Working on permaculture principles, I am determined to use everything I already have in my garden rather than buying things in or sending stuff off site to the tip. The garden is too big and produces too much waste anyway to use the green bin exclusively so I have invested in larger compost bins.

The plastic ‘Tardis’ bins just weren’t large enough, even though I have six, and were quickly filled in just one afternoon’s clear up. As you see, one half of the bin is already full and the other side won’t take long. What with all the cut back perennials, grass clippings and leaves, the second side it will soon be full.

But what to do with the larger stuff? Cue the best £25 I have spent recently- a second hand shredder.

Raspberry canes produced two trugs of material to go straight onto the heap. I now feel ready to compost everything ! The only things that will go into the green bin now are nettle and bindweed roots.

All the clearing up has also generated a lot of branches and twiggy waste. I was going to have an enormous bonfire but then I saw this fabulous permaculture solution.

I am planning to fence the orchard, to keep the badgers, deer and bunnies off my crops,  and this looks a fabulous idea for creating a barrier between the orchard and the natural woodland. It is eco-friendly, in keeping with the natural look of the place and I already have some posts that I can use. It also means that when I am cutting back the hedgerow to fence the sides of the orchard I won’t have to take the branches to another part of the garden. Clearly it may not be the impenetrable boundary that I need all the way around, but I am planning to use chicken wire for the rest where the bunnies are more of a problem.

Another nifty bit of re-cycling is my plan to re-use some concrete blocks that created the wall of my predecessors compost heap. The heap is now a nettle bed, although I have dug out some re-useable compost, and I plan to make a raised asparagus beds in the new orchard compound. The only problem is that the blocks are so heavy that I can only just lift each one, which means that a project involving them needs to be undertaken a bit at a time if I’m not to mess up my back. Once it’s done I shall report back.

So I am feeling somewhat excited that my permaculture adventure is taking shape. The cabin build will be starting soon too and so once that is underway I shall supply regular bulletins. I have ideas of prairie planting around it with lots of grasses and some perennials along with ornamental birch trees to contast with the black exterior. As usual I am full of ideas, just lacking in time.