By taking the time to observe our immediate environment we can learn from nature and our community to design solutions that really work for the local area, for the land and all the living things that live, grow and thrive in it.

Resources are precious. We'll be collecting and storing rainwater, energy from the sun and the wind and nutrients in the earth and our compost. We'll also be making use of green technologies to capture passive solar heat for our tender plants.

To optimise our efforts, we'll employ various techniques in the market farm. These include succession planting, preserving or increasing soil nutrients and utilising a partially submerged greenhouse to extend the growing season and growing rare varieties. 

Learning from your mistakes is sometimes hard but we think it's the only way to learn and grow. We're ready for a step learning curve along this path. 

Using the renewable power of nature we're hoping to make the best use of nature's abundance. Rather than relying on polluting fossil fuels we'll be capturing and using renewable energy on-site. As well as making for a cleaner, safer world, this also increases our resilience. 

We hate waste. We'll be buying wisely, considering the full life cycle of every purchase. We'll also be reusing, reducing and recycling. We'll also be composting all our organic waste on-site, returning all the amazing nutrients back to the soil. 

A holistic approach to design means stepping back, noticing patterns in the world around us and seeing how we can work with those patterns instead of against them. We particularly love spirals and we're considering a spiral pattern in our vegetable planting. 

Polyculture, or companion planting is an organic method which allows plants to create a symbiotic relationship with one another, controlling pest damage, attracting pollinators and preventing disease. The results are greater than the sum of their parts. 

We don't like snails on our veggies but we do admire their pace of life. By going small and slow we can learn more along the way, get some exercise from doing things by hand, provide some relief from the hectic pace of modern life and make more conscious decisions about how we integrate our actions with nature.

Variety is the spice of life and we value it dearly. Just like not putting all your eggs in one basket, diversity in permaculture reduces vulnerability from threats such as the increasingly unreliability of our weather and from pests and takes advantage of the unique nature of the local environment.

The wild edge lands are where the exciting things happen. We'll be maintaining the mature hedgerows that support a rich biodiversity of native flora and fauna and managing any invasive species. We'll also be adding extra wildlife habitats; bug hotels, a wildlife pond and creating other small habitats. 

Change is inevitable, whether it's the weather, the seasons, our climate, attitudes, or the passage of time. How we respond to change is what's important. We're looking to the future and hoping to work in partnership with the land, the environment and our community towards a bright one.