Social landscapes: permaculture for people, places and the planet

20 March 2017

Written by: Michel Thill, Social Landscapes

Arts, culture and events - Better Lambeth - Children and young people - Environment

Social Landscapes believe in creating places that put people and the planet first

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Social landscapes: permaculture for people, places and the planet

Imagine public places at the heart of London’s communities supporting personal, social and ecological wellbeing. Social Landscapes is a London-based permaculture enterprise working with communities and individuals to create places that do just that. We believe we can create places where people and planet prosper.

We use permaculture design as our approach to meet the individual’s, the community’s and the planet’s needs. Permaculture is a common sense method that builds on ecological principles to create abundant gardens, successful projects and meaningful lives. As a social enterprise all our profits are reinvested in the local community.

Public spaces

As part of what we do, we support and deliver community projects. Locally, we have for example supported the Streatham Common Cooperative to engage more people in the garden activities happening at the Rookery. We did this by organising a series of pop up events around Streatham and a larger event at the Rookery. It was our specific aim to engage hard-to-reach community groups.

Private gardens

As well as creating social spaces on estates and communal ground, we offer permaculture solutions for private gardens. We help garden owners sort out their outdoor space through design, regular garden maintenance and consultancy. We can design a planting scheme for you or with you, help you grow food, install and repair fences, raised beds, small green roofs and more.

More regularly our clients are looking to grow fruit in their gardens, by planting fruit trees and soft fruit bushes. Fruit trees and soft fruit are a great way of growing food, they engage people in a positive way in their gardens while requiring very little maintenance – this fits people’s busy London lives.

Planning (and planting) for 2017

Our biggest focus is permaculture trainings. We deliver regular two-day introductory courses as well at 72-hour accredited trainings – one of these starting in April and another one in September. Learning about permaculture open up doors for many people. They find ways of getting involved in the local community or gain a qualification that could lead to employment they hadn’t imagined before.