SOME REVIEWS OF OUR DIAL HOUSE PERMACULTURE INTRODUCTORY WEEKENDS

To book a place on the next Dial House Permaculture Introductory Course

Photos from our permaculture courses

MAY 2003

My boyfriend John and I were intrigued to hear about this two-day weekend course. However, apart from reading Graham Bell’s Permaculture Garden book, and looking after our friend Andy Waterman's permaculture garden and allotment while he was away, we didn’t really have a clue what it was all about.

The course took place at Dial House (Centre for Dynamic Cultural Change) in North Weald (near Epping), Essex, home of CRASS, the 80s punk band, and the complete antithesis of the dairy farm right next door! The house is a miracle of survival and hard work and abounds with character.. One of my most memorable experiences would have to be trying the compost loo. Being a 'virgin' I can honestly say it was a very pleasant experience and not all what I expected!

The course was well-run with Ron Bates and Graham, both vegans, at the helm. We also has a 'guest lecturer' and Gee Vaucher and Penny Rimbaud also added to the experience - so it never strayed too far into the realms of seriousness. It sounds a bit clichéd but we all brought something different to the course. It was great to meet other like-minded people and discuss ideas without being thought of as slightly oddball or crackpot, or be afraid to ask questions about various topics.

Every evening we sat around a humungous fire where we ate, drank and chatted till late. Alas, I didn’t have the energy to stay up the cold Saturday night to enjoy the jamming session Graham had planned and even slept the whole way through the proceedings! We all brought some food, mainly raw ingredients, along, and many of us chipped in doing the organising, cooking and washing up. During the weekend we all had plenty of time to mooch about, mix and chatter with everyone to our heart's content.

The course included a little 'light entertainment' in the form of several well chosen videos covering all aspects of permaculture from gardening to LET schemes. Just to show how mature I am, the video that has stayed in my mind the most during the weekend and since was Lifting the Lid on the Compost Toilet (filmed at Dial House in July 2002) a photodiary of this event is on Grahams website. It got the message across in a really humorous and unique way. I doubt I will look at plastic buckets the same way again!

Yes there was some work to do in the form of exercises, but it was not arduous or of the 'role play' variety that is so ubiquitous in many courses I have attended.

In a nutshell I would say that permaculture is all about making more out of less and enjoying the results just as much. We left buzzing with optimism and new ideas and have already made some of these into reality. Thanks again to everyone for a fantastic weekend!!

By Ziggy Woodward, taken with permission from 'Growing Green International', Winter 2003.

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September 2004

I’m a middle-aged female IT manager, with no discernible green thumb and lacking even the ability to join two pieces of wood with a nail, so I would struggle to give a reason as to why I booked myself onto Graham Burnett and Ron Bates‘s Introduction to Permaculture weekend course last September.

I have "known" Graham via email lists for a year or three, and (sparing not his blushes) have always admired his attitude to life, the universe, and everything. We may disagree on honey and the human condition, but in pretty much every other area I have been impressed by his down-to-earth, caring attitude, and especially his willingness to act on his convictions, so I was looking forward to meeting him at Dial House, the course venue in Epping. I didn’t know much about Dial House until I arrived and was introduced by Ron to Penny Rimbaud, our host and one-time drummer with anarchist punk band Crass (and decidedly male, in case confusion be caused by his adopted name). I was immediately engaged by the atmosphere of the place and people, which was one of calm and acceptance – just what I needed after a stressful time at work and having arrived at the conviction that there was no point in hoping to find an alternative to the consumerist lifestyle that I dislike so much.

The course was terrific. It was paced in such a way as to ensure maximum benefit – videos were interspersed with tuition, which gave way to discussion and then to practical hands-on stuff (when weather permitted), so we were never doing any one thing for long enough to become bored or restive. Clever. And the place – unbelievably restful and incredibly beautiful. It is an "open heart, open house", and it shows. I arrived uptight but hopeful and I left laid back and happy, despite the compost loo (built by Graham, Ron and Penny, at great personal risk), the thought of which initially had me determined to be constipated, but which in actuality was a straw-fragrant pleasure to use.

The people on the course were another delight. We were a very mixed bunch and on that first night when we were enjoying Penny’s welcoming soup and flatbread, I wondered how we would mix. In analysis, very few of us had any one thing in common. There were couples, singletons like me, people from collectives – even a couple on their way to a farm in Nicaragua. When we drew up our plans for our individual plots at the end of the course, our diversity showed (but did not matter), but the rest of the time it did not. We all had one important thing in common – we cared; about the earth, all its inhabitants, and our influence over small parts of it.

I was very sad when I had to leave Dial House at the end of the course. Penny and Bron (our other host) had given us food and hospitality and had sat with us and listened with pleasure to our plans for our futures. Graham and Ron had taught us and laughed with us, had listened to our excited ideas and fears of failure, and some talented souls had played music to us. We had all either cooked, washed up, tidied the site or emptied the loo. Those who knew how had lead those who knew less in yoga sessions and we had all absorbed the peace of the place and the knowledge of the course. I believe that we all left richer for the experience and, speaking for myself, happier and more hopeful. I am now just looking for an excuse to return, because the whole experience was just too good to have only once.

By Cathy Jupp- edited version published in 'Permaculture Magazine'

To book a place on the next Dial House Permaculture Introductory Course see http://www.spiralseed.co.uk/course/details.html for details.

For photo's from our permaculture courses see http://www.spiralseed.co.uk/course/coursepics.html