Book one of our talks for your group or event
- We offer a range of talks suitable for groups of all sizes, ages, varied interests and budgets. Talks can be ‘tweaked’ to accommodate specific types of group.
- The cost of booking a talk varies and is dependent upon the size & type of your group and location.
- Browse our list of available talks below
- If you would like to attend one of our talks we list those open to the public under the relevant talk If you would like further information or have any queries please contact us
Soil Matters
Everything that you didn’t know that you needed to know about soil. The Earth’s dynamic skin.
Considered a non-renewable resource, In temperate climates, it can take 1,000 years to create an inch-wide layer of soil and thousands more for it to acquire the necessary minerals from parent rock/organic matter to create fertility.
Understanding soil is central to getting the most from our land.
*Best not kill it in the first place, *Saving our Soils, *How Soils support life on Earth, *Soils in our Garden, *How to Regenerate your Soil
An Alien World at our Feet
We spend billions of pounds on the exploration of space but still cannot identify everything that is in our soils. Chemists have spent centuries prying into the chemical components of soil, but there are numerous molecules within it that they have no idea of what they are.
The things that live in soil are essential to its health and therefore essential to human life, they can also be extremely weird and wonderful and are often mistaken for pests. In many instances they look like Aliens.
Explore this wonderful world and learn about its characters and how to cultivate them.
If you would like further information on our talks or have any queries please
The Wood Wide Web
The fascinating close and long-term relationship between a plant and a fungus (symbiotic).
Virtually all trees and plants rely on the exchange of nutrients with the complex network of soil microorganisms known as the soil food web. One particular type of fungus (mycorrhizal) plays an amazing part in this – they are the food transportation system of the soil.
In the case of one particular fungi it is the largest living being on the Earth. It isn’t only nutrients that they carry; they are the reason why, when you put one foot into woodland the trees on the opposite side of the woodland instantly know that you are there. This has led to them being nicknamed the ‘Wood Wide Web’.
Find out the dark secrets of life amongst the roots.
Perma What?
When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I am a Permaculture designer and teacher. The most common response that I get is ‘Perma-what’? The simple answer is that Permaculture is a ‘sustainable design system that embraces and follows the laws of nature’.
However this doesn’t go anywhere near explaining the depth and breadth of what Permaculture is. It isn’t only a system for sustainable land use, it is a system for sustainable living. It is perhaps the only design system that has ‘ethics’ implicit at its core.
‘Permanence’ + ‘Culture’ = ‘Permaculture’ – could this system change the world? Find out and decide for yourself.
Dirt Makes You Happy
Most garden addicts will tell you that gardening reduces their stress and lifts their mood; that their garden is their “happy place”.
It is also claimed that for every ‘disease’ out there, there is also a cure in nature. Modern scientists are only just unravelling why many of the ‘natural cures’ actually work. It is only recently that they have discovered microbes in soil that actually have a positive effect on human health.
There is a natural antidepressant in soil – it’s true. Find out how playing in the dirt works.