Ryan Sandford-Blackburn

I got skirret offsets from Alison about 8 years ago and have been growing it since. We're on clay. It grows well, with good sized roots, particularly in fertile soil.

What I like about the growing is skirret is drought tolerant and likes damp soil, it's adaptable! What I like even more is the taste. My coworker tried it and announced we should grow it field scale. I'm still trying on that one.

The young growth in Spring is susceptible to snail munching and it will rarely recover from this. That's one propagation-proliferation issue from seed - they don't grow much in the first year (3' above ground?) so slugs and snails can wipe them out. Older plants, though, you can reliably get 3-6 offsets per plant per year: dig and harvest the roots, tease and shake the tangle apart, replant an ever-expanding patch of skirret.

On long term outcomes, see this paper from Tomas Remiarz and Jon Kean https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354551542_Robert_Hart_revisited
Revisiting Robert Hart's forest garden. Robert Hart was a pioneer of modern forest gardening in the UK.

My key takeaways: a garden needs its gardener(s) & plan for succession of plants and people.

I was thinking about something similar last night. Now, I don't know what

Raven's November book writing idea

is but I like the sound of a radical urban permaculture book. I don't think such thing exists!?

You say 'permaculture methods' but I don't think there is such a thing - there are practical solutions that can be implemented as part of a permaculture design. The Holmgren flower of 8 sectors (7 petals + the design principles as the nectar in the centre) could be one way to organise those practical solutions; it's how knowledgebase.permaculture.org.uk is arranged.

My ideas for some practical solutions:
- making a driveway permeable and multifunctional - e.g. if there's a motor vehicle in the household could it be housed under a car port with a green roof (stacking) and part of a carshare scheme?
- wholefood buying clubs
- book clubs where locals read permaculture texts
- homebrewing organic, wild, and fruity drinks
- ferments
- backyard livestock

Essentially, you say urban and that means anything at a home scale, lots at community scale, more at a city/town planning scale (bicycle infrastructure, collective energy).

I dare says lots of that is in Holmgren's new RetroSuburbia - some detail on www.retrosuburbia.com, but scope for more to be written to make it accessible to more people.

I've stumbled across this link, an excerpt from an early 20th Century book. Russian apricot varieties. I can't find details of any of these cultivars. Does anyone know any different?
http://chestofbooks.com/gardening-horticulture/Thomas-Joseph-Dwyer/Guide-To-Hardy-Fruits-And-Ornamentals/Apricot-Trees-Russian-Varieties-Of-Apricots.html

The apricot apparently originated in the region of China/Russia. It'd make sense that there's plenty of Russian cultivars. Info gratefully received.

Thanks for the thoughtful thread. I'd like to give gratitude to YUMI - York Unifying Multicultural Initiative, a community garden on the edges of the historical city; particularly Helen the professional gardener there - I spent many days learning with her at the gardens. That piqued my interest in gardening and food and international cuisine.

I was then led to get involved in an experimental Incredible Movement group, aiming to bring together different disciplines across community, arts, food, & business. I met Viv Chamberlin-Kidd, then a trustee of the Permaculture Association Britain - who had immense knowledge and is very willing to share.

Andy Goldring is a real force behind many initiatives and movements and I'm very pleased to have met him and to be working with him.

Hannah Thorogood is an inspirational farmer, owner and manager of the Inkpot permaculture farm in Lincolnshire - with a forest garden, cows, sheep's, turkeys, goats & hens, as well as running courses. Her site is a real show of what can be achieved by extraordinary people with determination.

Milkwood permaculture have in my opinion one of the best online presences of any permaculture practitioners worldwide - I love following their adventures in self-reliance through their blog and instagram.

Joe Atkinson, resident at LILAC cohousing and former colleague, taught me on a PDC with Paul 'Neckie' Paine, at the beautiful St Ann's allotments, Nottingham.

There have been many other inspirational people along the way and there's bound to be many others too in the future. If you're in the UK and don't recognise the names above, I urge you to Google them.

Destiny Hagest wrote:Justin's brand spankin' new online permaculture chickens course opens up for registration tomorrow (Thursday) - you can get signed up and all of the details here.

Protected by a password.

I'd be interested to know how this did long term. Are you still at the property? Do you have results you could share please?

I've read Tom and Gil's book and I think it's a useful book to have on my shelf. It's a pleasant reminder of the positive impact permaculture design and designers are having; people are helping to mitigate against climate change.

There's a poster I helped produce, that gives a little insight into the book. It's also a way to share the topic with your friends and contacts, a 'hook' if you will. 'Hey, here's a snazzy poster that says interesting things about adapting to climate change. Have you seen there's a book about this too?' Download the poster here: permaculture and climate change poster download

www.permaculture.org.uk/land lists LAND (learning and demonstration centres) in Britain. Best to contact places directly. Best of luck with your journey.