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Organic permaculture 05d: The permaculture orchard of Mr. Graham Bell (Southern Scotland)
(fruit forest garden, forest garden, agroforestry)

Amazonas is a forest garden - harvest is without end - second half of the garden is the soil

Book by Graham Bell: The
              Permaculture Garden - illustrated by Sarah Bunker   Graham Bell, permaculture specialist, portrait    Film 07 über den Obstwaldgarten
              von Graham Bell: Kräuter neben Baum    Map of Scotland with Berwickshire
              county at the English border
Book by Graham Bell: The Permaculture Garden - illustrated by Sarah Bunker [1] - Graham Bell, permaculture specialist, portrait [2] - Movie 07 about the orchard of Graham Bell: herbs next to a tree [Film 07] - Map of Scotland with Berwickshire county at the English border [10]

by Michael Palomino (2018 - translation 2021)

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Graham Bell's orchard (Southern Scotland)
(fruit forest garden, forest garden, agroforestry)

Graham Bell lives in Northern England on the Scottish border. He and his wife Nancy have created a forest garden from which they take almost all their food and cut firewood. The wildlife is fantastic. The two children Ruby and Sandy develop the place in terms of energy efficiency. [web02]

See the photos from a movie:

Movie: A walk round Garden Cottage with Graham Bell (29'28'')

Movie: A walk round Garden Cottage with Graham Bell (29'28'')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s23Pz8FJ14g - YouTube channel: Callum Egan - uploaded on May 29, 2017

Movie
                      0: Cottage of Graham Bell   Movie 01: Orchard of
                      Graham Bell, view to the medium heights   Movie 02: Orchard with view to the terrace
Movie 0: Cottage of Graham Bell -- Movie 01: Orchard of Graham Bell, view to the medium heights -- Movie 02: Orchard with view to the terrace
Movie 03: Floor zone of the orchard   Movie 04: Salads in the orchard of
                      Graham Bel   Movie 05:
                      soil coverers
Movie 03: Floor zone of the orchard -- Movie 04: Salads in the orchard of Graham Bell -- Movie 05: soil coverers
Movie 06: path between the trees   Movie
                      07: herbs next to a tree   Movie 08: wooden trunks
                      for Shiitaki mushroom production
Movie 06: path between the trees -- Movie 07: herbs next to a tree -- Movie 08: wooden trunks for Shiitaki mushroom production
Movie 09: shrub cultivation at a bed's rim   Movie
                      10: apple tree in spring   Movie 11: orchard of
                      Graham Bell: little free zone with a pond
Movie 09: shrub cultivation at a bed's rim -- Movie 10: apple tree in spring -- Movie 11: orchard of Graham Bell: little free zone with a pond
Movie 12: potatoes grown in a tire tower   Movie 13: Red Hut,
                      and in a tree a bottle is hanging for lacewings   Movie 14: Red Hut with vines, zoom
Movie 12: potatoes grown in a tire tower -- Movie 13: Red Hut, and in a tree a bottle is hanging for lacewings -- Movie 14: Red Hut with vines, zoom
Movie 15: micro
                      climate: the southern wall is a greenhouse zone   Movie 16: Seedlings in the greenhouse area   Movie 17: Passion fruit on the entablature
Movie 15: micro climate: the southern wall is a greenhouse zone -- Movie 16: Seedlings in the greenhouse area - Movie 17: Passion fruit on the entablature
Film 18: Graham Bell zeigt
                      seine Erbsenbohnen   Film 19: Graham Bell mit
                      Pflanzenzucht auch zum Verkauf   Film 20: Graham
                      Bell hat über manchen Gemüsebeeten Solaranlagen
Movie 18: Graham Bell shows his pea beans - Movie 19: Graham Bell with plant breeding also for sale - Movie 20: Graham Bell has solar panels over some vegetable patches
Movie 21:
                      Angelica tree   Movie 22: Birdhouse in the orchard by
                    Graham Bell   Movie 23: Portrait of Graham Bell: The living
                      soil is the second half of the garden
Movie 21: Angelica tree - Movie 22: Birdhouse in the orchard by Graham Bell - Movie 23: Portrait of Graham Bell: The living soil is the second half of the garden
Movie 24: Portrait of Graham Bell: Earthworms
                      are the best workers in the garden   Movie 25: Duck
                      pond   Movie 26: Pear tree in spring
                      in Graham Bell's orchard
Movie 24: Portrait of Graham Bell: Earthworms are the best workers in the garden - Movie 25: Duck pond - Movie 26: Pear tree in spring in Graham Bell's orchard
Movie 27: Graham Bell shows the compost
                      heap   Movie 28: Vegetables in tire towers   Movie 29:
                      Vegetable patch with large protection bells for
                      microclimate
Movie 27: Graham Bell shows the compost heap - Movie 28: Vegetables in tire towers - Movie 29: Vegetable patch with large protection bells for microclimate
Movie 30: Herb bed with tent
                      protection for microclimate   Movie 31: Black bin with
                      light hole accelerates growth   Movie 32: Solar system over vegetable beds
Movie 30: Herb bed with tent protection for microclimate - Movie 31: Black bin with light hole accelerates growth - Movie 32: Solar system over vegetable beds
Movie 33: Warm
                      microclimate under the transparent tarpaulin
                      canopy
Movie 33: Warm microclimate under the transparent tarpaulin canopy


Web sites of Graham Bell

-- Courses with Graham Bell:
http://grahambell.org/
-- Graham Bell on Facebook: The Red Shed: https://www.facebook.com/theredshednursery
-- Graham Bell's articles on his website:
http://grahambell.org/posts
-- video about Graham Bell's orchard: http://www.permaculture.co.uk/videos/oldest-food-forest-britain
-- Videos über Graham Bell und seine Permakultur: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22graham+bell+%22+permaculture

"The earth will take care of us if we take care of her." (Graham Bell) [web01]

Graham Bell cannot understand why governments are still spraying pesticides [web01].


Graham Bell: permaculture teacher
                    courses of 2021, presented on Facebook "The Red
                    Shed"
Graham Bell: permaculture teacher courses of 2021, presented on Facebook "The Red Shed" [3]

Permakultur-Gesellschaft in Grossbritannien:
                    Permaculture Association, logo   Permakulturkurs von
                    Graham Bell mit Sägespänen und Schubkarre   Video von Graham Bell:
                    Permakultur mit Obstwaldgarten
Permaculture Association in Great Britain, logo [4] - Permaculture course by Graham Bell with sawdust and wheelbarrow [5] - Video by Graham Bell: Permaculture with orchard [6]


Graham Bell: Why do we need wildlife
https://permaculturenews.org/2017/03/23/why-do-we-need-wildlife/

The list: aphids and their natural opponents: blue tits, ladybirds, lacewings - field edges attract invertebrates and songbirds etc.

-- Aphids and the yellowing disease can be eliminated with opponents: blue tits, ladybirds, lacewings [web01]
-- Field edges attract invertebrates and songbirds [web01]
-- Agriculture and forestry are one unit, they cannot be operated separately [web01]
-- Monocultures eliminate wild animals [web01]
-- Scavengers (slugs, rats) remove animal carcasses [web01]
-- Invasive exotic species (giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed, Himalaya balm, New Zealand flatworm, mink) should not be allowed to grow in because they have no natural predators [web01]
-- Birds of prey and badgers do no harm [web01]
-- Wasps pollinate, break down dead wood, eat snails [web01]
-- Thistles and nettles are pioneer plants for the regeneration of damaged soils, they are food plants for butterflies and moths, and they are medicinal plants [web01]
-- Earthworms are floor care workers [web01]
-- Weeds create new soil [web01]

Slogan of life by Graham Bell: Be
                    the inspiration
Slogan of life by Graham Bell: Be the inspiration [7]

Quote:

<Abundant wildlife is the first sign of a healthy planet. For far too long (like since the birth of chemical agriculture in the late nineteenth century) we have thought humans can control Planet Earth. Previous retrograde steps would be the enclosures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For Scotland, the Highland clearances spring to mind.

Any intelligent management of the land and our ability to live from it recognises the need for Earth Care. The Earth will care for us if we care for it. We are people and therefore need People Care. But we do not care for ourselves by a misguided belief that we can dominate the rest of nature and win.

Here’s a small example. Aphids are widely regarded as ‘a problem’. They are vectors (carriers) of various diseases e.g. Virus Yellows. Aphids are prolific insects if uncontrolled. But we don’t need to control them. All we need to do is encourage their natural predators. For example, blue tits, ladybirds, lacewings. These native species are a delight to see and eliminate the need for chemical sprays if we have them in profusion. So all we need to do is create the right habitat and leave the natural cycle of life to deal with itself. Aphids aren’t the problem. Keeping nature in balance is the challenge. Wide field margins that attract invertebrates and songbirds assist.

[Agriculture and forestry are one unit - the 5 dimensions of nature: space with trees, time, relationships (interactions)]

The idea that agriculture and forestry are separate activities is the next mistake we have made. Nature operates in five dimensions. Over, under, sideways, down in the words of the old pop song. The three dimensions of physical space. Our farmers do a fantastic job on the two dimensions of flat space. But the third dimension of vertical space requires two things: creating living organic soils (impossible with chemical farming which destroys life in the soil) and trees. Trees offer us the best chance of permanent habitation. They ameliorate climate, build soils, offer useful products and create habitat for wildlife.

The fourth dimension is time. Under the supermarket culture we have lost our respect for seasonality, expecting abundant harvests of everything we consume every day of the year. Our commitment to uniformity is destroying our understanding of the value of diversity. Different things happen at different times of the day, and of the year. If we respect this then we need to work much less and make less inputs. True yield is outputs minus inputs, not tonnages achieved. Let nature take its course and we’ll progress further for less work and cost.

Monocropping does not favour wildlife. Managing our salmon rivers to extinguish coarse fish is not going to increase our national wealth, just the wealth of a few. Mono – anything is anathema.

[Appreciate scavengers - remove invasive exotic species]

Everything in nature has a right to life. If you don’t like a particular (native) plant, invertebrate, animal or bird, just consider what its role is in the system. Without detritus eaters (slugs, snails, rats etc.) we’d be feet deep in rotting vegetation. I exempt invasive exotics (Giant Hogweed, Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Balsam, New Zealand Flatworm, Mink) because they were never part of our natural environment and they don’t, therefore, have natural predators.

[Birds of prey and badgers]

But I despair to see people who want to eliminate raptors and badgers. They are part of the beauty of our natural world. If we abandon nature we abandon life. Badgers are ‘bad’ because they give bovine tuberculosis to cattle. The Government’s own research shows that 80% of the time it’s the other way round. Makes sense if you think about it. Badgers trundling around pass through cattle at ground level (cowpat territory). Cattle don’t spend time hobnobbing with badgers.

[Wasps pollinate, break down dead wood, eat snails]

Many people are intolerant of wasps. But they serve lots of useful functions – pollinating, breaking down dead wood, infesting slugs and keeping their populations under control.

[Thistles and nettles]

Thistles and nettles are pioneer plants repairing our damaged soils and great food plants for a wide range of butterflies and moths. And for us if we know how to use them.


This is the fifth dimension. Relationships and cross effects. In this zone we find the true foundation of natural abundance. How does all creation work together to provide our needs? As you enjoy our countryside ask yourself whenever you look at a plant, and insect, or an animal or bird – “How is it helping me.”

[Earthworms are the floor care workers]

Without earthworms we couldn’t live. Fantastic soil creators.

[Mushrooms and their meaning]

Fungi serve us massively in ways we are barely beginning to understand.

[There are no weeds - weeds create new soil]

Weeds? Well they create new soil and all our food crops were weeds once.

Every tree on planet earth, capturing carbon dioxide and giving us back oxygen is a gift to our ability to live on planet Earth. A life we would not have without abundant wildlife.

[Bare moors in Scotland were caused by incorrect farming]

The great ecologist Frank Fraser Darling described Scotland’s bare moorlands as ‘a wet desert’. He wasn’t wrong. Let’s stop our lowland agriculture going the same way, and regenerate woodlands on our uplands. The inevitability of carbon descent (oil running out) means we’ll have to get much better at managing our land and using organic production to produce the food we need.>

[Well: Oil is NEVER running out because the deposits are always filling again].

Graham Bell: Yield is theoretically unlimited
https://permaculturenews.org/2016/09/13/yield-theoretically-unlimited/

Früchte und Gemúse aus
                            Obstwaldgärten mit Graham Bell One food forest at a time- Graham Bell, Global Change Agent, Scotland.

The text:
“I live here on the Scottish Border in northern Britain the same latitude as Alaska, Moscow, and so on.  If I was in the Southern hemisphere, I’d be south of McQuarrie Island like South Georgia or somewhere. 
My wife, Nancy and I share an intentional food forest garden.
It’s 800 sq meters.  Or .08 of a hectare.  A fifth of an acre in old money.
In crowded Britain, people think that’s a big garden.  In suburban Australia or the USA, it’s a typical backyard.
Peak yield in this garden is 1.25 metric tonnes of food, 500 trees and 5000 plants for sale, a thousand visitors in a year, a teaching space, and a soft living room.
37 species of birds’ nest in this garden, 20 come for their lunch and 20 more on their holidays.  People who know more than me about it tell me there are 500 hundred species of invertebrates here.
And we don’t do pest control.
We have willing workers on organic farms WWOOFERS.  Two tonnes of them.  They’re called earthworms.  That’s the weight of thirty fit strong young men.  But these guys dig seven days a week and fifty-two weeks of the year.  They digest botanical waste and turn it into TOPSOIL!!!
Right now (May is our Spring) there are sixty species of plant you can eat in a salad.  One hundred varieties of apple… and so much more.
What’s the secret?
Stop.  Think.  Learn.  Let nature do the work.  Eliminate waste.  Become a guardian of the living world and stop exploiting it.  Share the surplus it offers and share your surplus with others.
Open your mind, open your heart and you will be buried in abundance.
Many people feel we are in difficult times. I actually think we are in immensely positive times.  Time of opportunity and learning.  Opportunity to change human behavior for the better.  Time to care for the planet better.
Thank you for listening”.
And thank you Graham for sharing your story and thoughts- we all need to hear these messages.
Check out Graham's website http://grahambell.org
The site https://localpermacuture.com/ is also recommended.
𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐮𝐬.
We would love to share your story.

The article:

The list
-- The Amazon has been there since ancient times, and the indigenous people, who have lived in the jungle for 5000 years, tend it as a forest garden
-- Graham Bell harvests 16 tons per hectare in his 800 square meter forest garden
-- and all this happens in cold Scotland with rarely 20 degrees.

Quote:

[The Amazon jungle is a forest garden]

<Well in practice we find this to be a truth, not a theory. Over time our yields just keep growing. And we can always find more ways to get more out of the system. The native peoples have managed the Amazon Rainforest for 5,000 years since they first arrived there. Treading very lightly. But hey there’s always room for more tree houses. No?

[Graham Bell's small forest garden: 800 square meters - 16 tons per hectare per year - the principle of stacking]

Our very small back yard (800 sq metres) currently produces food at the rate of 16 tonnes / hectare. I don’t know any farmers round here who get that. It also produces half of our energy needs (firewood and electricity) 500 trees and 5000 plants a year for sale, a teaching space and a soft living room. And we are always trying to find what else we can stack in. Oh, stacking! Another key permaculture principle.

Of course the first thing that matters in any permaculture system is what you start out with. It helps to get really good at noticing stuff. Climate and weather (they’re not the same thing) have certainties and uncertainties. What applies where you are (or where you are working and designing for others?).

[Permaculture with soil science and tools - management of finances must work]

What are the soils like? How would you improve them? Mineral fraction, humic content, and most importantly, life in the soil. Do you know your species? The best willing workers on organic farms (WWOOFERS) are in the soil.

What tools do you have and what do you lack? Tools come in many forms: hand tools, mental tools, behavioural tools, big kit… Are they sharp and current, well lubricated? That applies literally to physical tools metaphorically to mental tools [further education!].

What financial resources do you have? It’s important to live within them. Or can you provoke new finance through borrowing, crowd funding, generosity? Maybe you will create profit from your surplus.

What will be the risks you face? Have you measured them and do you have a plan how to deal with them? Projects die from want of cash flow long before lack of profit. What about health risks? Who are the predators which threaten your system and how will you manage them?

Already we see that one of the key things that permaculture offers us is not answers, but the right questions to ask. Because the solutions are different in every place tailored to time, aspect, resources, skills and so on.

[Cold Southern Scotland - the harvest]

I’m writing this in my home in the South of Scotland. Same latitude as Alaska, Moscow, Northern China. If we were in the Antipodes we’d be McQuarrie Island, South Georgia…or thereby. I’ve spent most of the last month processing the food we have harvested. Bottling fruit and vegetables. Freezing soft fruit. Fermenting vegetables (to eat) and fruit (to drink). Drying onions and garlic, making kale crisps. Harvesting seeds to share with others.

I’m always thinking: “if only we had another pair of hands to help”. Then we could do so much more. The freezers are full. We have chutneys pickles and kimchi galore. Jars full of rumtopf, flavoured vinegars, salad dressing, pickled garlic, and we’ve run out of places to dry herbs.

Just imagine what you could do if you applied these principles in a warmer climate -where harvests can be heavy all year round.

[Food poverty in Scotland]

Our next project here in Scotland is to create sites like this all across our region to make a determined effort to eliminate food poverty. It seems criminal to me that there are people in a supposedly civilised country like the United Kingdom going hungry today. But there are.

[The poverty of ambition in the world]

It’s not just about food poverty, it’s about poverty of ambition (first noticed by Adam Smith the Scots father of economics), inadequate housing, and lack of feeling self-worth.

Graham Bell with a
                    group at a garden cottage, Post on FB from Feb.3,
                    2020
Graham Bell with a group at a garden cottage, Post on FB from Feb.3, 2020 [9]

[Scotland with rarely over 20 degrees]

So whilst we are harvesting our bumper crops from our cool summer (rarely passing 20 degrees centigrade) I wonder ate the gift that permaculture insight offers to increase yield throughout the world.

We know how to create and maintain clean air, adequate water supplies, and sufficient quantity and quality of food for all. We know how to create dwellings and work spaces which offer, shelter, companionship and human dignity. We know how to turn wastes into resources to keep the cycle of productive yield growing year on year.

Health warning: all good change is incremental. It doesn’t happen overnight.

[The permaculture movement encompasses the whole world]

One of the great strengths of the permaculture movement is that it is truly international, does not measure any of the divisive issues that trouble our planet: skin colour, race, religion, class, property ownership, wealth or poverty. It is a truly egalitarian movement that recognises we all have a right to a decent standard of living and that we will best achieve that by sharing it with all living beings who actually are the source of earth’s natural abundance: be they other people, trees, songbirds, whales or microbial beings.

I feel privileged to be coming to share my surplus with whoever is up for it at the Permaculture Research Institute this October.

Graham Bell and his wife, Nancy Woodhead, welcome visitors to their forest garden by appointment. You can book on courses and open days, or make contact for other engagements via the website.

Sign up to the Red Shed Nursery on Facebook and @redshednursery on twitter to stay in touch.

You can see a short film of the garden here:
www.permaculture.co.uk/videos/oldest-food-forest-britain

Graham Bell is the author of two books: The Permaculture Garden and The Permaculture Way, both available from:
www.green-shopping.co.uk/books/pp/graham-bell.html>



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Graham Bell's orchard (Southern Scotland) (fruit forest garden, forest garden, agroforestry)   -- Movie: A walk round Garden Cottage with Graham Bell (29'28'') -- Web sites of Graham Bell -- Graham Bell: Why do we need wildlife -- The list: aphids and their natural opponents: blue tits, ladybirds, lacewings - field edges attract invertebrates and songbirds etc.   -- Agriculture and forestry are one unit - the 5 dimensions of nature: space with trees, time, relationships (interactions) -- Appreciate scavengers - remove invasive exotic species -- Birds of prey and badgers -- Wasps pollinate, break down dead wood, eat snails -- Thistles and nettles -- Earthworms are the floor care workers -- Mushrooms and their meaning -- There are no weeds - weeds create new soil -- Bare moors in Scotland were caused by incorrect farming -- Graham Bell: Yield is theoretically unlimited -- The Amazon jungle is a forest garden -- Graham Bell's small forest garden: 800 square meters - 16 tons per hectare per year - the principle of stacking -- Permaculture with soil science and tools - management of finances must work -- Cold Southern Scotland - the harvest -- Food poverty in Scotland -- The poverty of ambition in the world -- Scotland with rarely over 20 degrees -- The permaculture movement encompasses the whole world

Sources
[web01] https://permaculturenews.org/2017/03/23/why-do-we-need-wildlife/
[web02] https://permaculturenews.org/author/graham-bell/
[web03] https://permaculturenews.org/2016/09/13/yield-theoretically-unlimited/

Photo sources
[1] Book by Graham Bell: The Permaculture Garden: https://www.amazon.com/Permaculture-Garden-Graham-Bell/dp/1856230279
[2] Graham Bell, permaculture specialist, portrait: https://www.permaculturenews.org/author/graham-bell/
[3] Graham Bell, permaculture teacher course of 2021, presented on Facebook "The Red Shed": The Red Shed (post from Nov.24, 2020)
[4-6] Permaculture Association, Logo [4] - permaculture course by Graham Bell with wood shavings and pushcart [5] - Video by Graham Bell: permaculture with orchard [6]: Facebook: web site of Graham Bell:  The Red Shed  (video installed on May 16, 2020)
[7] Slogan of life of Graham Bell: be the inspiration: Facebook: web site of Graham Bell: The Red Shed (post of May 11, 2020)
[8] Fruits and vegetables from orchards with Graham Bell: Facebook: web site of Graham Bell: The Red Shed (post of May 3, 2020)
[9] Graham Bell with a group at a cottege: Facebook: web site of Graham Bell: The Red Shed (post of Feb.3, 2020)


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