people, working together for the common good of all and transforming the city in the process.  Whilst this image is indeed accurate...

¡Esta es Una Plaza! Inspiring Permaculture in the City

  In this post I tell the story of an incredible example of what is possible when people come together to create something different in the world. This magical place is ¡Esta es Una Plaza!, an urban garden in Madrid that I am lucky enough to be using to base my permaculture design project on.  Here I share a bit...