Productive abundance can be achieved over time…

The secret lies in planting…planting for your life, for speed is important in the precarious world we now inhabit!

A good place to begin, apart from food, of course, is with hedges…and remember that any shrub, tree or perennial can make a hedge.

In my book, hedges are essential highways…for insects, birds, small animals and bees…all cultivators of the land.

Hedges can also provide an immense amount of food for you and timber for the stove as well!

Hedges can also include lots of early flowering bushes such as Ribes, very popular with Bees!

We all know, or should know by now that a world without bees does not sustain human life…no food, simple as that!

What about trees…did you know that small animals do essential work in planting trees?

They carry seed along hedgerows, spreading it far and wide.

This smallholding is now generating a large amount of seedling trees, allowed to grow, now that the dreaded monoculture of cows and grass has been banished!

Many of these seeds have been carried onto the land by animals and birds.

If left to their own devices, they and they alone, will create a ‘Garden of Eden.’

For small animals, insects and birds, hedges represent highways to travel along without fear of being preyed upon.

In most farms these highways simply do not exist and so the real cultivators are diminished and, in some cases, wiped out!

Straw stored in open barns presents a fine opportunity for winter hibernation.

The decline of open barns and hedgerows has led to a sharp decline in the Owl population.

This once common night bird in the British Isles is a joy to behold…if you ever get the rare opportunity…alas!

Growing food for ourselves is important, but doing it the permaculture way is essential…for all life on this beautiful and bountiful planet…

That’s the real change, isn’t it? …taking all life into consideration!