Knollmead Permaculture Centre, Surbiton.
27/10/2009
"Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and perennial agriculturalsystems that mimics the relationships found in natural ecologies. It was first developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and their associates during the 1970s in a series of publications. The word permaculture is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture, as well aspermanent culture."
The site was designed about 18 years ago using the Permaculture philosophy of combining gardening and nature conservation. The site is next to Knollmead primary school and the area is shared with allotment owners to one side. There are several aspects of the site which are brought by members who contribute to the upkeep of it, eg. a bee hive which is positioned near the small shed and seating area. above is where a pond is being dug and ditches to improve the drainage to the site. I found the whole idea of permaculture interesting, and aspects of it very sensible and useful, however the idea that nothing should be distrurbed at all is in a few senses impractical, and even on this site things were being changed adverse to the concept behind permaculture. For example I found the outside toilet and the the idea behind it a very sensible and actually would be useful to improve the impact we have on the environment, the example on the site didn't make the idea seem appealing, however once the practicalities of it were explained I could see how this idea could successfully be used in peoples homes even. i liked also the community the site created, it seemed to bring together people from the community that would maybe not get together otherwise.