Our Story
I first went to Glastonbury with my permculture teacher Andy Langford and peer George Sobol, in 1991/92. We were working together running permaculture courses at Dartington, Jean-Paul Dal-Din and a few other students on the course came too. We shared a marquee with the green party, had books from ‘ecologic books’ and a herb spiral. Jean-Paul and I became partners and we initiated the idea of a permanent permaculture area as we didn't want to continue putting on just a display. We wanted to put some permaculture principles into practice. So we negotiated through Keith Naigle, a veteran at Glastonbury and trusted by Michael Eavis. Michael agreed to set aside a corner of one of his fields. Our first year with this new space was 1993.
The first thing we did was dig a pond. There were streams running around the edges of the field but we needed to establish a reliable water source near to the garden, available to water plants as we planted and transplanted them. This brought us initially lots of criticism... environmentalists coming in and interfering with nature etc. but it turned out to be one of the best features and Michael was so pleased he had one dug at the top of the Kings field.
In 1994 simoultaneously back in my home town Totnes I was designing a youth Arts collective with another permaculture designer and parent, now Dr Carol Wellwood, her husband Frank, our young people and their friends. We called our group BA)SE, as a reflection of the need for a base and reflection of the kind of drum and bass music the young people were into. The main aims as a campaigning group then being to secure a safe base for young people in the town where they could get their social needs met. This aim was not fulfilled for various reasons, including health, housing, and education issues of our core group.
After a break, I continued co-ordinating with my eldest son, we became baseecoarts collective, putting on music and performance events,
The first thing we did was dig a pond. There were streams running around the edges of the field but we needed to establish a reliable water source near to the garden, available to water plants as we planted and transplanted them. This brought us initially lots of criticism... environmentalists coming in and interfering with nature etc. but it turned out to be one of the best features and Michael was so pleased he had one dug at the top of the Kings field.
In 1994 simoultaneously back in my home town Totnes I was designing a youth Arts collective with another permaculture designer and parent, now Dr Carol Wellwood, her husband Frank, our young people and their friends. We called our group BA)SE, as a reflection of the need for a base and reflection of the kind of drum and bass music the young people were into. The main aims as a campaigning group then being to secure a safe base for young people in the town where they could get their social needs met. This aim was not fulfilled for various reasons, including health, housing, and education issues of our core group.
After a break, I continued co-ordinating with my eldest son, we became baseecoarts collective, putting on music and performance events,
Read more: The story 0f The Permaculture Garden At Glastonbury Festival