June 28, 2024

VIDEO: Incredible Permaculture Food Forest Project in Breathtaking Landscape


In this video of the inspiring gardens series, we visit the incredible Paddies project at Lawson Park which is a Japanese style food forest in the Lake District on some incredibly challenging land. Many people would think it is impossible to grow productively here, as it is acidic, has no topsoil, is extremely moist and also at a higher altitude. However, Karen Guthrie and her team have defied all odds and shown that virtually anything is possible! I really hope this story and project inspires you and your vegetable garden as much as it has for me, and that it shows what permaculture can do when applied in a challenging environment.

With thanks to Karen Guthrie from https://www.grizedale.org/
If you are in the Lake District, the Grizedale Arts has opened the 2022 monthly garden school for bookings: https://www.grizedale.org/events
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23 thoughts on “VIDEO: Incredible Permaculture Food Forest Project in Breathtaking Landscape

  1. So cool. Reminds me of a film I saw of a small tribe of indigenous folk living in a forest, gardening in a similar way, little pockets of productive gardens with trees and other native species around them. Paradise on Earth really. Hope to see loads more of this 🙂

  2. Fabulous and what I've done in a small suburban ornamental garden mixing fruit and veg in small openings among trees and shrubs. Maybe 200 square feet available. Charles Dowding no dig was the inspiration three years ago and has been stunningly successful while reducing the work load. Blessings from Oregon.

  3. 2 metres of rainfall per year!!!! Our property is on the New England Tablelands of northern New South Wales, Australia, at an elevation of 1,050 metres above sea level. Last year, which was an unusually good year for rain, we had a little over 47 inches (some of that actually fell as snow). And that amount of rain was not evenly distributed across the year. For example, April = 18.5 ml, May = 22.5 ml, August = 22.5 ml (note, that's millilitres, not inches). We also have acidic, very thin topsoil (I'm using the term "topsoil" loosely). I'm sure it comes with its own problems, but it must be such a blessing to have so much regular rain. However, living in such a dry climate as we do has taught me the value of regular mulching and no-dig gardening (or at least minimal tillage). The soil is so fragile here that tilling the soil simply destroys what little soil structure there is. Not that challenging conditions should ever be a barrier to gardening. You just have to be clever and flexible 🙂

  4. Happy Valentine’s

    Thank you for this!

    Did they make a video of when the Japanese gardeners were doing their work there?
    That would be amazing to see their techniques and the progress and mthat bd set before and while they worked to creat the foundation.

  5. Ojalá todos los videos tuvieran los subtítulos en español. Aprendo mucho con ellos pero se me escapan muchos detalles por no entender el idioma original. De todas formas, enhorabuena porque son fantásticos!!

  6. Very reassuring to hear all of this, living in the West Yorkshire Pennines we have similar conditions, growing veg so far has been a challenge, but soil gradually improving through mulching and learning what works and what doesn't means better successes each year…..I think!

  7. This is encouraging, while I have wonderful, flat even ground, I am on the edge of what's called the coastal plains, and have maybe a couple inches of topsoil then solid sand for the next few feet. I am bringing in some compost until I have my own up and running and mulching heavy but somedays I question if I'm gaining.

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