Dave's blog

I’ve never learned to drive, I had a go once back in 2004 but after crashing into a tree and nearly turning a car over I realised, it wasn’t really for me. I was never that keen before I found I was such a dangerous driver, the cost both environmentally and financially always seemed to out weigh any benefits. My costs for a year on public transport are anything between £500 and £1000 depending on how much traveling I have to do. It’s come down since I’ve move to Devon as surprisingly everything is now on my doorstep (publishers, foraging territory, places to go walking). I’ve heard that to keep a car it is around £6000 a year, which is at least 6 times the most I’ll ever spend and about what I live off for an entire year!

I could go on about the environmental impact of the car but I think it is obvious what a few million machines spewing out noxious gas can do to the environment and besides that’s not really the point of my blog today, my point is I’ve always made do without one.

For short journeys I walk or cycle and for longer journeys I’ll either get the bus or the train. If I want to transport something I have to either ask a willing friend or make do.

Recently there has been a lack of willing friends so I’ve had to make do. This meant I traveled on the train or walked with a large array of gardening equipment.

A couple of months ago I traveled from Totnes to Reading, in the process making myself known to the guard on duty that day. In the morning he helped me look for my great aunt, who was traveling in from East Grinstead in her Nun’s habit (as she is a Nun). Then in the early evening I traveled back wearing a suit and pulling a garden shredder. As the train pulled into Totnes I got talking to one of the passengers who now lets me use her back garden as an allotment. If I had driven this chance meeting may never have happened and I wouldn’t have an outdoor area to grow in this year.

Fast forward a few weeks and I’ve pushed a lawnmower from Totnes tip to the far side of town, carried bags of potting compost on my back, like a medieval peasant carrying grain, and recently I traveled from Bristol to Totnes with a wheelbarrow and some garden tools.

If you’ve never taken anything unusual on the train with you I would highly recommend it for nothing more than the other passengers reaction. I couldn’t help but think their bemoan of ‘who brings a wheelbarrow on a train?’ may as well of been, ‘who brings a dead body on a train?’ for the venom in some of their reactions. It’s a mixture of horror and wonder, you’re seen as some kind of underclass for the sheer audacity of wanting to transport a piece of metal from one town to the other. I heard whispers of ‘that’s the **** who took the wheelbarrow on the train’, muffled laughter and even disgust. My usually thin skin had to thicken for the journey as I buried my head into a book trying to avoid eye contact with the other passengers.

On the upside the hills of Devon combined with my lack of motorised transport mean not only have I lost the extra stone in weight I put on over my biscuit fuelled winter I’ve also managed to quit smoking. Cycling up a steep country lane whilst smoking nearly gave me an asthma attack so my only option was to either quit or spend a life indoors.

So there are down sides and up to not having a car, there are certain things I simply can’t do but as I’ve never really driven I don’t miss any of them. I think we as humans adapt to any situation we are in and despite this being a very much car dominated society there are alternatives.

Okay, okay so I haven’t posted a blog for sometime now, I seem to have been locked into the situation of ‘time poor and cash poor’. For the last six months or more, I’ve been a student again on a sustainable horticulture course run by the Duchy college in Schumacher College, Dartington.  It’s only three days a week but working just 2 to 4 days doesn’t really bring in the bacon (or tofu in my case).

It’s come as a shock to some people that I’ve decided to go back to study and many have asked, ’surely you know it all already?’, to be honest a lot of it I do. However it’s teaching me above and beyond what I already know and it means I can talk to other gardeners in their own language, Latin.

The other day this new found knowledge was put to the test after a trip to Martin Crawford’s forest garden. I’d been invited by my new publisher, Green Books (more about that in a later blog) for his book launch. I’d been particularly looking forward to this as my classroom (dubbed the chicken shed as it has the dubious claim of being the worlds first battery chicken shed!!!) has been over-looking his garden for the last half a year. During that time we’ve all seen Martin come and go but he is a man of few words at the best of times. The only real exchange I’ve managed with him save the odd hello is ‘the weather’s cleared up’ to which he replied ‘yes’.

I was the first to arrive and I began to flex my botanical knowledge by chatting to him about his Rubus tricolor, more commonly known as a creeping bramble. To some it’s a great ground cover to others it’s an environmental nightmare, one of the only plants which will out compete our native bramble.

Not long into this botanical chat we both heard the clatter of voices and I popped my head over the fence to see what looked like crowd leaving a football match on a Saturday afternoon, albeit a well mannered middle aged crowd.

Quite soon I realised I would be in good company as just about every author on my Amazon wish list turned up at Martin’s gate. I instantly recognised Ben Law (The Woodland Way, The Woodland Year and The Woodland House) and Patrick Whitefield (Earth Care Manual, Permaculture in a Nutshell). Then a jeans and suit jacketed, shaggy hair man gave me a beaming grin and said how much he’d like my book. His name badge read John Paul-Flintoff and I knew I recognised his name and face from somewhere but I couldn’t place him.

Amongst them was the rather quieter Sue Stickland (RHS Organic gardening, Seed Saving and many, many more) who I didn’t recognise at first but looked up later, guardian blogger Joanne Brannan and of course Amanda and Bee from Green Books. There were more but I didn’t really get a chance to talk to them. I’m not the sort of person who ‘networks’, I’m just a bit shy when it comes to barging your way into conversations merely for one’s own ends. It all seems a bit opportunistic and I don’t think really give the recipient much respect.

The tour went on with Martin going through his vast array of unusual plants. I must admit, amongst these gardening and permaculture heavyweights I became a little mute despite really wanting to ask questions. I did muster up a couple of enquiries but as the words left my mouth it became apparent that my articulate mouth had been left at home and my twat mouth had decided to come out for the day. The tour was both inspiring and disappointing. It was utterly inspiring to see what could be made of such a small space and how much study must have gone into each plant. The disappointment was not really the fault of Martin, but the weather; the hard winter and late frost had meant very little was up in the garden and it seemed as if we were walking round a plot waiting to spring to life.

Our surly bus driver then took us to the Riverford cafe where we were given a fantastic two course meal. I’d been meaning to go and eat there for a while now but recently I have found myself spending all my available money on luxuries like food, rent and bills. I chatted to those around me including Joanne Brannan who it turned out wrote for exactly the same magazines as me, Country Small Holder and Grow it! She was very down to earth and explained to me how she’d taken on a back breaking enterprise of converting a 12 acre piece of agricultural land into a low carbon market garden.

Over lunch, I eventually asked John-Paul Flintoff where I recognised him from and he very casually said ‘Oh I write a little for the Times’. I nodded and remained composed making a mental note that I should start to read the odd newspaper once in a while. He seemed like a very pleasant guy and gave me a recipe of Mahonia berry jam made with jasmine flowers and beetroot juice.

Then onto the last part of the afternoon, Martin’s tree plantation. We were all chatting quite contentedly with each other as the mini-bus sat with it’s engine idling waiting for the signal for us to step aboard. This tried the patience of the driver no end and he shook his head and very audibly sighed as we boarded the bus. I often wonder why on earth people with no real social niceties end up in such sociable jobs. This man would probably tut if he had Ghandi, Mother Teresa and Jesus on his bus.

He showed us round the bare trees explaining their virtues which were indeed impressive but I couldn’t help but think they would be more so when some of them actually had leaves on them.

After standing next to some bare hazel twigs he talked us through the rather amazing ‘Nut Wizard’. This invention allows you to pick up nuts simply by running the device across the woodland floor (see picture). The crowd were aghast with this invention and it would seem I was not the only nut lover in the party.

Martin talked us through a rather amazing tree which grew long strings of nuts called ‘heart nuts’. He described them as a more pleasant walnut and explained how the tree grew at break neck speeds.

The tree and nut are both very popular in Japan and American and despite the climate being perfect over here they are yet to catch on…

…yet!

Our day ended with the bus driver lingering around looking at his watch and glaring at us all, no doubt as we were five minutes into HIS time.

I felt honoured to get the invite to Martin’s Garden and that honour didn’t wane throughout the day. The amount of study and work he has put in, breeding plants and trees and trialling new crops in this uncharted territory is breath taking. Martin should remain an inspiration to plants-men, foodies and gardeners alike as he pushes forward with what could be our best hope for food security in the future.

Martin’s book ‘Creating a forest garden’ is available through Green Books.

Since this was written in early 2010 I have now written my book ‘Grow your food for free’ (published by Green Books) it is available here I also regularly put on wild food walks advertised on the main part of this website see www.selfsufficientish.com and click on courses for more details.