Learn skills of permaculture

Instructors Steve Jones and Sarah Pugh demonstrated the practice of ‘permaculture’ at the Sustainability Centre garden in Jephson Gardens.

The idea is to devise principles to develop integrated systems by observing the natural world – and thus help people lead more sustainable lives.

The garden is being transformed to show aspects such as the efficiency of how nature best performs water retention, companion planting, productively using limited spaces and the importance of wildlife and insects.

The course on Saturday and Sunday were introductory sessions, but people can take part in a six-month full design course starting on March 10 and 11, with further sessions taking part on weekends once a month until August.

Places cost £450, £400 for the low waged and £350 for the unwaged. To find out more, call Juliet Carter on 421467.