LAND HOLDING - USING SADIMET AS A DESiGN TOOL
LAND TO BE ON
S- SURVEY
A - ANALYSE
D- DESIGN
I - IMPLEMENT
M- MAINTAIN
E- EVALUATE
T- TWEAK
A - ANALYSE
D- DESIGN
I - IMPLEMENT
M- MAINTAIN
E- EVALUATE
T- TWEAK
NB. This design is partly reflective and covers a time frame 2000 onwards. There are several sub pages that relate to using SADIMET land based designs planning allotment use in this forth design.
TO HOLD ONTO LAND? spring Road Allotment, IPswich
SURVEY:
I have have an allotment since I was 23 in 2000 and started in Ipswich with a beautiful messy corner plot which extended to an empire of 4 large plots between 2000-2012. I found a shed under brambles, organised refugee days where tea and a bonfire took guys out of emergency accommodation for the day. I started out keen, naive and excited that I had a plot of land. I never managed to plan everything but enjoyed the 'bimble' and 'potter' of creative absorption on the plot and a place to have my plant collections. Ever since there has been a mixture of feelings from freedom, guilt, despair, a place to relax/ nap, space to design and create (an outlet for my gardening fantasies) and the joy of my own permaculture chagra (spiritual garden). During that time an allotment renaissance has led to demand for plots and I gradually gave up plots to friends but kept one even during my four years in Edinburgh studying. When you love it, it's hard to give up but it became something that troubled me. Land Holding- Why can't I let go of it?
During this time the following other land designs were current in my life:
1. PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY GARDEN (PCG)
2. HERB SPIRAL AS PART OF THE PCG
4.1. TRANSITION FOREST GARDEN
ANSWER:
I will do a permaculture design and evaluate whether or not to keep my allotment.
ANALYSIS:
My allotment was very much part of me - thats how it felt. I had learnt a lot from it and created it from derelict bramble filled plots. I did also feel that allotments were for local people as I had noticed that living far away makes it much harder to keep the plots productive and it began to become a heavy weight and an embarrassment. I didn't have anywhere of my own though and owning land felt good. Though I had reduced from 4 plots to 1.
Thanks to Nigel and a piece of A7 paper to set me up on this: Using an Input/ Output Anaylsis to see what my allotment was giving me/ taking from me allowed me to do the Survey part.
Inputs:
Outputs
I did this Input/ Output analysis after having the plot for 10 or so years. I was ready to give it up but needed to justify this wrench. It was almost a moral stance that I ought not have it any longer.
The outputs vastly outweighed the inputs but all the benefits (starred *) were possible to get from elsewhere.
DECISION: I WAS TO GIVE UP THE ALLOTMENT in 2012
Having felt that it was time to give the allotment up for a while I had to wait for the outputs to be satisfied in another way. My main reason for being able to give up my plot was living with a garden, working in a community garden, part of a transition town forest garden. I felt I had covered the needs of storage, identity, networking, crops and other land to play on. I made the jump and send a letter to the field secretary. In fact I remember now that even though I had decided for a long time the other reason was allotment politics. Being asked not to give up until the field secretary changed. All voluntary field secretaries eventually turn into grumpy monsters and there should be a time limit - they are amazing and respect to them but after years of other plotholders moaning they flip. Also there had been a self sown oak sapling that I had nurtured for 13 years and wanted to make a bed out of, I had to accept that giving up the plot would probably meant it being chopped down and burnt.
Please see the picture show below for examples of why I could do without my own allotment:
I have have an allotment since I was 23 in 2000 and started in Ipswich with a beautiful messy corner plot which extended to an empire of 4 large plots between 2000-2012. I found a shed under brambles, organised refugee days where tea and a bonfire took guys out of emergency accommodation for the day. I started out keen, naive and excited that I had a plot of land. I never managed to plan everything but enjoyed the 'bimble' and 'potter' of creative absorption on the plot and a place to have my plant collections. Ever since there has been a mixture of feelings from freedom, guilt, despair, a place to relax/ nap, space to design and create (an outlet for my gardening fantasies) and the joy of my own permaculture chagra (spiritual garden). During that time an allotment renaissance has led to demand for plots and I gradually gave up plots to friends but kept one even during my four years in Edinburgh studying. When you love it, it's hard to give up but it became something that troubled me. Land Holding- Why can't I let go of it?
During this time the following other land designs were current in my life:
1. PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY GARDEN (PCG)
2. HERB SPIRAL AS PART OF THE PCG
4.1. TRANSITION FOREST GARDEN
ANSWER:
I will do a permaculture design and evaluate whether or not to keep my allotment.
ANALYSIS:
My allotment was very much part of me - thats how it felt. I had learnt a lot from it and created it from derelict bramble filled plots. I did also feel that allotments were for local people as I had noticed that living far away makes it much harder to keep the plots productive and it began to become a heavy weight and an embarrassment. I didn't have anywhere of my own though and owning land felt good. Though I had reduced from 4 plots to 1.
Thanks to Nigel and a piece of A7 paper to set me up on this: Using an Input/ Output Anaylsis to see what my allotment was giving me/ taking from me allowed me to do the Survey part.
Inputs:
- Financial (not huge but I was buying seeds, plants, tools, £11 year fee for my plot.)
- Time (Free time always had an urge to be spent at the allotment). *
- Mental energy (worry/ about getting letter saying "tidy or else!")
- Sweat (muscle building gym with soil implications) *
- To grow crops the soil needed improving as it was very sandy.
Outputs
- Storage for all sorts of clutter, plants. *
- crops (though not numerous, over the years I had grow all sorts with varying success.)*
- networking (great other plot holders) *
- Identity (my piece of land, I was a gardener, it was a cool allotment to be on) *
- Place to observe, test ideas, relax/ nap/ eat/ have fires. *
- Guilt especially when living in Edinburgh. Feeling that it was cheeky to still keep a plot. Permacultural techniques in my mind made it just about manageable as I would do a quarterly tidy up)
- A sense of being overwhelmed with always something needing doing to keep it in check - no sense of thriving.
I did this Input/ Output analysis after having the plot for 10 or so years. I was ready to give it up but needed to justify this wrench. It was almost a moral stance that I ought not have it any longer.
The outputs vastly outweighed the inputs but all the benefits (starred *) were possible to get from elsewhere.
DECISION: I WAS TO GIVE UP THE ALLOTMENT in 2012
Having felt that it was time to give the allotment up for a while I had to wait for the outputs to be satisfied in another way. My main reason for being able to give up my plot was living with a garden, working in a community garden, part of a transition town forest garden. I felt I had covered the needs of storage, identity, networking, crops and other land to play on. I made the jump and send a letter to the field secretary. In fact I remember now that even though I had decided for a long time the other reason was allotment politics. Being asked not to give up until the field secretary changed. All voluntary field secretaries eventually turn into grumpy monsters and there should be a time limit - they are amazing and respect to them but after years of other plotholders moaning they flip. Also there had been a self sown oak sapling that I had nurtured for 13 years and wanted to make a bed out of, I had to accept that giving up the plot would probably meant it being chopped down and burnt.
Please see the picture show below for examples of why I could do without my own allotment:
DESIGN
From Reflections in design 3: Awareness of ETHICS & PRINCIPLES at the design stage.
From 2/5/14 https://www.permaculture.org.uk/knowledge-base/principles (Dano comments in brackets) Permaculture, a Designers' Manual, by Bill Mollison:
- Work with nature rather than against. (Allowing the jobs and passions of mine to give me replacement outputs from the Spring Road allotment. Time working on gardening projects also forfilled personal goals of community, plant study and right livelihod. Not having to garden all day at work then garden on allotment was welcomed).
- The problem is the solution. (The land ownership still continues but now it's shared and less of my individual responsibility.)
- Make the least change for the greatest possible effect. (Maybe releasing the allotment would allow others with passion to help the allotment field regenerate rather than stagnate. By freeing myself up I could blossom myself).
- The yield of a system is theoretically unlimited , or only limited by the imagination and information of the designer. (Yields of doing things with others were more than expected, things I set up in 2010 are still going in 2017, brilliant!)
- Everything gardens, or modifies its environment. (not sure what to put here. Maybe just that things grow, people grow and society grows. In 2016 I am seeing this as a metaphor for life - enjoy the ride and learn from it)
The three ethics are clear to me here in the design phase.... Earth care is about land and allotments are a little island of human- land interaction. People care is my about what I get out of having an allotment and how to think about replacing this with other land projects. Fairshare is in part about not holding onto land longer than you need it - sharing it. It is interesting to see how something so based on land actually has more to do with a person's inner world and the affect that has on one's community.
IMPLEMENT:
I sent a letter saying I was quitting the plot. Moved plants, tools and special stones etc to either where I lived, or worked or shared land based community projects and said bye be to other neighbouring allotment holders.
MAINTENANCE:
So having given up on my own allotment I looked at the Maintenance as designing the other land projects I was involved with.
The People's Community Garden (PCG) design is written up here. I also helped design the PCG orchard, With Eric, the Transition Ipswich forest garden, THE PROJECTS STARTED AFTER GIVING UP MY ALLTOMENT were the Normanston Community Allotment in Lowestoft, my 6m by 3m mini allotment in Norwich and a 100m herb exhibition area in a Norwich community garden. I have been learning lots with each design, and I have included them as part of my learning journey in sub pages.
4.1. SADIMET used for Transition Ipswich Forest Garden
4.2 SADIMET used for Normaston Road Community Allotment
4.3 DRAWING PLAN for Norwich Blue Road Min Plots: Fibonacci Allotment
4.4. PLAN & VIDEO for MARL PIT HERB GARDEN Sustainable Living Initiative Norwich.
4.5 SADIMET OLD Hall Solar Panel Patches
Places where my plants stayed and or where I found communion with a patch of land.
2008- 2010 at the People's Community Garden (PCG)
2009- 2012 Transition Ipswich Forest Garden, next to the PCG.
2010 - CSA Low Carbon Farm
WITHOUT ALLOTMENT IN IPSWICH
2012- 2013 Bungay House - Pig club/ garden
2012-2014 Eastfeast Local food growing projects esp Normanston Allotment.
IN NORWICH: GOT AN ALLOTMENT
2013-2014 Norwich Mini Allotments- My Chagra (piece of land for sitting on).
2014- 2017 Norwich Marl Pit Community Garden Herbs
BACK IN SUFFOLK IN SHARED COMMUNITY WITH LAND (I HAD A PATCH THERE SO NO NEED FOR AN OFFICIAL ALLOTMENT
2015- Old Hall Community. Lots of Plants bought whilst working at a posh garden centre.
MOVE TO BURES 2018 SO GOT AN ALLOTMENT IN LATE 2017 TO EASE THE TRANSITION
2017 - Bures Allotment and partner's Garden.
EVALUATE
I felt I had said goodbye to Spring Road Allotments and happier to know that I can move and it not be the end of the world. I had ways to keep plant resources going and if I lost some, or left some in the ground it is not so bad. I did start to envy the development of a garden that has years to develop and felt my plants suffered from being dug up or kept in pots.
What interests me here is that I am trying to design my relationship with land and maybe also ownership of land and finding replacements for a place I held very dear. Please note this design has been going since I knew about Permaculture from 2000 to 2017. I have taken on allotments on Norwich and now Bures with awareness of what is involved and Im grateful to have the chance to hold them especially as I am moving once again to a place without much land. Leaving 70 acres. It certainly is a psycholocial process to be focusing on LAND HOLDING.
TWEAK
So how does one design a connection to nature?
- This in part lead to a workshop I ran at the IPC15 on designing magic spaces with my resulting ideas of chagraculture.
-A safe place to sit in and observe nature. Initially formed from a snippet of an idea about rainforest tribes having a ZONE 1 intensive plant growing area that was also used to teach the young about life and spirit. I have since learnt that Chagra is a term for a peasant farmer and maybe the term chagraculture is not quite what i had intended- Rename Magic Gardening?
What themes have been important in having access to land?
-mental health aspects of small regular tending of a patch (esp Fibonacci mini plot in Norwich)
-having somewhere to take compost when living in a city (Norwich)
-a place to have my plants which I have tended whilst moving. As a herbalist into gardening this has been especially important for my identity.
-types of food that can be easily grown. Perennial fruit, salads, beetroot, rather than intensive crops like broccoli or staples like onions.
-Trying to reduce clutter, finding homes for things, a kind of last use space on the allotment before throwing away.
- I liked the idea of nomadic growing and harvesting as I went from different patches I tended.
Design EVALUATION - DID IT WORK
This design certainly provided a structure for me to consider LAND HOLDING and MOST IMPORTANTLY REACH A DECISION. I found SADIMET helpful although I didn't really do much SURVEY. The analysis and PMI tool was the key part for me and perhaps there is a lack of design work going on. Maybe there is a better methodology to follow in these decision making design solutions.
So to assess the usefulness of SADIMET (or the shorter SADIM) I want to look at the land based other designs I did. The sub pages had more examples of using SADIMET on land based allotments. There are similarities with OBREDIMET, I like the simplicity of the SURVEY section.
4.1 SADIMET used for Transition Ipswich Forest Garden
4.2 SADIMET used for Normaston Road Community Allotment
4.3 DRAWING PLAN for Norwich Blue Road Min Plots: Fibonacci Allotment
4.4. PLAN & VIDEO for MARL PIT HERB GARDEN Sustainable Living Initiative Norwich.
4.5 SADIMET OLD Hall Solar Panel Patches
The Transition Ipswich Forest Garden designed with Eric was a success and perhaps the biggest learning was the D- DESIGN the playing of position with base map and cut out trees, moving them around the page. Also the long term nature of planting a Forest worked well with having the M-MAINTENANCE section.
The Normanston community allotment in Lowestoft was a good practice in S- SURVEY measuring the plot and getting the ideas and views from the other key users of the plot. A- ANALYSE in where to locate things also created a good group decision making atmosphere in the volunteers.
The mini- allotment in Norwich was an individual project. I didn't have SADIMET in my head fully but was using my learnings to get to a plan so I knew how to best use my time and energy - is that not the purpose of a design? I spent a long time in the S- SURVEY stage whilst weeding the plot and inspiration came. I revelled in the D-DESIGN being a fibonacci curve which was a way to bring several strands of my life together in a land form.
I haven't mentioned I- IMPLEMENT, E- EVALUATE or T- TWEAK yet. I feel SADIMET is even helping me to evaulate the LAND HOLDING DESIGN.
The Marl Pit Community Garden was an immense project and opportunity for me. I never made a full design that I could share with others here- some big block at the I-IMPLEMENT stage being incremental. I think this was in part due to much of it being as a volunteer (although I did get paid to M-MAINTAIN it later). Perhaps the biggest part of project was D-DESIGN, in how to group herb collections and T- TWEAK as I spend the next two years spending 3 hours a month (no more - no less) in keeping the garden tended with changes here and there.
The Old Hall Solar Panel Patch failed in the production of technical drawings (D- DESIGN) but SADIMET gave me a systematic way to divide up the use of the areas in many messy sketches and organise my herbs.
So to assess the usefulness of SADIMET (or the shorter SADIM) I want to look at the land based other designs I did. The sub pages had more examples of using SADIMET on land based allotments. There are similarities with OBREDIMET, I like the simplicity of the SURVEY section.
4.1 SADIMET used for Transition Ipswich Forest Garden
4.2 SADIMET used for Normaston Road Community Allotment
4.3 DRAWING PLAN for Norwich Blue Road Min Plots: Fibonacci Allotment
4.4. PLAN & VIDEO for MARL PIT HERB GARDEN Sustainable Living Initiative Norwich.
4.5 SADIMET OLD Hall Solar Panel Patches
The Transition Ipswich Forest Garden designed with Eric was a success and perhaps the biggest learning was the D- DESIGN the playing of position with base map and cut out trees, moving them around the page. Also the long term nature of planting a Forest worked well with having the M-MAINTENANCE section.
The Normanston community allotment in Lowestoft was a good practice in S- SURVEY measuring the plot and getting the ideas and views from the other key users of the plot. A- ANALYSE in where to locate things also created a good group decision making atmosphere in the volunteers.
The mini- allotment in Norwich was an individual project. I didn't have SADIMET in my head fully but was using my learnings to get to a plan so I knew how to best use my time and energy - is that not the purpose of a design? I spent a long time in the S- SURVEY stage whilst weeding the plot and inspiration came. I revelled in the D-DESIGN being a fibonacci curve which was a way to bring several strands of my life together in a land form.
I haven't mentioned I- IMPLEMENT, E- EVALUATE or T- TWEAK yet. I feel SADIMET is even helping me to evaulate the LAND HOLDING DESIGN.
The Marl Pit Community Garden was an immense project and opportunity for me. I never made a full design that I could share with others here- some big block at the I-IMPLEMENT stage being incremental. I think this was in part due to much of it being as a volunteer (although I did get paid to M-MAINTAIN it later). Perhaps the biggest part of project was D-DESIGN, in how to group herb collections and T- TWEAK as I spend the next two years spending 3 hours a month (no more - no less) in keeping the garden tended with changes here and there.
The Old Hall Solar Panel Patch failed in the production of technical drawings (D- DESIGN) but SADIMET gave me a systematic way to divide up the use of the areas in many messy sketches and organise my herbs.
REFLECTIONS ABOUT ME AS A DESIGNER
I am very prone to going off in tangents and I realise that this design is non standard in trying to answer a question about HOLDING ONTO LAND rather than WHAT TO GROW ON THE LAND. This is part of my learning journey though and I am coalescing bigger concepts about myself here that have been a theme in my relationship to designing.
So being aware of that I had multiple attempts to use SADIMET which has given me more experience of the method. I would certainly use it again. I think these are headings that we instinctively think about but I certainly need a checklist and reminding. I came to the conclusion that 5 minutes just asking myself "What is there to SURVEY here?" can be enough to save a lot of time and energy and bring a design together.
I certainly feel that I need to use this 14 year journey of LAND HOLDING to come to some learnings. Enjoy the process, keep a methodology in mind to have as a checklist. Bring together my learnings to help have a more professional presentation of designs if I to hope to be a designer getting paid in the future.
I also realise that I need TO HOLD ONTO SOME LAND...... even if a window box.
If I need to I think others might too and Therapeutic Herbaculture might have to be born.
So being aware of that I had multiple attempts to use SADIMET which has given me more experience of the method. I would certainly use it again. I think these are headings that we instinctively think about but I certainly need a checklist and reminding. I came to the conclusion that 5 minutes just asking myself "What is there to SURVEY here?" can be enough to save a lot of time and energy and bring a design together.
I certainly feel that I need to use this 14 year journey of LAND HOLDING to come to some learnings. Enjoy the process, keep a methodology in mind to have as a checklist. Bring together my learnings to help have a more professional presentation of designs if I to hope to be a designer getting paid in the future.
I also realise that I need TO HOLD ONTO SOME LAND...... even if a window box.
If I need to I think others might too and Therapeutic Herbaculture might have to be born.
ETHICS & PRINCIPLES IN THIS DESIGN
So I want to reflect Ethics and Principles in a different format to the last three designs.
Earthcare is prominent in this design as it is all about land. However my design is not about how to regenerate land but is an inner dialogue about holding land.
So actually I conclude that is is more about Fairshare of land resources and avoiding greedy holding onto land.
In fact the result is a Peoplecare issue of freeing oneself of burden. Often seen on Daytime TV - people who hoard are masking trauma and loss often.
I wonder how many people experience this issue of burden in permaculture circles? Guilt at not tending the allotment. I know I have become older and more pragmatic about growing things in lines and the reason for weeding regularly. You have permission to remind me if I get to conventional.
More here.
I liked using Molison's principles in the design phase to help with the design rather than just a check list at the end. It certainly helped to re frame my outlook on the matter.
I think the principle from Molison that resonates most is THE PROBLEM IS THE SOLUTION.
Being able to understand that I crave contact with land and sometimes enjoyment of it is not related to the HOLDING of it. Said another way giving up stewardship of a piece of land allows me to experience many other pieces of land.
Revisiting Holmgrens's 12 principles the one that resonates most is "Creatively Use and Respond to Change" as this whole journey has been about responding to change. Making the most of where I find myself, not being afraid of starting again and new sites that need work doing to them. Cycling the SADIMET method to learn each time where my blocks are, what works well and how to learn each time.