International Permaculture Day at Mires Beck
International Permaculture Day is a day to celebrate the sustainability of permanent agriculture. According to the Gaia Foundation, it 'mimics nature and is used to create sustainable households and communities that are productive, sustainable and largely self-reliant with minimal impact on the environment'.
Suzanne's Vegetable Patch
The ethos at the heart of permaculture is taking care of people and fellow creatures, something we have always done well at Mires Beck. Permaculture encourages sustainable growing and sharing what is produced.
At Mires Beck we have been growing vegetables to feed our community for over twelve years now. In normal times the vegetables are used to provide nourishing meals at lunchtime for the different service users who come every week. Many staff and volunteers also eat with the service users and all enjoy trying what we have grown. Seeing the life cycle of each vegetable from sowing seeds, potting on, planting out, watering and feeding and finally harvesting and eating it is of huge benefit to our service users. Those who work in the vegetable team have learned to handle the plants carefully and nurture them. They also learn about the creatures who visit the vegetable garden; the cheeky robin looking out for worms, the bees and butterflies who pollinate the crops and all the insects they encounter in the soil and on the plants.
Recently we have expanded our vegetable growing and are able to produce both plants and vegetables to sell to the local community for several months of the year. We make our own compost and do not use any chemicals, so our vegetables are fresh, tasty and healthy. During midsummer through to autumn we also harvest our fruit- berries, plums, apples and pears.
Our City of Sanctuary Project
At Mires Beck Nursery, we are working on a City of Sanctuary Garden project to create a space of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers. The garden will celebrate the migration of plants and food plants, and aims to educate the public as to where many plants originated, and how essential different cultures are to enrich our lives. We will produce pamphlets about the project at the charity to help raise awareness of the importance of integrating refugees into our community. Being involved in the project will give refugees and asylum seekers the opportunity to help our 4 acre field vegetables production, but all volunteers are welcome.
Please donate to us to help us provide the correct tools and equipment to volunteers and refugees so they can help us grow our delicious vegetables at Mires Beck Nursery.
All projects require fundraising and we are always looking for new sponsors and volunteers to help us realise the future aspirations to maintain the charity and help it to thrive. If you would like to help please contact us.