In October 2007 we created a not-for-profit association (in France known as an "Association loi 1901") so that we can turn our land into a working example of sustainable gardening, open to the public for visits and tours. The aim is to demonstrate alternatives to conventional agricultural and horticultural techniques. In this 'educational garden' we will be growing heirloom and heritage fruit & veg and keeping chickens, bees and sheep - all of which will be integrated into the site using permaculture design principles. (See more about the site below.)

We will try to incorporate lots of different ideas into the garden so that everyone could find something in it they would like to try at home - a potato tower, a herb spiral, companion planting, natural art, maybe we'll just inspire them to recycle!... We intend having regular open days and inviting local schools to visit, as well as joining in with local festivals and initiatives.

Although "sustainable development" is one of the five main tenets of a Park, many people around here don't know what that means and certainly haven't heard of permaculture; they look on in bewilderment as we throw straw mulch around with careless abandon and let those nasty "weeds" grow in the field! We hope that in time they will realise that a well integrated permaculture site like ours (will be) is the way forward for gardening... as environmental concerns change the way we live and make us aware of the need to conserve water, to recycle, to consume less and to promote biodiversity.

As an Association, we will be looking for donations and grants to help with day-to-day costs as well as bigger investments (eg. polytunnels) find out more...

Our 'mission statement' is laid out in the Statut which regulates what we do as an association and what our internal rules and regulations are...

The object of Projet Capucine is:

L’information, la formation, la découverte, la valorisation, l’aide au développement et la défense de l’agriculture permaculture, du patrimoine rural et du développement durable.

A ce titre, l’Association Projet Capucine mets en place un jardin pédagogique où sont proposées des activités et des actions de manière à lui permettre de poursuivre pleinement ses objectives.

Translated into English, this broadly means...

"The communication, teaching, discovery, maximizing, aid to development and defence of permaculture, rural heritage and sustainable development.

In order to achieve this, the Association will create an educational garden where it will propose activities and events aimed at enabling it to pursue its objectives."

The plot

This is the plot. It's two hectares (4 acres) with three buildings.

It's a very boring patch of land; apart from a few huge pine/fir trees it is just grass (couch grass, mainly) and nasty things like thistles. There are no mature shrubs or hedges, so a lot of time will have to be spent breaking up the plot into different areas using hedging, etc. The ten year vision is of this grass transformed into an orchard, a coppice/woodland, a couple of pastures (sheep/pigs), vegetable plots, a secluded scent-filled garden for the humans, a soft-fruit garden, chicken paddock, wetland/pond/grey-water filters.

We've been here for over a year, but most of this time has been spend working (for money) and doing up our house and our little Bed & Breakfast. Now, however, we are turning our attention to the natural resources around us.

There's no trust-fund fuelling us, no bank loan or secret savings - so we won't be installing any £40,000 pound solar panels on our roof ("Ooh, you get your money back over 20 years" - well, I may be dead in 20 years!) or applying for permission for 20 metre wind turbines. What we will be doing is common-sense living off the fat-of-the-land: some veg, some fruit, some eggs, some meat... Here's a part-finished drawing of what we're trying to put in place (click to enlarge).

Here's the view we currently have from the front of the house - as you can see it's just a lot of grass! Let's see what it looks like in a couple of years' time!

We've already restored the 'bakery' which is 15 metres from the house (see below) and made it into a really nice spare room for friends, family, wwoofers and paying guests. We did this with 100% natural products (lime mortar, linseed oil, wood - that's it). It's been painted with my famous lime paints and has a compost toilet. Although it's taken hours and hours of work, it was well worth the effort. Read more about it here...

Some of the other plans we have are: a solar shower (if the sun ever shines again), a grey-water pond, a 'something' to get water out of the 20 metre deep well... We'll be documenting all of these projects so that we can show you how to do them too - or how not to do them, as the case may be!

We are committed 'DIY'ers - we renovated our previous house on our own in just 3 years and turned it from a 1 bed house with no kitchen or bathroom into a 3 bed house with both. Apart from the more basic re-pointing of every room and laying of floors, putting in of ceilings, Ian built two new rooms single handed and re-wired the entire house, Scarlet re-installed a whole central heating system and plumbed-in the aforementioned bathroom and kitchen. Some of these moments were the inspiration behind parts of Ian's book Coq & Bull.