Nature Friendly Gardening with Nick Major
Last Friday SBCAN were at Faldonside Eco for the first of our autumn series of expertise talks. Faldonside is a family run estate near Melrose which produces organic food using permaculture principles in their walled garden. Upon arrival, we were given a very warm welcome by Karen Blackport (CEO of Bright Green Nature) and Nick Major, the day’s speaker, who is the head gardener at Faldonside. Nick’s talk was fully booked, with a large group of people eager to hear him share his experience of permaculture gardening and regenerative practices.
Starting off inside the main house, Nick told us about his journey as a gardener and how important it is to him to garden in a low impact way. He led us through the process of planning a new garden, explaining to his audience about the importance of 'observation and inquisitiveness' to his work as a gardener. He stressed the importance of paying attention to what is already growing, as indicators of soil type and conditions. The majority of the audience were keen gardeners and eager to learn from Nick, his advice for ensuring good soil health, including 'keeping beds planted up all year round' was inspiring.
Having heard about Nick’s own story and the theory underpinning his gardening method, we were all eager to head outdoors and see the results of his hard work in practice, with a tour of Faldonside’s market garden. Organic produce is grown in the walled garden, which dates to around 1800. Nick showed us how the garden was divided into different areas, with a heritage orchard, apothecary garden, a new forest garden, and beds growing heirloom vegetables, herbs and fruit. We got to see inside the new polytunnel and the hot composting system with plenty of questions asked along the way. The session finished with coffee, cakes and questions back at the house.
We would like to thank Nick for sharing his experience with us and Karen and the team at Faldonside for being great hosts! Our next talk is on 26 September at the Haining, Dr Karen Blackport will give a talk on rewilding: https://rewildingexpertisetalk.eventbrite.com
