Permies in the UK

Hi

I'm just over the hill and walk the dog in stanmer most weekends, I probably will turn up at some point. I've been around the earthship which was quite interesting.

Good to hear news and see some pics from a few places I've either heard or visited.

Graeme Wade and others - you're welcome for a little Czech holiday if you can manage to agree with most of my (our) principles... if you're not sure what principles I mean check the link in my signature as most of what I mean is indicated at the top on my website (right at the top, and no need read much more if you do no agree). Thanks and click any link below...

Hi all. I'm in in Derby/Nottingham area. I'm saving to buy land, not necessarily in this location. My dream is to live in privacy from urban noise and government control in an off-grid home. Read up all about earthships. Now more interested in earthbag construction. Ultimately, I want to stop working in my current job (stressful, meaningless) and make a living by building and selling sustainable, off-grid homes (something which feels worthwhile and may help others). Unfortunately I've no formal training in the various relevant facets of architecture, agriculture and the associated legal / planning processes. So the last year or so I've been studying a lot, but still feel totally unprepared for this journey. If anyone wants to chat or meet up please msg. I am interested to visit the earthships in Brighton or Fife, the centre for alternative technology in wales, the Eden project, and other such places. I am especially interested to visit examples of off grid homes. Regards, M

*waves* I live in Derbyshire (right on the Nottinghamshire border)- near Alfreton. No offgrid home or anything though I'm afraid, just a regular old house stuffed with insulation and a garden with chickens! There's not a great deal of permie stuff around this area that I've found (not that is advertised in any way, anyhow).

Check out Wirksworth Eco Centre- they do some good and inexpensive courses on straw bale and lime building and things.

Having just come back from the Eden Project I'd highly recommend it, but it's on such a huge scale as to be completely unobtainable as far as building plans go. The Lost Gardens of Heligan is nearby, and has restored Victorian glasshouses, including a working manure-heated pineapple pit- I'd recommend going to visit, it seems much more realistic as far as home-building goes. Also Chatsworth House has some good glasshouses that are sometimes open, and any botanical gardens (Edinburgh botanical gardens glasshouses are amazing! As is Kew Gardens- they have modern builds as well as the original Victorian ones).

Charli Wilson wrote:

Check out Wirksworth Eco Centre- they do some good and inexpensive courses on straw bale and lime building and things.

Having just come back from the Eden Project I'd highly recommend it, but it's on such a huge scale as to be completely unobtainable as far as building plans go. The Lost Gardens of Heligan is nearby, and has restored Victorian glasshouses, including a working manure-heated pineapple pit- I'd recommend going to visit, it seems much more realistic as far as home-building goes. Also Chatsworth House has some good glasshouses that are sometimes open, and any botanical gardens (Edinburgh botanical gardens glasshouses are amazing! As is Kew Gardens- they have modern builds as well as the original Victorian ones).

Hi Charli

Oh, I'll have visit this eco centre in Wirksworth, I'ts close by. Thanks for the heads up

Been to Chatsworth ages ago, although at that age was far more interested in the maze. I'll have to check it out

If you fancy meeting up drop me a msg =)

Just starting out on the permaculture road and am based in Malvern,Worcestershire. I suspect I may have a few questions

Hi All,
I'm Cath and I'm a Permies.com fan, based in London.

I know this is an old post, but I'm in the middle of building a 12 foot diameter hyperadobe roundhouse in my sister's back garden in Reading. UK. Any one who wants to come help would be very welcome.
I live in London, and I can't offer any accommodation, just lunch! Maybe I'll get lucky and this will reach someone with a good mate in the area where they can kip...never know.

We've got the rubble trench foundation done, and the first row of gravel bags is just about to rear above ground level. Next step ..Hyperadobe...very exciting...the mesh roll is being delivered tomorrow.
Anyone with strength, a passion for earth building and love of hard graft (!) is welcome. We expect to finish the walls by end of June...latest. I'm building this in my spare time, so I'm usually there for 2-3 days at a time.  Someone is going to suggest woofers, but I don't have the set-up to accommodate that kind of volunteer. This is a small urban garden in Reading....what we're doing is possibly illegal, but what the hey.

Jobs needing doing next
1) sifting a mountain of soil to remove larger stones and roots
2) blending soil for the right mix
3) filling mesh tubing with" Hyperadobe quick wall machine" as invented by Greek genius on YouTube.
4) building door and window forms.

We'll cap it with a timber/living roof, leave to dry out for a couple of months and then earth plaster in Autumn.

Cath

Hi everyone. I'm a regular Permies reader and watcher from Pontarddulais, Wales in UK and regularly research for  formation on projects I'm looking to do. I have I've got an allotment which I have 2 Hugelkultur beds on and use the Ruth stout mulching method. I keep bees on my kitchen flat roof and grow a lot of my fruit and veg. My 3(about to be 4) children all love planting, and growing and eating what we grow. I don't use slug pellets ()instead I use slog gone) and plant more than I need to account for pests etc. I look to chop and drop weeds and share any glut of produce withe the local community via local churches. I'd be glad to hear if there were other permies users close to me.
Regards to all

Paul Andrews wrote:Hi All

I was just wondering how many permies regulars were from the UK

aman

Hi,

Bee here...I just joined today ...but was also wandering any Brits or anyone from uk. I live in Marbella Spain ...but really looking to off grid living and Tiny or Log house living! Anyone? Check out my profile ..
Have a great day guys!

Hi, I'm in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, recently moved back here.  Is there anyone nearby?
Cheers,
Antony

we are from the UK but  now live in Northern Spain because it is just like southern England without the people, crime or traffic.  Lots of very inexpensive property and land and many permies secreted about the place, quietly growing their way to better lives!

Hi Mandy, sounds great!  I've visited Northern Spain a few times, always loved it.
Cheers,

Antony

Hi fellow brits!

We (My wife, little girl and me) are from Bristol but are currently doing some work with a christian organisation serving the Roma community in Tinca, Romania.

Love to you all from The Spencers =)

Neil G Jay wrote:Hi everyone. I'm a regular Permies reader and watcher from Pontarddulais, Wales in UK and regularly research for  formation on projects I'm looking to do. I have I've got an allotment which I have 2 Hugelkultur beds on and use the Ruth stout mulching method. I keep bees on my kitchen flat roof and grow a lot of my fruit and veg. My 3(about to be 4) children all love planting, and growing and eating what we grow. I don't use slug pellets ()instead I use slog gone) and plant more than I need to account for pests etc. I look to chop and drop weeds and share any glut of produce withe the local community via local churches. I'd be glad to hear if there were other permies users close to me.
Regards to all

Sounds like great fun Neil, we're not too far away (1hr 28mins according to GMaps) in Bristol.

I hope you and the family are well? Is Pontarddulais locked down at the moment?

J

Antony Brush wrote:Hi, I'm in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, recently moved back here.  Is there anyone nearby?
Cheers,
Antony

Hi Anthony,

I’m in Leeds, so in world terms we’re almost nextdoor neighbours.

I’ve got a small forest garden, though with my new-build soil it’s tough going. Had I known what I know now, I would have spent a few years sorting that out before any serious planting. But I’m onto it now.

What kind of permaculture activities are you involved in?

Hi looks like we have a small number of us hailing from the uk.
Anyone on the south coast, I am in Dorset trying to slowly increase the amount of food that the mature garden, that I gained with this property, can produce.
Would love to hear from anyone nearby.
Pippa

Hi all. It's nice to see that there are some of us a bit closer to home on here. Much of what I have read is very focused on the US and it's not always applicable to our climate or planning laws!

My partner and I are living in the Valleys of South Wales at the moment. We are looking after a terraced cottage for a friend whilst we try to find a permanent home for ourselves, either a plot of land, or a house with a decent garden, or both.

The planning laws in Wales are more permissible than England and there is a framework called the One Planet Development Policy that, in theory, can afford you permission to live and build in woodland or on agricultural land if you are able to meet certain low-impact criteria. The criteria, briefly, involve producing 35-65% of your own food (or a mixture of food and the capital to purchase it from a land-based business), harvesting water and energy, improving the biodiversity of the landscape, etc. All of which sounds lovely but, in reality, the planning process is a bit of a quagmire and the whole thing is fraught with hidden expense...

Our current garden is a mix of perennial edibles and ornamentals, although there is still much work to do. We also have dozens of tree saplings that we have propagated for the future (and a similar number of tree guards that I have removed from dead or overgrown trees in the local park, after acquiring permission from the council). I'm hopeful that we can find somewhere to plant them before they become too stunted.

We had previously found a 9 acre site in Carmarthenshire but, after 6 months of delays, the seller pulled out early last week so we are back to the drawing board. It's very difficult to find affordable blocks of land as anything under about 10 acres goes for silly money (£10k+ per acre, sometimes are high as £20k). The planning framework that I mentioned is somewhat responsible for that, I fear.

The downside of the UK- land is very expensive! I live in an old coal-mining town in Derbyshire, and for a house with a bit of land I'd need more than half a million quid- and thats considered cheap! I shall never be able to stretch to that.. but an allotment only costs me £15 a year to rent, so that is what I'll be sticking with!

It is frustrating isn't it?  Agricultural land (in bulk) is fairly cheap, but land that you can live on is ridiculously expensive...too many people, and a few with too much money.
We paid more than we should have in retrospect for our place (smallholding with run down stone house on Skye) but are happy, and that's what counts.  We did consider buying with friends, but even with close friends the different wants and needs were significant and it would never have happened!

Bulk land, per acre isn't badly priced, but as always- you need money to make money. I have £80K for a land purchase but can't find anything in that price range (just land- local to my house but not with a house). I doubt I'll ever own land here.

The rented allotment has its upsides- I don't pay to maintain the boundary and it comes with allomenteering neighbours to keep an eye on things (like phone me when my shed roof blew off in the wind!).

Luke Mitchell wrote:Hi all. It's nice to see that there are some of us a bit closer to home on here. Much of what I have read is very focused on the US and it's not always applicable to our climate or planning laws!

Yes, sometimes contexts can be very different.

The land my house is on with garden front and back is about three times the size of my ground floor but costs approx one and a half times as much as the house would cost to rebuild (if it were destroyed in a fire). I’ve only got a small house and a small garden but I treasure every inch 😊

A house with 1.5 acres goes for around £250k in Mid- or West Wales, where they can be had at all. I've seen a few up for sale since the start of the year but they are in short supply. Larger smallholdings with 8-15 acres are usually closer to £450. To be honest, neither of those options are really affordable for us in the long term. We have been hoping to start a land-based business for years now, a sort of mosaic of vegetable polyculture, gourmet mushroom cultivation, basketry products and poultry, but finding a site that we can live nearby (not necessarily on) has defeated us so far. Thankfully we are still young and I hope that we will find somewhere soon. In the meantime, we'll continue to do what we can in our friend's [tiny] garden!

Love the comments and the community here!

Hi there! From the south west! love all the great info here!!

I am in London where there is absolutely NO way I can afford a house with a sizeable amount of land.  But, I count myself very lucky that I do have a house and a small garden which is about 16 foot by 20 foot. I may have virtually no space but I do have a warmer climate than the rest of the UK so am trying to take advantage of that and growing things that do less well elsewhere. I'm pushing the boundaries both ends with Lingonberries (possibly too warm here) and Avocados (possibly too cold here) and cramming those everything else in between into my tiny garden! I am doing this mostly in pots, which I appreciate isn't really classic permaculture, but it does mean that I can have my fruit trees closer together that would be the norm in ground. I have come to love chop and drop almost as much as the slugs and snails do, so although not a huge amount is planted in the ground, my soil should be alive and well. Aiming for maximum diversity as possible in my small space.  Have always dreamed of leaving London when I retire and getting more land somewhere else and mini-homesteading, but I suspect this will turn out to be just a pipe dream. So just enjoying farming the land I have, not the land I'd like to have some day.

Sounds like you’ve got a good thing going within your limited space. It would indeed be lovely to have more land but the options are limited in the U.K.

I'm an Aussie who's lived in the UK (Bedfordshire) for over 20 years now. We have a very small house with a slightly large garden (about 16' x 24'), which has gradually been transformed from lawn to a thriving food hedge surrounding the rug-sized patch of lawn I can't convince my lovely British hubby to give up! I have weaned him off glyphosphate and Miracle Gro and got him using seaweed spray, so that's a start! We're priced out of getting a place here with more land here, and back in Australia is not possible, either.

I'm looking at Bulgaria as an option to explore natural building and permaculture, though Brexit has put some interesting challenges in the way!

Jane Mulberry wrote: I'm looking at Bulgaria as an option to explore natural building and permaculture, though Brexit has put some interesting challenges in the way!

Yes, Brexit has got in the way!!

At a tangent, a woman is going to come from Germany to talk to one of my groups - pretty sure she’s not getting paid but she’s going to need a visa as it’s classed as work 🤔

Crazy that volunteering counts as work! Hoping she can get that sorted out without too much difficulty.

Thank you, Jane.

Helen Butt wrote:Hi Anthony,

I’m in Leeds, so in world terms we’re almost nextdoor neighbours.

I’ve got a small forest garden, though with my new-build soil it’s tough going. Had I known what I know now, I would have spent a few years sorting that out before any serious planting. But I’m onto it now.

What kind of permaculture activities are you involved in?

Hi Helen, just seen your post!  My permaculture activities - have been to a few woofs, but right now I've just got some herbs / an apple tree growing in the back.  So still just starting.

Well done for having a forest garden!

Hi,
Just noticed the permaculture association has launched an online course for small gardens - just what we need in the UK!
https://learn.permaculture.org.uk/c/how-to-grow-food-course/splash
This is the link I hope

Antony Brush wrote:

Hi Helen, just seen your post!  My permaculture activities - have been to a few woofs, but right now I've just got some herbs / an apple tree growing in the back.  So still just starting.

Well done for having a forest garden!

I'm currently having a rethink about the forest garden. It's great to have apples and other fruit but...

... the strawberries plants are now old and being dug up

.... I can't seem to get rid of codling moth so there are lots of half rotten apples

..... the raspberries take up a lot of space, whilst not giving much fruit (and they don't taste that great)

.... we don't actually eat much of what we can grow, in fact.

The garden does seem to be great for wildlife, though. The pond helps! Not sure exactly what comes into the garden apart from birds but I've noticed a wider variety than when we had a lawn and not much else. The trees no doubt provide more food for them, the pond water.

Anyway, have fun with your garden, Anthony.

Thanks for the info about the course, Bess. I've enrolled. It looks good.

Your garden sounds very like mine, Helen. Except I do eat all the raspberries - ours are on the tart side but good eating, just a bit too rampant! I've had a lot of half rotten apples this year, too. So that's Codling moth? I've never had this happen before. I'll need to read up on some good ways to deal with it.

I suspect part of the problem is hubby - he has a compulsive need to water and prune everything, so with many plants we get an excess of soft green growth then the aphids attack, then the plant is weak and susceptible to other attacks. Best I can do about that is get him to add seaweed extract when he waters, in hope it strengthens the plant.  We had less grasshoppers this year than last year, but a huge caterpillar overload. Not sure what they were. Our perennial kale got chewed right back, but they weren't cabbage white caterpillars. The kale has regrown, thankfully. The garden is full of birds, but they're overfed and lazy, I think!

oliver kellie wrote:Hi there! From the south west! love all the great info here!!

I just looked at your website. You sell nice stuff!

Hi Folks!
I'm in Exeter, down in the South West. Glad to see there's fellow Permies in the country.

I'm in a rented property with no land to speak of, so I'm doing my best to take part in SKIP with what I have. Any folks nearby also having a go? How's your adventure going?

Hi Marek!
I'm not actively doing SKIP or going for certification, but I am loving the learning opportunities in every badge bit. I'm doing it informally - ticking off the ones where I think I already meet the requirements, and looking forward to stretching myself with a few new things whenever I can.

With the 32+ forecast we had for today, I had a go at the solar oven BB. Alas, to no avail. Either my crude improvisation was simply inadequate or I'll need to fork out for a piece of commercial kit. I was able to hit 70C in the rice, but certainly failed to cook it by the time I ran out of sun. I may have also shot myself in the foot by opting for rice as my grain adventure, as the B. Cereus hazard makes it unpleasant to get wrong.

I haven't tried any solar cooking, but rice might be one of the more challenging options, I am guessing.