Tag Archives: plants

A World Without Butterflies and Bees…

12 Jul

Buddleia are in full, heavy, nectar perfumed bloom all over the gardens at Bealtaine Cottage.

This is one just opposite the front door.

The purple coloured blossoms droop expectantly, waiting for the seasonal Butterflies, but there are none…

What has happened is the fault of humankind, weather, pesticides, corporate greed and ecocide happening all around me.

If the Butterflies had to rely on the Bealtaine gardens alone, then the world is mad.

I fear, in this area, they do.

Flowers like these Perlagoniums hold nothing for Bees or Butterflies.

Colourful they are and I love the vibrancy and traditional look of them, but they are just that, traditional ornaments.

There are no others like this at Bealtaine Cottage.

Yet, parks are filled with these plants and others that are of no value to the natural world around us.

Gardens the same…

There is only one neighbour who tends a garden.

Only really one other garden in bloom with plants so loved by Bees and Butterflies.

The pathways in between are now cut as the silage machines level the meadows of meadowseet and buttercup and all the wild flowers much beloved of the humble Butterfly, whose days in the sun were always few and now, it appears, none.

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Permaculture is…

20 Apr

Permaculture is… a design system…

 It’s a simple and effective way to apply  the principles of ecology in the design of sustainable human habitats.

Building a veranda on the south side of Bealtaine Cottage was a practical and sustainable  way of applying the principles…there is now an all-weather area in which to shelter and store humans, plants and fuel.

 Permaculture is not just about growing things.

Although permaculture focuses on food production, it is more than just food as it embraces every aspect of living holistically on this Earth…with this Earth!

All aspects of living well, such as health, and education, are integrated in this new way of living… Aspects of community and architecture, especially living architecture and always sustainable architecture…using locally source materials, especially wood.

It brings sustainability into all aspects of life, even art, as in the stained glass wheel of life using beer bottles!

Permaculture uses resources from, essentially, three main areas.

These are nature, traditional systems…as in the application of permaculture principles at this old stone cottage, and modern scientific /technological knowledge.

Embracing knowledge and applying it in a permaculture way is one way of describing what I do here at Bealtaine Cottage.  

For example, retro-fitting the cottage for maximum insulation using minimum £resources, such as sheep’s wool for insulation in the cottage and fertility on the hungry land!

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